Truck Treks, Frosty Fixes, and Holiday Picks: Our Seasonal Adventures on the Road!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Will you please start this already?

Speaker 2 (00:01):
No, so anyways uh.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
But he did Woo-woo.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hey everybody, Welcome to the Outer Belt.
I'm Patrick and y'all are myfriends.

Speaker 4 (00:15):
Chili.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Buttermilk.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Eric and Jerry.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Oh, it's so great to be here.
It's so great to be with youpeople, um I hate that you
people.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
I can't stand for that, my mom hates you people
also.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
She hates it.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
I think it was all the years of doing billing and
collections, and they wouldalways get on the phone.
You people, you people ain'tnothing.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
My mom also hates these ones.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Oh, I'm right there with her.
Oh, oh, these people.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
No, these ones, oh no , these people On a side note.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Listen, can I just first real quick.
Just welcome to the Outer Belt.
Yeah, if you didn't know whereyou were Therapy session.

Speaker 5 (00:57):
Yeah, we handle trauma.
I'm going to hold my thought Goon.
I was thinking, as I said,buttermilk after chili.
I was like buttermilk goes withchili, Like buttermilk makes
cornbread and cornbread goeswith chili, but his chili's not
that kind of chili.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
But it can be.

Speaker 5 (01:13):
I was just thinking how cool were chili and
buttermilk.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
Like we make a great pair.
I'm chili, you're buttermilk,eric's cornmeal.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
What's that make me Chopped liver?

Speaker 4 (01:27):
No, Jerry is honey butter.
We got a whole meal now.

Speaker 5 (01:35):
I could go for some sharp cheddar cheese or saltines
with my cornbread.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
I'm your saltine.
There we go.

Speaker 4 (01:41):
Just cracker is fine.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
I thought it was a ginger.
Well, you people have a greatnight.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
I was going to notice .
I was going to say Did younotice that we all wore the same
thing?
We were in the last episode.

Speaker 4 (01:56):
We did.

Speaker 5 (01:58):
That's a whole week ago.
How funny that we pulled outthe same clothes.

Speaker 4 (02:03):
This is my daily uniform.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
It is yours, it is, it's true, and same here.
I always wear a high-flyingshirt.

Speaker 5 (02:09):
I thought I'd answer calls with my shirt.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
It makes me feel like I actually am at an office or
something which makes sense,because today you didn't answer
any calls you established thatthat's two weeks ago.

Speaker 5 (02:22):
I didn't answer calls , not today.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
It was so nice the freeze is on.
So if you're listening to usright now and you're like, why
are they so happy and cheerful,or whatever, we're done.

Speaker 5 (02:34):
What's the freeze?
Yeah, the freeze.
Nobody knows what the freeze is.
I don't even know what thefreeze is.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
The freeze is the weather we've had the last few
days, so the freeze is when thetemperature drops below 32
degrees as the high.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yes, so when it's below 32 as the high, that's the
freeze.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
And the freeze.
That's when the long johns comeout.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
The freeze is on again.

Speaker 5 (02:52):
And the electric, the heated jacket, the electric
jacket, it's electric.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
And the balaclava.

Speaker 5 (02:57):
Mel has Mel Lee who works in the yard with Vincent.
She has herself some electriccoveralls.
I want to know how those areworking.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
They're just insulated coveralls.

Speaker 5 (03:05):
Oh, can we talk about them, but are they insulated?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
No, they're insulated like a house.

Speaker 5 (03:11):
Are they working well for her?

Speaker 2 (03:12):
As far as I know, as far as I know, but if they're
not, she needs to turn them back.
I mean they are.
She looks like the Stay PuftMarshmallow Girls.

Speaker 5 (03:20):
They are Is.
Is she one of those commercials?
Where the kid's in his snowsuit, but he can't get out the door
to go play.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yes, she is that way I do think they're super
comfortable and they are areally good brand and they're
expensive and all that fancinessor whatever.
But it looks like I could hither, which I wouldn't, but she's
my sister so I could you couldblow on her and she'd fall over.
No, she wouldn't fall over,she's planted.
That is, I mean, like it kindof reminds me of.
Did you ever see the Seinfeldepisode where George gets the

(03:49):
new jacket?
It's really puffy and it'sGore-Tex and they like start
punching him and he can't feelthe punches.
I feel like that's with Melissa.
So again, I wouldn't hit her,but I feel like if I did she
wouldn't know.

Speaker 5 (04:03):
Vincent are they keeping her warm, though, as far
as I know.
Okay, you just said that.

Speaker 4 (04:06):
I worry about myself being warm.

Speaker 5 (04:07):
Let's bring her in.
Melissa, come over here.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
I don't concern myself with her being warm.
We need an interviewer.

Speaker 5 (04:11):
I worry about myself.
You do your electric coat.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
I do my electric coat In the really cold.
The world, when it's coldoutside, is getting into a cold
truck Because you can't idle atruck long enough in 10-degree
weather to warm it up.
You have to drive it, you haveto drive it to get the
temperature up and it takesforever.

Speaker 5 (04:38):
It takes forever.
What about the Espargator?
Does that help you get warm?

Speaker 4 (04:40):
It does.

Speaker 5 (04:41):
That still takes a good 15 minutes.

Speaker 4 (04:42):
It takes some time the warm it does.
That still takes a good 15minutes.
It takes some time.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
The worst part, though, is the steering wheel.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
The ice cold steering wheel.
The ice cold steering wheel.
The truck can be up to temp,but the steering wheel is still
frozen.

Speaker 5 (04:51):
Yes, do you put those little hand warmers in your
gloves and then hold it.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
What gloves Gloves.

Speaker 5 (04:57):
Well, wear gloves and those hand warmers and then
hold it.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
I can't work in the gloves.

Speaker 5 (05:01):
Well, you said steering wheel.
Are you working when you'resteering wheeling it?

Speaker 4 (05:04):
Yes, but the gloves are just.
There are no good insulatedgloves that are good for driving
.

Speaker 5 (05:09):
Okay.
In my opinion, I haven't foundthem yet.
Patrick's got the floor next.

Speaker 4 (05:13):
Patrick.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Eric, remind me when we get done with this.
I got to get my leather gloves.
I forgot I had those.
Thank you so anyways, he Right,the steering wheel is
ridiculously cold.
I did actually have thepleasure of moving some trucks
recently and it was not 10degrees, it was like a solid 18.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
It was 18 with a six-degree windshield which you
don't get, the windshield insidethe truck you don't, but the
truck is still colder thanoutside.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
So from our storage lot to our shop that we prefer
to use for most things down inGrove City, it's 30 minutes give
or take.
And I mean I'm telling you atminute 25, the cabin starts to
warm up.
It starts to warm up, so you go25 minutes, it's just freezing,
just freezing.
And then, right as you turn thetruck off, you're like, oh,

(05:59):
it's warm, you don't get to warmup?
No, it's just warm, it's justwarm, yeah, and even with the
heated seats, because we'reoutside working, we've got the
thermals on, we've got theinsulated clothes, we have the
jackets and everything.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
You can't really feel it takes time to get through
that.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, you don't really feel the heated seats.
We're not in there long enough.
We're in there for a Sure.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
So, it's, I have to say, my last trip to Panther.
When I got to the yard at 3.30or 4 o'clock in the morning to
get the truck ready, like I wasout there doing my pre-trip, and
I was like I do not miss this.

Speaker 5 (06:32):
It was literally like 15 degrees outside.
Yeah, yeah, People ask me whatI miss about the road and what I
don't miss.
And, jerry, I'm right with you.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
We had a move in that morning, later on in that
morning and the locks werefrozen, yeah, and as soon as I
realized I said, oh no, we tookthe truck we had to move in and
the truck you took to pantherand got them washed the
afternoon before, like 3, 34o'clock and they were still.
That's why they were frozen,because it was below 32.
It was below freezing and Isaid I hope Jerry didn't have to
stand out there forever tryingto get that thing to thaw out.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
I had to call you a little bit later that day, and
that's the first thing he askedme.
And I was like yeah, I'mholding my book bag, I've got
coffee, I've got tea?

Speaker 5 (07:18):
Did you just dip the lock in your coffee?

Speaker 1 (07:25):
No, no, no, no.
I had to get the key where wehad the keys and so I went to
open it and I was pulling andpulling and pulling and I had to
set all my stuff down on theground and then pull with both
hands and I had it open.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
Something I've learned that works on those side
doors, when the key works butthey won't open because they're
frozen is give them a push,because that'll break some of
the ice and it'll be easier toopen.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
So just for future, we talk about this and it's one
of the reasons contractors well,it's one of the reasons why we
don't use roll-up doors.
So if you look at our entirefleet of trucks, they're all
barn door style and one of thereasons we don't use roll-up
doors is a that maintenanceright, like that's a given, you
have to those rollers.
So it's like a garage door.
You've got those little rollers.
They have to constantly beoiled and they have to be done

(08:06):
with food grade, because we haulpharmaceuticals, so.
But that's one thing.
But the other thing is freezing.
Yeah, because even in the deadof summer we run freezing loads
right so the inside will ice upand you'll be on the dock and
I've heard of people like havingto like really hit the doors as
hard as they can with theirshoulder to bust that ice that's

(08:27):
formed to be able to open thedoor.
Oh, screw that A barn door,barn door Every time Opens up.

Speaker 4 (08:35):
If you can get your padlock on.
If you can get your padlock off, yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
So Eric and I, we used to.

Speaker 4 (08:42):
Now they got this chemical de-icer you can spray
into the log and it works great.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
It's super concentrated.

Speaker 4 (08:49):
Except on the Western Stars, where they have the slot
, the little thing that coversthe oh and that's frozen.
And that's frozen.
So then you break out the torchand you very carefully heat it
from a distance.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
So that's what we had .
I had a Benzomatic, a babyBenzomatic, so if you know what
a benzomatic it's, the torch hasa blue cylinder.
Right, they made a really tinyone.
It almost looks like a cremebrulee burner but it is from it.
It is benzomatic, it's actuallyfor like um shrink wrap and
stuff on on wires and all.
So I had a little baby, one ofthose, and we took that on the

(09:22):
truck with us our first winter.
We didn't originally have it,but when we got home I grabbed
it after trying to get a lockopen enough times, and then that
would work.
You would just blow it on thelock for a little bit and then
after a few seconds you'd seethe water drip out.
And once you saw the water dripout, it was thawed.
At that point you just unlockit, even if it's still coming
out.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
We would use just a regular lighter and heat the key
up and then do that enoughtimes.
It would get enough heat inthere to where you can twist it.

Speaker 5 (09:49):
Wow, what a great idea.
I love all these ideas.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
I did the lighter so much that it burned my hand.
One point where I was likewe're not doing the lighter
anymore, and that's when I wentto the Benzomatic we were in it
wasn't even my lighter, becauseI don't smoke.
We were in, or neither one of ussmoked.
We were in I don't rememberwhere, but the shipper we were
trying to figure it out theshipper's out there and he was
being super cool they're not alllike that, but he was being

(10:13):
super cool and he smoked and sohe pulled a lighter out and was
like going to give this a shotand I'm like yeah.
And I mean I was there holdingit just trying to get the dang
thing to thaw and it literallylike started to burn my thumb
because after a little while ofholding a cigarette lighter open
it gets.
Hot it gets really hot, butthat's what I had to do to get
it done.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
We would do the key, get the key getting hot.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, I wasn't that smart Inside the lock.

Speaker 5 (10:38):
Well, why didn't you call me, couldn't you?

Speaker 4 (10:39):
have put that on your podcast podcast or something?

Speaker 5 (10:41):
Can we ask the viewers what are you doing out
there in the wintertime.
Theouterbeltpodcastcom, or dropit down below in the comments,
or you can call me.
You know.
Whatever, I just want to knowwhat you're doing during these
times they're like Listerine,which would work.

Speaker 4 (10:56):
It's got a little bit of alcohol in it, which you
shouldn't have in the truck.
Even better yet hand sanitizer.

Speaker 5 (11:01):
Really, that's another one too.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
It's alcohol based.
Not only that, but it'santibacterial.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
It is.

Speaker 4 (11:08):
You can antibacterial your lock.
You can sterilize your lockwhile you defrost it.
You know what's terrible.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Do not unless you're in a dire situation.
No boiling water.
Don't go put some water in yourmicrowave, heat it up and then
pour it on the lock.
You will never get that lock tobe able to close again.
That's a one and done and youprobably will ruin the lock.

Speaker 5 (11:28):
That's last resort.
That's last resort, very lastresort.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Because then you'll be going to like a Home Depot
and buying a new lock at thatpoint.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
I was going to say worst comes to worst.
Just get your bolt cutters out,cut it off and then buy you a
new lock when you leave.

Speaker 5 (11:40):
Oh, that's even worst case scenario.
I like these worst cases, butthese new locks Say.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
not the case for FedEx.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Well, our Panther, because we use those disc locks
the disc locks, so the disclocks you only have like a
couple of millimeters.
I got rid of that as soon as Istarted driving for you.

Speaker 4 (11:59):
Yeah there'll be a charge in the settlement for $30
.
I Well, I'm glad to see thatyou know shirt-drying.
Yeah, it was a nice paycheck.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
I tell you, when Eric and I started, we had on the
back of one of our trucks thevending machine Coca-Cola lock.
Oh yeah, that was awesome.
And then it did occur to me oneday.
I'm like, if this thing everjams or has an issue, I got to
like cut the doors off the truck.

Speaker 3 (12:22):
Like it is.
I know where that lock ended up.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
I know where that lock ended up too.
We're not going to say, but Iknow exactly what happened.
That lock never had a chance tobreak, but it was like there's
nothing we can do.
Listen, I do, I do, I doCalifornia.
So anyways.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
I could probably find the road.
I could too.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Los Angeles, los Angeles, san Dimas, simi Valley,
simi Valley, yeah.

Speaker 5 (12:50):
But we're not talking about that.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
We're not talking about that.
Yeah, I could see the road too.
Anyways, I have seen Vincemultiple times out the yard.
We'll be working on a truck andwe pull everything up to our
main shop area and you know,when they do an initial
inspection so a truck comes back, they bring it.

(13:13):
We used to do it like at theactual parking spot, but they
actually changed that.

Speaker 5 (13:18):
They streamlined it.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
They streamlined it, so they bring the truck over to
the shop and we don't have ashop where we can like pull a
truck in.
So it's kind of inconvenient,but it works.
It works.
We're in a multi-use place, soeverybody else around us kind of
knows what we're doing andnobody gives us any hassle,
which is great.
We have to go through, and whatthey figured out was if we're
doing this inspection andthere's little things we can fix

(13:40):
, let's fix them, let's fix him,let's fix him.
I can't tell you how many timesI've been out there working
with him and then Vince willjust leave and go into the
building.
He won't say a word and hecomes back out with safety
glasses on and puts gloves on,and then I'm like what's he
doing?
And then he pulls out thiscircular saw that they use when

(14:02):
they're tearing down skyscrapersand they have to cut the metal
beams, the 12-inch I-beams Wow,it's one of those.

Speaker 4 (14:10):
I've not seen this one.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
And he uses this thing.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
It's two hands, it's jaws of life, if you had to
think of something to cut off athree-inch round lock, I break
out the angle grinder, I pullthe power cord.
The power is all the way in theback.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
It is a terrible spot .

Speaker 4 (14:30):
I pull the long power cord out.
Get the angle grinder out 220.

Speaker 5 (14:34):
And you wear glasses over your glasses.
I do, I like that.
Safety first.
Oh well safety first.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
If you saw the sparks , you would understand.
Yeah, you'd understand.
I love it.

Speaker 5 (14:42):
They are like I've not seen you ever do that.
Will you call me next time youthink you might do that I?

Speaker 3 (14:48):
will.

Speaker 5 (14:48):
I'll rush right down, I will, I'll even Uber.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Yeah, I will Uber.

Speaker 5 (14:52):
Well we're a one-car family.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
We're making things super efficient.

Speaker 4 (14:57):
Can you wait an hour and 20 minutes my Uber.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
Black is going to be here in 42 minutes.

Speaker 5 (15:05):
Yeah, I think that'd be super cool to see.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
I've never seen you angle, grind, move some load
bars.

Speaker 4 (15:10):
Hey, next time you're there can you record it?

Speaker 5 (15:12):
That'd even be better .

Speaker 2 (15:13):
That'd be cool.
Oh, we should record it andthrow it on the channel as a
short.

Speaker 5 (15:16):
Here we go.
I'd love it.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
I contemplated buying a cordless one, but they're
expensive.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
Would it be enough power?
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, Ihave researched it.
That would be the expensivepart.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
Yeah, I have researched it, it's just.

Speaker 5 (15:31):
yeah, it's inconvenient to pull the power
cord out and pick it up and doit, and there are little tiny
guys that you can just docordless.
They're not little.
For an angle grinder you canget little guys.
Think about Jaws of.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
Life.
The little ones aren't going todo it, they're not going to
have enough power.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
Jaws of Life is cordless.
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 4 (15:53):
It takes two cycles.
Sometimes people lock them ontheir grab handles.

Speaker 5 (15:57):
Yeah, they do.

Speaker 4 (15:58):
And they lose the keys.
So that's when I have to cutthem off, when they're locked on
the grab handles.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
Or you put them on there and then you drive around
in winter and salt gets in thereand they're done.
There's nothing you can do oncethat happens.

Speaker 4 (16:11):
I have had to finesse a few where you can actually
turn the key all the way and thelock doesn't release.
So I've had to play with them.
And if you turn it slowly andif it's sitting on something not
even heavy, just not evenweight it down, it's enough
weight that it won't turn.
So you gotta raise it up.
So it's free and it's.

(16:31):
I've become the lock master.

Speaker 5 (16:34):
I have done quite a few you sound like you're off.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
Ghostbusters, I know I was the original lock master.
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (16:47):
I'm the key maker.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
What movie is that from?
Isn't that Ghostbusters 2?
I'm the Keymaker.
That's the gate.
Oh, the Matrix.

Speaker 5 (16:51):
That's the gate.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
Master or something on Ghostbusters, you're the old
white guy.
Yeah, exactly Around with allthe TVs.

Speaker 4 (16:58):
Yeah, that's me.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
What a weird movie.
Yeah, it was a weird movie.
All three of those, yeah, lovethem, love them.
Yeah, good stuff it's one ofthose movies that's like I don't
want to watch this again.
Two hours later you're likethat's really good.
Jerry, can you do me?

Speaker 4 (17:12):
a favor?
Yes, somewhere in this part ofthis episode can you put a
squirrel just walking through,because it feels like we're all
over the place just watching thesquirrels.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Well, we say all this to say if we are in a jovial
spirit, it is because the freezehas begun.

Speaker 5 (17:27):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
And the freeze actually is from December 14th
through January 2nd Second,second and a half Second and a
half Second-ish.
We have a freeze.
What's the freeze mean?
The freeze is a move-in freeze.
We do not move people intotrucks or swaps or anything.

Speaker 5 (17:49):
No new teams.
No, nothing Swaps.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
During this time frame.
And the reason is very simple.
It's not that there's nofreight during this time, it's
just that it's very slow.
And our experience has been youput a team in December 18thth.
They come out, maybe run a loadmaybe a load then they sit

(18:11):
through christmas and then mayberun another load between
christmas and new year's ifyou're lucky and then sit
through new year's and then, uh,january 5th, we have the truck
back of the yard because theyjust sat for three weeks right,
it rained two loads.
And so there's no amount ofconversation.
We can have to prepare a teamfor this situation.

(18:33):
Years of experience have showedus that it's like it just
benefits everybody.
Yeah, it's not going to workout and plus it kind of gives
the staff a little bit of areprieve, which is funny because
we had to bust tail to get tothe freeze.
But then it gives all the staffa little bit of reprieve when
it is slower.

Speaker 4 (18:52):
But we also had to bust tail before the freeze for
after the freeze, correct.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
So we can get all that taken care of.

Speaker 5 (18:59):
Because then it's move-in time, it's go time.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
Well, what's really nice is like right now all of us
on this podcast are actually inMexico.
We're just doing a quick littleholiday thing down there.
It's actually really nice.
Jerry, you need more sun, butother than that it's been a lot
of fun.
That thing Melissa said theother day.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah, the nerve.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
The nerve.

Speaker 4 (19:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Well, you know, and the thing is, he really didn't
speak English.

Speaker 4 (19:32):
No, he didn't, he truly didn't, he truly didn't.
And she could not understandthat.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, just didn't believe it, but you know the
good thing is, that means healso didn't understand what she
was saying, right?

Speaker 4 (19:41):
But the rest of us are looking at her differently
now.
Oh, I certainly do.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
But so we have this huge build up and that's over
with and then.
But our shops don't quitworking.
No, so we've actually staged,oh my gosh, like seven trucks at
one shop, which we would neverdump.
Seven trucks at one shop.
We got seven trucks at one shop.
We've got seven trucks at oneshop.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
We've got two or three trucks at another shop.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
We've told them when we get back these have got to be
done.

Speaker 4 (20:08):
They've got to be ready.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
It is a nice little break for us.

Speaker 4 (20:13):
We did take them Christmas cookies, though,
before we dumped the trucks onthem.
It wasn't just cookies.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
We did bring pound cake to that one person.

Speaker 4 (20:21):
We did give milk too.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
Two people wanted pound cake one person and milk.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
We did give milk too.
Two people wanted pound cakeand we're like it's not good.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
It's not good at all.
Yeah, but something aboutBlackberry pound cake they
really like, Very strange.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
And I didn't understand the person with the
milk I prefer caramel.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
I agree, not pound cake, but caramel.
Cookies or cakes are actuallyjust caramel.

Speaker 5 (20:42):
Nobody asked for caramel.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
The caramel squares.
Yeah, like just the Brock'scaramel squares, uh-huh, buy
them and bulk them at thegrocery store.

Speaker 5 (20:51):
by the way, we do, Werther's.
No, it's not the same.
Give me the Brock's all day.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
every day I remember one time, because we used to
have Brock's at the house allthe time.
Again, I didn't understand this.
We had chocolate chips all thetime.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I remember coming home oneday and Mom has the double
boiler set up on the stove, yeah, and then she breaks open the
bag of Brocks and I grab one ofthose caramel squares and I'm
eating it, and then she startsopening them up and throws them

(21:17):
in the double boiler and I'mlike what are you doing?
Like I thought she was ruiningthem and then she did that and
then made a frosting out of it.

Speaker 5 (21:25):
I'm like oh, you can unwrap them anytime.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
She's like that's kind of what they're for.
We eat them as candy, but it'sreally an ingredient, but still
it was a lot of fun.
So, yeah, we got to pass outChristmas gifts and cookies and
breads and donuts.
So hopefully they're going tohave everything knocked out by
the time we get back.

Speaker 4 (21:49):
Thanks to Don doing all the baking too.
Yes, that was kind of cool.

Speaker 5 (21:51):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (21:52):
Appreciate that.

Speaker 5 (21:53):
People often ask when we have, because on our
Facebook page we post welcomeswhen new teams start, and people
often ask why there's such aninflux at specific times.
So if you're watching this,there will be.
I'm forewarning you there willbe an influx of welcome posts

(22:16):
for probably the first two weeksof the year.
And again, that's because wehave had this freeze and now
everybody's moving into thesetrucks.
Those first couple of weeks notnot anything's happening,
nothing's whatever.
Some people think high turnoveror all these other things, and
it's just because right nowagain, we're on holiday vacation

(22:37):
, we have a freeze and thosetrucks will all be ready after
the first year.
So that's why there'll be aninflux of move-ins and we are so
excited for the teams coming onboard.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
I know it's definitely the fun time of the
year, that's for sure.
Yeah, Of course I love it.
I see all these trucks sitthere and Eric and I are the
ones watching the bank andmaking sure truck notes are paid
or whatever.
So we see all these truckssitting and we're like who
really needs Christmas?
I mean honestly, is it reallythat important?
Is New Year's that important?

(23:06):
But no it is.
I'm actually such a hugeChristmas person I might be the
most Christmassy person at this.

Speaker 5 (23:15):
I think the biggest thing, I think the biggest
reason for the freeze and kudosto Highfield for recognizing it,
is not setting teams up forfailure.
And, like you said, if they'reonly going to run two loads in
three weeks, how disappointing,and you know we share all this
information.
Now, next year, if you've run afull year, you can prepare
yourself for maybe going homeand enjoying that time and

(23:39):
you've, you know, compensatedyourself and stashed money away
to enjoy those week and a half,two weeks off for the double
holiday.
Double holiday is really roughat the end of the year.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Or at a family member's house.
Some people choose.
They'd rather spend.

Speaker 5 (23:48):
Maybe you want to go on a cruise too.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
We see a lot of people go on cruises.
We see a lot of peopleespecially Thanksgiving, then
Christmas and New Year's.
We see a lot of people taketheir home time in three
different locations because ofthat, this kid or this grandkid
or this mom and dad's grand, youknow house or whatever.
So we do see that happen quite abit because, again, home time
for us is wherever you want itto be, sure, so home time can be

(24:14):
Disneyland this month, and nextmonth it can be the Grand Ole
Opry, or next month it can beLos Angeles.

Speaker 5 (24:20):
We don't really care.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
It's just or not at all.
Yeah, we don't really care ornot at all.
Some people don't go home, andit's funny too, because there
are some people who have beenout for a long time and they
know that that one particularload comes out December 24th in
that one particular location,and it's a good-paying load.

Speaker 5 (24:38):
So they set themselves up for it.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
It picks up in the North Pole, right it does.
And they won't tell anybodywhere it's at.
They won't tell anybody whereit's going.
They won't say nothing.

Speaker 5 (24:48):
But they'll set themselves up and they'll be
plotted with their truck rightthere, so they'll get it.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Which is okay to do too.
It's totally fine, but you'llnever I mean under penalty of
death you'll never get them towhat it is.
And we see it because we seeall the settlements.
So we know every load that'sran and we're not talking.
No it's top secret.
If you're going to run that,because they are like the
mystique of the $10,000 load, itdoes happen every year, every

(25:16):
Christmas it will happen.
This year we will see one, two,three of our trucks will do
that.
Now that's three trucks out of120.
So your chances are slim, butthey do exist.

Speaker 5 (25:28):
They're out there, they're real.
Vince, and I have talked aboutit we did that elusive
Thanksgiving double load Inthree years it never happened
and we just happened to be wherewe were at the right time.
I'm sure those loads don't runon a regular basis, but again we
were just in the right place atthe right time, and I'm sure
those loads don't run on aregular basis.
But again, we were just in theright place at the right time
during the holiday season andgot compensated for it.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Jerry's talked about it too, so Again, our
Thanksgiving load was oh, youtalked about it too.

Speaker 5 (25:58):
Again, it's not an always thing, and Highfield does
encourage you to go home andjust celebrate your holidays
with people.
I think it's so funny.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
A couple years ago I had someone call me.
They were so mad because theyheard that Highfield makes all
their teams stay out forChristmas and New Year's and
Thanksgiving and won't let themgo home.
And I'm like, are you kiddingme?
I've been a driver, I was adriver for years.
Like I'm not going to tellsomeone to go home or just to
stay out and work when I knowthere's very little freight and

(26:28):
you're going to be better off.
You're going to be better offmore rejuvenated, seeing your
family or, in some cases, beingready to get back on the road
after seeing your family yeahlike once you uh, once you go
home and so it's like no, I, Igo home, do your thing again.
I don't care if home's disneyworld, like getting another
truck, is a good thing yeah, nottoo often, obviously, otherwise

(26:52):
nobody make any money.
But like, when you do get thoseopportunities, take advantage
of them.

Speaker 5 (26:57):
We were always refreshed and ready to start at
the beginning of the year, andit usually started off with a
bang and you're off and running.
And the new year always seemedto be, profitable and set a good
tone for the rest of the year.
That's the way we always were,I think the first year we

(27:18):
decided to go home, and everyyear after that we decided to
stay out.
That was our option for bothThanksgiving and then the double
holiday.
But those were our choices andI think one Thanksgiving paid
off in three years when westayed out, and then the others
were just— Well, the othersthough I mean we always had a

(27:39):
load.

Speaker 4 (27:39):
Generally we had a load that picked up Tuesday.
Maybe we sat for ThanksgivingDay.
Let me back up a little bit.
I know we had one year wepicked up on Wednesday before
Thanksgiving.

Speaker 5 (27:49):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (27:50):
And that delivered like the following that was
picked up like in ConnecticutYep and it delivered the
following Monday In Texas, so wepicked up Wednesday, delivered
on Monday in Texas.
We went camping.

Speaker 5 (28:01):
Yeah, you don't need five days, but we included a
little fun with it.

Speaker 4 (28:04):
We did we had fun with it.
Then we had the load.

Speaker 5 (28:09):
Where we were pre-dispatched.

Speaker 4 (28:10):
We were pre-dispatched on the Tuesday
before Thanksgiving.
It didn't pick up until theMonday after Thanksgiving.
I gave them a number and theysaid, oh, I can't do that.
And then they went through andbroke down everything and threw
me back a number.
It actually didn't give me awhole.
I gave them a whole number.
They came back and broke itdown and I did the math and the

(28:33):
math worked out that it was morethan the whole number.
I threw.
So I said, yeah, okay.
So again Melissa starts lookingand planning.
We went camping from Wednesdayto Sunday.
Sunday afternoon made our waythe rest of the way, which
wasn't but a couple hours, toour pickup for Monday morning,
and then the next one, the lastThanksgiving we were out, we got

(28:56):
the magical two-part load.
So you know it does.

Speaker 5 (29:00):
certainly it's a game of odds.
It's a game of odds, sure.

Speaker 4 (29:05):
But we were prepared to, if we didn't get anything
and we sat the weekend.
We were prepared for that, Ithink that's key right is being
prepared for your downtime.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
What are you going to do?

Speaker 5 (29:14):
We were going to go camping and have our holiday,
which we didn't need to go homeand see family.
We were okay with that, butwe're like let's go do something
anyway.
That's fun, whatever that funmight be.
Like you said, disneyland, wechose to go camping, so whatever
that fun is.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Our first Thanksgiving out on the road.
We were in North Carolina and Iwant to say is it Kinley 95?
Is that the one in NorthCarolina Sounds familiar, kinley
95?

Speaker 5 (29:38):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (29:38):
the one in North Carolina Sounds familiar.
I think it's the Kinley 95.
It's right outside of Raleighand we stayed there.
We had it's a Petro.
Okay, so Kinley 95 is part ofthe Iowa 80 group, so it's an
elevated truck stop Right.
They don't have many of them,they've got four or five around
the country, but they're supernice truck stops.

(29:59):
So I remember we went there.
We had, you know, thanksgivingdinner in their restaurant.
And it was all.
I think that's a Petro, so itmight have been an Iron Skillet
at the.
Petro, it wasn't an Iron SkilletOkay, because it's their
branded restaurant or whateverbut it was basically an Iron
Skillet right Like brandedrestaurant or whatever, but it
was basically an under-scale.
I mean, you know, truck stopdinners, truck stop dinners.

(30:21):
But I remember they had abuffet and they had the ham and
the turkey and all that stuffand it was actually tasty and it
was good and at a veryreasonable price, which is rare
because truck stops they comefrom the lofts as a
do-we-cheat-em-in-hell.

Speaker 4 (30:35):
Right.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
And so we were.
We were enjoying our time there.
And then, um, when we finallydid get pre-dispatch, it was one
of those like monday or tuesdaydispatches, so we ended up, uh,
going into raleigh.
We saw a movie one night at areally cool movie theater.
That is a used to be a placewhere they built trains.
They used to make locomotiveengines In the movie theater, in

(31:02):
the movie theater.
So the guys would be putting onsteam locomotives, they'd be
putting these massive wheels onwhile watching Fern Gully, fern
Gully.

Speaker 5 (31:13):
What a random movie have you?

Speaker 2 (31:17):
seen the remake Avatar.

Speaker 5 (31:18):
No.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
So no, they took this huge factory and converted it
into a theater.
It's very cool.
The screens are small, which iskind of a meh, but the theater
itself is awesome.

Speaker 5 (31:32):
And it's an experience that you're having.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
Absolutely.

Speaker 5 (31:35):
At that point which is making a new memory.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yes, and then the next time, or the next day
rather, we went to a mall whichwas an outdoor mall and the
weather was nice enough that wecould be outside with just a
light coat and be fine, and theyhad a huge town square and
everything at the small.
You know how they do nowadayswith the outdoor malls, where
they usually have a big townsquare.
Yes, so they had a hugeChristmas tree, all the

(31:58):
decorations, santa was there.
While we were there, they had aparade that went through the
mall.
So we're like marching bandsand all these floats and Santa
and everything goes throughthere.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
Craziness.
They had a skating area too.
They did have a skating area,Was it ice?

Speaker 2 (32:15):
skating?
I think so.
It might have been ice skating.

Speaker 3 (32:18):
I'm not sure we should talk about that one day.
We did last week.

Speaker 4 (32:20):
Oh, that's right, I wouldn't hear.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
And so it made for a really great holiday.
So we didn't go planning on notworking over.
Thanksgiving.
We also, as a first year out.
We just didn't know, yeah, butwe still made the best of it.

Speaker 5 (32:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
And if you stay out and you say like I'm going to
make the best of this.
If I end up getting a load,great.
If I end up not getting a load,great.
We're going to figure somethingout with the local community,
absolutely, then it's a lot offun.
If you are the kind of personyou're going to be homesick and

(33:02):
miss the kids and miss thefireplace and miss, you know,
the gumbo that you have orwhatever clearly I'm from south
louisiana uh, then then go home.
It's not worth it.
There is no freight, there's noload that is going to make up
for the memories you're gonnalose.
So we, eric and I, did it once.
We did it one year.
We stayed out for thanksgiving,christmas and new years, yeah,
and we never did it again.
I did share the story where wedid go home one year for
Thanksgiving and they actuallycalled us while we were at home

(33:23):
and said Do you want this loadto California Blank check.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
I was about to insert the thought.
You can't always go home andjust stay in service.
You can, you can't get loadsthat way, absolutely Sure.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
You absolutely can.
If you're in a good freightarea, perfect.
The only thing you got to keepin mind for that is for those of
you that are driving.
You'll know this already, butif you're not driving, you may
not realize it yet.
We can be drug tested, not drugtested.
We'll drug and alcohol testedat any time.
So if you are the kind ofperson who's going to go home

(33:53):
and have eggnog, for Christmasor whatever you need to be out
of service because you can getrandom drug and alcohol testing.
If you're still in service Ifyou're still in service, and it
is federally required that theydo pull those drug and alcohol
tests Randomly Randomly so it'snot like they're trying to get
you, it's an actual federalmandate.

(34:14):
50% of the fleet every singleyear has to get drug tested and
alcohol tested.

Speaker 5 (34:18):
So be out of service.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
So be out of service If you're going to go home and
have turkey and you're going tohave sweet tea and whatever.
Stay in service.
See what you can get.
Sure.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
Also, if you do stay in service, if you don't drink,
most of the loads that come outover the holidays are ASAP loads
.
So you need to be willing todrop what you're doing, hop in
the truck and be there in 30 toan hour.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
It's true, expedite If they're calling you on a
holiday.
It is an emergency Absolutely,or it's a predispatch for three
days from now.
So it could be either one ofthose two, but a lot of times it
is a true emergency.
So you want to be able to goand obviously, if you've been
drinking it's not an option.
So If you've been drinking it'snot an option, so, yeah, just
be responsible with it.

(34:59):
But again, if that matters toyou, go home.
I'm so glad after that firstyear I spent all my years at
home, because my mom only livedfour or five years after that,
right, so I got to have four orfive more Christmases with her.
So like I get it, like we aretotally on board with your home
time, your family time matters.

Speaker 5 (35:20):
Well, we're enjoying our freeze.
Yeah, it was all about thefreeze.
Go home.
That's why we're closed for thefreeze.
Absolutely Because we want youto go home, we don't want people
to move in.
And well, quite frankly, noone's in the yard.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
Yes, Literally again.

Speaker 5 (35:35):
We are all in Mexico.
No one's in the yard.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
No one's in the yard.

Speaker 5 (35:37):
No one's in the yard and we like to see your face and
show you all about the truckand we will not leave keys in
the side box for you to move in.
Not the way we do things Can.

Speaker 4 (35:46):
I just clarify when Patrick says we're in Mexico,
what he really means is we're inMexico, I'm enjoying 80 degree
weather.

Speaker 5 (35:55):
I'm near or on a beach, probably why this podcast
is dropping.
Enjoying a glorious sunrisewith my coffee, because I will
get up at yay hour to watch aglorious sunrise on the beach
with my coffee, because I packedmy coffee.
I guess what I got today.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
Give me time what I got A coffee press.

Speaker 5 (36:18):
No, I'm so excited, so excited.
Vince doesn't even know I gottoday.
She will not Give me time whatI got A coffee press.
No, I'm so excited so excited.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
Vince doesn't even know, I don't.
No, she's telling us now.
So they don't have a.

Speaker 5 (36:27):
And it only weighs .05 pounds or something.
What is it?
It's very light.
I got myself a one cup hotwater maker.
I can truly make my own pourover with my bottle of water in
my own hot boiling water kettle.

(36:47):
I don't have to order it fromroom service.
I got my own water and make myown coffee because I grind and
pack my own coffee.
Anytime.
You all know this, even oncruises, I pack my own coffee.
I am so excited that I finallybroke down and bought myself a
little one-cup hot water maker.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
We were talking about this last week.
I know we were and I bought it,not in the podcast.
We were talking about it lastweek Personally.
We were talking about how maybeyou can buy a kettle once we
get to Mexico.
I got one today and it's solight and it goes in and it's a
travel one.

Speaker 5 (37:16):
I know Vince doesn't know, but I did.
I splurged the other day awhole $20 and got myself a
single, I think it's like 13.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Jerry's looking at you like it's like 13.5 ounces.
Oh, come on.
Jerry's looking at you, likesend me an email, come on.

Speaker 5 (37:31):
Who doesn't like to pack their.
Who else packs their own coffee?
Come on, viewers, share withtheir own coffee.
Come on, viewers, share with uswho packs their own coffee.
When you go on vacation, it isalways, seriously, it is always.
It is always the first thing Iput in my.
I grind, I bag the coffeefilters, the pour over.

(37:51):
It all goes in my my bag.
There's always room for it.
Usually there's a means tomaking hot water, but today, a
couple days ago, I'm like I justbuy myself a little hot water
maker.
I can boil my own water.
I don't have to rely on amicrowave, I don't have to do
room service for a kettle of hotwater, I can just make my own.
So I'm super excited that I'mgoing to have coffee Well, that
is awesome While watching thesunrise.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
The place that we're in Mexico.
It's a special place for Ericand I because we literally,
literally set because you'retalking about coffee, we
literally set on the porch ofthis hotel.
It's not a resort, it's a hotel.
It's not a resort.

Speaker 5 (38:31):
Got it Hotel.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Hotel.
So we set on the porch of thishotel, got a pot of coffee from
room service.

Speaker 5 (38:39):
Yeah, which is okay to do they don't have a coffee
maker at this place.
Which is fine.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
So we got a pot of coffee.
We sat on the porch and we satthere and drank our pot of
coffee and discussed the idea ofdo we want to go back to our
old lives or do we want to starthigh-field trucking?
And we sat there in thosechairs, for it had to be at

(39:11):
least three or four hours.

Speaker 5 (39:12):
Drinking coffee.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
A couple pots of coffee and discussed how do we
want to do it, what do we wantit to look like, what are we
going to buy, how are we goingto do this and do we really want
to do it?
At this point we had been inthe business for five months.
I'm sorry, we had driven forfive months.
Long time For a fleet owner andwe were like is this something

(39:35):
that we are passionate about andreally want to make happen?
And that right there.

Speaker 5 (39:41):
Ta-da, and here you are, and here we are.
Now I'm excited.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
So this place is really special.
Again, hotel, nothing fancy,but it's a special place just
from the sentimental value of it.

Speaker 5 (39:52):
Sure, I can't wait to go.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
I remember the first time I went to Mexico, Ma and
Uncle, we stayed at a hotel incan't cosmo in cosmo and we paid
27 a night super high end andhad a great time, and the reason
we stayed there at that hotelwas it's an old dive hotel which
there still are.
uh, I don't mean dive hotel likeyou'd say dive bar, I mean dive

(40:16):
is in, like scuba divers gothere, and there are several of
those still on Cosmo today.
I mean it's a bed that has amattress that was made in the
early 1700s.
This one had a window unit thatwas made in 1947.

(40:36):
Which blew ice cold.
I don't know how they were ableto make air conditioners blow
so cold back in the 60s, um, buttons of rust.
But the shower was questionableand there was no hot water.
Uh, but but that 27 hotel.
We had a lot of fun because theperson we were there with it's

(40:59):
where they first stayed.
And it was super sentimental andyou know we took the stroll
into town and had a great time.
So it's not about like thesuper nice resort you're at.

Speaker 5 (41:10):
It's the memories.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Sometimes it's the memories and then being able to
share those memories.
So that's what we're doingright now.

Speaker 5 (41:14):
I'm excited for my hot water heater.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
Your water heater.

Speaker 5 (41:19):
I am so excited.
I just can't tell you becausebefore clothes go, before
clothes ever go in my suitcase,it is always how am I getting
coffee every morning that I'm at, whatever vacation we go?

Speaker 2 (41:32):
on.
You know you're going to havepeople email us and drop us a
comment.
If you want to go ahead and dothat now, the Outer Belt Podcast
at gmailcom.
Which is.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
The Outer Belt Podcast at gmailcom.

Speaker 5 (41:43):
I always.
That is my first thing thatgoes in my bag is sometimes I
have to do like a Yeti cupBecause I'm like, well, what am
I going to put the coffee in ifthey don't have coffee cups?
And I don't want to do roomservice every morning to get a
coffee cup, room service everymorning to get a coffee cup.
I prepare myself.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
You don't use the paper cup.
What about the paper?

Speaker 5 (41:59):
cup.
What if they don't have papercups?
But what if they have thecoffee maker that at least can
make me hot water?
Or what if they just have amicrowave to make me hot water?
So I always think of thosethings.
But this time I'm like I needto complete my set.
I've got the coffee cup, whichis a Yeti small little guy.
I've got the coffee cup, whichis a Yeti Small little guy.
I've got my coffee.
I've got my pour-over.

(42:20):
I've got my filters.
I need something to boil thewater.
So I have now got the completeset that will always go in my
pack, my suitcase, any time ofvacation.
I will always have my coffee.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
It's not complete.
Here's why it's not complete.
I'm so excited we're going togo stay somewhere rustic, where
there's not going to beelectricity.

Speaker 5 (42:37):
Or the wrong style plug, or the wrong style plug.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
So then she's going to do the plug adapter, which
will work for a little bit.
Yeah, then she's going to buythe little Sterno gas burner
with the metal cup?
Yes, so that she can make herown hot water regardless.

Speaker 5 (42:57):
I'm just going to do candle and aluminum foil.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
I don't think that's water Anyway.

Speaker 5 (43:03):
So At any rate, I just love starting my day.
I even do it at home.
Vince knocks me all the time.
I'll get up a whole hour beforeI really, technically, any sane
person probably should get up,even start their whole before
they go to work.
Get up yeah.

(43:23):
I will wake up an hour beforethat time just so I can have my
personal coffee time, and sopersonal coffee time for me.
I guess some people might callit meditation, spiritual time,
whatever you want to call it.
There's just something about meand coffee for 45 minutes to an
hour that I need to start myday and put me on day.

Speaker 4 (43:42):
I don't talk to her for an hour at least after that,
because she's a complete andtotal very nice person during
her coffee time.

Speaker 5 (43:53):
I just like me time.
Well, I don't, that's what Icall it.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
I don't do it, I know you don't.

Speaker 5 (43:57):
I don't have that, I do espresso, that's what I call
it.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
I don't do it.
I know you don't.
I don't have that.
I do espresso.
I mean it's like you drink itand you're gone Like cups made
just shoot it done Coffee is inand out and done.
I can't.
My morning is grab a bottle ofwater, get the espresso machine

(44:20):
going grab my pills because I'mof the age where I take my
morning pills.
Now, take my pills, drink mywater, buy that, buy that.
The coffee espresso is done.
Shoot the espresso.
Set the little cup in the cause.
I do have the little tinyespresso cups.
You know the little, the littlecause why are you going to?
It is cause.
What are you going to do?
You like espresso in a fullsize coffee mug.

Speaker 4 (44:34):
It makes no sense.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
So you set the espresso cup gently because we
have broken them Gently in thesink, a little water, because
you don't want the black rings.
It's gross.
So and then I go to the officeand I start my day.

Speaker 3 (44:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
But it's just like bang, bang, bang that a morning
meditation time to showgratitude time to whatever is so
healthy, and hardly any of usdo it.
It just you know, time is onething, that we're so short on

(45:16):
the thing that helps us the mostis usually the thing that we
cut out.

Speaker 5 (45:17):
I play Best Fiends.
That's what I do.
I'll quickly do my social mediain the morning with my cup of
coffee, but then I move on toBest Fiends and I'll sit there
and I'll play Best Fiends andI'll drink my cup.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
Say that one more time.
Best Fiends, are theysponsoring us?
They are.

Speaker 5 (45:30):
But I'll drink my.
Is that Best, fiends?
And a half and each sip.
I drink, though, pot of coffeeand a half cup of coffee and a
half, but each cup, each, eachcup, each sip I drink.
I really relish the flavor,like again I call it meditation.
I really appreciate my cup ofcoffee and the coffee that I

(45:52):
purchased.
I know mr breville is sittingacross from me giving me eye
looks, but he understands me.
I really enjoy and it's quiettime it's, and maybe while I'm
playing my video game on myphone and having my coffee, I'm
just, I'm relaxed, I'mcomfortable, I'm getting my tone

(46:12):
for the day, I know when I needto get up shower.
Whatever, I do enjoy makingVince's lunch.
I do that every day.
I make it out of love.
I do all that before I start myday.
But I need that coffee time forme to get my brain in the right
place and so I pack it when wego on vacation, because I enjoy

(46:33):
my coffee and not always ourpods or Nespresso or the hotel
coffee or room service coffee.
Is it what I want to drink?
So, I personally like to take myown and I save space in my
luggage for taking those items,and I'm excited to try this
little hot water thingy.

Speaker 4 (46:54):
We've shown up to the airport before and her suitcase
has been overweight and I'veseen her take stuff out of the
suitcase and throw it away.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Throw the trash, but keep the coffee.
It's like you could put thatparka on.

Speaker 4 (47:06):
Yeah, you could put that in mine, because mine isn't
overweight.
She just throws it away becauseshe wants to make sure her
coffee gets there.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
What I do when that happens is I take the underwear
out and I just put it on over myclothes.
Jerry we're on vacation thisweek.

Speaker 5 (47:20):
I know how much you love coffee.
If you need a fresh pot or afresh cup, or you want to sample
mine.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
Room service is by dialing If you'd like to come
over and sit on my patio or myroom or anything.

Speaker 5 (47:32):
I'd love to make you a cup with my fancy new hot
water maker.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
Speaking of coffee One second.
May I Again, if you're curiouswhat this is, because you're on
a truck and you're like, I'dlove a way to make one cup of
hot water so that I can have mypour-over coffee, because
pour-over is so trendy right now.
It is.

Speaker 5 (47:49):
It tastes good.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
Please shoot us an email Leave us a comment, if
enough people leave comments.
By that I mean one.

Speaker 4 (47:56):
Melissa will happily share the.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
Amazon link where she got that from.

Speaker 5 (48:01):
Or.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
Walmart or Walmart or Bed Bath Beyond.

Speaker 5 (48:06):
I'll share a link.
I'll just share my whole setup.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
We don't have that much time.
No, I'll put it all together.

Speaker 5 (48:13):
I'll take one picture and I'll send it to you.
If you send me the Outer Beltpodcast, you'll want to know
what my setup is.
I'll snap a picture of my wholesetup and I'll send it to you?

Speaker 4 (48:22):
What's the email address?

Speaker (48:24):
Theouterbeltpodcastcom .

Speaker 4 (48:26):
No, it's not.

Speaker 5 (48:27):
The.
V that's T-H-E.
Outerbeltpodcast at gmailcom.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (48:34):
What did I say Theouterbeltpod Podcastcom At
gmailcom.

Speaker 5 (48:41):
Doesn't Embraer, do Gmail.
It's either that or Yahoo.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
No, I haven't ate well, there's type of
truckingcom Ock Cloud.

Speaker 4 (48:48):
Yeah, oh my gosh.

Speaker 5 (48:49):
I giggle when I take people's information because we
need first names, last names,phone numbers and emails.
And I giggle and I'll joke withpeople when they give me a
Hotmail or a Yahoo and I'll jokeand I'm like, oh, you must be
over your email gives your ageaway.
Do you ever see AOLs anymore?

(49:10):
Occasionally.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
I have an AOL email address.
I've had since I was literally14 years old.

Speaker 5 (49:16):
Still use it.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
It still works.
I still use it we haven't paidfor AOL in 22 years.
Wow, I don't know how or why itworks.
I don't know what server it'son.
I don't know what country it'sbased out of.
I don't know anything about it.
There's probably.
I shouldn't probably use it.
Yeah, but it still works, andso I'm like okay, our dentist,

(49:39):
our dentist.
Yes, mine too.

Speaker 5 (49:41):
And I believe your dentist, because I referred you
to them.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
You did.
Did you get that nice referralcheck?

Speaker 5 (49:47):
Yeah, I was going to ask him about that they have an
AOL email address and I'm likeoh, that tells you how old that
dentist has been in and theyknow their stuff it's super
unprofessional.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
And they do know their stuff.
I love it though.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
But I love it.

Speaker 5 (50:02):
It gives me warm feelies that they still have an
AOL address.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
I agree, but it's weird because they have all the
modern technology.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
They do, yes, they do so it's like why do you have?
All the modern technology andyou're not using your own domain
name

Speaker 4 (50:14):
for your email.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
It's so strange.

Speaker 5 (50:16):
Crazy.
I like it.
It makes me get warm fuzzies.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
Yeah, it's a great place.
I love it because when you'resitting in the chair it's all
glass wall you're staring at andit's of a park.

Speaker 5 (50:28):
And you can see the marmots running around.
You can see the marmots, thebunnies, the squirrels, the
groundhogs that's what I wascalling marmots.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
I've been there when there have been deer out there.
When it's winter, right now youcan see the people, but
generally when the foliage isout you can't.

Speaker 3 (50:46):
That's a really nice place.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
They have a TV and they're always like what do you
want to watch on TV?
I'm like nothing.
This I want to watch.

Speaker 5 (50:52):
I would turn.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
Nature Channel on to see more of this.
I get none of that.

Speaker 5 (50:56):
Do you go the other side?

Speaker 4 (50:57):
No, I've been on that side.

Speaker 5 (50:59):
Oh, they let you down and you can't.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
The other side has TVs too.
I was on that side once.

Speaker 4 (51:03):
Yeah, but I don't get any of that oh.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
Oh, you can't see.
They ask you to take yourglasses off, for those of you
that aren't watching that arelistening.

Speaker 4 (51:13):
I wear glasses.
My glasses come off when I getdental service.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
So you just see a blur, I just see a blur.
That's funny, is that a?

Speaker 4 (51:19):
groundhog?
No, sweetheart, it's not agroundhog, that's.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
Dr.
Obviously, I have these braces,yes, and I'm trying to get my
teeth fixed.
I'll be glad when that's done.
I will too.
I'm so sick of these.
Anyways, that place they havethese really cool lights in the
ceiling, but when you sit therethey can sometimes get in your
eye.
So the first thing to do isgive you a pair of sunglasses.

Speaker 5 (51:46):
They do.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
It's just.
I think it's hysterical.
We had a lot of people reachout from last week's recording
and also from the recording wedid on the APUs.
Yeah, about the reefer units,you don't want to be
uncomfortable.

Speaker 4 (52:02):
I did, but I realized that was against the rules.
Well, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
So we did have people reach out to us and they're
like okay, why do you run allThermo King?

Speaker 5 (52:15):
on our reefer units.
They're the best.
Thanks, Jerry, for your opinionover there.
So why do you run exclusivelyThermo King on our reefer?

Speaker 2 (52:18):
units.
They're the best.
Thanks, jerry.
Thanks, jerry, for your opinionover there.
So why do you run exclusivelyThermo King on your reefer units
?
And then the caveat is the realsleuths of you are like when
all of your first reefer truckswere carriers.
Because if you look at our oldpictures you will see we used to
be exclusively carrier.

Speaker 5 (52:39):
For your reefer.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
For our reefer units and then we did convert over to
Thermo King so I thought I'dtalk about it real quick.
So first off I got to say weoriginally were carrier people.
I bought my first reefer truckhad a carrier Super 860.
I'm sorry, 850.
Reefer truck had a carriersuper 860.
I'm sorry, 850.
And then we brought a.

(53:02):
The next one had like a 960,which is just amazing.
The 960 is the greatest reeferto ever exist.
We could pull negative 20 inlike 45 minutes.

Speaker 4 (53:16):
Would you call it the cat's meow?

Speaker 2 (53:18):
I would not, but I would say that it is the.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
Cat's.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
Meow.

Speaker 5 (53:24):
Cat's Purr.
I'm like what are we going with?

Speaker 2 (53:26):
When you turned it on , though, you realized you were
in high cotton.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
So did you ever have a 960, jerry?

Speaker 1 (53:34):
I don't remember what model I had.
I had numerous carriers, though.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
Probably the Supra 850s in that generation.
They made that forever.
They don't anymore, but theymade that for like 30 years.
It was a very long running.
And there was a group of peoplethat said, well, if an 850 is
so good, let's buy the nextmodel up.
It'll be even better.
Let's buy the next model up,It'll be even better.
Because the Supra 850, 860,which was the benchmark for so

(54:01):
long for these reefer trucksLike Kerry Irvin said, if you
had a 22-foot box, this is thereefer you should use.
On a normal refrigerated loadworked great.
It just pulled 40 degrees, nobig deal.
5 degrees Celsius, no big deal.
5 degrees Celsius, no big deal.
On a negative 20 load, negative20 degrees Celsius, it would do

(54:25):
.
It Took a while, but it took awhile.
Right, Like you'd be hours toget down to that temperature.
So if we put the 960, spend alittle more money up front, we
can pull it down faster, andthey're not wrong.
That thing would pull down sofast that it actually got them
in trouble.
So those reefer units wouldpull the temperature so fast

(54:46):
down that it would actuallyexceed the set point, and so
then it would cause damage tothe product because it cooled it
down too fast and too hard.
So say, your set point wasnegative 20, it would pull down
to like negative 25, negative 30before it was like ooh too far,
wow, and we're going to cutourselves back.
So they were actually bannedfrom FedEx for a little while.

(55:08):
There was a carrier dealershipthat did actually go through and
fix the programming to where itwould have a tighter tolerance
so that wouldn't happen anymoreand that's how we were able to
run what we had.
But that 960, amazing, amazing,uh, carrier reefer unit, uh,
but then we bought a bunch morewith carrier 850s, our 860s.

(55:29):
So the 850 860 are the 950, 960.
Um, the the 60 was just a newerversion of the old 50 version.
Basically, what that reallymeant was they went to a
brushless fan.
So I don't know, did you everhave one where it had fan
brushes and the fan brushes hadto be replaced?
Yes, so these older carriers soCarrier and Thermo King have

(55:50):
very different ideas on how torun their fans and their reefer
units.
To blow air, carrier has anelectric fan, three of them to
blow the air, to cool it, likeyour house would have an
electric fan right.
And those 850s all hadtraditional old-school brushed
fans motors, and so you havethese little brushes that run

(56:13):
around in a circle and that'swhat gives it electricity,
passes through and makes it run.
But those brushes would weardown over time.
Because they actually madephysical contact, because they
made physical contact, yeah, sothey would actually wear down
over time and so you would haveto go in.
And it was really cool becauseCarrier knew this.
They sold a brush pack sothey'd actually pull it apart

(56:35):
and replace all the brushes andthen stick it all back together
and you'd go on down the roadand you could tell too, because
you would lose one fan and theother two would be working fine,
but all of a sudden all thecooling got like super slow and
then finally you just walk inthe back and you'd see like, oh
yeah, that fan's not running.
Those two are.
Look at him shaking his headhe's like where's all this?

Speaker 1 (56:57):
100?

Speaker 2 (56:58):
so that was a huge issue with uh, the carrier 8,
the 50 models, the 60 modelsmoved to brushless fans and that
changed the game just suddenly.
Their reliability went throughthe roof, so much better built
product.
Did you ever have one of those,or were you always the 850s
with the brushes?

Speaker 1 (57:19):
I think I always had the brushes Okay.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
So they moved to the brushless and that made a world
of difference and I was super,super happy with that product.
And so we decided we're goingto keep building carriers.
So we finally brought a reefertruck from Jeff Jones at Stoops
Freightliner truck from JeffJones at Stoops Freightliner.
Jonesy was like the guru ofT-Val trucks through Stoops

(57:43):
Freightliner, just like JohnLalonde was with FIDA
Freightliner.
They were the two gurus.
They knew what they were doing.
Jonesy was hell-bent on ThermoKing and like you gotta buy a
Thermo King, you don't with thecarrier.
Thermo King's so much better.
Yadda, yadda, yadda.
Later in life I found out it'sreally more of a political issue

(58:03):
with his local carrierdealership.
But you know, when you're newto the business you don't always
see all those dynamics, sure.
And so I said no, I really wanta carrier.
Like can you quote it to me andbuild it with a carrier?
And he said, okay, fine, I'lldo it.
And then he gave my informationover to the guy that runs

(58:26):
Thermo King in Fort.
Wayne and had that guy call me,and so he sat down, explained to
me all the great things aboutThermo King and why we should
buy them.
Well, let me back up a secondand say Thermo King had just
released their new model, theT880.

Speaker 4 (58:49):
I'll tell you what no one knows model numbers like
you do.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
I'm failing to remember what model number this
was.
Anyways, they just releasedthis model and I don't know if
you remember this in like early2011, 12.
These things were failing padtest left and right.
These thermo king units couldnot, could not make it happen,

(59:18):
they were just given fits.
Um, so what they did was it likea traditional reefer unit,
which is what Carrier runs on atruck is?
It blows ice cold and it turnsthe ice cold off and it blows
ambient air.
Then it turns back to ice cold.
Your air conditioner in yourhouse does the same thing.
It's either on or off.

(59:39):
Right, and what Thermo King didwas they said we're going to
adapt this new technology whichsays we're going to be able to
regulate the temperature.
It's an inverter system, justlike those split units they use
all over the world you may havebeen in a hotel that has a split
unit and so they're able toactually control the temperature
of the air coming out, not juston or off.

(01:00:01):
And so this system.
The system worked, but theprogramming was bad, and so at
that time, if you failed padtest more than twice, I think
FedEx would only let you do thatevery six months, right,
correct?
So, if you failed pad test twiceyou had to go six months
without being a T-Val truck Oofand then you could re-pad test

(01:00:23):
again.
So they're having lots ofissues with these reefers and I
didn't want one.
I'm like I'm good, I'll stickwith my carrier products, love
them.
So he calls me and he tells meall right, thermic.
And Guy calls me.
He says look, all of thoseissues are resolved.
It was a software issue, whichit was he wasn't lying to me

(01:00:44):
Software issue.
We just reprogrammed some stuffand boom, it works fine.
Now I'm like, okay, give me abetter reason.
They're whisper quiet.
What does that mean?
They're significantly quieterthan carriers, hard numbers,
significantly quieter, whichthey were.
And then that was like, okay,that's nice, but they're really

(01:01:09):
not that loud in the reefer.
Well, they were when they wereunderneath your truck, but up in
the air they're really not thatloud.
So then final thing he shows mewas they had a plan still do
called a Guaranteed MaintenancePlan, a GMP, and it's part of
their svc, which is our thermoking service plan.
And they said if you paywhatever dollars it was a month

(01:01:36):
for this many years we willguarantee that equipment will
run that whole time.
So if the reefer ever breaksdown for any reason, at any time
, 24, 7, weekends and holidaysincluded you can bring it to a
thermo king and we will fix itand get you back on the road,
and we won't charge you a penny.
Oh yeah, and we're also goingto cover all of your oil changes

(01:01:59):
and pms on on the reefer on thereefer now.
Now we had owned enough at thatpoint reefers to know that
reefers only break down at nightOnly on the weekends and
holidays.

Speaker 4 (01:02:13):
Am I right?

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
You're right, they do not break down during business
hours.
No, they refuse.
Holidays, and weekends tooHolidays and weekends and to
bring a truck to a shop and havea guy come out from his house
to the shop, it's like animmediate $600.
Sure, on top of whatever elsewe're getting done, $600.

(01:02:34):
Now it's like $1,200, $1,500.
It's ridiculous, but back thenit was like $600.
And then the price of repairingthese things, which they're
very expensive pieces ofequipment, evaporator coil
that's $1,250.
New compressor, that's $4,000or $5,000.
Everything is just outrageouslyexpensive.
And so they were going toguarantee all that and cover all

(01:02:59):
that.
So I'm like alright.
Well, it's not as good of areefer in my opinion.
I thought at the time.
But that right there, likeespecially because the early
days it was just Eric and I, wehad no staff obviously we were
still running a truck ourselves,so I would drive from 1 pm 1 in
the afternoon 1 in theafternoon to 1 in the morning.

(01:03:22):
Eric drove 1 in the morning to 1in the afternoon, so like at
nighttime it would break down.
Two o'clock in the morning I'dget a phone call and the comfort
of being able to say pull upGoogle Maps, find the closest
thermo king, go straight thereand get it fixed.
Versus, this is about to costme six grand.

(01:03:45):
Right Like and all that Like.
That won me over and we put itin place.
We bought the truck, put it inplace, saw how it worked and I'm
like I'm done from now on.
Then, our first truck we builtthrough FIDA that I put the
Thermo King on because I likedit so much.

(01:04:06):
I was like let me just buildsome more of these and try them
out.
I remember the first time I wasin the sleeper and I kicked the
Thermo King on and walked backthere and I was like holy cow,
so much quieter, so much quieter.
I was genuinely surprised.
I'm like how were they able tomake this so much quieter than

(01:04:29):
the carrier?
It was night and day.
So I was like okay, well, thisis a winning combination for me.
A couple of other minor things.
Thermo King runs their fansRemember I was talking about the
carrier fans.
They run them off of the engine.
So like, as the engine'srunning and it's turning the
compressor, it's also turningthe fans.
So you don't have an electricmotor running those.

(01:04:53):
So you've taken that issuecompletely out of the equation
wow uh, the other thing that Ilike, and you might remember
this, therm carriers did notlike to get wet.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
I was about to say this.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
They did not like rain at all, at all at all.
And if they got wet they wouldimmediately throw up an alt code
for the alt data, because thebelt would start to slip and the
alt data wouldn't be able toget a good charge code for the
alternator because the beltwould start to slip and the
alternator wouldn't be able toget a good charge.
And so, because you're runningthese fans off the alternator,

(01:05:33):
it needs that power, it needs itbad.
If a Thermo King throws a beltand you lose the alternator,
you've got hours to get it fixedbecause the only thing that's
running on it is computers.
That's the only thing that'srunning on it is computers.
That's the only thing runningoff that battery.
The computer is a starter, buta carrier is pulling a lot of
power to run those fans off ofthat battery.
And so, oh man, I can't tell youhow many issues we had with all

(01:05:55):
.
And then it's like go to acarrier, have them throw a new
belt on, yada, yada, yada allthe time.
So you're constantly 300 here,200, 400, 500 there, like all
the time.
So you're constantly 300 here,200, 400, 500 there, like all
the time.
So having that problemdisappear oh, loved it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
I can't tell you how many times I would be driving
with a carrier reefer and throwthat alt code, and I knew it
would as soon as it startedraining.
I just knew it was coming, youembraced yourself.
Yeah it wasn't, if it was just amatter of when I knew it was
coming.
So as soon as we would gothrough a heavy rainstorm or
anything like that, we literallywould stop every truck stop

(01:06:30):
we've seen pull under the fuelisland, sit there for five, ten
minutes, let it dry out and itwould fire right back up.
I'd let it run, get back downto temp and then I'd take off
again.
Yep.

Speaker 5 (01:06:40):
Wow, and I did that every time that's called trip
planning.
Yeah, every time.
Trip planning is finest.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
So that was a little annoying.
So we did, we pretty much wentall exclusive Thermo King.
I ended up selling off all thecarriers and we've been
exclusively Thermo King forquite a few years now, I was
just going to ask do we have anycarriers left?
So not left, but we have sincebought some carriers.
So, Not left, but we have sincebought some carriers.
So, as you all know, truckshave been hard to get over the

(01:07:08):
past few years and thedealerships aren't building new
ones like they used to be, andso it's literally like if I'm
going to get a truck I have tospecial order it and I'll get it
next year sometime.
Yeah, like it's been rough.
It's not a quick turn, it's nota quick turn at all.
I've actually gone out andwe've bought um used trucks or
or things like that that wenormally wouldn't get, and, uh,

(01:07:29):
we've put those out in the outin the world and some of those
do have carriers.
Now carrier has changed a fewthings um, the big square with
the lid dumb controller thecarriers had.
That's gone, doesn't existanymore.
Now it's a nice uh digitalcontroller, much like
thermoKings have the alternatorissues.
I don't know what they've done.

Speaker 5 (01:07:51):
But an issue I don't want to know.

Speaker 4 (01:07:54):
Are they still running the fans off?
Individual motors.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
They still run the fans off individual motors, but
they are now the brushlessmotors which remember.
I said earlier was a hugedifference.
So we've had the new carriersare significantly better than
what they used to be.
I think Thermo King reallydidn't give a chance Like it was
, either like get your productbetter or you're not going to
have a product to sell.

Speaker 5 (01:08:15):
Makes sense Competition, which is good in
the industry.

Speaker 4 (01:08:18):
Yes, I think the Thermo King controller is
simpler than the carriercontroller.

Speaker 2 (01:08:28):
I agree, but here's what I've seen, because I've
just been doing this longer isthe old carrier controller was
beautiful, Manual control on andoff switch like a little thump
switch.
And then they had a piece ofplastic over every other button
so you'd have to flip theplastic up and then you could

(01:08:50):
adjust your set point and that'sall you ever had to do on it.
Period, set the set point, hitenter, oh, and changing the
temperature from Fahrenheit toCelsius.
Super easy, okay, and thenclose that cover and you were
done with it.
It was super nice, very basicthis.
It had a little tiny screen onit that just showed you what you

(01:09:11):
had to see, and that was itsure.
And then thermokin came outwith theirs and it's computer
controlled.
It's a little more advanced,it's nicer, right, and so that
was the more modern.
The thing I didn't like aboutit was now I had to tell you
like, set point was easy tochange, right, but how to go
from Celsius to Fahrenheit wasnot.
Now you had to actually go intothe system and I had to tell
you how to get there and changeit.

(01:09:33):
Carrier has taken that and madea smarter, better controller.
But because it's better andsmarter, there's more levels to
it.
It's more complicated, yeah, sonow you have to run that a
little more, I think a big partof me.

Speaker 4 (01:09:45):
So they've enhanced each other over the years I
think a big part of me theThermo King versus the Carrier
Controller.
The Thermo King is a littlemore plain English and the
Carrier is a lot more symbolsAgreed, and if you don't know
what the symbols mean, so wehave so few For me.
I use the Carrier soinfrequently that I just don't

(01:10:10):
know it.
I've read through the manualmonths, maybe a couple years ago
, to see what was what.
Now I just call Jeremy over atCT Power and hey man.

Speaker 2 (01:10:21):
And carrier has some cool functionality to lock
things out.
So I remember about the firstone we couldn't change from
Celsius to Fahrenheit and wecouldn't change the set point.
It was locked in at 40.
And so we had to.
It was an all-supply chaintruck which all they do is run
40.
So we actually had to go to CTPower, which back then was W2
Looms, and they had to reflashit to give us the ability to

(01:10:45):
change the settings andeverything, because it's a
requirement at fedex.
You have to be able to.
If the shipper wants celsius,you do celsius, they want
fahrenheit, do fahrenheit,because they do change depending
on the shipper.
And then, uh, the set pointsare all different stuff, so you
have to have access to that, butit, um, it can lock you out of
all that, whereas the new ThermoKings don't do that and the old

(01:11:06):
school carriers definitelydon't do that.
Now here's what I didn't likeabout the old school carrier and
I'm curious if you ever didthis.
The truck in particular I'mthinking of that Eric and I
drove that had that carrier onit.
It was mounted just above thecup holder and there were more
than a couple times where I'd goto grab my pilot coffee,
because it's the best coffee onthe interstate, pick it up,

(01:11:27):
drink it and set it back downand cut that baby.

Speaker 4 (01:11:30):
It just turned it right off, just turn it right
off that switch, just so.

Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
You, yeah, just, it was like it was spring-loaded
for off.
It just set it down and just,and it was like oh no, and again
it's an older dumber system.
So it is like full cold, fullhot, full cold, full hot.
So when you fired it back up,like maybe it was doing a really
good job of moderating thetemperature, when you fire it

(01:11:56):
back up, oh, it goes berserk andthe temperature drops way low
and then it goes way high andit's like no, no, no, please,
please, please, please, please,get to normal, before FedEx
notices that I turned this thingoff on accident.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
And then you're getting messages, and then
you're getting the phone calls.

Speaker 5 (01:12:11):
You're like leave me alone.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
I don't know what happened, oh yeah, and then,
because you just did that, itgoes into defrost mode.
Yep, wow, and then you'redealing with that.
So it was crazy.
But we are still primarilyThermo King and we have five
trucks on order right now thatare going to be all Thermo King
units.
We have incorporated somecarriers in the program and I

(01:12:34):
don't dislike them.
They are actually pretty solid,good units.
If you are used to a ThermoKing and you switch to the
carrier, you will notice itcools faster, it heats faster.
It's just in my opinion.
The carrier is will notice itcools faster.
Uh, it heats faster.
It's just like.
In my opinion, the carrier is alittle more robust from a how
fast can it cool, how fast canit heat up, than the thermo king
is.
But the thermo king excels inholding that tight temperature.

(01:12:58):
Yeah, if it's five celsius,it's going to get to 5.2 and
it's going to get to 4.8 andit's going to hold that super
tight range, whereas you'regoing to see a couple degree
difference on the carriers.
It's chilly.

Speaker 5 (01:13:15):
People often wonder why we never drink purple
Kool-Aid.
We didn't have to deal withcarrier thermo.
We didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
That's all I got to say no, you had a Comfort Pro on
one of your trucks.

Speaker 5 (01:13:28):
Okay, well, I'm talking about holding
temperature.

Speaker 4 (01:13:31):
All of our trucks had Comfort.

Speaker 5 (01:13:32):
Pros or coffee caps or flipping the switch, but we
didn't deal with.

Speaker 4 (01:13:35):
No defrosting.
We were very fortunate with ourAPU where the worst thing we
had to do every now and againwas reset the breaker.

Speaker 5 (01:13:45):
Yeah, little red button.
Only on one of them did we havethat issue, I would trip it,
but once we figured that out,yeah, so you know APU PM, but
otherwise we were very fortunatein that sense.

Speaker 2 (01:13:56):
If you ask me, I agree with buttermilk On a
Comfort Pro.
You should be able to run thewater heater, air conditioner,
induction cooktop, microwave,convection oven.

Speaker 5 (01:14:07):
Your hair dryer the hair dryer.

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
Instapot.

Speaker 5 (01:14:10):
Yeah, air fryer.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
The air fryer and the kettle.
The small one-cup hot waterkettle yes, I'm sure that one
too the Blackstone, the electricBlackstone Television satellite
Wi-Fi device Charge all yourdevices.

Speaker 4 (01:14:29):
I'm kidding.

Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
All of them.

Speaker 4 (01:14:31):
Yes, I'm kidding.
While I don't have a longhistory with the carriers, like
I do with the Thermal Kings,because I deal with them all the
time, we have greatrelationships with both those
shops here locally.

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
Yes, Great relationships and they're both
great shops.

Speaker 4 (01:14:48):
We are super lucky, they handle business for us.

Speaker 5 (01:14:50):
no, problem, I'm just teasing.
We had other reasons why wedidn't drink the Purple Kool-Aid
.
We'll go into that in anothernight.

Speaker 2 (01:14:57):
That'd be fun to talk about, because I know, Jerry,
you only did FedEx and you wouldnever consider Panther.
And you only did Panther, youwould consider FedEx.

Speaker 4 (01:15:10):
Eric and I have done both.
I've got Jerry pretty close towanting to drive for Panther
with his trips up there recentlyand dealing with the folks
locally.

Speaker 3 (01:15:15):
I know, they know him , they know him.

Speaker 5 (01:15:17):
They know him.
He's pretty close, he's got itin.
He's rubbing elbows.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
He's going to deny it .

Speaker 1 (01:15:26):
You were just there.

Speaker 5 (01:15:27):
Friday, you're going to be there again.

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
Oh yeah, no, you were there on Friday, but now you're
in Mexico.
I don't know.
Don't get me wrong.
I like them, they're nicepeople.

Speaker 5 (01:15:36):
But there's a but.

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
There's a big but.
I enjoy the reefer freight.
I enjoy it.

Speaker 5 (01:15:43):
I think that's what it's all about, and I do think
it's personality.
As a recruiter, I often talk topeople about that.
You know what is yourpersonality, because that's
really what it's going to comedown to.

Speaker 2 (01:15:53):
I agree.

Speaker 5 (01:15:54):
You know, with freight.
But that's another topic foranother episode and we will
discuss that.
I love your story about Carrierversus Thermo King.

Speaker 2 (01:16:05):
I know it's a little boring, but y'all asked, and who
?

Speaker 4 (01:16:08):
am I going to deny all the information?
Some of us like it in the weeds.

Speaker 5 (01:16:11):
like that, though, an 8.5 or 5.0 versus an 8.6.0 or
whatever you said.
We also use primarily.

Speaker 4 (01:16:20):
Well, not primarily.

Speaker 5 (01:16:28):
It was a.

Speaker 2 (01:16:28):
Thermo.

Speaker 5 (01:16:28):
King T800, and we're on the T880 now, which was a
disaster when it came out andit's better now.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
I didn't even get into that, but it's just been a
fun over the years.

Speaker 4 (01:16:33):
The other thing that we didn't get into was even in
the APU conversation.
We don't run any Thermo KingAPUs at all but we run Thermo
King.

Speaker 2 (01:16:43):
They offer those.
Our very first truck had aThermo King APU.
We haven't had one since.
Sorry for the another day.

Speaker 4 (01:16:49):
We haven't discussed that at all, so it's a really
interesting thing that we usethe equipment that works the
best for our needs versus let'sgo with just one brand.

Speaker 2 (01:17:02):
Well, and what's really interesting too, if maybe
you don't know trucking, maybeyou're starting to absorb it and
learn it.
You're like I know Carrier.
My home air conditioner or mylast home had a Carrier air
conditioner right Same companyit's the exact same company,
ThermoKing.
You may not know ThermoKing'sowned by Trane.
Trane is Carrier's largestcompetitor.
Trane owns American Standard,so Train and American.

(01:17:24):
Standard are both home airconditioning brands that you've
seen everywhere.

Speaker 4 (01:17:28):
They do commercial, though, too.

Speaker 2 (01:17:30):
Yeah, giant commercials, so does Carrier
when it comes to refrigerationthey have somewhat different
names, but they're both massivecorporations.
I wasn't aware of that andthey're stealing their ideas
from one division and passing itto the other.
Everybody's getting better, sowe're working with two of the

(01:17:50):
best when it comes torefrigeration.
Two of the best companies outthere.

Speaker 5 (01:17:56):
That's cool.

Speaker 2 (01:17:57):
But you're right, we do have great shops we work with
.
We're very fortunate to be inthis situation.
We really are, we truly are and.

Speaker 4 (01:18:04):
I've never dealt with .
I know that you've taken trucksout to Thermal King and Fort
Wayne.
I've never been to their shopsout there so I don't know any
experience with them how good orbad they are.
But I imagine they're prettygood because we do deal with
them a lot, dennis.

Speaker 2 (01:18:19):
Dennis is a genius, a savant one might say I mean
just like he helped actuallydevelop the TVAL program for
FedEx.
Like he's genius level and Donout there the guy that talked to
me into Thermo King originallyhe's still out there.
He still runs the dealership.
He's an amazing guy.
Super nice guy as well, likejust good salt of the earth kind

(01:18:41):
of person, and I've enjoyedgetting to know them very, very
well over the years.
But I don't want to sell thecarrier dealership out there,
crosspoint Carrier.
They're an excellent carriershop and we've had them work on
our APUs.
We've had them work on ourreefer units.
They're another great companyout there as well.
So yeah, we've gotten peoplelike and that's not always the
case there are certainly badThermo Kings.

(01:19:03):
There's bad carriers acrossthis country.
I have been to some where it'slike ooh, make a note, we don't
send anybody else here.
I can name one right now.
But you know, it just is what.
It is Everything in trucking.
There's Freightlinerdealerships we won't work with
and there's LOVs and TAs wewon't work with, but most are

(01:19:24):
pretty good With that.
We would like to say a fewwords.

Speaker 5 (01:19:30):
Yes, Jerry.
From our sponsor Jerry.

Speaker 1 (01:19:32):
Make sure you hit that thumbs up button.
Make sure you hit the subscribebutton.
It really does help us out withthe algorithm.
And if you're interested inlearning more about high field
trucking and all that we do orjoining high field trucking,
check us out athighfieldtruckingcom or give us
a call and talk to Recruiting at833 Highfield.
That's 833-493-4353.

Speaker 2 (01:19:51):
Let me ask a question , if they didn't like the video.

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
Go ahead and hit the thumbs up.
Anyway, if you hit the thumbsdown, hit it twice, but hit the
thumbs up.

Speaker 4 (01:20:02):
Yeah, hit it twice to let us know how much you really
don't like the show.
Yeah, hit it twice to let usknow how much you really don't
like the show.

Speaker 2 (01:20:05):
Two thumbs way, way down.
Two thumbs down, anything else?

Speaker 3 (01:20:08):
Thank, you for the information.

Speaker 5 (01:20:10):
No, I'm excited.
I'm excited just to keephearing where I mean.
I know I said that when wefirst started this season, but I
just love hearing the historyand why things are the way they
are and why we have what we haveon our trucks.
I mean, why do you have morethan one toolbox?
I guess those are kind of I'mjust excited about those kind of

(01:20:31):
things.
You know why, Highfield, youand Eric chose to do things and
spec trucks, here's a fun one.

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
Why do some of our trucks have two toolboxes and
some have three?

Speaker 5 (01:20:42):
Yeah, well, that's a conversation.
Here's another question.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:20:45):
Why do our Panther trucks have way more freight
securement than what's required?

Speaker 5 (01:20:50):
Oh, excellent question, excellent question
Until next time and next timeand next time.
We got some videos on, ifyou'll bear with me for the next
two hours.

Speaker 2 (01:20:56):
I would love to wax poetically about our.

Speaker 4 (01:20:59):
There was one time where we got a load offer and it
required 15 straps.
Vegas, no, it wasn't.

Speaker 1 (01:21:05):
Vegas, you were in Vegas.
Oh yeah, it wasn't Vegas.
Flop machines.

Speaker 4 (01:21:08):
So I went and bought three additional straps so we'd
have our 15 straps.
Got them, these two.

Speaker 2 (01:21:14):
Four, four.

Speaker 3 (01:21:16):
Four.

Speaker 2 (01:21:16):
Vegas.
For us it was Vegas and therewas one particular place and it
was like 22 straps.
It was some ungodly number.

Speaker 5 (01:21:25):
Did you use all of them?
No, six, five or six, the most.
They wanted you to have them,but you only needed that many.
That's hilarious.

Speaker 4 (01:21:32):
We had a load where they provided their own straps
and told us when you're done,these are yours.
Wow, Thank you.
Don't need them, but thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:21:44):
We've also done some where they did the little
D-rings in the e-track.

Speaker 4 (01:21:49):
Yeah.
And they did twine, but thenthey gave you a.

Speaker 5 (01:21:52):
FedEx envelope and they're like when you get to the
other side and you offload, cutall the twine off, put all the
D-rings in hand, it to the ladyat the front desk, which was at
a hardware store, and she'llship all these D-rings back to
us.
It was a load of windows, butI'm like what?
The darnedest thing I've neverseen anything like this before.

Speaker 2 (01:22:10):
FedEx the securement.
Fedex did that with IBM.
All kinds of fun stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:22:15):
We, just we have so many more stories to tell you,
Between all of us.
So many stories.
Stay tuned.

Speaker 2 (01:22:20):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (01:22:21):
In the meantime, are we running into the Christmas
holiday.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
I was just about to say we will not have an episode
next week, so we do want to wishall of you and your family
happy holidays.
Merry Christmas, feliz Navidad,happy.

Speaker 5 (01:22:33):
Hanukkah.

Speaker 2 (01:22:34):
Happy Hanukkah.
Have a great new year.

Speaker 1 (01:22:35):
Happy.

Speaker 2 (01:22:35):
Kwanzaa.
We just want to share, from ourHighfield family to yours Happy
holidays, merry Christmas.
It is so much.
I feel so good knowing thaty'all have been around with us
for this ride.
We didn't know if we would lasta couple weeks before we got
sick of doing this, and here weare, so many seasons later, and

(01:22:56):
we look forward to the new year2025.
And doing this some more.
We have some interesting comingnext year.

Speaker 5 (01:23:05):
Oh, I like that season, but we still have a
couple episodes left in theseason.

Speaker 2 (01:23:09):
Do we?
I don't know, do we Sure?
Why not?
So is a season like fall is oneseason, or is a season a fall
and spring A?

Speaker 5 (01:23:16):
season is a moment in life A season happens between
your travels.

Speaker 2 (01:23:22):
Let's be honest, I personally think that this
probably concludes the fallseason.
Your travels.
Let's be honest, I personallythink that this probably
concludes the fall season.

Speaker 5 (01:23:31):
Aww.

Speaker 2 (01:23:32):
And next January, when we pick back up it will be
winter officially.
It will be winter whichsolstice on December 21st.

Speaker 5 (01:23:41):
That's because today's the day.
That's today, I just realizedthat's today.

Speaker 4 (01:23:46):
Today is December 21st.
The days are starting to getlonger.
It's the shortest.

Speaker 2 (01:23:53):
It's an amazing day.

Speaker 4 (01:23:55):
Amazing day.

Speaker 5 (01:23:56):
How exciting.

Speaker 4 (01:23:58):
Very excited.

Speaker 2 (01:24:00):
Anyways, she doesn't get it, she doesn't get it.

Speaker 4 (01:24:03):
It is an amazing day.

Speaker 2 (01:24:07):
We will see you at the New Year in January.

Speaker 3 (01:24:09):
Yes, we will.

Speaker 2 (01:24:11):
I think second week of January, 3rd January and a
half, I know the first week ofJanuary I'll be out of the
country.
Sorry, but we will be back.
I think for this we're going toshoot for second week.

Speaker 4 (01:24:26):
So there's not going to be a show on January 4th, the
4th of January.
Yeah, probably a good thing too, so people can celebrate my
birthday properly, because theydon't have to watch an episode
of.
The Outer Belt.
They can just go out andcelebrate my birthday all day.
Fair enough, yeah, fair enough.

Speaker 2 (01:24:39):
Anyways, we love y'all.
Jimmy Mac happy birthday.
It's his birthday, right it is,it's coming up.
Jimmy Mac, happy birthday.
We hope you all have awonderful time.
Celebrate New Year safely,responsibly.
Responsibly, Go out of service.
If you need to go out ofservice, and for those of you
staying out there and you'relike we're going to do it, kill
it.
We hope and wish the best foryou.

(01:25:02):
In the meantime, until nextseason, stay safe, make good
decisions.

Speaker 4 (01:25:09):
Be responsible the entire holiday season.
Be responsible.
Think about what you're doing,make good plans, make good
decisions, as Patrick says, anddon't leave money on the table.

Speaker 1 (01:25:20):
And keep those walls of tournament.

Speaker 5 (01:25:24):
Woo-hoo, good night, thank you.

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