#53 - Lowering H&M's CSA Score

This week on the H&M Trucking Podcast, we’re diving into a slight issue with our CSA Score.  Eve Essary and Sherry Vogler join us to discuss why the score got to where it is, and of course, we’ll have Eve lay down the law. After that, H&M drivers Tom Woods and Zach Beckman will hop on the line to talk through these issues as the drivers see them, and give other drivers a bit of a pep talk about lowering these scores.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
What's up Cheese bags?
Welcome to the H and M Trucking Podcast.
Episode 53.
I am your host,
Marcus.
Good to have you here with us today.
Uh because today is a little bit more of what we will call a serious episode.
Now,
we are going to share some laughs as we always do and of course,
we'll have some drivers on to talk to a little bit later.

(00:22):
Uh My co-host Denny Stone will join me.
Uh but today's subject matter is a little bit more serious.
Like I said,
we've got to talk about the CS A scores.
We've had a few hiccups here in the past uh few months and a lot of tickets coming out of the state of Georgia and it has affected the C SS A score to the point where it's mandatory polling status.

(00:45):
And uh these guys when you're on mandatory polling status are not looking to take it easy on you.
They're going over things with a fine tooth comb.
So today we're gonna talk to Eve Essy and Sherry Vogler about some ways uh that we can help boost those CS A scores a little bit.
So that we don't have to deal with this in perpetuity.
Uh,
because as you well know,

(01:07):
these things are weighted.
So for these next six months,
it's probably gonna be a little bit hairy out there.
But that's ok.
That's why we have the podcast.
Let's relay some information.
Let's get even Sherry and Denny in here and let's talk about why things are the way they are.
It's episode 53 of the H and M Trucking podcast.
We're happy to have you here.

(01:27):
We're kicking it off right now from Omaha Nebraska to whatever lane you're driving.
This is the H and M Trucking podcast,
your host,
Marcus Bridges.
Excited for this next segment here.

(01:49):
Uh Of course,
joining me,
as always,
I've got Denny Stone.
Denny,
thanks for being here,
man.
We're about to jump into some real,
uh,
heavy stuff here.
So I hope you're ready.
Heavy.
I have put on a little weight since I came off the road.
I've been putting out a lot of weight since I turned 21.
Denny.
So I totally get it.
Uh I do here with us today from H and M,

(02:11):
I've got uh the one and only Eve Essy here and yes,
we are going to lay down the law later.
So eve,
thank you so much for being here.
Welcome.
Yeah,
good to be here,
Marcus and Denny and also joining us,
even though she says she's only here for moral support.
Uh We've got Sherry Vogler in the room with Eve as well.
Say hi,
Sherry.

(02:31):
Hello.
Good to be here.
Is it,
is it,
it's the moral part of that that I don't understand.
I'm very,
I can't even say that straight.
Just kid.
I want to know what's in that cup with all the giggling going on.
Right.
Well,
we've got you ladies here today because,

(02:51):
um,
you know,
for all the fun that we have on this podcast and,
and all the,
uh,
the good things that we talk about that happen within the company.
Uh,
there are some things every now and then that we have to talk about that maybe aren't so fun to talk about.
And today is going to be an example of the latter.
Uh,
we talked a little bit Eve and I had a meeting here going back about a week and I understand that there's a little bit of trouble in Paradise Eve.

(03:16):
So talk to me about CS A scores,
talk to me about what's going on out there on the road right now.
Yeah.
So CS A scores those scores really drive for drivers,
how often we get pulled into the scale and that's really the,
the thing that we're gonna kind of focus on today.
There are other parts of that score that customers look at as well as law enforcement when they're,

(03:41):
they're pulling you in and all that.
But we really wanted to talk about today how it is affecting the drivers and what that looks like and how we can get it back under control.
So the CS,
a score,
there are several parts to it.
Sherry jump in whenever you,
Sherry actually used to work in safety before she was recruiting.
So she's,
uh,
my CS A for expert today.
So this is why I went to recruiting.

(04:06):
Is it now now to expand on that a little bit,
Sherry?
Is it,
is it frustrating to deal with?
Is it really complicated?
Like,
is there a reason that you weren't so excited about dealing with CS A scores all the time when you were in safety?
It wasn't necessarily the CS A scores.
It's just,
you know,
having to be that person that has to,

(04:28):
you know,
forever call a driver and say,
you know,
this is what you're doing wrong.
This is what you need to fix and that type of thing where I really just like to call and say,
hey,
how about a job?
I'll give you a job.
So I like to be the nice person instead of the hammer,
like leave over here.
So we call her the sheriff in these parts actually.

(04:55):
I mean,
even like our drivers that come in Marcus,
like I hear it a lot.
Um When I'm recruiting those drivers will go in and look and see what our CS A score is.
Are we a safe company?
Do they wanna come work for us?
You know how often are our drivers getting pulled into skills because that affects them as well coming in as recruits.
Absolutely.

(05:16):
I can totally see that.
And maintaining a high CS A score is kind of,
uh,
it,
it is akin to that.
Uh,
one bad Apple can ruin the whole bunch adage,
right.
Where,
like,
one thing can really pull the entire average down and then you're dealing with that for an extended period of time if I'm not mistaken.
Right.

(05:36):
So right now we have two of our scores um,
that are above the threshold.
So our unsafe driving score and our hazmat score.
So the thing about that unsafe driving,
it's any kind of ticket that um is a moving violation generally goes into that.

(05:57):
Uh We're talking speeding tickets,
we're talking lane departures,
we're talking failure to obey a traffic control device.
Those are kind of the big ones that we're seeing over and over again in that unsafe driving,
especially in the state of Georgia.
Georgia is a bit of a hot spot for us and we do have a concentrated amount of drivers in that area.

(06:17):
We run that Southeast Corridor a lot,
but in the last 12 months,
we've had 20 tickets or things that have shown up on our CS A store,
they may have gotten a warning but it still shows up on our CS,
a score that have affected that.
So we're seeing a lot of lane departures in Georgia.

(06:37):
They have that lane,
that trucks are not allowed to be in and we're getting over there and they're catching us.
So we need to make sure that drivers know which lane they need to be in and are obeying the laws in those states.
And I think that one thing that drivers don't understand that I run into a lot is that when they have an inspection,

(06:59):
even if it's just a warning,
it still affects our CS,
a score.
It still shows up like it's a ticket,
even though it's a warning.
A lot of times an officer,
you know,
they'll say things like,
oh,
I'm just gonna give you a warning this time.
Well,
that's great for the driver.
Right.
They're like,
oh,
I'm,
I'm not getting a ticket.
Great.
Everything's fine except that then they bring that into us and it's still affecting our CS a score and it's just like a ticket for us.

(07:24):
Yeah,
maybe there's no money attached to it.
But in the long run there is when it comes to our customers and the amount of times our drivers are getting pulled into those skills.
So that works the same for us.
A warning is just almost worse sometimes than a ticket,
a ticket,
especially speeding.
You can fight those.
You can get the thing,
get things reduced,
all of that.
A warning.
You can't fight it.
There's nothing to get reduced.

(07:44):
So that's,
you're just stuck with it.
Gotcha.
Now,
Denny,
I kind of saw you nodding your head a little bit when we were talking about,
uh,
the,
the Georgia aspect and,
and there's a lot of truckers getting in that,
uh,
that non allowed lane there.
So,
talk to me about your experience,
uh,
in Georgia.
Are they out there looking for you?
Are they just waiting for you to make that mistake?

(08:05):
Is there a lot of enforcement?
What are your thoughts?
Uh,
actually,
when I made some notes for today's podcast,
that's one of the things I put down because I,
I did hear that Georgia was a problem and that's the first thing that popped into my mind because years and years and years of driving around Atlanta and they've got those lane restrictions and there are trucks just zooming past you,

(08:27):
you're stuck in those right two lanes and then there's truck after truck after truck after truck going by you in those lanes.
So I know it's so tempting to jump out there and it's been very few times,
but I have been guilty of jumping out there because I got so frustrated.
I'm like,
it's not fair either enforce the law for everybody or open those lanes up for the rest of us.
It's not fair for the ones that want to do the right thing.

(08:50):
So I guess they are enforcing that more than they used to because it was rare when I was still driving.
And did you find that just with the Eld and the hours of service have really made some of those other things come to the surface.
We're not getting the long violations and things like that,
that we were because of the El Ds.
So now they're cracking down on other things and I think speeding lane departure,

(09:13):
some of those things are part of that.
You know,
I see a lot of like lane violations when I'm pulling reports,
you know,
looking at drivers.
So I think that is something that is like,
really being well,
that's the Watermelon 500 for you.
That's that,
that loop around in Atlanta because like I was saying,
you know,
you're stuck in those right two lanes,
they're not moving and the other lanes are just zooming past you and there's,

(09:36):
like I said,
you could just sit there and count,
you'll run out of fingers and toes,
counting all the trucks going by you in those lanes and it,
it is frustrating.
But yeah,
it's right.
I mean,
the law's posted,
you know,
you're not supposed to be out there.
So I don't know what to say.
I've,
I've seen less problems with cutting through town,
honestly,
but I probably shouldn't say that you're not supposed to be inside the loop,

(09:58):
but unless you're delivering or picking up inside the loop,
but I've never been pulled over inside the loop.
I used to pick up,
uh,
cookie dough actually in Atlanta and it was inside the loop and all the time I did that never once,
did anybody question it,
they never pulled me over.
So I guess unless you,
you are speeding or you have a,
you know,
you get broke down or something,

(10:19):
then they would say,
hey,
what are you doing in here?
But if you're just rolling along and minding your own business,
I don't know if you'd ever get stopped just going straight through town and avoiding the loop.
Like I said,
I probably shouldn't say that out loud.
So did we can't break one law so that we don't break another one?
That's not really how this works.

(10:41):
Yeah,
but it makes you feel better sometimes right now.
It's,
it's important that we do mention that is,
you know,
we like to have some fun too,
but we don't want you to go and get yourself in more trouble to try to avoid a little bit of trouble.
I think the best advice here is probably just to,
uh,
grin and Barrett,
which is never a fun thing to hear.
But when you're sitting there gnawing your fingernails off,

(11:04):
watching all these other trucks fly by in the left two lanes.
I,
I guess the only thing you can do is is just,
you know,
pray to whoever you pray to that those guys get pulled over.
The best advice I could give is.
And I know a lot of guys don't like to get up until the sun,
but I would park in like Roaka or somewhere north of Atlanta and get up at,

(11:25):
say three in the morning and get through town.
I just,
I,
that,
that way,
you know it,
anywhere after 5530 at the latest,
you're gonna hit traffic in Atlanta.
So I just always got an early start,
got through there and got done with it.
That was my defense.
It's not always the way you can do it.
But if you can force yourself to go ahead and get your butt out of bed and get busy in the morning,

(11:47):
you can avoid that boy.
And it gets harder every single day of my life to be the guy that gets up and kicks my own butt into gearing up at 530 or six.
You're a better man than me,
Denny.
But I think we've established that firmly on this podcast,
uh,
since you've joined us.
So we don't,
we don't even have to,
we don't even have to go down that rabbit hole.

(12:08):
But,
ok,
so,
uh,
you,
you mentioned Eve also,
Hazmat was another kind of hot point on the CS A scores right now and,
and this is where you're above threshold.
Can you talk to me a little bit about that?
Yeah.
So it's just really a couple of things that have hit,
but they've hit us really hard.
The way that A CS A score points hit is you are charged with points.

(12:30):
And the first six months you're charged those points times three and then it falls off a little bit and a little bit more and they're weighted differently as you go.
So anything that happens in that for that first six months is weighted very heavily.
So we just had a couple of things where we had a driver that had the wrong bills.
That's a problem.
We had a driver that had his placards on upside down.

(12:53):
That's a problem.
Just this little things like that that have made a huge difference and it really impacted us.
So we,
it's just really about being diligent,
paying attention,
um checking everything,
making sure you have the right bills,
making sure everything is correct on there.
And if you,
if you don't think so,
ask call and ask your dispatcher.

(13:14):
Um,
we'd rather you,
you call and talk to us and ask than,
than to get pulled over down the road because something isn't right.
Hopefully those points will start to fall off,
you know,
within the six months,
but that's gonna be a long road for us.
Six months of those waited so heavy.
Um It's gonna take a while for that to fall down and I know that's hounded like as far as your bills and checking your numbers and all of that even.

(13:37):
And you know,
when I was in orientation teaching has that like we hounded that,
check your numbers,
make sure your stuff matches,
match it to the book.
I mean,
that's all there.
We give you all of that.
You have all of those tools.
It's just taking the time and using those tools and,
you know,
making sure that everything is correct.
There you go.
Don't trust the shipper.

(13:58):
Do not trust the shipper.
They'll tell you,
oh,
you don't need placards for this.
Probably just because they don't have any or don't feel like going down to the other end to get them.
But I don't know how many times I've had to argue with somebody to get the placards.
I need.
There you go.
If you've got the training,
you know what you're supposed to do.
And like the lady said,
if you have a question,
call them.
But if it doesn't seem right,

(14:19):
don't roll with it,
pull outside the gate and call somebody or pull over to the side before you even get out of the gate.
Um But if it says you need placards,
get the placards,
I think that's a good point.
That's a good place for our very first laying down the law sounder because that sounds like a laying down the law thing.
We gotta double check the paperwork,
we gotta double check our placards,

(14:40):
we gotta make sure uh because we don't want this getting any worse.
Like Eve said,
we're dealing with this for the next six months,
whether we want to or not the way I understand it.
And if we only pile on little nitpicky things,
we're gonna be dealing with it in perpetuity.
And uh,
I know that we're on mandatory polling status in some,
in some places.

(15:01):
Is that correct?
That's correct.
We sure are.
Which is super unfortunate.
You know,
we really thought that at first,
you know,
when I,
when I was thinking about these mandatory pos,
I was like,
oh,
we have great equipment.
Like we're gonna get pulled in and,
and we're gonna get clean inspections and drivers are gonna make some money because we pay for clean inspections.

(15:22):
And,
but unfortunately,
what has happened is really the complete opposite of that.
We're getting pulled in and they are searching for things because we have this high safety score.
So they think,
oh,
there must be something and we have to find it.
So we're getting dinged with,
um,
a lot of tire issues.
We're also seeing a lot of things like a fuse out on a turn signal,

(15:46):
air leaks and hoses,
all of those pre tripp things that really should be taken care of,
but they're nitpicking us because they see,
we have a high safety score and they see that we are a problem and I've been using my finger quotes for that as I say it.
And so then they just keep looking,
um,
they keep looking until they find something.

(16:07):
Yeah,
I mean,
and it's all,
it's everywhere.
I mean,
we're seeing it in a lot of different states.
Indiana.
It's interesting that you pack that scarlet letter with you and all of a sudden these pre trips or excuse me,
these inspections become a fine tooth comb like you were saying,
and stuff that might slip through the cracks doesn't because they think that you're a risk.

(16:28):
And so they're automatically on high alert around H and M trucks right now and look,
we all know that it's like you said,
Eve,
the equipment's great,
like the equipment's new,
the equipment is fine.
So if you're doing these pre checks and catching this stuff,
not only are you going to save yourself time,
but uh I know you guys,
like you said,
you pay for,
uh,
you pay for those clean inspections.

(16:50):
So if those pre trips are fine tooth comb as well,
you end up with some extra money in your pocket and save a little bit of time.
Yeah,
a clean,
um,
level one inspection is 100 bucks.
So it's worth it to.
Yeah,
exactly.
I mean,
just,
and all you have to do is what you're supposed to be doing anyway and then getting the things fixed that need to be fixed,

(17:11):
Danny,
when you hear this situation,
is there any advice that you might have uh based on your experience for the drivers that are listening on their pre trips?
If,
if you know going in that when you get pulled in and you're going to get pulled in and there's going to be an inspection.
Is there any type of things that you're really looking for on your pre tripp trying to uh,

(17:32):
avoid any of this nitpicky garbage that he's talking about.
Well,
like has been mentioned a couple of times and that was the first thing on my list of notes here is that H and M does a great job of maintaining their equipment.
They check them at least quarterly.
They look over the truck and,
you know,
I'm assuming the trailers too and they make sure everything's right.

(17:53):
If you bring something in,
there's a problem,
they fix it.
So you can't blame H and M if there's a problem with your,
your equipment,
they take good care of it.
Pre tripp and post tripp.
Everybody,
everybody knows the pre tripp.
I learned the post trip thing the hard way,
way back before anybody was really requiring it.
I was tired.
I had a long day.

(18:13):
I pulled in,
I got me something to eat real quick and I hit the rack,
got up the next morning.
I had a flat.
So here I am,
I got a delivery to make and I got to deal with a tire.
Had I done my post trip probably would have caught that.
I would have seen that.
It wasn't even a nail,
it was like a chunk of metal sticking out of it.
I mean,
you,
no way if you looked the truck over,

(18:35):
you would have not seen that.
So post tripp is important.
I'll admit the pre tripp,
I'd do a much more thorough job than the post trip.
But post trip,
I'll walk around and make sure the lights are working.
The tires are all good.
You know,
nothing's dangling.
Nothing looks weird.
So,
you know,
it takes,
what,
five minutes maybe to walk around the truck in the evening when you pull in.

(18:55):
Um,
my dad trained me.
You take care of business first,
take care of the animals,
second,
then you take care of you.
So when I'm back into the spot,
first thing I did is my post trip.
Second thing I did.
Kelly got to go for a walk and get dinner.
Then I would go in and take care of me and get some something for myself.
So post trip is,
is actually as important or more important than the pre tripp because that allows you the time to deal with something.

(19:21):
If you do have a flatter,
you do have a blinker that's not working.
You can track that down before you have,
you know,
you're under the gun to make that delivery the next day.
The other thing I would say is I know that H and M keeps track of who,
which driver has,
what equipment and you see it on posts on Facebook,

(19:42):
you hear it from other drivers.
I've done it.
I've experienced it many times myself.
You go pick up a trailer that's preloaded,
sitting in a lot somewhere or whatever and there's a a light completely knocked off the trailer or there's a flat tire,
there's,
there's an issue that there's no way they did not know about that,
but they left it that way because they figured nobody's looking,

(20:04):
I would say H and M should encourage somebody to get on top of that and hold the driver that left that equipment that way accountable.
I mean,
maybe it would be a first warning,
second warning you're out of here,
kind of thing or a fine.
I don't know.
I,
I,
I'm a driver.
I just know that I've been stuck in this where I go to pick up a trailer,
I'm under the gun.

(20:25):
I gotta do stuff that I'm having to call and go.
Hey,
we're gonna have to reschedule this delivery because I got a trailer with a flat that's not fair.
It's costing me money and time.
So the guy that left it that way should be disciplined and this seems like an easy fix too because if everybody pulls their weight,
then nobody gets stuck with something that isn't already taken care of.

(20:46):
It's just a matter of going through the paces and,
and,
and checking off integrity and there's less and less of that out there right now.
You're hitting a hot button with me and you're liable to piss me off because I'm not gonna argue about this one.
Somebody that leaves something like that is wrong.
There's no way about it.
There's no way around it,
they're wrong and they should be held accountable.

(21:07):
But I agree with that.
The only problem that we have sometimes is that we end up with this person had it and it was like that and the person that had it before and the person that had it before and the person that had it before,
so we can go back one,
but we can't go back two or three or four.
So those people that have done it prior,
like one person then is paying the price for all of that.

(21:29):
So,
and I'm not saying that it's not,
couldn't work and we wouldn't do something like that.
It's possible that we will put something in place,
but it's just really hard to know where that damage happened and to get to the bottom of it because we hear a lot of excuses.
Oh,
it was,
it must have been hit while it was parked there.
It wasn't like that when I got it.
Oh,
it must have just,

(21:50):
you know,
so it makes it just really hard to know what the truth is and I would hate to discipline somebody that was not the cause of the issue.
Um,
because of a circumstance that was beyond their control.
So have,
have the turn up the respect for your fellow drivers,
especially your fellow drivers at H and M I think is,
is a big one here because you don't want one of those guys to leave you with it.

(22:15):
So you don't leave them with it.
It's that simple.
You can't even get them to sweep out a trailer.
How do you expect them to pick something?
And we do take safety bonus from the drivers that don't see out their trailer.
Like we,
we know then that it was which customer it was and we do take the safety and we take $50 of the safety bonus from the driver that doesn't sweep it out and give it to the driver that had to do it.

(22:37):
There you go.
So take care of your shit is all we're trying to say.
I feel what,
five minutes,
maybe,
maybe 10 on a trailer is not hard.
You know,
it's just,
it's laziness is all it is and it happens through in every industry and every walk of life it will happen.

(23:00):
And uh you know,
there's periods of good though.
We've seen it here at this company for long periods of time where drivers are helping drivers,
everybody's getting their inspections done.
Nobody's getting pulled in and getting nipped for these things.
So,
yeah,
when I was with H and M,
we rarely got pulled in.
So this is something that's fairly new.
They were sporadic.

(23:20):
We would have,
hey,
our,
our CS A scores going,
you better watch out,
you know,
let's get it back down.
But it,
it wasn't often most of the time,
you know,
I,
I could count on getting the green light.
So this is something kind of new.
And one of the things I question is,
are they hiring new drivers that just aren't as good or as diligent or whatever?
And Miss Recruiter ought to know the answer to that one.

(23:42):
You put her on the spot there,
you're gonna,
you mess around with her too much,
Danny,
your ass is gonna be back in a truck because,
uh,
she's gonna expect you to put your money where your mouth is here.
I mean,
I've,
I've heard that too.
I've seen it on Facebook.
Like everybody else,
you know,
other recruiters are hiring terrible drivers or just putting steering wheel holders in the seat.

(24:03):
We don't care what they have.
I've even saw one where it's like they only have to have six months experience.
The criteria for hiring drivers has not changed.
It has not changed since I started recruiting.
I don't think it's changed since I started at H and M.
So,
I mean,
we are still,
we still have to look for the same main things.
They have to have the 24 months of experience.

(24:25):
They have to have a clean record.
I mean,
nothing has changed in that aspect,
you know,
and,
you know,
when,
I mean,
I don't know,
like,
you know,
talking to people on the phone,
like we talk about this a lot in recruiting when someone calls in and they're talking to us.
Yes,
ma'am.
Of course.
You,
you know anything you want,
I'll give it to you right now,
you know,
but then every now and then you do have someone that comes into the door and that personality is way different than the personality that you had on the phone.

(24:52):
You know,
they come in and they're maybe a little bit rude or,
you know,
I would say that terrible people,
but I would just say it's different than what they're giving us to what they're giving dispatch when dispatch is going into orientation.
But as far as like criteria and stuff like that,
that is all the same.
We're not hiring any different than what we were before.
And I can actually say that over the last few months if we had somebody in orientation and they get here and we're like,

(25:16):
wait a minute like this is not a culture fit for us like they're already,
you know,
and speaking out against things that,
that we believe in or they are disagreeing with policies as we're telling them about it.
We have at that point,
cut our ties and sent them home because it's important that everybody buys into our culture here.

(25:39):
The culture hm is very important and we want to make sure that we keep that.
So if that person that recruit is not going to fit with our culture,
and we know that we send them home and we don't finish orientation with them.
So we've done that a couple times,
you really are.
Thanks.
You know,
we really do try to make sure that we,

(26:00):
we're putting the right people in the right places.
But again,
you're,
when even during orientation you're just getting their best side,
right?
Like that's,
that's what the good stuff that you're seeing and we don't always know what we're getting until they're out in the truck and,
and then we see their actual work ethic.
Right.
Well,
in the interest of time,

(26:20):
I'm gonna wrap this up by saying one more time,
take care of your shit.
And,
uh,
there's our second,
uh laying down the law of the week here.
So understand that uh,
the,
the company has their eyes on this.
This is obviously causing uh waves out there for every driver.
And so,
uh,
if everybody pulls their weight here and everybody focuses on the task at hand and,

(26:43):
and focuses in the right place,
this is something that within uh,
half of a year from now,
we'll have this conversation again and be,
uh celebrating because we all did the right thing.
So heed the advice here.
I can,
I can tell by the look on Eve's face that this is we're,
you know,
we're having some fun here.
We're,
we're joking from time to time,
but this is a serious thing.

(27:04):
And,
uh all we want on this podcast and beyond is just for you drivers to be able to do your jobs without constantly having to worry about.
Uh,
fine tooth combs and the inspections that are just gonna drag this down even further.
So,
I do have one question before you totally wrap it up here.
Um,
are y'all still having issues in Ohio and Indiana?

(27:27):
Is there a lot of stuff going on there?
Yeah,
Ohio.
Indiana.
And we're also seeing,
um,
some Minnesota as well has seemed to be a little bit of a hot spot too as well as Georgia.
So,
ok,
well,
uh,
I might throw this out there.
Take it to,
to whoever I was gonna say Randy.
But James,
um,
I know they,
they changed so they're routing,

(27:48):
I assume it's still routing off of I 80 because of the toll.
What about if you gave drivers the option?
Say,
look,
you want to pay the toll,
you can go that way because I know they get on that back road and there's so many slowdowns and lane restrictions and all those little towns and I suspect they're trying to make up time.
I thought the same thing.

(28:09):
I don't mind the secondary routes myself,
but a lot of drivers do.
And if they had that option,
I think you're actually paying them a little more to,
to go those extra miles.
So it might not be much more than a wash and they could go the way they want to go anyway.
Just a thought.
You know,
Jenny,
that's,
that's beyond my pay grade,

(28:29):
but I definitely can take it to Mr Fonda.
Actually hope.
Hopefully he's listening to this podcast,
right.
If he brings it up and we're gonna know he's listening.
Right.
He's got to listen.
That's what we understand.
Yeah.
There we go.
And actually here,
let's,
let's go ahead and rub this rubber stamp,
this thing official here and say,
listen to the podcast James there that now it's official.

(28:51):
We've told him Eve has laid down the law.
Well,
actually I did but the button got pushed.
So it's official now.
All right now for some stuff that's,
that's a little bit lighthearted before we let you go here because we normally mix this stuff in at the beginning of the show.
But I figured let's get through the serious stuff first.
Let's get through the weeds.
Now,
we're back out in the sunshine time and sherry every single week you send me a list of roster of new drivers people that we welcome to the team.

(29:19):
I play the party horns for him.
I play the applause for him.
But it's always me telling you who the new drivers are.
And I thought it would be really cool if this week you told them since you're the one that does all this work,
you're recruiting these great people.
Did you not,
you're looking at Eve right now like maybe you don't have those written down.
Well,
not that we did not have orientation this week.

(29:41):
Oh,
ok.
Well,
it doesn't matter.
We don't have new drivers and we'll bring you back next time.
That's fine.
What a waste of a great introduction.
Tell us where they're from.
I always,
I always wonder when I hear the new driver,
I'm like,
well,
where's he from?
You know,
he might be living right down the road from me?
Oh,
I can add that in when I send that out.
I'll give it to Marcus.
Perfect.

(30:02):
And we'll bring you back on,
uh,
on a later show and have you do some driver introductions for us at a different time.
Sherry,
I wasn't aware you guys didn't have any this week,
so that's my bad.
Um but we'll do this anyway.
We'll just play the party horns so that it sounds official eve.
How about some announcements,

(30:23):
birthdays,
anniversaries,
uh special announcements,
anything like that before we let you go?
Well,
I have one anniversary that was yesterday.
Should we talk about that?
Sherry?
Yeah,
sure Jerry had five year anniversary yesterday.
So congratulations to her.
I really appreciate her and the time that she's put in.
So I don't always get to like do a public announcement um about that.

(30:47):
So I just want her to know how much I appreciate her.
So thank you.
Well,
it comes from us here too.
We appreciate Sherry very much.
We appreciate you both for everything that you do.
But congratulations Sherry on five years.
That's awesome.
Thanks.
Thanks Marcus and then I have just a few more.
So we have Matthew Conley and Tom Jones,

(31:08):
both are celebrating 10 years in April.
So they're both on our operators and,
um,
they do a great job.
Um,
they're very,
they're professional drivers and I appreciate that about both of those guys.
And then we also have Malachi Johnson who is going to be celebrating,
uh,
five years at the end of April.
So she's been here that long.

(31:33):
Big congratulations hats off to everyone.
Uh,
Those guys calling it 10 years.
That's amazing calling it five years for uh for the driver there and Sherry also both amazing.
Uh always happy to have you guys here.
Sherry,
I know you said you were just here for moral support,
but I feel like you added more than that to the podcast today and I would love to have you both back on.

(31:56):
Uh let's talk about this here in a few months and update it and,
and,
and kind of keep following this because I feel like if we rag on it a little bit,
uh maybe enough people will get sick of hearing us talk about it that they'll start to get their shit together.
As we said,
you know,
Marcus,
one thing that we didn't talk about is kind of a reaction that we're doing here and that's the safety videos.

(32:17):
Um So we,
when we are thinking about how can we get,
what can we do to combat these scores and what can we do to bring them back down.
Um,
we really have decided that we need to do continuous training because it's not just the new drivers.
I know we talked a little about the recruiting process and all of that.
It's not just the new drivers that are getting these tickets and warnings and things like that.

(32:40):
It's our drivers that have been here for a long time for our seasoned drivers and so we need to retrain so we,
they're going to be releasing a safety video every month.
It'll go through the Pulse app through 10th Street,
they'll have the month to watch that video before the next one comes out.
And so I just encourage everyone to just pay attention to those because we're gonna be sending those videos out based on the hot items that are happening.

(33:05):
What are we seeing?
What are those violations and sending out those videos as just reminders,
um,
to make sure that we're all paying attention so everybody can be looking for those starting in April.
Are we gonna send a fleet wide message out to,
to also remind them as well?
Yeah,
there'll be a fleet wide message that comes from safety saying that it's there.
And,
um,
your dispatchers will know everybody's dispatcher will have a list of who has watched it and who hasn't.

(33:28):
And,
um,
and we'll make sure that they watch it.
If you don't have it watched by the end of the month,
then you're not gonna be dispatched until you do,
they shouldn't take very long.
Um It's a 5 to 10 minute video.
We just wanna make sure that we're doing our due diligence so that it's on everyone's mind.
Perfect.
And uh there you have an example of why e sherry are better at my job than I am because I was just gonna wrap this segment up and not talk about the safety videos.

(33:54):
Uh Very important thing that we definitely needed to mention.
So thank you Eve for uh for standing in my way there because I was headed to wrap the segment up.
We were going home,
we were shutting down.
Uh We were getting on a 10.
Yes,
in fact,
because I know that you have a very important meeting here coming up at the top of the hour.
Go ahead and go home.

(34:14):
You have my blessing.
Yeah,
James set my next meeting so I may have to attend that.
Ok.
Alright.
Well,
under protest,
but if you have to,
I guess that's fine.
Eve.
Well,
Eve Sherry,
thank you both so much.
This has been a great segment.
Uh really good stuff here and drivers out there listening.

(34:37):
All we're trying to do here is help you.
We don't want to see you get pulled in and do these mandatory inspections either.
So keep your eye out,
do those pre and post trips.
Uh get a little bit of money in your pocket for those clean inspections that never hurts.
And make sure you're sweeping out your trailer and taking care of the stuff at the end of the day because otherwise you might lose some of that cash to your fellow driver.

(34:57):
You don't want to inconvenience them either.
Denny did I pretty much wrap it up right there.
Is there anything else?
I think you got it,
buddy.
All right.
You know what I'm giving myself a round of applause for that.
I,
I just feel like I need it today.
Thank you all so much.
This has been great.
We'll talk to you soon.
All right.
Thanks for,

(35:18):
thanks.
It's time to get some drivers in here to join Denny and I,
and talk a little bit about these CS A scores and I have some of the guys that you've heard from many times before and we'll hear from many times again.
It's Tom Woods,
Tom.
How are you doing today?

(35:38):
My friend.
Hey,
guys,
how's everything going?
Uh,
no complaints over here,
Tom.
We don't have the time for it.
I got a list for you.
I'll send it over in a text.
Ok.
All right,
Cindy.
And we've all seen a bear some grilled food.
That's all that we want.
Ok.
All right.
I can do that too.
Well,
I'll tell you what,
next time you're cruising by Eugene on I five,

(35:59):
I'll just hang it out on the side of the road.
You can grab it out the window on the way by Ok.
Yeah.
Well,
there's sticks like the damn rail trains used to do.
There you go.
And we're also joined today by H and M Driver Zach Beckman.
Zach,
thanks for being back on my friend.
How are you doing out there?
Not too bad.
They trying to get through Nashville and some of these rough roads they got going on over here.

(36:20):
Ok.
All right.
How's the traffic out in Nashville today?
Uh,
so far I've gotten through Nashville without much problem.
I'm going through that next section on 24 going northbound that,
uh,
starts turning into the issue and so far that's holding up.
Ok.
So fingers crossed.
The CS that way.
All right.
Well,
we won't cross our fingers too because it's bad luck to have more than one set crossed.

(36:42):
So,
uh,
we're pulling for you though.
All right.
So,
listen,
fellas,
we've got,
uh,
we've got something that might not be as fun as some of our last topics to talk about,
but you guys are gonna be very familiar with it.
Uh,
C SS A score is suffering a little bit at H and M right now we talked to Eve and Sherry Vogler earlier on the,
uh,
episode here about different things that are causing this.

(37:05):
And,
uh,
it looks like there's kind of a,
an amalgam of things I will say,
but there's a few that kind of stand out.
Uh,
the very first thing I want to talk about here is,
there's a ton of speeding tickets and,
uh,
lane departure tickets coming out of the state of Georgia.
And,
uh,
I figured we'd bring that up real quick.
I know you said Zach,

(37:25):
you're in Nashville,
Tom,
I think you said you're in Tennessee right now.
So,
you guys are far across the state line.
Did you really?
Ok.
So you're,
you're far and away,
or at least away from Georgia as it is.
But,
uh,
Tom,
we'll start with you.
Here is Georgia a little bit tougher to get around in without getting pinched.
Uh,
is it these high occupancy vehicle lanes or the carpool lanes are the cops out to get truck drivers?

(37:49):
What's causing the issues coming out of Georgia right now?
From your perspective,
chaos.
I ain't going to Atlanta,
Georgia.
I ain't going through there.
It's just chaos.
I don't know how to,
I don't know any other way to explain it.
They don't understand the rules and,
you know,
if you're getting 10 speed now,
that's something I don't do.
I try to stay,
if I'm,
I try to stay five miles under the speed limit going through those big cities,

(38:12):
small towns,
whatever.
I,
that's just my pet peeve.
You know what I mean?
Especially with the small town one,
those cops out there ain't got nothing better to do but to wait for anybody that isn't gonna be coming back through town to tag them for you.
Ok.
Now,
Denny,
you've said on this podcast many times in the past that sometimes you favored the,

(38:36):
uh,
the rural roads and,
and getting off the interstate from time to time to navigate around.
How did you find it in your travels through Georgia?
Uh,
was,
did you have to ride under the speed limit like that to stay out of,
uh,
the cops view?
Well,
they do patrol in,
in Georgia but I just,
I try to avoid Atlanta if at all possible.
And these two guys are probably gonna think I've absolutely lost my mind,

(38:59):
but we went to Buford a lot to the Sherwin Williams facility there and I would peel off way north of town somewhere around Osaka.
If I was coming in the other way,
I'd actually peel off around Knoxville and I knew the back roads all.
Well,
I ran North Georgia.
That was like my backyard anyway.
But I knew the backroads to get all the way to Buford.
And then if I was gonna go down to Macon to pick up an armstrong load,

(39:21):
I,
I could take back roads all the way from Macon.
I avoided Atlanta.
It was worth a little extra time to me because I just hate driving in Atlanta and I think that's probably where a lot of these lane departure things are coming from.
Honestly,
I think the lane departure one is partly because going around Atlanta and God forbid,
we've all had this one happen if we've ever driven through their personal vehicle or otherwise.

(39:45):
But you'll notice you'll see the sign up above since it's four lanes,
the left two lanes,
it says no trucks while the problem becomes the left lane for trucks,
which is the right two lanes.
But that left lane for trucks is always clogged with mega carriers or trucks that just cannot do whatever the post it might be because now they have those digital speed limit signs.

(40:13):
So there about change and people will just hang out in that left wing for trucks and go as slow as possible and piss everybody off.
So then what happens is you get the trucks that hop over one to get by and it just so happens.
There's a cop nearby,
they need that quota and boom,

(40:34):
they get you,
you,
you happen to get the luck of the draw.
Can't tell you a number of times I've been through there.
People are always in,
you know,
the middle two lanes and used to be the two lanes for semis.
But it's because nobody wants to be in the far right lane where nobody knows how to merge properly,
which you know,
to,
to the point of our CS a score one.

(40:55):
Unfortunately,
I had an incident which I know contributed to ours where I had some jack wagon didn't know how to merge.
Sure.
There's probably a few things I could have done different.
Click my mirror and I know I know that easily contributed ours because even though I wasn't found at fault that's still my truck got hit,
you know,
it's stuff like that.

(41:16):
It's,
people don't know how to drive so it forces us over to try and avoid that stuff.
Yeah,
in 21 I had a fender bender there in Lancaster P eight.
I mean,
I,
I've gone,
it's,
the speed limit is 55.
I'm running 43 and,
uh,
shit,
all everybody comes to complete stop,
you know,
and there,
there I go.
Hell,

(41:37):
you know,
I've hit somebody in the ass then,
you know,
I'm not saying I said,
OK,
I,
I thought I was a good distance apart but you can't stop an 18 wheeler that fast.
You know,
people don't understand,
you know,
and they're gonna jam it in,
in front of you too.
That's where back to what Zach said about not knowing how to merge.
If they don't know how to merge properly,
then they clearly don't know how long it takes to stop a semi truck.

(41:59):
If you leave yourself enough room to have a because this also contributes to it and this will be something they look at when they write the reports and everything but say you had a proper following this,
didn't you about Bob Tail and a truck's link?
What's the first thing a car's gonna do?
I try to jump in there,
you know,
and which is what the semi tried doing and,

(42:19):
you know,
I end,
you know,
as it's been said,
between me and some of the others I know,
you know,
I lost,
I lost the,
you know,
who was gonna bail out first?
I lost that fight.
I lost the game of chicken is what it is.
Thankfully,
that's only like $100 piece.
But again,
that,
that CS a score that's gonna affect us because the truck got hit,
it was involved in the quote unquote accident.

(42:42):
You know,
it's stuff like that.
There's the little things that add up on our CS A score.
The R one being speeding,
you know,
places now have the digital one you get going into Nashville,
they have like seven of them on 24 going up to Nashville if you're not paying attention,
boom.
There you go.
You get busted for speeding.
Our CS A score goes up even more,

(43:02):
you know,
but I think they need to raise that.
I think they,
I don't know,
just,
just,
just my opinion.
I don't wanna,
this is somebody's Cheerios or upset somebody because they don't like my,
my thoughts or because I'm black and white and I'm gonna say it exactly how I want to say it.
I think yes,
the lower the score.
But I think there's,

(43:23):
there's a,
there should be a certain limit.
We get to the world,
you know,
it's really bad.
We,
I was just talking to another driver just a minute ago.
I asked what his thought was to put a little information in there.
We talked about Swift.
I want to say this,
God,
rest his soul,
Dennis.
He,
uh my son in law's uncle,
a swift driver pulled out in front of him.
He smacked it and killed,

(43:43):
he killed him.
The guy,
the swift driver was in the wrong place.
It pulled out in front of him and killed his uncle.
Ok?
I mean,
just,
he's dead as a doornail now,
you know,
I don't understand how that company is still in business.
He,
they're even still out here,
you know,
of all the shit they go through.
But I think there should be a limit of where,

(44:05):
where the CS A score does.
It does,
it really hurt the company.
You know,
we're,
we're getting what?
Speeding tickets?
We're not out here killing people.
We're not out here dragging fucking bridges off the pins and,
and we're not out here fricking running people off the road or going down the wrong road or,
or,
or tearing up stuff.
We're not doing that.
What,
what I mean?
Getting some speeding tickets,

(44:26):
some wrong lanes and stuff like that.
There shouldn't be that very many points on,
on a CS A score.
Let me tell you something else that's like not doing a proper inspection on your trail,
your trailers,
all steer tires,
not having the right.
I can't ready to come back.
I've been on the road.
I was off the road for 10 days.
Come back on the road.
I had to go down to the shop and get fucking five lights on my trailer fix because I'm so worried about how far is this C fa score?

(44:54):
How does it,
how bad is it gonna affect H and M How bad does it affect me?
Am I if I don't,
if I get pulled over because I didn't fix my damn lights,
am I gonna get,
I'm gonna get a ticket for that or get wrote up for that?
Then I'm gonna get a,
then I'm gonna get called into the office to get rode up for it at the office and get a smack on the hand and then guess what if I don't keep on top of my game,
on my,

(45:14):
on my equipment?
They're gonna be like we don't need you no more.
You know,
we can,
we can as an employee and until that point that you're going down the,
our CS a score,
not only is it affected by the things we do as drivers,
it affects what we can and can't haul what customers we're gonna work with,
how much we're gonna get paid.

(45:35):
You know,
if we've got a lower rating,
you know,
it,
it,
however you wanna look at this if we have a safer rating,
so a lower score,
if we have a safer rating,
we can charge more because it shows that,
hey,
your stuff is gonna be in a better you know,
in better hands,
we're gonna haul it,
we're gonna get there,
we're gonna get there on time.
It's gonna be in one piece.
We're gonna do our best to make sure that it doesn't fall victim to a heartbreaking event and potentially end up being shifted.

(46:03):
Unfortunately,
I had that happen.
I hadn't even been here a year.
Somebody pulled out in front of me due to the type of freight and how it was in there hard ended up having a heartbreak to avoid running this little car over even though we have these bowl bars on here.
But you know,
it turned around free ship.
It got to the customer.
They asked what happened,
explain it,
customer.
That's completely cool.
You know,
they completely understand which is another thing,

(46:25):
you know,
we if we have a better CS a score,
we deal more directly with the customer rather than what we talked about.
On one of the other ones,
the brokers,
you know,
we,
we deal more directly with these customers.
If we have a better CS a score,
we cut out more people from the middle that we don't have to deal with.

(46:46):
And then on top of that to,
to your other point of,
you know,
if,
if you get pulled into the office and they talk to you here,
here's a thing that even I didn't realize when I initially read it per se,
but the handbook states very clearly in the handbook that H and M is an at will company.

(47:09):
I had no idea what that meant initially.
You know,
it,
it is a four hire,
however you want to freeze it all that means.
And I,
and I hope this weighs on every driver.
When I say this,
that listens to this,
it means H and M does not need a reason to fire you,
period.
They do not need a reason to fire you.

(47:30):
Now,
I don't know if that's just an Omaha thing or if that's an all Nebraska thing.
But as far as H and M is concerned,
it is in the handbook,
it states oh H and M is an at will company,
meaning they do not need a reason to fire you.
So you messing up or any other terminology you want to use for this.
If you are not doing your job,

(47:52):
you can get fired or literally not doing your job.
And H and M doesn't owe you an explanation.
Now,
will they likely tell you most likely do they owe you an explanation?
Do they need a reason to fire you?
No,
that's why like when I,
when my mirror got hit or two years ago,

(48:13):
when I got my speeding ticket or any of these other things,
like it needs to weigh on these drivers that hey,
H and M does not need a reason to let you go and they do need a better CS a score.
That's,
that's the thing about it is like they need and if you mess up and contribute to making that CS a score worse and they have a legit enough reason right there,

(48:36):
you're an unsafe driver.
You are a risk to our business of being profitable.
You know,
it,
it's one of those things and we,
we all know this,
you know,
retired driver,
current driver,
somebody that's even gone to a truck stop and watch us.
Do we all check our trucks as often as we should.
Even the boss man,
James knows this one.

(48:58):
I'm sure the ladies know this one.
The shop knows this one.
Jim will be probably one of the first people tell you.
Do we check these trucks as often as we should?
No,
like we,
we all know this.
It's no giant company secret or industry secret.
No,
we don't all check this as much as we should.
Should you be checking out a lot more than we do?
Yes.

(49:19):
For every driver saying,
oh,
I check mine every day.
We all know that's a lie.
Don't,
don't,
don't lie to us,
don't lie to yourself.
We all know,
but at the same time,
at the very least you should be getting out your tires on one piece and all that every time I stop and get fuel,
every time I stop to get fuel,
I walk around my truck and trailer and I feel,

(49:39):
and I got my gloves on.
I run my hand across that tire just to see you could put a brand new tire on the day.
It doesn't matter.
That guy on Monday didn't give a shit and made that tire,
that guy on probably didn't give a shit.
Made that tire.
And it could be a brand new brand new tire just put on a week ago and the tray could be,
the metal belts could be on that sucker coming off because it,

(50:00):
it did get made properly or maybe your trailer got out of line somehow or,
or something.
I walk around,
check all my tires.
I check all of my lights because that is a 100 safety deal.
I don't want to blow a tire out and kill somebody or wreck my truck or,
and I want people to,
I want my lights to work.
I pulled my hood,
I check my oil.

(50:21):
I check everything.
I can only check what I could check.
Now,
if the eot pulls me in,
it's gonna give me a level one and he pulls a creeper under there and he finds something.
Well,
well,
thank God he found it.
You know what I mean?
But unless you're gonna give me a damn creeper to crawl to roll under my truck,
you give me a smooth place to where I could do that without having to fucking try to do it on a pitchy truck.

(50:41):
Stop parking somebody up the shit.
Ok.
All right.
Give me a place where I can pull that thing across the field and get under there and check my A dot Deal every day like that for an hour,
every day.
That's an hour of my time that I got to do that.
I can only do so much.
I could pull my hood and make sure I ain't got no floods leaking.
I could check my tires,

(51:01):
my tire gauge,
I could check all of my lights.
You know,
you,
you even got a simple button for that one.
Not like that with,
with because if I'm not mistaken,
I believe all of our previous Gen Volvos at the very least are no longer in the fleet.
I,
I'm pretty certain of that with that being said,
all of our newer Volvos.

(51:22):
Like I,
I know when I was,
when I got one,
Kenworth like this over at Warner and you know,
it was a great thing.
You have a button.
All you have to do is press a button and you should be getting out.
And like you said,
be at that truck stop when you're getting fuel or,
you know,
preferably before you start your day because you never know that scale house might be right there.

(51:44):
But we now have a button.
Now,
all you have to do is hit that button and you can walk around,
kick your tires or take a hammer to it wherever the case may be,
check everything,
walk around,
double check,
make sure everything's there while it's going through the cycle for your lights and all you have to do is look up like the score and the score,

(52:05):
the score.
I tell you what a lot of these dot Officers are young.
They don't,
they,
these,
these dot inspectors,
they don't give a flying shit really about any damn thing.
They're gonna,
they're gonna hold you as long as they can,
they can,
they're gonna look,
they're gonna nit pick the most stupidest damn thing right now.

(52:26):
This morning,
all my lights were burning this morning.
Ok.
They were burning when I stopped and got fuel.
What happens when I go down the road and I hit a bump and maybe it unplugged or maybe uh maybe it shorted it out somehow.
Maybe one of my wires broke off or something like that.
I don't know that dot Says,
oh,
I got a reason to pull him over.
Let's pull him over.

(52:46):
Now,
guess what?
They can't find nothing else wrong but that light.
I was under the impression one light will cost you $100 in some state.
I know Tennessee is one of them.
Kentucky is one of them.
It cost you $100 or like it's out if you had a light to stop burning,
the best way to do it is just take it off.
So it's not there anymore or you're gonna get a fucking fine for it.

(53:08):
Well,
and you guys are not stupid.
You guys are kind of touching on something that we talked about with,
with even Sherry Denny.
And that is the importance of these pre trips because there's a mandatory pulling status right now.
Uh They're going over your guys' trucks with a fine tooth comb because they think that you're already a problem.
You're rolling in with a scarlet letter on your back.

(53:30):
Uh,
because your,
your CS a score is what it is and this is causing other things to pile up like lights or,
or little stuff like that tires.
Um And so if I guess the best thing and Denny,
I'll,
I'll,
I'll defer to you here too since you've got experience with the company as well.
But I think maybe what I'm hearing is the best thing for us to do right now is to really buckle down on these pre tripp inspections because,

(53:55):
hey,
you get a clean inspection all of a sudden you got 100 bucks in your pocket.
It's not costing you money,
it's making you money.
But hopefully that gets us past this next six months of having to pull in uh in a mandatory fashion.
And how the hell you get caught doing 100 miles an hour in a truck that only to run 70.
What I don't fucking understand is and how the hell,

(54:17):
how the hell do you pull in to get your truck?
Damn,
uh serviced?
And your fucking steel belts are,
are showing on both your damn steer time.
I'm not putting II I don't know this person I just kind of heard through the grapevine and,
and that is some of the reasons why we're in a situation we are,
is because like I said in the past,

(54:37):
on some of our conversations with some of the past podcasts.
This truck,
it's most definitely not in my name.
It is owned by H and M trucking,
but I take care of this truck when I'm behind this wheel.
This truck is treated like my $100,000 truck.
The house is treated,
I get in it.
I make sure everything is working 100% because one thing it,

(54:59):
it helps me make money.
If I'm not moving,
I'm not making any money.
Guess what if it's ever if I know everything that's wrong with this truck and I get it fixed immediately.
It's keeping me going and then guess what?
I'm the one out here doing my part,
100% doing my part.
That's all I can give 100%.
You got a guy,
you got people like those people driving down a fucking mountain at 100 miles an hour.

(55:21):
Have you lost your fucking mind?
Excuse my lady guys,
I'm sorry.
I think it warrants it in,
in this situation.
I think it warrants it 100 miles an hour in a semi truck.
I think you can say fuck Tom.
I,
I just think you can,
I mean,
it's stupid guys.
Come on now and on top of that,

(55:42):
this would,
I know they can easily get us for this too.
In regards to that,
100 mile an hour one,
I haven't caught one of that one up until now,
but in regards to that,
uh,
back when we were running a different tire,
I double checked these ones,
but when we were running a different tire,
the tire was rated for like 75 mile an hour.

(56:02):
There are states and every dot is well within their right to do this no matter what state,
but they can write you up eating tickets and some for each and every tire that you are going over the speed limit on.
So if the tires r at say 75 mile an hour and you're doing 100 down a mountain,

(56:27):
you know,
whether you lost your brakes or lost your mind,
whatever the case may be,
you know,
they can write you a ticket,
not only for reckless driving,
then,
you know,
endangerment of others.
All these are tickets,
they can write you 18 separate tickets or buy for going over the regulated speed of that tire.

(56:50):
So,
the gentleman that I'm talking about doesn't work here no more.
He actually going down don's don's paths.
He was actually going down to Donner into Reno at 100 and five.
He doesn't work here no more.
It sounds like he's a gambler.
So it's good that he was headed to Reno.
Not that I,
I did have,

(57:10):
I did have word of a,
of a driver doing about 85 or 90 in.
Uh I don't know what state it was in,
but he was doing 85 or 90 down a uh one of the mountains.
I think.
You,
what's that Wyoming where uh Elk Mountain's at?
I think so.
I mean,
I'm just saying,
so,
all I'm saying is guys,

(57:31):
it's just listen,
if we keep this up,
I'm gonna have to go find me another trucking company to work for.
And I'm gonna tell you right now,
working for H and M is like on vacation.
OK.
They let me tell you something.
They're really good people to work for and uh,
you know,
of course we're drivers,
we maybe we're not gonna approve of everything they do.

(57:52):
But you know what I get,
I get paid.
I make good damn money.
And guess what?
I'm happy,
I'll get a new truck in two more years.
I can't wait,
you know,
I mean,
I,
I just,
I can't wait.
They're gonna give me a new truck of Turner a few years,
you know,
and Zach is,
is pretty fresh off of a new truck.

(58:12):
If I remember we had him on the podcast just right after he got one.
That's right.
I remember that.
Yeah.
And you know,
and let me tell you something.
If we keep it up,
we ain't getting new trucks anymore.
We're gonna drive these trucks.
They're gonna keep,
we're gonna be going in and out of shops,
you know,
they're gonna stop,
they're gonna stop,
they're gonna stop.

(58:32):
Uh,
let's just get good.
We're gonna stop getting good freight,
which you're gonna say,
oh,
well,
you know,
so we're gonna get cut back on miles.
We ain't gonna make our paychecks like we wanna make.
You know,
I think so the exact circle you're about to go in with this.
I,
I've chatted with a couple of your drivers and individuals about this.
Our CS A score affects what we get for free,

(58:55):
affects who we deal with so on and so forth.
And then you get people that I'm sure God forbid if you've ever gone and looked at Facebook lately,
especially after,
uh,
uh,
the message I came out,
what about two weeks ago?
That seems a lot of people,
you know,
may have somewhat picked up on the hint that,
you know,
James might be a little bit upset with,

(59:17):
you know,
the company as,
you know,
individuals,
drivers,
whatever the case may be that right now,
our CS A score is way out of whack and there's a number of things that contribute to that be it.
You know,
mainly if you look at it us as the drivers because we affect the company so much more than say,

(59:39):
you know,
logs does.
And if she slightly messes up something over there,
you know,
that might give us an audit and then they go back through H and M lets us get away with so much and they try to keep us from overdo it.
And a great example of this was I was just on my home time.
I race RC cars as,

(01:00:00):
and you know,
where I'm taking this is they let us get away with a lot.
So you get a lot of these little screws that starting,
you know,
start getting loose and start getting lax and everything.
What eventually happens,
everything falls apart.
You go,
you go into your race,
you go into the important,
you know,
the qualifying.
They're the main round in what happens?
It falls apart mid race and then you're like,

(01:00:21):
oh,
this vehicle's crap.
It's like,
no,
it's not.
Your maintenance was crap.
Your follow-through was crap.
You doing your job to make sure that that vehicle because it can't do anything else.
It's only as good as you make.
It.
It can't do anything else.
Just like this company cannot operate smoothly unless the drivers and this is how I saw the message when it came across two weeks ago.

(01:00:51):
Unless the drivers pull their heads out of their asses.
Stop with the mega carere mentality.
We,
we are not a massive company like Warner C which,
where I,
you know,
the first two companies,
I was like,
you can't just take a trailer and drop it off in the Altoona yard or the Mechanicsburg yard or the Atlanta yard and expect it to be magically fixed overnight there.

(01:01:14):
It,
it doesn't happen.
We,
when Randy was here,
I,
he told me this one,
I caught him when he was still here for like another 6 to 8 months or so.
And he said this point,
like,
I'm gonna treat you as an adult.
I expect you to act like an adult and James has done the same thing.
He treats us like adults.

(01:01:34):
He expects us to act like adults.
And now,
unfortunately because too many people are acting like Children.
We're being treated like Children and then you get people on Facebook.
Oh,
the company is going down the drain.
Oh,
the company,
na da da,
da da.
It's like no,
the company is perfectly fine.
They're gonna stick some precautions in place and you know,

(01:01:55):
make us do some things if our score might be too low as I,
if you look on the tablet,
I know I'm sparkling here.
But if you look on the tablet and you go to the part where it has the hours of service,
your Dvir,
the routes,
you know,
the,
the squares and everything,
you can click on your name and it'll pull up after you click on it,
it'll pull up this little circle that,
you know,

(01:02:15):
would have what your rating is out of however much.
I,
I don't know however I could see it would probably be more cost effective.
For them to turn around,
pay money to have that little program work so you can see it.
So you know where your standing is and then turn around and say maybe unfortunately because I don't ever want to fall victim.

(01:02:36):
This,
they make the order of your score curse like your individual score.
If it's below X amount,
you've got to watch videos in order to tell you to pull,
you know,
there there's gonna be punishment just like with the trailer,
you know,
the 30 trailer ordeal,
there is still in place.
If you find a trailer after another driver who left it a mess,

(01:02:58):
you take pictures,
you send it in,
they will lose $50 off of their bonus.
You know,
there,
there has to be a measure in place to get drivers to pull their head out of their ass because you're,
you're,
you're,
you pull a van.
Right?
Sure.
Right.
Ok.
So I pull a hopper.
That's just like if they call I'm in on it.

(01:03:18):
They called me today and said Tom,
they said Tom,
we need you to go here.
I'm coming through Knoxville here in a minute.
So we need you to stop in Knoxville.
We need you to swap out a trailer with another driver and take that trailer that,
that load over there.
I'm gonna be honest with you,
you're,
you're gonna see Tom Woods.
I,
you want to see a adolescent,
you want to see a 50 year almost a damn near 50 year old man,

(01:03:39):
throw a tantrum.
I'll show you a text.
I'm not giving my trailer up.
I will not give my damn trailer up to nobody.
This is,
you know what they they should have,
somebody should have planned a little bit better because let me tell you something.
I know everything there is to know about this trailer from the,
from the,
from the gauge on the front to the damn uh,
tag light on the back.

(01:04:00):
You know what I mean?
I'm not,
not gonna give up my trailer for somebody else because maybe they can't or they,
they can't go deliver it or whatever.
I'm gonna tell you right now,
I'll go get a pinpin lock and I'll put it on it and I'll bring their trailer back to it.
I'm not getting my trailer up.
It's,
you know,
it's interesting that you say that because we did talk about that with even Sherry as well that,

(01:04:23):
uh,
if a driver gets caught,
not cleaning out their trailer,
they're gonna lose money rather than the driver that ends up having to do that,
work for them.
And,
uh,
I guys,
I wanna kick this over to Denny here for a minute because I've,
I've honestly Denny,
I've been sitting here and listening to the drivers talk and I've been watching your expressions and I know you've got some thoughts.
So I wanna give you your space here.

(01:04:44):
I really don't have too much to add,
except basically they're,
they're saying a lot of the right things.
I mean,
I,
I never,
I know you said I'm a liar but I'm not,
I,
I never,
I never,
I never did not do my inspection.
I did my walk around in the morning.
I did a good one in the morning.
I did a walk around in the afternoon every single day that I drove and I never got taken out of service.

(01:05:09):
I never had major issues.
I,
when they did pull me in,
I got a little extra money on my paycheck and,
you know,
I never had those issues.
Um,
I don't know,
I even posed the question to Eve that maybe we're not hiring good enough drivers.
Maybe we're,
and bless her heart.
I think she got a little defensive because I didn't,
I didn't mean to put her on the,
against the fence on that.

(01:05:31):
But,
you know,
things have changed when I was there.
H and M had a high score.
I almost always got the green light.
It was just the random,
we're gonna pull somebody in when I got pulled into a scale and I didn't sweat it,
but now it seems to have changed.
And the only thing I could think of is are they hiring inexperienced drivers?
You know,
what's,

(01:05:51):
what's going on here?
That's why I asked her and she said no,
they're,
their standards have not changed.
So I'm kind of I'm kind of,
you know,
I'm puzzled here.
I don't understand unless there's just lazy people out there that simply aren't doing their job.
We got lazy people out there not doing their job and you know who you are out there.
H and M drivers,
ok.

(01:06:11):
If you're gonna put us all out of a damn job,
you don't get your head out of your ass.
And I think that's the point is let's work together on this.
We've got a couple of guys on here right now that,
you know,
and you trust,
you've heard,
you've heard Zach and Tom's voices on this podcast.
A number of times,
they're always giving us good info.
They're always telling us the truth and here they are kind of trying to rally the troops right now and say,

(01:06:32):
hey,
let's,
let's do a group effort on this thing because if we don't to do a group effort and you've still always got people putting their hazmat signs on upside down or speeding through Georgia,
you never get out from under this rock.
What about a guy?
Ok.
What about a guy that don't take care of the inside of his truck?
You know,
I've heard stories or actually went around a guy that he opened his damn door on his truck and his truck smelled like ass in there.

(01:06:56):
Come on guys.
I mean,
how do you not take care of your house?
Do you live like that at home?
I mean,
how do you,
how do you,
how does somebody get out of a driver's seat?
And the mechanic don't want him to get into a stick out because the seat is so shiny of dirt and grime and grease.
Ok.
Very good point.
Take care of it.
Like it's your own,

(01:07:17):
just like Tom said,
he said,
I got $100,000 pickup sitting in my,
in my,
uh,
driveway.
And when I get into that thing,
I look over it with a fine tooth comb because it's an,
and I want it to last a long time.
I want it to run well.
And like Zach said,
it's only as good as what you're gonna put into it.
So,
put some effort into this and we can make this all go away.

(01:07:38):
This is not a permanent thing by any means.
I gotta tell you when I would bring my shop when I bring my truck into the shop.
Uh,
I would,
I would almost always unless I was just so pressed for time.
I had no option,
but I would almost always plan a trip by the Streak and Beacon.
And while I'm sitting in line waiting to get into the bay,
I'm cleaning,

(01:07:58):
I'm cleaning the inside and I got a dog.
So,
you know,
dog hair and that's what I say.
It's a little hard to keep up with some of the dog hair,
especially when it's like spring or fall.
Oh my God.
This.
Let's say that.
Let's say that,
that,
let's just say that,
that,
you know,
he,
he's not,
he's not one of those clean freaks.

(01:08:20):
All right.
Let's just say that I'm just using him an example.
But you got me,
that takes care of my truck.
I clean it.
I,
I blow it out every time I get in,
I keep it dusted,
I keep it washed.
I've not even the polished the wheels and made me put a wax stop on it every three months.
Ok.
Well,
they bring those in to trade those in and you got Zach's feed all nasty and his,

(01:08:40):
you know,
his trucks just all beat up.
Not taken care of who you think.
Don't get more money.
Whose truck you think they will get more money out of?
Yeah,
I say,
I don't know,
but I think if I were Zach,
I'd be taking offense to that.
My thing is,
I know my,
my biggest,
uh,
guilty one.
I know I put myself on blast here.
But,

(01:09:01):
uh,
I got a German shepherd in the truck.
Uh,
that,
that should get,
that should give you a lot of the information you need to know with,
uh,
fighting with her is,
uh,
like I,
I actually to,
to your point of,
you know,
having,
having a clean truck,
making sure that the truck is,
you know,
tr when,
when they go trade it in.
Like,
I,
I know for a fact because I've been with the company in a little over five years working on my six,

(01:09:26):
I have been and not because I wrecked them before anybody says this been through roughly four trucks over here.
This is my fourth one.
The first one was a recovery.
That one had some issues got in another truck when I got to Omaha,
uh had that truck until mileage had the follow up truck till mileage got this one.
And with that being said,

(01:09:47):
I know because I have a mid the long hair German shepherd,
that fur is gonna be,
know how hard fur is to get out of the carpet in these trucks actually made,
I actually made the extra effort to go to Walmart or wherever you may have and go get the extra carpet that you can put down over top of it to try to ensure that at least I am minimizing.

(01:10:15):
You know,
I'll,
I'll tell you right now from other life experience,
I've sold cars at,
at multiple different,
uh,
career stops in my life between broadcasting jobs and as a car salesman who's looking at a,
at a trade in,
if you accidentally admit to us that you have a dog and that dog spends time in your car,
it doesn't matter how clean it is,

(01:10:37):
you're getting,
you're getting some,
some value taken off the top because we know how long it's going to take to clean the carpets.
And we also know,
and everything.
And if we get in and we roll down the windows and feel like we're in a snow globe all of a sudden,
you know that they're gonna not give you as much.
So these are all great points here,

(01:10:58):
just,
you know,
like we said,
take care of it like you like it's your own and fellas,
we could go on for another 2030 minutes about this stuff.
We are running up against the clock here and so I wanna get it wrapped up by giving you guys each uh Tom Zach and Denny as well.
A chance to say your final thoughts here.
Um Tom,
can we start with you out of this conversation?

(01:11:18):
Kind of sum it up and tell me what you want to tell the other H and M drivers about our current situation.
Then we got,
we don't fix the problem.
Now the future is gonna be,
we're all gonna be looking for another job or we're not gonna get the good freight to get the good miles.
We've been getting cut and dry.
That's simple,
cut and dry,
cut and dry.

(01:11:39):
Take it back.
Think about your paycheck.
That's all I gotta say.
That's,
that should be on the front of your mind all the time.
So Zach,
how about you,
as I said earlier,
pull,
pull your head out of your ass.
We,
we are treated like adults over here is a small company.
You can't just let equipment clip you know,
I know nobody wants to sit and take forever to get an inspection done on a truck or trailer,

(01:12:03):
but it get done like,
and don't pond off to the air driver,
do your job.
Like,
otherwise,
like they said that the situation is only gonna get worse unless you know,
you do your job.
How about you,
Danny?
Anything else to say before we wrap up?
I think he summed it up.
Pull your head out of your ass.

(01:12:24):
I think that's a good final thought.
Yeah.
And I think Mary's up really well with think about your paycheck and pull your head out of your ass.
Those two things right there should pretty much cover your theme for the week.
Tom Zach.
You guys stay safe out there.
It's always a pleasure having you on this podcast.
We appreciate all the effort that you put into it and uh we appreciate the honesty and uh you guys are just awesome every time you come on.

(01:12:49):
So thank you so much,
both of you for being here today.
Hey,
and I also want to reach out.
I just also wanna reach out to all our dispatchers,
Hopper and van side.
We appreciate you guys working with us.
We sometimes get an attitude.
We don't mean to uh there's a lot more stressed out here.
There's a lot more stressed out here than there is in that office.
I probably,

(01:13:11):
you know,
I know you guys got stressed in the office too,
but we appreciate everything you guys do to help us out out here.
That's great sentiment,
Zach.
Go ahead.
Sorry.
No,
II I agree.
It's,
we're,
I don't want to say it like this,
but what one person does with this company affects everybody else.
I'm trying to avoid the carrier saying of that.

(01:13:33):
But it,
it is quite true,
especially when it comes down to the CS A score.
You know,
it,
it is something that affects all of us.
It can literally be caused by one person.
So,
yeah,
I to that point,
I wholeheartedly agree.
It is a stressful environment right now.
Yep.
Yep.
Well,
we'll keep talking about it guys.
Thanks again.
As I said,

(01:13:53):
be safe out there.
We'll talk to you soon.
Ok.
Hey,
you don't want to hear that time for our little safety minute here.
Yeah,
I know we all know this stuff but April our focus is construction.
Those traffic cones are the state flower watch.
They're popping up everywhere.

(01:14:15):
Just a few tips.
Reminders,
like I said,
you know,
all this research your route before setting out,
check it out if you can avoid that construction zone,
all the better,
but they're gonna get stuck in them.
You know,
it pay attention,
slow down,
move into that open lane as soon as you can and keep your distance in 2019.
That's the most recent year.
That data is available.

(01:14:36):
842 people died in highway work zone crashes and a lot of those involved semis.
So be careful work zones present those challenges for us,
narrow lanes,
sudden stops,
traffic patterns,
uneven road surfaces.
And you know,
there's gonna be the ones that are gonna jam up at the front.
They're gonna,
yeah,

(01:14:56):
it's frustrating but we have to deal with it.
So like I said,
plan your route,
reduce speed,
stay alert,
do your part and be safe out there,
drivers just in case you're not aware.
And on top of this,
there is a total solar eclipse,

(01:15:16):
April the eighth,
a total solar eclipse.
That means it's gonna go totally dark in the middle of the day.
Uh We'll be on a path all the way from Texas to Maine this path of totality as they called it.
Close to 32 million people living in the path are expected to see the eclipse.
That's according to NBC news.

(01:15:37):
NASA released a map with a clear view of the path starting in Mexico,
moving across Texas,
Oklahoma,
Arkansas,
Missouri,
Illinois,
Indiana,
Ohio,
New York,
Pennsylvania,
Vermont,
New Hampshire and Maine.
Before exiting out into the North Atlantic.
Now,
just more local to give you an idea.
CBS in Dallas said the prediction of at least 1 million tourists traveling to Texas for the April 8th total solar eclipse has multiple Texas counties issuing disaster declarations to activate every available resource to deal with the expected traffic.

(01:16:11):
The Texas Department of Transportation is warning drivers not to stop on the side of highways and interstates and has banned wide load truck traffic for the day.
According to USA today,
bad traffic and deadly traffic accidents are expected,
especially after the eclipse ends.
Millions of people are gonna crowd into that narrow path of totality to see it go completely dark and then most of them are gonna try to leave all at the same time.

(01:16:37):
And a lot of these are in rural areas,
roads could be especially packed at the center of the eclipsed path,
cities,
towns,
remote areas like I said,
many about the infrastructure to handle big crowds.
A lot of them,
you know,
22 lane highways in Texas,
the highway signs are gonna say no stopping on the highway to view the eclipse,
no parking on the shoulder.
Keep moving.
Crews in Texas are pausing.

(01:16:59):
Uh Most road construction and maintenance uh on the major corridors when a total eclipse occurred just to give you a perspective.
This was back in 2017.
Reports say some traffic jams didn't fully clear for 12 hours or more even worse.
The increased risk of a fatal traffic crash potentially as much as 31% increase.

(01:17:22):
So again,
that's April the eighth check the path you,
the information is out there,
check the path and plan your route and you're driving accordingly.
Y'all be careful out there.
Great stuff there from Zach and Tom.
As always,
really appreciate those guys being here with us.

(01:17:44):
We do have to turn our attention to something uh even more serious than what we're already talking about.
And that is uh what happened to the Francis Scott Key Bridge over uh last week out in Baltimore or a uh if you don't know yet um turn on a TV or look at a cell phone or something because it's been all over the news,
but a cargo ship hit one of the bridge pilings and collapsed the bridge into the Patapsco River.

(01:18:10):
Uh,
this was,
I believe on Tuesday morning,
um,
multiple people injured and also killed here.
We've got six presumed dead at this point.
Danny.
Just tragic stuff here.
Yeah.
Kind of amazing.
I remember when I lived in Fort Walton Beach,
Florida,
the hurricane took out the main bridge going between there and Destin between Fort Walton Beach and Destin.

(01:18:32):
And it was about a year before they got that thing rebuilt.
And people were,
they set up ferry service because there were a lot of people that worked in one or the other.
So they set up a,
a ferry service to,
you know,
it wasn't for cars but for,
to get people back and forth across because otherwise it was about an hour drive.
And I mean,
that wasn't,
that was,
that didn't involve the shipping,

(01:18:53):
the shipping industry,
the trucking industry.
It was just inconvenience for the people that lived around that area,
but this is gonna be just,
uh,
I don't know,
it's gonna take them probably months if not a year just to clean up before they can start reconstruction.
So this is a major thing.
I mean,
I heard that ship wasn't gonna get moved for upwards of two weeks just getting the ship that hit the bridge out of there.

(01:19:18):
And that also includes the uh crew on the ship.
They were ready for a 28 day uh journey down to someplace in the southern ocean somewhere.
I'm not,
I'm not 100% sure on that,
but they had a month long journey.
So they've got supplies and everything to take care of the crew on the ship.
So as long as the ship doesn't start taking on water,

(01:19:38):
they'll be fine,
but two weeks just to get the ship out of the way.
Yeah,
you're looking at months as far as getting the water cleaned up and then that bridge took years to build as it was,
I imagine getting another one in there is going to take a really long time.
Uh It was one of three ways into the harbor in Baltimore,
but from what I understand,

(01:19:59):
not having been there just looking at maps and everything and,
and,
you know,
trolling on uh forums and things like that that truckers like to hang out at.
Seems like this bridge was the one that most of the trucks were using to get to the port and it also is a,
is a massive port when it comes to,
um,
the auto industry here in the United States.

(01:20:19):
This port handles over 51 million tons of cargo every year.
It's our largest port in the country.
Yeah,
I used to pick up bananas out of that port.
Really.
Of all the things.
So you've driven on that bridge multiple times bananas and then with H and M we picked up some other stuff like that.
Potassium,
I think.
But,
uh,
I,
I just remember the bananas because they'd bring them in and take them out of one truck and put them straight into another.

(01:20:44):
They didn't even warehouse them,
they just one that went in to get them off the ship and then they put them straight into my trailer and I headed off for Ohio.
Wow.
Well,
uh,
it looks like job security could be an issue for the port.
Uh,
they're thinking more than 10,000 people who are directly employed by the port of Baltimore,
uh,
might be out of a job or at least be off work for a very long time.

(01:21:08):
The does employ 100 and 50,000 people total.
So it's a small number relatively.
But anytime you see something like this that cost people,
their jobs that weren't involved,
uh,
it,
it makes it even more tragic,
the loss of life,
the loss of time,
the loss of money.
Um,
it,
this,
this is going to have a ripple effect into our economy a lot further than what we've already seen.

(01:21:32):
I mean,
this is going to affect freight rates.
I'm sure down the road,
uh,
suppliers are going to be,
uh,
stuck with what they have because they can't get it out.
I'm sure,
uh,
they can't ship it because the ports and they're not able to get into the port on time or,
or properly.
I don't know.
I'm,
this is just such a sad deal.

(01:21:52):
I,
I feel for all the families,
I mean,
there was a,
there was a crew of six construction guys filling potholes on that bridge when it collapsed and,
you know,
they're not gonna be in a vehicle.
Um,
a couple of people were recovered shortly after one without injuries,
one with serious injuries that went to the hospital and has already been discharged.
So hats off to all the first responders and everybody that,

(01:22:15):
that got there on time,
uh,
from my reading and research on this.
It sounds like the ship sent out an S OS about three minutes before it hit the bridge which gave the authorities time to start to block traffic.
Obviously,
they didn't get traffic completely blocked off.
Um,
but they were able to at least make an effort.

(01:22:37):
And,
um,
as I said,
you know,
thank you to all those first responders out there,
uh doing a job that I never could.
No question in my mind.
Uh It takes a special type of person to respond to a tragedy like this and,
uh,
do it professionally and safely.
And I think that we've got a long way to go to clean this up.
But without those people out there,

(01:22:57):
we would have it a lot farther to go.
Well,
I don't want to be painting rainbows here because obviously it is a serious situation and a sad situation.
But if there is a bright side to this,
it could help the the shipping industry in Florida because freight in Florida is tough,
especially getting freight out of Florida.
So if they start using uh Fort Lauderdale and Miami ports to get this freight in and out,

(01:23:20):
it's gonna increase the trucking in and out of Florida.
So there may be a bright spot in our industry.
But like you said,
it's,
it's gonna be a long road before we get this thing fixed.
Absolutely.
And our uh our thoughts and prayers,
of course,
knowing that that doesn't do much to say that,
but I will say it anyway.
Everybody here at the H and M Trucking Podcast uh is keeping all the people of Baltimore in their thoughts.

(01:23:45):
And of course,
all the drivers being affected by this as well.
They stay in our thoughts right at the forefront of our mind because we know that things are gonna change for you in some way,
shape or form.
Unfortunately,
those waters haven't been navigated yet.
But uh here's to hoping that that a coordinate effort between all the people that need to be involved can be made.
And hopefully,
this is uh this is not something that we're dealing with for years to come,

(01:24:08):
but months to come.
So if you have,
uh if you want to do any other research on this,
if,
if I'm telling you this for the first time,
a week after it happened,
I will tell you right now,
you should look some stories up.
Uh We got a lot of our information from this article or from this for this episode from an article from CBS News.
So,
uh thanks for that.
And uh you know what,

(01:24:28):
Denny,
we went so long with both of our interviews this week that I'm not even gonna bother a stand alone outro to this.
We're just gonna go ahead and wrap episode 53 up right here.
Uh Sorry to send it out on kind of a sad note,
but an important note for sure.
This is something that we should all be keeping an eye on.
And uh with that,
I'll say thanks for being here,

(01:24:48):
Denny and uh we'll see you again next week.
My friend,
next time drivers be safe out there and stay fresh cheese bags.
Thank you for listening to the H and M Trucking podcast.
Please leave a review,
subscribe and connect with Marcus over at the H and M trucking social media channels.

(01:25:10):
And if you're considering a job at H and M,
find us at HM trucking.com.
Until next time,
stay safe and ahead of the curve drivers.