December 14, 2024 • 46 mins
What if the weather was as unpredictable as a game of dice? Join us as we navigate the wild weather rollercoaster of Columbus, from a surprisingly sunny Sunday at the zoo to a cozy fireplace moment that didn’t quite go as planned. We share our misadventures with weather forecasts, pondering Mother Nature's whimsical patterns and the comedic side of winter in warmer climates as we swap tales from the road.
Skating through memory lane, we recount our escapades on ice and roller rinks. From the chilly lanes of Las Vegas to beloved childhood spots like Skate World in Eugene, each story is a reminder of the simple joy of skating. And who could forget the thrill of the DJ booth at the local bowling alley, spinning tunes for skaters doing the hokey pokey? It’s a nostalgic ride filled with laughter and the universal delights of gliding across a rink.
Meanwhile, we dive into the evolution of trucking—from the transformation of truck sleeper designs to the challenges of refrigerated trucking and beyond. Our conversation highlights the success of a growing mentorship program that’s turning skeptics into believers, transforming careers one story at a time. Expect to be inspired by tales of overcoming adversity and the power of community storytelling as we explore these highways of experience and growth.
Email us: theouterbeltpodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.hyfieldtrucking.com
Interested in joining our team? Email us at info.hyfieldtrucking.com we have open trucks! You must be part of a team. No solo drivers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you ready, already Get?
Speaker 3 (00:01):
set.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Go.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hey everybody, welcome to the Outer Belt.
I'm Patrick and you're one ofmy friends, chili.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Buttermilk.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Eric and Jerry, and we're here to celebrate another
day in the world of expediting.
Yes, sir, and what a day it'sbeen.
It's been so.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
It's been crazy, grim .
This whole week has been crazy,this whole week's been insane,
oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
And there's no end to the insanity.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
No, but it started out wonderful.
The Sunday was just stunninglybeautiful.
I saw that they had a bigattraction here in Columbus,
which a lot of people have doneis the zoo.
The zoo here is.
Jack Hanna was our zookeeperemeritus president, ambassador,
(00:57):
or something, we all know JackHanna from, of course, the
Tonight Show with Jay Leno, or,as Jerry would know it, the
Tonight Show with Jay Leno or,as Jerry would know it, the
Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Or, as I would know it, the Tonight Show with oh, I
forget what that guy's name was,because I'm so old now Steve
Irwin.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
No, it would be Steve Irwin or Johnny Carson.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
There was one before Johnny.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, oh, my goodness .
Oh wait, are you talking aboutthe Jack Benny?
Speaker 4 (01:28):
No, I can't think of his name.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Where's our fact checker?
He's not over there in thegallery.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Let me use my Google box and see if I can figure out
who it was.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Anyway, while you're looking that up, so we Talk
about it.
So over the winter they do,they do these like winter nights
at the zoo or something likethat it's beautiful.
I've never been, but I'vedriven by the zoo and it's lit
up like Santa Claus world.
I mean it's insanely gorgeous.
Sunday was so pretty.
They had so many people go tothe zoo that it was like a three
(01:56):
or four hour deal to get out ofthe zoo.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah, Because traffic was so bad.
Sunday was beautiful.
It was gorgeous.
It was gorgeous.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
That's what they're attributing some of the crowd to
was just a beautiful day.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
It wasn't cold, so it was nice.
It wasn't raining.
It was a nice afternoon eveningto go out and see it, so the
days before I know our heaterwas having a hard time keeping
up with the very coldtemperatures.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Super cold During the day Super cold.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Sunday I opened the doors to the house and let some
fresh air in.
It was that nice in December.
I was like what is going on?
So I could see how they had somany people go out.
Yes, because the temperaturesgot rainy and now they're going
to dip down again and I can justsee how.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Well, sunday night I have a fireplace in my house
which is pretty common up here.
Sunday night I was like I'mgoing to have a fire, so I threw
my wood in the fire and I gotit started.
It started making this likewoof, woof noise and I'm like,
all right, that's probably notgood.
Is the chimney on fire?
Like what's making that?
So I opened up the door andstepped outside and I was like,
(02:57):
oh, it feels great out here,like I should be on my back
porch enjoying, you know, theevening air and the fresh air
and everything, because it feltso good.
So I was excited about Mondaymorning.
It was just miserable and it'sbeen a miserable Tuesday, but
the rest of the week's gorgeous.
Can't wait Going to have somebeautiful temperatures.
(03:19):
But it's been what weatherreports?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
have you been looking at?
Thursday's going to be lovely,sunny.
It's supposed to snow tomorrowand Thursday's going to be
lovely, sunny.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
It's supposed to snow tomorrow and Thursday's going
to be a high of like 20.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
But then it goes back up after that.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
One second please.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Yeah, you need to get on the right weather report,
homie.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
I was looking at the weather in Louisiana.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I think, that could be New Orleans.
New Orleans says it's going tobe gorgeous.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
You're cut off.
No more lanterns for you.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Oh, tonight it's going to snow.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Oh it's going to snow on y'all's way home.
Well, good luck.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So, anyways, we, as long as I can get out of your
driveway, but it's going to besunshiny for the next couple
days.
But you're right, just for coldOoh, 19 degrees.
But then it goes back up again.
It's like one dip.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, it's a weird little.
We're on a roller coaster rightnow, and then we're like 50s
next week again, I'm like.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Mother.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Nature needs some therapy.
I'd say Not prednisone, what'sit?
A little.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
She's some Xanax.
Xanax, thank you.
She's off her rockers, off themeds, she.
She's some Xanax.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Xanax thank you.
She's off her rockers.
She's definitely off her meds.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Where's the weather at like where you're at, is it?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
up and down.
Yeah, it's the same as whereyou're at.
No, I'm asking our viewers oh,okay, where?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
you're at, especially if you're a driver.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Are you doing snow and then hot sun?
I thought it was an appropriatepause for the response too.
It was.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
It was Well I wanted to see if they responded Sure.
Wouldn't it be funny if theyresponded to their TV and they
talked?
Speaker 4 (04:48):
to us, it would be hilarious.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
I think it's oh sorry , I was just going to say it's
weird, because sometimes I hearcalls that come in on
maintenance.
From Then I remember, oh yeah,oh yeah, not everybody's cold
yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Laredo, where it's only 98 as opposed to its usual
110.
It's like the same thinghappens in summer.
In summer you'll get someonesaying our S-PAR is not working.
It's like your S-PAR is notworking, what do you care?
We're in Alberta.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Oh, okay, well yeah, your S-PAR probably needs to
work.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
It's that first winter snow over in Wyoming,
which always comes like July.
Yeah, and you're like why isthere a 40-car pileup?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Well, we used to carry our skis in the truck with
us in case we got throughWyoming in July, we'd hit the
slopes which you should, whichyou should, yes.
You should, yeah, be preparedfor everything.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
You also had the track suit.
We had the track suit as well,jerry, did you keep anything
like that on your truck All thetime?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And if you just stood ?
On the side of the road thewind would just ski you around
everywhere.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
It would, yeah, and then the wind would start in
August.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I could see Jerry like whole Blades of Glory type
thing.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
You out of your mind.
The ice rink is open in Dublin.
It is we can get you down there, you can do your thing, I know.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Has anybody on this panel ever gone?
Speaker 4 (06:11):
No To Dublin or ice skating.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
The Dublin.
Okay, well, hold on Dublin iceskating.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
No.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Have anybody gone?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
No.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Even just Not even ice skating, but walked around
and looked at it.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So the rink is too small.
In my opinion, it is a verysmall ice.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
It's meant for tiny kids.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
It's meant for small children and they call me Black
Swan, so I would be afraid I'dtake out a few kids.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So have you ever been ice skating period anybody?
Yes, I went ice skating, You'dbe surprised where.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I went ice skating at the most stereotypical romantic
place you can possibly go.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Rockefeller Center no .
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Las Vegas.
What there you?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
go yes.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
At the baseball stadium out in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
You've never gone ice skating in Las Vegas.
No, oh, it was awesome.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Well, you know, Vegas is really cold in the winter.
Well, we were there in thewinter that time.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, we didn't have jackets on, we were wearing
shorts, as you do.
No, it was a cool course.
It went around.
They had an island of trees anddecorations and stuff.
So you had the regular roundpart, oval part, but then you
also had all this little sidestuff you could go do.
It was really cool.
But I mean, there was half aninch of water on top of the ice.
(07:21):
They were struggling, reallystruggling, to keep the ice nice
and they never once ran theZamboni over there.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Which is the only reason you go to an ice rink
right To see the.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Zamboni.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Vince you've ice skated before.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
I have ice skated before.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Was yours in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yes, was it inside a mall?
Speaker 4 (07:39):
No it was in a proper ice skating facility.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Oh, did you like it?
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Sure, I never got good at it.
I never got my balance.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I mean, I could roller skate like crazy yeah me
too.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
I've always heard that ice skating was easier.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
No, it's hard.
You have to have really goodankle strength.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Yeah, Roller skating.
You got four wheels.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I don't want to brag about my ankles.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Mine aren't good.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
But I did okay at ice skating.
I was not Black Swan, but I didokay.
I can't roller skate to save mylife.
Oh, I love to roller skate, ifthis was like a good 80s action
movie and the final big momentwas we had to strap on our
roller blades or our skates andyou know, go out and do whatever
(08:26):
, I'm dead.
I'm the guy that's like go onwithout me.
I don't have that gift at allyou know what they say.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
You don't have to be the fastest, just not the
slowest.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Right, I did ice skating.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I think that's what a bear is chasing you right,
anybody's chasing you the cops.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I did ice skating in Sun River, oregon, in their
pavilion.
If you've never been to SunRiver, it's just south of Bend,
oregon, in central Oregonactually, on 97.
And they've got like a oh, it'slike a resort, but they've got
a community in the middle andthere's this whole pavilion with
, or shopping center.
It's really fancy, cobblestone,you know, little businesses
(09:08):
selling everything you neverthought you needed to have on
vacation.
But they've got the pavilion inthe middle and in the
wintertime they make it into anice skating rink.
And that's where we went At thetime.
We lived about 20 minutes fromthere, so we went and I was on
my butt more than I was skating.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
That's what happens with ice skating.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Jerry, I was on my butt more than I was skating.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
That's what happens with ice skating, jerry you you
said no, you've never been iceskating, but you rollerblade.
I have been rollerblading androller skating I'm not good at
either.
You'd rather DJ, absolutely.
I can see that I used to DJ.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
I can hear Jerry right now.
This next song is couples only.
Couples only for the next twosongs.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
And then you get out there and it's like feel the
beat of the rhythm of the night,dancing to the morning light.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
Copyright.
Sorry, I used to be a nightmanager of a bowling alley and
occasionally the DJ that we hadcome in for rock and ball on
Friday and Saturday nights.
He would call out or whatever,and I would have to DJ, so I was
never really good at it.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Were you.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
DJ Boogie no, I would just throw a CD in.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Just throw a CD in.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
Yeah, throw a CD in.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
He'd let it play, and he'd take the ones that weren't
doing anything.
I could fade the songs.
Oh, that's good.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
That's about as.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Next two songs coming up Sadie Hawkins Ladies, Choose
your Guy.
Two songs for Sadie Hawkins,All Skate.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
You know what I always loved back when I was a
kid, about doing the bowlingalley.
What's that?
Not the bowling alley, I'msorry.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
The ice skating rink.
The skating rink yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Not the ice skating.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
This was just regular roller skating South Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
We had one ice skating rink Leo's.
Leo's also owned Leo'sRollerland.
They were side by side to eachother.
We never went to either one ofthose because they were in the
bad part of town, but we didhave a bowling alley next to us
which is now a furniture store.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Anyways it's not a bowling alley, a skating rink,
which is now an Americanfurniture, something, something,
something Not anymore.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Well, yeah, not anymore, but that place I loved
it because at least once while Iwas there, they would do you
put the right foot in.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
You put the right foot out.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, and they would allow us to run out there
without skates.
So I would go out there withoutskates, but other people would
be on skates doing it show offs.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
And yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
We'd do Skate World in Eugene when I was a little
girl First grade to fifth grade.
So we'd go to Skate World andparents would drop you off.
You'd be there for hours justskating.
It feels like one of thosememes you see on Facebook
nowadays, but that wasdefinitely what we did.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
We did Skate Depot in Cerritos, California Skate.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Depot Love these names.
There was one not far from ourhouse.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
I don't know what it's called, but it's called,
but it's now a swap meet,basically Nice.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Big old building.
So the one next to our housewas Skate City.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Skate City Yep.
Skate City was the place to be.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
I love it, I love it.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
And then it was such a high-end place, you walked in.
Do you remember those old metalbars?
Oh yeah, that spin around likebars, oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
It's been around yeah turnstile.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
So you're going in like a minimum security prison
to get in, and then you're inthis in between them and then
you pay your money right thereand then you go into the next
one or whatever.
Oh yeah, and then you exit theconcession stand.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
We had a place like that too in LA, but you can only
go in if you're over 18.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Ooh, skating.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Oh, no, sorry, I'm thinking about something else,
never mind.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Oh man, so many good memories.
I'll tell you what Fort WayneIndiana, if you ever get a
chance to go out there, fortWayne Indiana still has, and I
say this because we have a lotof trucks that go to Fort Wayne.
You hear the maintenance phonecalls.
We have a Freightlinerdealership we work with there,
the Thermo King we work withthere and our sleeper
manufacturer is based out ofFort Wayne.
So we get there quite often andour drivers get there quite
(12:50):
often.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
But they have a roller dome, so it's still a
skate alley.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
It's still a skate alley, but it's crazy because
it's got this big dome but ifyou look at it, there's another
building that comes off the sideof it.
That's actually where you skate.
The dome is like the concessionstand and the seating and stuff
.
Wouldn't you think the dome islike?
Especially if you're going toname yourself after it, would be
like the place you would skate.
(13:22):
But no, it's not.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
There's skating here in town too, in Columbus.
I think it'd be fun to go do ona weekend.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
The problem is I might hold on to the wall so I
don't injure myself Because I'mtoo old to injure myself.
I'll get one of those walkers.
They used to give them to thepeople who couldn't skate.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
We saw that we did in London last Christmas.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
We saw the kids out there with the little push thing
.
There was dinosaurs and stuffthere.
Pushing wasn't it.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Yeah, and the one kid ate it.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
And then it became a projectile.
It did.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
It took out six more kids.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Eric have you been ice skating yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Las Vegas as well.
You were talking about kidspushing dinosaurs around.
I did a trip to Gatlinburg,actually, ober Ober.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Ober Gatlinburg, yep.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
They had an ice skating rink up there.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Huge Hockey size.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Went there for vacation, I saw the parents
pushing their kids around onlittle dinosaurs.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
It was cute Coming up next backwards skate, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Oh, that used to make me so mad.
So my dad and sister, soMelissa who if you drive a
high-field truck now, if you'rethinking about it, you'll meet
her in the yard Her and dad werejust disgustingly good at
skating and so they would do allthat stuff like run circles and
do the backward like decide,like let me just turn around the
crisscross.
(14:51):
Let me just oh yeah, or let mejust turn around and skate
backwards and how are you doing?
And carry conversation and turnback around or whatever.
and you know, when they go tomake the turns they're like
leaning into it and all thatstuff me.
I'm going down, grabbing down,grabbing the wall, just trying
not to fall, because sometimesyou'd fall holding the wall.
That's really embarrassing.
But there was always that onespace in the very back.
The very back had no handrail,so there was handrail on three.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
So then you do the little shuffle all the way.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So you have to just get across the back wall and
then you're just holding yourhands out, hoping you have
enough inertia to get you to thenext wall.
You just slam into it, andthat's better than falling.
You're like I'll slam into itand grab the handrail Memory.
That's trauma.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
I was good at skating forward.
I could skate forward, noproblem, get a little speed
going.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I could not skate backwards the same way in my
life.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I just couldn't do it .
I ended up buying my own skatesat some point, but again, I
could never figure out how to dothe backwards Did you guys ever
have skates with steel wheels?
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Ooh.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Never heard of them.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
My first pair of skates had steel wheels.
Wow yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Right before Johnny Carson.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Which was Steve Allen by the way, steve Allen oh, he
was the guy that was the host ofthe Tonight Show before Carson,
and then it was Jack Parr,Steve.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Allen, Jack Parr, Johnny Carson.
So thanks for letting mesqueeze that in there.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Yeah, you're welcome, but of course we all know the
best one was.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Yeah, Jay Leno.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Right, I don't know Fallon's pretty good, I think
that the redhead guy was prettygood.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Oh, I forgot about Conan Conan.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
I can't believe I forgot about Conan.
I listen to Conan's podcastevery single week and I
completely forgot he existed.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
I'm listening to it right now in my headphones.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Okay, nice.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
He's interviewing Johnny Carson.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I liked it with Letterman Letterman.
Letterman's good he's all right, I liked his laugh.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Have you seen?
My next guest needs anintroduction with Letterman's
good he's all right, I liked hislaugh.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Have you seen the?
My next guest needs anintroduction with Letterman.
Yeah, yes, I've seen a couple.
I've seen a couple.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
We've seen it.
Lizzo, he did Lizzo.
That was fantastic.
And then I saw what one I justsaw recently that I really liked
.
I can't think of it.
Anyways, that's a really goodshow on Netflix.
If you ever get a chance, ifyou have something to watch, you
like interviews, that one'sreally good, nice so.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
So I just had a nice little story for the week, I
guess, working, and it would beabout the mentor program and all
that it offers and if you'vedone your research on our
website or you're interested oryou've met mentors or anything
about Highfield in our mentorprogram, I guess the moral of my
(17:28):
story is definitely how it canassist you when you come out
here and the importance offellow contractors and people
out here who've done this for ahot moment and who understand
the industry and how to make therevenue and they're giving of
you know that peer-to-peerknowledge that it's really vital
(17:51):
, if you're going to opt into it, to really use that program
because it can maximize yourrevenue and and I talked with
some people and they're justlike aha, and it does make sense
and I'm so glad and it was areally great conversation I had
with somebody and they're like Idon't know how anybody would
come out here and not use itwhen they don't know in the
industry.
(18:13):
And it was a great conversationI had with this team and yeah,
so I'm just really proud of youknow the program that Highfield
has and that we offer and theknowledge that's shared in the
industry and when people utilizeit and they realize how
important it is.
It just feels like everyone'swinning and it was just a really
great conversation.
(18:33):
So just a little something thathappened in my work week this
week.
I just wanted to share it.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
That's awesome.
I love the mentor program andwhat we're doing with it.
As some of y'all who arewatching know most don't it was
a blip that happened, but therewas something on social media
put out about our mentor program.
Sure, it was not in a positivelight.
(18:59):
By the time I saw it, it was ina private group, so if you
weren't in the group, you didn'tsee it Before I had a chance to
respond to it.
So many high field teams hadchimed in and said hey, you
don't know what you're talkingabout.
Like it helps, like this and itdoes that, yeah.
So I did go in there andcomment a little bit on it as
well.
(19:19):
But seeing everybody else comeout and say how valuable it was
and how much it helped them bethe team they are now and
everything it really like.
It was kind of something thatstarted out as a bad situation.
It also kind of warmed my heartat the same time seeing this of
like okay.
I'm not crazy.
This really is a good thingthat we're doing and it's it's a
(19:40):
really cool program and um,it's been fun watching this
thing mature throughout theyears and see where it was where
it's how it started, sure yeah,if y'all saw how the mentor
program started eight or nineyears ago, you would laugh,
because it is.
It was so fly by the seat andhope you can figure something
(20:00):
out.
Just like going from that towhat it is now.
It's just unbelievable.
And that has nothing to do withme or Eric.
That has everything to do withDina and the mentors we brought
on and getting that feedback andtweaking the program and
tweaking the program andtweaking the program, and
tweaking the program and mentorretreats and being and mentor
retreats and being in Tennesseeor being in Ohio or being in
(20:22):
Indiana.
Like all that feedback anddialing into it is now.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
I think what's fun, too, is watching from our
perspective where it was when webecame when we started out as
contractors and then when webecame mentors and watching the
teams that came after us asmentors and how they have
adjusted and molded the programand kept improving on what was
(20:48):
the base originally thatfoundation and just kept
building on that.
So I think that's been that'sbeen a lot of fun to watch I
love when we do so.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
We do a monthly meeting with our mentors, uh
over zoom, and it is so much funor not so much fun, but it's so
rewarding to hear a team go.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Rewarding that's the word yes, very rewarding.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Well, just to hear a team go like a mentor team one
of our best people.
Through conversation, throughanother mentor talking about
something, I hear another mentorteam going like oh, I never
thought about that.
Yeah, like that's what's socool about.
What makes the system better isthe mentors are like we're
(21:28):
helping.
They're helping each other.
It's this huge grouping hugecommunity where all these things
are being talked about,discussed, and it just really
elevates what they're able to dowith the contractors and it
just the people that you know.
A few weeks ago we put a thingout, a video out, where we had
(21:50):
the whole staff here and we weretalking about the mentor
retreat we were doing and Carlawho does our settlements, and
nobody really ever talks to herlike from the driver's
perspective, right.
Right, she's just kind of in thebackground doing her thing but
her talking about.
She can see it in thesettlements.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yeah, who's using?
Speaker 3 (22:10):
the program, who's using it and who's?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
not yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
It's that dramatic.
So again, it's a really coolprogram we have.
I'm really happy that we areconstantly investing and
developing it and to get thepositive feedback it feels good.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I think the biggest thing is other humans are
wanting to see other humans besuccessful in their business
endeavors and that's the biggestreward out of all of it.
And if you embrace, coming outhere, the mentor program, you're
going to be successful.
And it's again.
It's a great feeling foreverybody when everybody's
(22:45):
winning, you know, and whodoesn't want to succeed in your
own business?
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Absolutely.
Like well, we talked about thegetting something out of it.
Let the mentors get.
Yeah.
Like we do compensate thementors.
That's not a surprise or secretto anybody, because they do a
lot, of a lot.
They spend hours on the phone,especially in the first couple
weeks of a team yes pretty muchall of them would say, if we
came to them tomorrow and said,hey look, we can't continue the
(23:09):
compensation part of it, theywould all still want to be
mentors.
Because of that, that emotionalfeeling you get, that reward
you get from it I used to callit filling my love tank when we
mentored.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Yeah, when somebody got it and embraced it and were
succeeding and making theirmonetary goals or whatever their
goals were, absolutely I alwaysgot.
I told Vince I'm like it fillsmy love tank, but that's as a
human being.
It's filling my love tank andour mentors, I think, get that
feeling.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Yeah, absolutely Just down at FIDA the other day.
Uh, fida Freightliner, we get alot of service done and we buy
trucks from there.
Them and I was there meetingwith one of our owner operators.
Um, I didn't know they weregoing to be there.
That was there for a differentreason.
But I did run into them whilethey were there and we chatted
for a while and you know, here'sa team that came to us.
They were laid off their jobthat they had for 30-something
(23:58):
years.
Their company put them throughtruck driving school Well, any
school they wanted.
They chose truck driving schooland then they came out and I
would have went to med school.
Well, they chose differently.
So they came out, ran with usfor a little while well, not for
a little while.
(24:18):
For a while they were reallygood.
They became mentors of ours.
They wanted to take it a stepfurther, so we sold them their
first truck and they've been inour owner-operator program now
for a few years and we werediscussing they are going to run
one more year and then they'regoing to call it quits, they're
going to finally retire.
But they were talking about howthey've been able to pay their
(24:40):
house off.
They've been able to pay theirvehicles off.
They bought their last vehiclecash money.
They like all.
Now he wants, he said he wantsto squeeze another boat in.
That's what they're going torun another year for, so he can
buy the nicest bass boat hewants, pay cash for it, walk out
with a nest egg in theirretirement fund and all this
(25:01):
stuff, and that's awesome tohear.
That was a bad situation.
I mean, like you know, lots ofpeople my dad is one of them
have this experience of workingin corporate America for 20, 30
years and then they get laid offbecause it's not about loyalty
anymore in that world.
It's about pleasing stockholders.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
Pleasing stockholders exactly about loyalty anymore
in that world.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
It's about Pleasing the stockholders Pleasing the
stockholders exactly so.
Now people are trying to findways to advocate for themselves
and work for themselves, and thegreat thing about trucking is
you can be your own boss.
You can be a company driver ifyou want Right, or you can go
out and be your own boss.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
And it's really taking control of your future
and it's really cool to seethese stories of people doing
that and being successful andyou know it sucks to see them go
.
Like we talked about six monthsago, we lost it, not lost the
team.
We had a team retire that hadbeen with us for 10 years yeah,
10 or 11 years, yeah and theymet all their goals and now
(26:01):
they're retired and they've gotmoney in the bank and they're
financially secure for the restof their life.
Like that's amazing to to beable to come and help people
walk through that and it'shappening right now.
We've got lots of teams thatare doing the same thing.
Um, it's it's a really coolindustry we're in and it's a
really cool um niche we have ofbeing able to give people that
(26:22):
ability to basically be anowner-operator without the risk
of being an owner-operator.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
It's a really cool.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Happy meeting we're in.
That's my sales pitch.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
The Facebook post you're talking about.
Most of those people that I sawwere at least here a year,
which I think is great.
The team I spoke to was ontheir third load.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Nice, nice Right.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
And so very different , different, whatevers, but it
just was really cool to hear andto see because I did see that
post as well, but just thatpeople really appreciate that
mentor program.
Sure, yeah, so that's it.
That's all.
That's my story for the week.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
So I'm trying to remember where we left off the
other day.
By the other day I mean likeThree months ago, Three months
ago, when we were discussing thetrucks and Highfield's history
a little bit our lineage.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
And at all.
But I had an interestingconversation come up today and I
was like let me talk about this.
I think it'd be fun and kind ofan interesting.
It's taught me.
If we've already talked aboutit, Sure, or let me go on.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
The listeners love anything about Highfield and
history there's no, stopping it.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
We honor that.
It was proposed to me.
Did you say yes, no, that I wasactually a hard no.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
And I think Jerry's about to understand why it was
proposed to me.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
what if we, to save money on these trucks,
specifically refrigeratedstraight trucks, what if we made
them a factory sleeper, highroof factory sleeper, and then
put a notched reefer box on thetruck and ran like that?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
I have to picture what this looks like Wow.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
I don't know that I've ever seen one like this.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
What's the benefit?
Is that what you're getting to?
The money Less expensive.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
Than a custom sleeper A factory sleeper.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Got it, got it, got it.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
So people don't realize what these trucks cost
and what a sleeper is, and stuff.
So when you buy a truck fromFre freightliner and it has it
has a factory sleeper on it.
a day cab to a factory sleepermight be like an additional five
to ten grand depending on howit's equipped.
A custom sleeper like ourtypical eight foot custom
(28:53):
sleeper we buy from bolt um issomewhere around eighty thousand
dollars.
So it's quite a bit moreexpensive.
It's not a little bit moreexpensive, it's quite a bit.
The bathroom ones are sittingaround $120,000 more.
So those sleepers are a hugechunk of the money involved with
that truck.
So if you can get rid of thatexpense and only have $10,000
(29:18):
for the nicest factory sleeperyou can get it's a pretty good
deal.
So I said no for a couple ofreasons.
One is market's too competitive.
You'll never get a team todrive it Like if you bought that
truck and then you bump, dockand you're next to Jerry and
Jerry's in a nice truck runningfrom the the same carrier making
(29:39):
the same money.
How long are you going to stayin that factory sleeper truck?
Speaker 4 (29:44):
We've had those conversations when we're on the
road, when we bump a dock andthere's a team in a factory
sleeper.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Which is way more common on the dry side Way more
common.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
They look at our truck and go how do I get into
one of those?
That happened a lot.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Most of those people still drive for us?
Yeah, they do.
But so I said let me help youout this from a different
perspective.
And what it made me want totalk about is we're going to
talk strictly about refrigeratortrucks.
So if you are a dry van or youwant to go drive for Panther,
this might be boring, but if youare a FedEx and wanted a reefer
(30:27):
truck, I think it'll be.
Uh, I'd like to take youthrough a little bit of like how
we got to the build we are atnow on the refrigerator unit and
box spec.
When we first so when thiswhole like exped refrigerated
situation got started, so backin the day in the early 2000s,
late 90s, expediting, when theystarted building these trucks,
what they were doing was a lotof like day cab kind of Penske
(30:51):
Rider-esque type trucks and theywould just go run from
automotive to automotive placesand haul a pallet of pistons or
a ton of tires or a wagon ofwheels, things like that.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
The DOT started coming down and saying like, hey
, you're doing all this over theroad stuff.
You need to have sleepers onyour trucks, right.
So there was a couple ways theywent about it in different
dealerships that did themdifferent ways.
You need to have sleepers onyour trucks, right.
So there was a couple ways Iwent about it In different
dealerships that did themdifferent ways.
A lot of them went and tooktheir existing, like you know,
(31:30):
international rider truck orwhatever they had and they would
stretch the frame a little bitand slide in a little like 24,
36-inch coffin sleeper.
I've seen those and that's howthey would work it.
But then when the DOT saidthat's cool, but the amount of
hours you're running needs to beteam Like, you can't do that as
a solo person.
So then the sleepers got bigger.
(31:52):
So ICT, illumabunk, or, as weaffectionately know them,
illumajunk.
And there's another company outthere I can't think of who it
was they started and Bence.
They started making sleepersthat were bigger, very basic on
the inside, but bigger sleepers.
(32:12):
They put them on these classsix and class seven trucks.
Now these trucks are runningteam operation and it was pretty
decent for what they were doingand you know trucks would last
300,000 or 400,000 miles.
But back then you were putting50,000 miles a year on your
truck.
It was very little and theywere getting really top dollar.
(32:33):
Well, as anything happens, moreand more people realize that got
involved and those rates gotpushed down and people had to
start running their trucks moreand more to be able to make
money.
So a lot of people stepped upto the Class 7 trucks with the
fancy sleeper.
Only they went with a nicerspec.
You might have seen all theKenworth K300s were big back in
(32:56):
the day and they'd have a niceICT or a nice bent sleeper on
them.
Again, dry vans, all this dryvan stuff.
The problem with those trucksis they just wouldn't last very
long.
And if you baby that truck, Imean there were tons that got a
million miles out of them.
But when you talk to the peoplethey're like, yeah, a million
miles.
I say man, I'm only on my thirdengine.
And it's a second transmissionand you know, they kind of had
(33:18):
that attitude of like we canjust keep rebuilding it Because
the platform, the frames, thecab were solid, so that part
could handle a million miles,but the engine and all that
stuff couldn't.
Well, you know, engines startgetting more and more expensive.
The emissions control stuff,you know, drastically changed
(33:38):
the pricing of all that stuff.
So there was a real step up toClass 8 trucks, which is your
typical semi-truck tractor seatgoing down the road.
What happened then is now thesetrucks have sleepers built onto
them.
Right, you can buy a semi-truckwith a factory sleeper.
And so there was a bunch ofpeople Expedire Services was one
of them would buy like aKenworth or a Freight Shaker
Freightliner and put their boxon it with a factory sleeper.
(33:59):
Well, when FedEx said, hey,we're going to start this new
division of FedEx CustomCritical called White Glove
Services that deals with tempcontrol, t-valve temp control
stuff, so we want you all totake boxes off your truck and
put reefers on them.
So when it first startedhappening, they literally did
that.
They would literally take atruck that was already built,
(34:19):
take the box off it, slap a newbox on it that was insulated and
they would mount the reefer inone of two spots.
So option one was they wouldnotch the box.
And by notching the box whatthey do is they took three foot
down by three foot deep.
Might have been four foot deepout of the box and they would
(34:43):
literally just rebuild the box.
So here's a picture of it righthere, so you see where they
took that gap out and the reefersits right there and that is
how the reefer would work.
Now these sucked.
They would constantly leak.
Jerry, did you ever have a boxlike this?
I did not.
I had a couple.
They constantly leaked.
(35:05):
They were terrible for airflow,because in a reefer truck, what
makes it work is the fact thatcold air is blowing across the
top of the box, it goes down tothe doors and it comes back to
the front and you have aconstant turn of airflow.
Well, if you have a notch in thefront, there's no air going in
(35:25):
there, right, so it was terriblefor airflow.
It had a hard time keeping thetrucks cool properly.
That notch leaked badly.
Every year you had to go in andget it resealed, and so they
were just a nightmare.
Option two, which a lot ofpeople did, was keep the box
intact and then mount the reeferunit under the sleeper.
(35:48):
Now, jerry, you had one likethis, I had two, you had two
like this.
What?
Speaker 5 (35:54):
kind were they?
The first one was a WesternStar.
Don't quote me on the model,I'm not good at that.
And the first one was a westernstar.
Don't quote me on the model,I'm not good at that.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
And the second one was a peterbilt and for the fine
people out there, describe whatit's like trying to sleep on
top of a reefer.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
You cannot, yeah it's a whole new ballgame.
And then also to what you saida minute ago airflow, it sucked
at airflow, it would get hot.
We would constantly have tostop going through the desert
(36:32):
and we would stop off at a truckstop and grab the water hose
and spray it down.
That would keep it fromoverheating and shutting off.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Wow, because you're trying to keep the box cold.
Yes, yes, with your merchandisein there.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Yes, and if you think about, like, if you know,
high-performance cars orsomething, cold air intakes
where they pull the air from uphigh, where it's cooler than
right at the road, where thatblack asphalt is just absorbing
the heat, it's super hot rightthere, super cool up in the air.
That's why if you look at acommercial truck, semi-truck,
their air inlets for theirengine are up high on the hood.
(37:05):
They're pulling that cold airin because that hot air just
does nothing.
It's not meant for that.
I had a friend of mine.
She had one of those on hertrucks mounted underneath the
sleeper and and had a constantFreon leak.
And so every like six months orso she'd go back into Thermo
King and they would just top heroff with a little more Freon
(37:26):
and she'd be good to go foranother six months and then come
back.
And I bet you California wouldlove to hear that right now the.
EPA it was a different time backthen one might say Of course,
and so then we got these big,nicer custom sleepers, and so
you still had the same thing.
People were either putting themunderneath the big sleeper or
they were notching the boxes,and this went on for several
(37:49):
years.
If you look at really old, usedExpedires, which aren't even
easy to find anymore becausethey're all so old now, there
was a huge, maybe 10, 15 yearswhere they built them like this,
and then Bence came out with asleeper that was like a low-roof
model and the reefer couldactually sit above it, so you
(38:12):
didn't have to notch the box andyou still had a nice sleeper
with the reefer unit havingspace for the reefer unit, and
these were wildly popular.
They were built on FreightlinerColumbias, correct?
Speaker 5 (38:26):
Did you have one.
That's what I had Okay.
That was my first customsleeper.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
And they were nice I don't know if they were.
Oh, it was nice.
Speaker 5 (38:33):
Yeah, it was nice.
It was nice, like like we'retalking surround sound built
into the side of the wall,surround sound all throughout
the ceiling.
So when you watch tv or moviesor anything like that, it was
all piped through the ceilinglike it was really really full
fridge and all that like we havenow.
But did it have the skinnysteering wheel?
Speaker 1 (38:56):
no, okay, some of the older, older columbias,
especially the cheaper ones.
The steering wheel was likereally really skinny.
Like an old 1970s car has thatreally skinny steering wheel.
So I don't know if it had thatone or not, but, um, yeah, so
that was the.
That was the cream to crop.
So people were like now theybuilt that as a way to make the
reefer unit work better, keepthe box cooler.
(39:17):
But because they had the biggersleeper, because of that they
made them nicer.
And then people got kind ofaccustomed to hey, I kind of
like a nicer sleeper.
So AA, never really.
Who was the other competingsleeper company never did that.
They always said you know, whenwe looked at it there was
enough room, so we're not goingto do it.
So Bence took it a step furtherwhen the Cascadia came out.
(39:41):
When the Cascadia came out, TeamRun Smart was a huge deal with
Freightliner and they actuallyworked with Freightliner, with
Stoops Freightliner, so withFreightliner Corporation, with
Stoops Freightliner, thedealership Jeff Jones in New
Haven, Indiana, and Bence gottogether and said we want to
build a new sleeper Instead ofjust modifying what we had
(40:06):
before.
We want to make it EPA runsmart, like all that stuff
compliant.
And so Freightliner said allright, we like what you're doing
, we're into how can we makethese things more fuel efficient
?
How can we sell them?
And so they worked together anddesigned a roof mold.
That's really nice.
It emulates the existingCascadia roof mold.
(40:28):
And when they did that, theyactually decided since we're
doing all this, what if, insteadof notching the box because the
new roof mold is tall to getairflow over the box, what if we
notched the sleeper?
So what if we took that roofand we cut it out and put the
(40:51):
that way?
The roof would allow space forthe reefer unit but it would
still be tall and still allowfor airflow and everything.
Check that picture right there.
So that's kind of an example ofwhat we're talking about.
And so Vince went on to do this.
You could only buy itexclusively from Stoops
Freightliner and it was a reallycool product.
Well, Vince went out ofbusiness.
(41:11):
One of their suppliers boughtthem out, changed the name to
Bolt and they kept making thisproduct, still making it to this
day.
Double A Sleepers down in Texaslooked at it and went we can do
that too.
And so they went and theyactually did it as well.
Now they did theirs a littledifferently.
Theirs was more of anindustrial solution.
(41:34):
It was not as pretty.
No, it was not as pretty at all.
They literally just cut likestraight down and straight out
and threw some fiberglass inthere and called it good.
Um, so it was a little moreless pretty, uh, but it still
accomplished the same thing, andwith that and with that, no one
ever notched a box again.
(41:55):
no, no one ever put a reeferunder sleeper.
That was it, that was done.
And because they have all thespace, because we had to have a
custom sleeper to be able to doall that.
The whole industry has gonecustom sleeper and no one would
even consider anything else.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Makes sense.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
I mean again.
I want to reiterate when I gotstarted in this business, those
2008, 2007 Kenworths that wereall over the road from Expedire
Services were all factorysleepers.
Nobody really gave even a mindto like what do you mean a
custom sleeper?
We're not going to have thatright.
And the custom sleepers you sawon those Class 7 trucks, they
(42:32):
were not nice, they're not like.
They look cool on the outsidebut if you went in the inside of
them you're like, oh, this iskind of like bare bones, I mean
like oak cabinetry they boughtfrom.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
Home Depot.
You know what I mean, just realbasic, real bow runs.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
That's kind of how we got to where we're at.
So nowadays it is standardwe're not notching the box.
The reefer's going to mountabove the sleeper in a notch
that's already been made there.
Um, there's been two othercompanies, ari and uh premier
custom has modified that aregone to that model as well and
(43:07):
uh, it's new standards.
So when it was proposed to mefactory sleepers with a notch
box all I could think was we'renot going back to that you're
not going back to the dinosaur.
No, been there, done that.
It's a nightmare.
Nobody wants to go get theirbox resealed every year.
Nobody wants to deal with.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Cooling your engine.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Yeah, or cooling the engine, or having to deal with
the fact that water is pullingup in the front of your box
because of the leak or anything.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
So anyways, I heard that I thought it would be fun
to share a little bit of how wegot where we're at and um, just
this idea and it it made me, um,it made me chuckle.
I like it, so you're likethat's a hard pass it's a hard
pass.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
They said they might build it like order a couple and
see how they work, and I'm likeyeah, I don't think you should
I think they're gonna sit there.
So wow, uh, I'm curious outthere, if you've been driving,
driving with FedEx or Pantherfor years and years and years,
what are your interesting trucksthat you had Like?
Right now the M2, the Cascadia,the Western Stars and the
(44:10):
Volvos are all pretty standardacross the industry, but did you
ever have anything that wasunique?
Did you ever have one of thoseold Kenworth T300s or any of the
Expeditor Services trucks,those old Kenworths?
Do you remember those?
Did you ever drive one?
Did you have any experience inthat?
I'm curious.
Drop us a line, let us know.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
You could email us pictures too.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Email us pictures of those trucks.
Speaker 4 (44:34):
That'd be cool to see when would you email them to?
Speaker 2 (44:37):
The Outer Belt Podcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (44:41):
again the Outer Belt Podcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 5 (44:45):
In a masculine voice.
The Outer Belt Podcast atgmailcom.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
In a real masculine voice.
The.
Speaker 4 (44:51):
Outer Belt Podcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 5 (44:55):
This show is over.
I'm shutting it down.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
No I just shutting it down.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
I just thought I was being a ventriloquist and I was
getting all those notes.
I was just joking.
I'm sorry, babe, but I amcurious.
Have you ever been in Jerry'ssituation?
Have you ever had to get out ofthe car or out of the trunk and
spray the reefer down to keepfrom overheating?
If you have experiences likewe've had, or if you have
anything fun, let us know.
We'd love to hear your story,we'd love to share it with you.
(45:22):
That's storytelling.
Speaker 5 (45:25):
That's what we live for.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
Jerry, anything else we're forgetting?
Speaker 5 (45:28):
Make sure you hit that thumbs up button.
Hit the subscribe button if youhaven't.
It really does help us out withthe algorithm.
And if you're interested inlearning more about high field
trucking and what we do overhere, or interested in talking
to someone and joining highfield trucking, check us out at
highfieldtruckingcom or give usa call at 833 high field, that's
833-493-4353 we can talk aboutthe mentor program or or
(45:52):
anything else, are unique trucksare unique trucks that have
reefers not underneath them.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
I'll be happy to talk to you, or Delina.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Or Delina or Jerry, if you use our chat function.
Yeah, sometimes, in themeantime, y'all stay safe, make
good decisions.
Speaker 5 (46:07):
We'll catch you next week, don't leave money on the
table and keep those rules ofTurner no-transcript.
Are you ready, already Get?
Speaker 3 (00:01):
set.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Go.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hey everybody, welcome to the Outer Belt.
I'm Patrick and you're one ofmy friends, chili.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Buttermilk.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Eric and Jerry, and we're here to celebrate another
day in the world of expediting.
Yes, sir, and what a day it'sbeen.
It's been so.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
It's been crazy, grim .
This whole week has been crazy,this whole week's been insane,
oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
And there's no end to the insanity.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
No, but it started out wonderful.
The Sunday was just stunninglybeautiful.
I saw that they had a bigattraction here in Columbus,
which a lot of people have doneis the zoo.
The zoo here is.
Jack Hanna was our zookeeperemeritus president, ambassador,
(00:57):
or something, we all know JackHanna from, of course, the
Tonight Show with Jay Leno, or,as Jerry would know it, the
Tonight Show with Jay Leno or,as Jerry would know it, the
Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Or, as I would know it, the Tonight Show with oh, I
forget what that guy's name was,because I'm so old now Steve
Irwin.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
No, it would be Steve Irwin or Johnny Carson.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
There was one before Johnny.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, oh, my goodness .
Oh wait, are you talking aboutthe Jack Benny?
Speaker 4 (01:28):
No, I can't think of his name.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Where's our fact checker?
He's not over there in thegallery.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Let me use my Google box and see if I can figure out
who it was.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Anyway, while you're looking that up, so we Talk
about it.
So over the winter they do,they do these like winter nights
at the zoo or something likethat it's beautiful.
I've never been, but I'vedriven by the zoo and it's lit
up like Santa Claus world.
I mean it's insanely gorgeous.
Sunday was so pretty.
They had so many people go tothe zoo that it was like a three
(01:56):
or four hour deal to get out ofthe zoo.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah, Because traffic was so bad.
Sunday was beautiful.
It was gorgeous.
It was gorgeous.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
That's what they're attributing some of the crowd to
was just a beautiful day.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
It wasn't cold, so it was nice.
It wasn't raining.
It was a nice afternoon eveningto go out and see it, so the
days before I know our heaterwas having a hard time keeping
up with the very coldtemperatures.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Super cold During the day Super cold.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Sunday I opened the doors to the house and let some
fresh air in.
It was that nice in December.
I was like what is going on?
So I could see how they had somany people go out.
Yes, because the temperaturesgot rainy and now they're going
to dip down again and I can justsee how.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Well, sunday night I have a fireplace in my house
which is pretty common up here.
Sunday night I was like I'mgoing to have a fire, so I threw
my wood in the fire and I gotit started.
It started making this likewoof, woof noise and I'm like,
all right, that's probably notgood.
Is the chimney on fire?
Like what's making that?
So I opened up the door andstepped outside and I was like,
(02:57):
oh, it feels great out here,like I should be on my back
porch enjoying, you know, theevening air and the fresh air
and everything, because it feltso good.
So I was excited about Mondaymorning.
It was just miserable and it'sbeen a miserable Tuesday, but
the rest of the week's gorgeous.
Can't wait Going to have somebeautiful temperatures.
(03:19):
But it's been what weatherreports?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
have you been looking at?
Thursday's going to be lovely,sunny.
It's supposed to snow tomorrowand Thursday's going to be
lovely, sunny.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
It's supposed to snow tomorrow and Thursday's going
to be a high of like 20.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
But then it goes back up after that.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
One second please.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Yeah, you need to get on the right weather report,
homie.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
I was looking at the weather in Louisiana.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I think, that could be New Orleans.
New Orleans says it's going tobe gorgeous.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
You're cut off.
No more lanterns for you.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Oh, tonight it's going to snow.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Oh it's going to snow on y'all's way home.
Well, good luck.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So, anyways, we, as long as I can get out of your
driveway, but it's going to besunshiny for the next couple
days.
But you're right, just for coldOoh, 19 degrees.
But then it goes back up again.
It's like one dip.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, it's a weird little.
We're on a roller coaster rightnow, and then we're like 50s
next week again, I'm like.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Mother.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Nature needs some therapy.
I'd say Not prednisone, what'sit?
A little.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
She's some Xanax.
Xanax, thank you.
She's off her rockers, off themeds, she.
She's some Xanax.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Xanax thank you.
She's off her rockers.
She's definitely off her meds.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Where's the weather at like where you're at, is it?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
up and down.
Yeah, it's the same as whereyou're at.
No, I'm asking our viewers oh,okay, where?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
you're at, especially if you're a driver.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Are you doing snow and then hot sun?
I thought it was an appropriatepause for the response too.
It was.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
It was Well I wanted to see if they responded Sure.
Wouldn't it be funny if theyresponded to their TV and they
talked?
Speaker 4 (04:48):
to us, it would be hilarious.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
I think it's oh sorry , I was just going to say it's
weird, because sometimes I hearcalls that come in on
maintenance.
From Then I remember, oh yeah,oh yeah, not everybody's cold
yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Laredo, where it's only 98 as opposed to its usual
110.
It's like the same thinghappens in summer.
In summer you'll get someonesaying our S-PAR is not working.
It's like your S-PAR is notworking, what do you care?
We're in Alberta.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Oh, okay, well yeah, your S-PAR probably needs to
work.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
It's that first winter snow over in Wyoming,
which always comes like July.
Yeah, and you're like why isthere a 40-car pileup?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Well, we used to carry our skis in the truck with
us in case we got throughWyoming in July, we'd hit the
slopes which you should, whichyou should, yes.
You should, yeah, be preparedfor everything.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
You also had the track suit.
We had the track suit as well,jerry, did you keep anything
like that on your truck All thetime?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And if you just stood ?
On the side of the road thewind would just ski you around
everywhere.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
It would, yeah, and then the wind would start in
August.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I could see Jerry like whole Blades of Glory type
thing.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
You out of your mind.
The ice rink is open in Dublin.
It is we can get you down there, you can do your thing, I know.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Has anybody on this panel ever gone?
Speaker 4 (06:11):
No To Dublin or ice skating.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
The Dublin.
Okay, well, hold on Dublin iceskating.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
No.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Have anybody gone?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
No.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Even just Not even ice skating, but walked around
and looked at it.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So the rink is too small.
In my opinion, it is a verysmall ice.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
It's meant for tiny kids.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
It's meant for small children and they call me Black
Swan, so I would be afraid I'dtake out a few kids.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So have you ever been ice skating period anybody?
Yes, I went ice skating, You'dbe surprised where.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I went ice skating at the most stereotypical romantic
place you can possibly go.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Rockefeller Center no .
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Las Vegas.
What there you?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
go yes.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
At the baseball stadium out in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
You've never gone ice skating in Las Vegas.
No, oh, it was awesome.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Well, you know, Vegas is really cold in the winter.
Well, we were there in thewinter that time.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, we didn't have jackets on, we were wearing
shorts, as you do.
No, it was a cool course.
It went around.
They had an island of trees anddecorations and stuff.
So you had the regular roundpart, oval part, but then you
also had all this little sidestuff you could go do.
It was really cool.
But I mean, there was half aninch of water on top of the ice.
(07:21):
They were struggling, reallystruggling, to keep the ice nice
and they never once ran theZamboni over there.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Which is the only reason you go to an ice rink
right To see the.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Zamboni.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Vince you've ice skated before.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
I have ice skated before.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Was yours in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yes, was it inside a mall?
Speaker 4 (07:39):
No it was in a proper ice skating facility.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Oh, did you like it?
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Sure, I never got good at it.
I never got my balance.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I mean, I could roller skate like crazy yeah me
too.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
I've always heard that ice skating was easier.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
No, it's hard.
You have to have really goodankle strength.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Yeah, Roller skating.
You got four wheels.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I don't want to brag about my ankles.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Mine aren't good.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
But I did okay at ice skating.
I was not Black Swan, but I didokay.
I can't roller skate to save mylife.
Oh, I love to roller skate, ifthis was like a good 80s action
movie and the final big momentwas we had to strap on our
roller blades or our skates andyou know, go out and do whatever
(08:26):
, I'm dead.
I'm the guy that's like go onwithout me.
I don't have that gift at allyou know what they say.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
You don't have to be the fastest, just not the
slowest.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Right, I did ice skating.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I think that's what a bear is chasing you right,
anybody's chasing you the cops.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I did ice skating in Sun River, oregon, in their
pavilion.
If you've never been to SunRiver, it's just south of Bend,
oregon, in central Oregonactually, on 97.
And they've got like a oh, it'slike a resort, but they've got
a community in the middle andthere's this whole pavilion with
, or shopping center.
It's really fancy, cobblestone,you know, little businesses
(09:08):
selling everything you neverthought you needed to have on
vacation.
But they've got the pavilion inthe middle and in the
wintertime they make it into anice skating rink.
And that's where we went At thetime.
We lived about 20 minutes fromthere, so we went and I was on
my butt more than I was skating.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
That's what happens with ice skating.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Jerry, I was on my butt more than I was skating.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
That's what happens with ice skating, jerry you you
said no, you've never been iceskating, but you rollerblade.
I have been rollerblading androller skating I'm not good at
either.
You'd rather DJ, absolutely.
I can see that I used to DJ.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
I can hear Jerry right now.
This next song is couples only.
Couples only for the next twosongs.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
And then you get out there and it's like feel the
beat of the rhythm of the night,dancing to the morning light.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
Copyright.
Sorry, I used to be a nightmanager of a bowling alley and
occasionally the DJ that we hadcome in for rock and ball on
Friday and Saturday nights.
He would call out or whatever,and I would have to DJ, so I was
never really good at it.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Were you.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
DJ Boogie no, I would just throw a CD in.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Just throw a CD in.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
Yeah, throw a CD in.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
He'd let it play, and he'd take the ones that weren't
doing anything.
I could fade the songs.
Oh, that's good.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
That's about as.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Next two songs coming up Sadie Hawkins Ladies, Choose
your Guy.
Two songs for Sadie Hawkins,All Skate.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
You know what I always loved back when I was a
kid, about doing the bowlingalley.
What's that?
Not the bowling alley, I'msorry.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
The ice skating rink.
The skating rink yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Not the ice skating.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
This was just regular roller skating South Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
We had one ice skating rink Leo's.
Leo's also owned Leo'sRollerland.
They were side by side to eachother.
We never went to either one ofthose because they were in the
bad part of town, but we didhave a bowling alley next to us
which is now a furniture store.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Anyways it's not a bowling alley, a skating rink,
which is now an Americanfurniture, something, something,
something Not anymore.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Well, yeah, not anymore, but that place I loved
it because at least once while Iwas there, they would do you
put the right foot in.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
You put the right foot out.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, and they would allow us to run out there
without skates.
So I would go out there withoutskates, but other people would
be on skates doing it show offs.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
And yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
We'd do Skate World in Eugene when I was a little
girl First grade to fifth grade.
So we'd go to Skate World andparents would drop you off.
You'd be there for hours justskating.
It feels like one of thosememes you see on Facebook
nowadays, but that wasdefinitely what we did.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
We did Skate Depot in Cerritos, California Skate.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Depot Love these names.
There was one not far from ourhouse.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
I don't know what it's called, but it's called,
but it's now a swap meet,basically Nice.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Big old building.
So the one next to our housewas Skate City.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Skate City Yep.
Skate City was the place to be.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
I love it, I love it.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
And then it was such a high-end place, you walked in.
Do you remember those old metalbars?
Oh yeah, that spin around likebars, oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
It's been around yeah turnstile.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
So you're going in like a minimum security prison
to get in, and then you're inthis in between them and then
you pay your money right thereand then you go into the next
one or whatever.
Oh yeah, and then you exit theconcession stand.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
We had a place like that too in LA, but you can only
go in if you're over 18.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Ooh, skating.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Oh, no, sorry, I'm thinking about something else,
never mind.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Oh man, so many good memories.
I'll tell you what Fort WayneIndiana, if you ever get a
chance to go out there, fortWayne Indiana still has, and I
say this because we have a lotof trucks that go to Fort Wayne.
You hear the maintenance phonecalls.
We have a Freightlinerdealership we work with there,
the Thermo King we work withthere and our sleeper
manufacturer is based out ofFort Wayne.
So we get there quite often andour drivers get there quite
(12:50):
often.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
But they have a roller dome, so it's still a
skate alley.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
It's still a skate alley, but it's crazy because
it's got this big dome but ifyou look at it, there's another
building that comes off the sideof it.
That's actually where you skate.
The dome is like the concessionstand and the seating and stuff
.
Wouldn't you think the dome islike?
Especially if you're going toname yourself after it, would be
like the place you would skate.
(13:22):
But no, it's not.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
There's skating here in town too, in Columbus.
I think it'd be fun to go do ona weekend.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
The problem is I might hold on to the wall so I
don't injure myself Because I'mtoo old to injure myself.
I'll get one of those walkers.
They used to give them to thepeople who couldn't skate.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
We saw that we did in London last Christmas.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
We saw the kids out there with the little push thing
.
There was dinosaurs and stuffthere.
Pushing wasn't it.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Yeah, and the one kid ate it.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
And then it became a projectile.
It did.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
It took out six more kids.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Eric have you been ice skating yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Las Vegas as well.
You were talking about kidspushing dinosaurs around.
I did a trip to Gatlinburg,actually, ober Ober.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Ober Gatlinburg, yep.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
They had an ice skating rink up there.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Huge Hockey size.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Went there for vacation, I saw the parents
pushing their kids around onlittle dinosaurs.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
It was cute Coming up next backwards skate, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Oh, that used to make me so mad.
So my dad and sister, soMelissa who if you drive a
high-field truck now, if you'rethinking about it, you'll meet
her in the yard Her and dad werejust disgustingly good at
skating and so they would do allthat stuff like run circles and
do the backward like decide,like let me just turn around the
crisscross.
(14:51):
Let me just oh yeah, or let mejust turn around and skate
backwards and how are you doing?
And carry conversation and turnback around or whatever.
and you know, when they go tomake the turns they're like
leaning into it and all thatstuff me.
I'm going down, grabbing down,grabbing the wall, just trying
not to fall, because sometimesyou'd fall holding the wall.
That's really embarrassing.
But there was always that onespace in the very back.
The very back had no handrail,so there was handrail on three.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
So then you do the little shuffle all the way.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So you have to just get across the back wall and
then you're just holding yourhands out, hoping you have
enough inertia to get you to thenext wall.
You just slam into it, andthat's better than falling.
You're like I'll slam into itand grab the handrail Memory.
That's trauma.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
I was good at skating forward.
I could skate forward, noproblem, get a little speed
going.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I could not skate backwards the same way in my
life.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I just couldn't do it .
I ended up buying my own skatesat some point, but again, I
could never figure out how to dothe backwards Did you guys ever
have skates with steel wheels?
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Ooh.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Never heard of them.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
My first pair of skates had steel wheels.
Wow yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Right before Johnny Carson.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Which was Steve Allen by the way, steve Allen oh, he
was the guy that was the host ofthe Tonight Show before Carson,
and then it was Jack Parr,Steve.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Allen, Jack Parr, Johnny Carson.
So thanks for letting mesqueeze that in there.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Yeah, you're welcome, but of course we all know the
best one was.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Yeah, Jay Leno.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Right, I don't know Fallon's pretty good, I think
that the redhead guy was prettygood.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Oh, I forgot about Conan Conan.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
I can't believe I forgot about Conan.
I listen to Conan's podcastevery single week and I
completely forgot he existed.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
I'm listening to it right now in my headphones.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Okay, nice.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
He's interviewing Johnny Carson.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I liked it with Letterman Letterman.
Letterman's good he's all right, I liked his laugh.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Have you seen?
My next guest needs anintroduction with Letterman's
good he's all right, I liked hislaugh.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Have you seen the?
My next guest needs anintroduction with Letterman.
Yeah, yes, I've seen a couple.
I've seen a couple.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
We've seen it.
Lizzo, he did Lizzo.
That was fantastic.
And then I saw what one I justsaw recently that I really liked
.
I can't think of it.
Anyways, that's a really goodshow on Netflix.
If you ever get a chance, ifyou have something to watch, you
like interviews, that one'sreally good, nice so.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
So I just had a nice little story for the week, I
guess, working, and it would beabout the mentor program and all
that it offers and if you'vedone your research on our
website or you're interested oryou've met mentors or anything
about Highfield in our mentorprogram, I guess the moral of my
(17:28):
story is definitely how it canassist you when you come out
here and the importance offellow contractors and people
out here who've done this for ahot moment and who understand
the industry and how to make therevenue and they're giving of
you know that peer-to-peerknowledge that it's really vital
(17:51):
, if you're going to opt into it, to really use that program
because it can maximize yourrevenue and and I talked with
some people and they're justlike aha, and it does make sense
and I'm so glad and it was areally great conversation I had
with somebody and they're like Idon't know how anybody would
come out here and not use itwhen they don't know in the
industry.
(18:13):
And it was a great conversationI had with this team and yeah,
so I'm just really proud of youknow the program that Highfield
has and that we offer and theknowledge that's shared in the
industry and when people utilizeit and they realize how
important it is.
It just feels like everyone'swinning and it was just a really
great conversation.
(18:33):
So just a little something thathappened in my work week this
week.
I just wanted to share it.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
That's awesome.
I love the mentor program andwhat we're doing with it.
As some of y'all who arewatching know most don't it was
a blip that happened, but therewas something on social media
put out about our mentor program.
Sure, it was not in a positivelight.
(18:59):
By the time I saw it, it was ina private group, so if you
weren't in the group, you didn'tsee it Before I had a chance to
respond to it.
So many high field teams hadchimed in and said hey, you
don't know what you're talkingabout.
Like it helps, like this and itdoes that, yeah.
So I did go in there andcomment a little bit on it as
well.
(19:19):
But seeing everybody else comeout and say how valuable it was
and how much it helped them bethe team they are now and
everything it really like.
It was kind of something thatstarted out as a bad situation.
It also kind of warmed my heartat the same time seeing this of
like okay.
I'm not crazy.
This really is a good thingthat we're doing and it's it's a
(19:40):
really cool program and um,it's been fun watching this
thing mature throughout theyears and see where it was where
it's how it started, sure yeah,if y'all saw how the mentor
program started eight or nineyears ago, you would laugh,
because it is.
It was so fly by the seat andhope you can figure something
(20:00):
out.
Just like going from that towhat it is now.
It's just unbelievable.
And that has nothing to do withme or Eric.
That has everything to do withDina and the mentors we brought
on and getting that feedback andtweaking the program and
tweaking the program andtweaking the program, and
tweaking the program and mentorretreats and being and mentor
retreats and being in Tennesseeor being in Ohio or being in
(20:22):
Indiana.
Like all that feedback anddialing into it is now.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
I think what's fun, too, is watching from our
perspective where it was when webecame when we started out as
contractors and then when webecame mentors and watching the
teams that came after us asmentors and how they have
adjusted and molded the programand kept improving on what was
(20:48):
the base originally thatfoundation and just kept
building on that.
So I think that's been that'sbeen a lot of fun to watch I
love when we do so.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
We do a monthly meeting with our mentors, uh
over zoom, and it is so much funor not so much fun, but it's so
rewarding to hear a team go.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Rewarding that's the word yes, very rewarding.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Well, just to hear a team go like a mentor team one
of our best people.
Through conversation, throughanother mentor talking about
something, I hear another mentorteam going like oh, I never
thought about that.
Yeah, like that's what's socool about.
What makes the system better isthe mentors are like we're
(21:28):
helping.
They're helping each other.
It's this huge grouping hugecommunity where all these things
are being talked about,discussed, and it just really
elevates what they're able to dowith the contractors and it
just the people that you know.
A few weeks ago we put a thingout, a video out, where we had
(21:50):
the whole staff here and we weretalking about the mentor
retreat we were doing and Carlawho does our settlements, and
nobody really ever talks to herlike from the driver's
perspective, right.
Right, she's just kind of in thebackground doing her thing but
her talking about.
She can see it in thesettlements.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yeah, who's using?
Speaker 3 (22:10):
the program, who's using it and who's?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
not yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
It's that dramatic.
So again, it's a really coolprogram we have.
I'm really happy that we areconstantly investing and
developing it and to get thepositive feedback it feels good.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I think the biggest thing is other humans are
wanting to see other humans besuccessful in their business
endeavors and that's the biggestreward out of all of it.
And if you embrace, coming outhere, the mentor program, you're
going to be successful.
And it's again.
It's a great feeling foreverybody when everybody's
(22:45):
winning, you know, and whodoesn't want to succeed in your
own business?
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Absolutely.
Like well, we talked about thegetting something out of it.
Let the mentors get.
Yeah.
Like we do compensate thementors.
That's not a surprise or secretto anybody, because they do a
lot, of a lot.
They spend hours on the phone,especially in the first couple
weeks of a team yes pretty muchall of them would say, if we
came to them tomorrow and said,hey look, we can't continue the
(23:09):
compensation part of it, theywould all still want to be
mentors.
Because of that, that emotionalfeeling you get, that reward
you get from it I used to callit filling my love tank when we
mentored.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Yeah, when somebody got it and embraced it and were
succeeding and making theirmonetary goals or whatever their
goals were, absolutely I alwaysgot.
I told Vince I'm like it fillsmy love tank, but that's as a
human being.
It's filling my love tank andour mentors, I think, get that
feeling.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Yeah, absolutely Just down at FIDA the other day.
Uh, fida Freightliner, we get alot of service done and we buy
trucks from there.
Them and I was there meetingwith one of our owner operators.
Um, I didn't know they weregoing to be there.
That was there for a differentreason.
But I did run into them whilethey were there and we chatted
for a while and you know, here'sa team that came to us.
They were laid off their jobthat they had for 30-something
(23:58):
years.
Their company put them throughtruck driving school Well, any
school they wanted.
They chose truck driving schooland then they came out and I
would have went to med school.
Well, they chose differently.
So they came out, ran with usfor a little while well, not for
a little while.
(24:18):
For a while they were reallygood.
They became mentors of ours.
They wanted to take it a stepfurther, so we sold them their
first truck and they've been inour owner-operator program now
for a few years and we werediscussing they are going to run
one more year and then they'regoing to call it quits, they're
going to finally retire.
But they were talking about howthey've been able to pay their
(24:40):
house off.
They've been able to pay theirvehicles off.
They bought their last vehiclecash money.
They like all.
Now he wants, he said he wantsto squeeze another boat in.
That's what they're going torun another year for, so he can
buy the nicest bass boat hewants, pay cash for it, walk out
with a nest egg in theirretirement fund and all this
(25:01):
stuff, and that's awesome tohear.
That was a bad situation.
I mean, like you know, lots ofpeople my dad is one of them
have this experience of workingin corporate America for 20, 30
years and then they get laid offbecause it's not about loyalty
anymore in that world.
It's about pleasing stockholders.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
Pleasing stockholders exactly about loyalty anymore
in that world.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
It's about Pleasing the stockholders Pleasing the
stockholders exactly so.
Now people are trying to findways to advocate for themselves
and work for themselves, and thegreat thing about trucking is
you can be your own boss.
You can be a company driver ifyou want Right, or you can go
out and be your own boss.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
And it's really taking control of your future
and it's really cool to seethese stories of people doing
that and being successful andyou know it sucks to see them go
.
Like we talked about six monthsago, we lost it, not lost the
team.
We had a team retire that hadbeen with us for 10 years yeah,
10 or 11 years, yeah and theymet all their goals and now
(26:01):
they're retired and they've gotmoney in the bank and they're
financially secure for the restof their life.
Like that's amazing to to beable to come and help people
walk through that and it'shappening right now.
We've got lots of teams thatare doing the same thing.
Um, it's it's a really coolindustry we're in and it's a
really cool um niche we have ofbeing able to give people that
(26:22):
ability to basically be anowner-operator without the risk
of being an owner-operator.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
It's a really cool.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Happy meeting we're in.
That's my sales pitch.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
The Facebook post you're talking about.
Most of those people that I sawwere at least here a year,
which I think is great.
The team I spoke to was ontheir third load.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Nice, nice Right.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
And so very different , different, whatevers, but it
just was really cool to hear andto see because I did see that
post as well, but just thatpeople really appreciate that
mentor program.
Sure, yeah, so that's it.
That's all.
That's my story for the week.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
So I'm trying to remember where we left off the
other day.
By the other day I mean likeThree months ago, Three months
ago, when we were discussing thetrucks and Highfield's history
a little bit our lineage.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
And at all.
But I had an interestingconversation come up today and I
was like let me talk about this.
I think it'd be fun and kind ofan interesting.
It's taught me.
If we've already talked aboutit, Sure, or let me go on.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
The listeners love anything about Highfield and
history there's no, stopping it.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
We honor that.
It was proposed to me.
Did you say yes, no, that I wasactually a hard no.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
And I think Jerry's about to understand why it was
proposed to me.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
what if we, to save money on these trucks,
specifically refrigeratedstraight trucks, what if we made
them a factory sleeper, highroof factory sleeper, and then
put a notched reefer box on thetruck and ran like that?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
I have to picture what this looks like Wow.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
I don't know that I've ever seen one like this.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
What's the benefit?
Is that what you're getting to?
The money Less expensive.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
Than a custom sleeper A factory sleeper.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Got it, got it, got it.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
So people don't realize what these trucks cost
and what a sleeper is, and stuff.
So when you buy a truck fromFre freightliner and it has it
has a factory sleeper on it.
a day cab to a factory sleepermight be like an additional five
to ten grand depending on howit's equipped.
A custom sleeper like ourtypical eight foot custom
(28:53):
sleeper we buy from bolt um issomewhere around eighty thousand
dollars.
So it's quite a bit moreexpensive.
It's not a little bit moreexpensive, it's quite a bit.
The bathroom ones are sittingaround $120,000 more.
So those sleepers are a hugechunk of the money involved with
that truck.
So if you can get rid of thatexpense and only have $10,000
(29:18):
for the nicest factory sleeperyou can get it's a pretty good
deal.
So I said no for a couple ofreasons.
One is market's too competitive.
You'll never get a team todrive it Like if you bought that
truck and then you bump, dockand you're next to Jerry and
Jerry's in a nice truck runningfrom the the same carrier making
(29:39):
the same money.
How long are you going to stayin that factory sleeper truck?
Speaker 4 (29:44):
We've had those conversations when we're on the
road, when we bump a dock andthere's a team in a factory
sleeper.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Which is way more common on the dry side Way more
common.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
They look at our truck and go how do I get into
one of those?
That happened a lot.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Most of those people still drive for us?
Yeah, they do.
But so I said let me help youout this from a different
perspective.
And what it made me want totalk about is we're going to
talk strictly about refrigeratortrucks.
So if you are a dry van or youwant to go drive for Panther,
this might be boring, but if youare a FedEx and wanted a reefer
(30:27):
truck, I think it'll be.
Uh, I'd like to take youthrough a little bit of like how
we got to the build we are atnow on the refrigerator unit and
box spec.
When we first so when thiswhole like exped refrigerated
situation got started, so backin the day in the early 2000s,
late 90s, expediting, when theystarted building these trucks,
what they were doing was a lotof like day cab kind of Penske
(30:51):
Rider-esque type trucks and theywould just go run from
automotive to automotive placesand haul a pallet of pistons or
a ton of tires or a wagon ofwheels, things like that.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
The DOT started coming down and saying like, hey
, you're doing all this over theroad stuff.
You need to have sleepers onyour trucks, right.
So there was a couple ways theywent about it in different
dealerships that did themdifferent ways.
You need to have sleepers onyour trucks, right.
So there was a couple ways Iwent about it In different
dealerships that did themdifferent ways.
A lot of them went and tooktheir existing, like you know,
(31:30):
international rider truck orwhatever they had and they would
stretch the frame a little bitand slide in a little like 24,
36-inch coffin sleeper.
I've seen those and that's howthey would work it.
But then when the DOT saidthat's cool, but the amount of
hours you're running needs to beteam Like, you can't do that as
a solo person.
So then the sleepers got bigger.
(31:52):
So ICT, illumabunk, or, as weaffectionately know them,
illumajunk.
And there's another company outthere I can't think of who it
was they started and Bence.
They started making sleepersthat were bigger, very basic on
the inside, but bigger sleepers.
(32:12):
They put them on these classsix and class seven trucks.
Now these trucks are runningteam operation and it was pretty
decent for what they were doingand you know trucks would last
300,000 or 400,000 miles.
But back then you were putting50,000 miles a year on your
truck.
It was very little and theywere getting really top dollar.
(32:33):
Well, as anything happens, moreand more people realize that got
involved and those rates gotpushed down and people had to
start running their trucks moreand more to be able to make
money.
So a lot of people stepped upto the Class 7 trucks with the
fancy sleeper.
Only they went with a nicerspec.
You might have seen all theKenworth K300s were big back in
(32:56):
the day and they'd have a niceICT or a nice bent sleeper on
them.
Again, dry vans, all this dryvan stuff.
The problem with those trucksis they just wouldn't last very
long.
And if you baby that truck, Imean there were tons that got a
million miles out of them.
But when you talk to the peoplethey're like, yeah, a million
miles.
I say man, I'm only on my thirdengine.
And it's a second transmissionand you know, they kind of had
(33:18):
that attitude of like we canjust keep rebuilding it Because
the platform, the frames, thecab were solid, so that part
could handle a million miles,but the engine and all that
stuff couldn't.
Well, you know, engines startgetting more and more expensive.
The emissions control stuff,you know, drastically changed
(33:38):
the pricing of all that stuff.
So there was a real step up toClass 8 trucks, which is your
typical semi-truck tractor seatgoing down the road.
What happened then is now thesetrucks have sleepers built onto
them.
Right, you can buy a semi-truckwith a factory sleeper.
And so there was a bunch ofpeople Expedire Services was one
of them would buy like aKenworth or a Freight Shaker
Freightliner and put their boxon it with a factory sleeper.
(33:59):
Well, when FedEx said, hey,we're going to start this new
division of FedEx CustomCritical called White Glove
Services that deals with tempcontrol, t-valve temp control
stuff, so we want you all totake boxes off your truck and
put reefers on them.
So when it first startedhappening, they literally did
that.
They would literally take atruck that was already built,
(34:19):
take the box off it, slap a newbox on it that was insulated and
they would mount the reefer inone of two spots.
So option one was they wouldnotch the box.
And by notching the box whatthey do is they took three foot
down by three foot deep.
Might have been four foot deepout of the box and they would
(34:43):
literally just rebuild the box.
So here's a picture of it righthere, so you see where they
took that gap out and the reefersits right there and that is
how the reefer would work.
Now these sucked.
They would constantly leak.
Jerry, did you ever have a boxlike this?
I did not.
I had a couple.
They constantly leaked.
(35:05):
They were terrible for airflow,because in a reefer truck, what
makes it work is the fact thatcold air is blowing across the
top of the box, it goes down tothe doors and it comes back to
the front and you have aconstant turn of airflow.
Well, if you have a notch in thefront, there's no air going in
(35:25):
there, right, so it was terriblefor airflow.
It had a hard time keeping thetrucks cool properly.
That notch leaked badly.
Every year you had to go in andget it resealed, and so they
were just a nightmare.
Option two, which a lot ofpeople did, was keep the box
intact and then mount the reeferunit under the sleeper.
(35:48):
Now, jerry, you had one likethis, I had two, you had two
like this.
What?
Speaker 5 (35:54):
kind were they?
The first one was a WesternStar.
Don't quote me on the model,I'm not good at that.
And the first one was a westernstar.
Don't quote me on the model,I'm not good at that.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
And the second one was a peterbilt and for the fine
people out there, describe whatit's like trying to sleep on
top of a reefer.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
You cannot, yeah it's a whole new ballgame.
And then also to what you saida minute ago airflow, it sucked
at airflow, it would get hot.
We would constantly have tostop going through the desert
(36:32):
and we would stop off at a truckstop and grab the water hose
and spray it down.
That would keep it fromoverheating and shutting off.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Wow, because you're trying to keep the box cold.
Yes, yes, with your merchandisein there.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Yes, and if you think about, like, if you know,
high-performance cars orsomething, cold air intakes
where they pull the air from uphigh, where it's cooler than
right at the road, where thatblack asphalt is just absorbing
the heat, it's super hot rightthere, super cool up in the air.
That's why if you look at acommercial truck, semi-truck,
their air inlets for theirengine are up high on the hood.
(37:05):
They're pulling that cold airin because that hot air just
does nothing.
It's not meant for that.
I had a friend of mine.
She had one of those on hertrucks mounted underneath the
sleeper and and had a constantFreon leak.
And so every like six months orso she'd go back into Thermo
King and they would just top heroff with a little more Freon
(37:26):
and she'd be good to go foranother six months and then come
back.
And I bet you California wouldlove to hear that right now the.
EPA it was a different time backthen one might say Of course,
and so then we got these big,nicer custom sleepers, and so
you still had the same thing.
People were either putting themunderneath the big sleeper or
they were notching the boxes,and this went on for several
(37:49):
years.
If you look at really old, usedExpedires, which aren't even
easy to find anymore becausethey're all so old now, there
was a huge, maybe 10, 15 yearswhere they built them like this,
and then Bence came out with asleeper that was like a low-roof
model and the reefer couldactually sit above it, so you
(38:12):
didn't have to notch the box andyou still had a nice sleeper
with the reefer unit havingspace for the reefer unit, and
these were wildly popular.
They were built on FreightlinerColumbias, correct?
Speaker 5 (38:26):
Did you have one.
That's what I had Okay.
That was my first customsleeper.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
And they were nice I don't know if they were.
Oh, it was nice.
Speaker 5 (38:33):
Yeah, it was nice.
It was nice, like like we'retalking surround sound built
into the side of the wall,surround sound all throughout
the ceiling.
So when you watch tv or moviesor anything like that, it was
all piped through the ceilinglike it was really really full
fridge and all that like we havenow.
But did it have the skinnysteering wheel?
Speaker 1 (38:56):
no, okay, some of the older, older columbias,
especially the cheaper ones.
The steering wheel was likereally really skinny.
Like an old 1970s car has thatreally skinny steering wheel.
So I don't know if it had thatone or not, but, um, yeah, so
that was the.
That was the cream to crop.
So people were like now theybuilt that as a way to make the
reefer unit work better, keepthe box cooler.
(39:17):
But because they had the biggersleeper, because of that they
made them nicer.
And then people got kind ofaccustomed to hey, I kind of
like a nicer sleeper.
So AA, never really.
Who was the other competingsleeper company never did that.
They always said you know, whenwe looked at it there was
enough room, so we're not goingto do it.
So Bence took it a step furtherwhen the Cascadia came out.
(39:41):
When the Cascadia came out, TeamRun Smart was a huge deal with
Freightliner and they actuallyworked with Freightliner, with
Stoops Freightliner, so withFreightliner Corporation, with
Stoops Freightliner, thedealership Jeff Jones in New
Haven, Indiana, and Bence gottogether and said we want to
build a new sleeper Instead ofjust modifying what we had
(40:06):
before.
We want to make it EPA runsmart, like all that stuff
compliant.
And so Freightliner said allright, we like what you're doing
, we're into how can we makethese things more fuel efficient
?
How can we sell them?
And so they worked together anddesigned a roof mold.
That's really nice.
It emulates the existingCascadia roof mold.
(40:28):
And when they did that, theyactually decided since we're
doing all this, what if, insteadof notching the box because the
new roof mold is tall to getairflow over the box, what if we
notched the sleeper?
So what if we took that roofand we cut it out and put the
(40:51):
that way?
The roof would allow space forthe reefer unit but it would
still be tall and still allowfor airflow and everything.
Check that picture right there.
So that's kind of an example ofwhat we're talking about.
And so Vince went on to do this.
You could only buy itexclusively from Stoops
Freightliner and it was a reallycool product.
Well, Vince went out ofbusiness.
(41:11):
One of their suppliers boughtthem out, changed the name to
Bolt and they kept making thisproduct, still making it to this
day.
Double A Sleepers down in Texaslooked at it and went we can do
that too.
And so they went and theyactually did it as well.
Now they did theirs a littledifferently.
Theirs was more of anindustrial solution.
(41:34):
It was not as pretty.
No, it was not as pretty at all.
They literally just cut likestraight down and straight out
and threw some fiberglass inthere and called it good.
Um, so it was a little moreless pretty, uh, but it still
accomplished the same thing, andwith that and with that, no one
ever notched a box again.
(41:55):
no, no one ever put a reeferunder sleeper.
That was it, that was done.
And because they have all thespace, because we had to have a
custom sleeper to be able to doall that.
The whole industry has gonecustom sleeper and no one would
even consider anything else.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Makes sense.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
I mean again.
I want to reiterate when I gotstarted in this business, those
2008, 2007 Kenworths that wereall over the road from Expedire
Services were all factorysleepers.
Nobody really gave even a mindto like what do you mean a
custom sleeper?
We're not going to have thatright.
And the custom sleepers you sawon those Class 7 trucks, they
(42:32):
were not nice, they're not like.
They look cool on the outsidebut if you went in the inside of
them you're like, oh, this iskind of like bare bones, I mean
like oak cabinetry they boughtfrom.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
Home Depot.
You know what I mean, just realbasic, real bow runs.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
That's kind of how we got to where we're at.
So nowadays it is standardwe're not notching the box.
The reefer's going to mountabove the sleeper in a notch
that's already been made there.
Um, there's been two othercompanies, ari and uh premier
custom has modified that aregone to that model as well and
(43:07):
uh, it's new standards.
So when it was proposed to mefactory sleepers with a notch
box all I could think was we'renot going back to that you're
not going back to the dinosaur.
No, been there, done that.
It's a nightmare.
Nobody wants to go get theirbox resealed every year.
Nobody wants to deal with.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Cooling your engine.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Yeah, or cooling the engine, or having to deal with
the fact that water is pullingup in the front of your box
because of the leak or anything.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
So anyways, I heard that I thought it would be fun
to share a little bit of how wegot where we're at and um, just
this idea and it it made me, um,it made me chuckle.
I like it, so you're likethat's a hard pass it's a hard
pass.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
They said they might build it like order a couple and
see how they work, and I'm likeyeah, I don't think you should
I think they're gonna sit there.
So wow, uh, I'm curious outthere, if you've been driving,
driving with FedEx or Pantherfor years and years and years,
what are your interesting trucksthat you had Like?
Right now the M2, the Cascadia,the Western Stars and the
(44:10):
Volvos are all pretty standardacross the industry, but did you
ever have anything that wasunique?
Did you ever have one of thoseold Kenworth T300s or any of the
Expeditor Services trucks,those old Kenworths?
Do you remember those?
Did you ever drive one?
Did you have any experience inthat?
I'm curious.
Drop us a line, let us know.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
You could email us pictures too.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Email us pictures of those trucks.
Speaker 4 (44:34):
That'd be cool to see when would you email them to?
Speaker 2 (44:37):
The Outer Belt Podcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (44:41):
again the Outer Belt Podcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 5 (44:45):
In a masculine voice.
The Outer Belt Podcast atgmailcom.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
In a real masculine voice.
The.
Speaker 4 (44:51):
Outer Belt Podcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 5 (44:55):
This show is over.
I'm shutting it down.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
No I just shutting it down.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
I just thought I was being a ventriloquist and I was
getting all those notes.
I was just joking.
I'm sorry, babe, but I amcurious.
Have you ever been in Jerry'ssituation?
Have you ever had to get out ofthe car or out of the trunk and
spray the reefer down to keepfrom overheating?
If you have experiences likewe've had, or if you have
anything fun, let us know.
We'd love to hear your story,we'd love to share it with you.
(45:22):
That's storytelling.
Speaker 5 (45:25):
That's what we live for.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
Jerry, anything else we're forgetting?
Speaker 5 (45:28):
Make sure you hit that thumbs up button.
Hit the subscribe button if youhaven't.
It really does help us out withthe algorithm.
And if you're interested inlearning more about high field
trucking and what we do overhere, or interested in talking
to someone and joining highfield trucking, check us out at
highfieldtruckingcom or give usa call at 833 high field, that's
833-493-4353 we can talk aboutthe mentor program or or
(45:52):
anything else, are unique trucksare unique trucks that have
reefers not underneath them.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
I'll be happy to talk to you, or Delina.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Or Delina or Jerry, if you use our chat function.
Yeah, sometimes, in themeantime, y'all stay safe, make
good decisions.
Speaker 5 (46:07):
We'll catch you next week, don't leave money on the
table and keep those rules ofTurner no-transcript.
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