December 16, 2025 • 45 mins
Kevin was on the floor of the 20th Anniversary of the Rush Enterprises Tech Skills Rodeo at the Gaylord, Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville TN,; he described the trip to Nashville, on Saturday, through the Winter Weather Advisories, Sunday's Collision Center competition, setting up the ATN booth at the venue, the night dinner cruise on the General Jackson, talks with Rush Enterprises, Jody Pollard, Senior Vice President, Vehicle After Market Sales & Robb Nixon, Vice President Sales and Tech Rodeo competitor, Chris Purcell, Atlanta Technician, Grand Champion 2021 and 2024.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is America's Trucking Network with Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Welcome aboard, Thanks for tuning in on this Tuesday morning.
We are on the floor twentieth anniversary Rush Enterprises Tech
Skills Rodeo at the Gaylord opry Land Resort and Convention
Center in Nashville, Tennessee. And I want to tell you,
for my first time, I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
What to expect.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
But yesterday when I came in actually Sunday, when I
came into the event or came into the venue to
get the booth set up, get our equipment set up
and everything, I was surprised by the number of vendors.
I come to find out that there's over four hundred
and forty vendors. They are paying for this, they are
(00:49):
sponsoring this, and this is an opportunity at this tech
tech Rodeo of where Rush Enterprises brings together all their
different technicians MCANX and they've expanded this into not only
people in the collision center, but also the leasing, the
parts department, the sales department, all different aspects of their
(01:10):
business coming into what they call their Skills Rodeo to
show their skills through certain testing, written tests.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
And the qualifications even.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
To get here, and then they test their skills while
they're here and award the prizes. And it's absolutely remarkable.
Now where we are located, it's amazing because we're right
at the beginning, right in the front. Kind of set
the stage for you. Right across from us is a
display from International Truck and a little bit over as
(01:45):
Peter Bilt, I look up the aisle here I can
see Azuzu, and I see Lucas Oil, and I see
some of the other vendors, and we'll probably talk about
them over the next couple of days because we're here.
We're here today, we'll be here Tom and the the
actual well actually, since this is running at night, we
(02:05):
were there actually Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and then at Tuesday
night they we'll have the various awards ceremony. Uh So
it's it's been a lot of fun up to this point.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Kind of let me set the stage.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
For you how we got here, because they say, you
know the old saying showing up is half the battle.
Well it was more than half the battle. Uh you know,
having to pack up everything to bring it to the show,
and making sure that you know when you're traveling but
making sure that I had all the recording equipment and
(02:39):
everything set up so that we could actually do the
show from here. That was interesting, but you know, we've
done it before, We've gone down to Mats and kind
of figured we had a handle on it, but of
course you have to throw the wrinkle into it. On
Saturday when we drove down, we what we had what
three weather emergencies or weather advisories we nugain in between
(03:01):
the week left in between what was an advisory one
and Advisory two. And on our way down here we
stopped for dinner and I think we had Advisory three
on the way as well. But getting to the and
I got to tell you, if you've never been to
the Gaylord opper Land Resort and Convention Center, it is
(03:22):
just absolutely amazing. All under one roof the amount of
the convention center, of the floor space, and just the
venue itself for the resort hotel, all the amenities that
you can imagine they have this They have actually two
atriums and the it's kind of well, it's basically the
(03:45):
rooms are set up as a horseshoe if you will,
or brackets and the balconies all look over this courtyard
and one is the restaurant area and there's water features
and so on, and then another one that's actually this
canal that runs through and that you can actually take
a little boat ride through and see the entire the
(04:09):
entire area. Walking around, you go down these different corridors
and it's not just a hotel, but you go down
to this area between the two atriums and there's a
whole bunch of shops.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
You actually feel like you're.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Walking through a city and walking through city streets and
doing a window shopping and seeing all the different different
shops on either side and all the stuff that's available.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
And of course they have all.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
The amenities in terms of spas and all that sort
of thing, which is amazing. But coming in on it
was kind of an interesting scheduling process. We got in
on Saturday, kind of late because of the delays and
a little bit of snow delay and whatever. But Sunday
(04:58):
they had the venue where a lot of the vendors
were getting set up. But at the same time they
also have the beginning of the competition, and so they
had the body shop competition over in Smyrna Tech, Tennessee,
which is about a twenty twenty twenty five minute drive
from here, and since it's part of the competition, I
(05:20):
wanted to drive over and see that, and so getting
the directions for that, and then going to watch that
and seeing them compete, and then trying to time it
so that I got back here in order to set
the booth up and everything. And then we had a
cruise last night on the General Jackson that was again
(05:40):
sponsored by Rush Truck Centers, Dinner and Entertainment. It's about
a four hour cruise I think it was from start
to finish by the time he got on the boat.
And again, if you've not been down to Nashville and
tried that, of course I wouldn't suggest doing it.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
What was attempt last night?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
It started out I think at eighteen degrees and by
the time we got off the boat it was five
with a windchill factor in the minus figures, So not
a whole lot of time spent out on the deck
and taking pictures. But you'd run out there and try
to take a couple of pictures of the scenery and
drown through the downtown Nashville area and try to get
some of those pictures, but then run back in and
(06:23):
wore them up. A little bit and run back out
and try to get a few more pictures.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
But it was a lot of fun crews.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
But yesterday Sunday morning, I got up and I went
over to the Collision center again down in Smyrna, Tennessee.
And the way they set this up is they have
two basic competitions. They have the competition of the repair
and then the painting process. And in the collision department
(06:52):
they had a fender, a fiberglass fender that had two
of the corners broken off and holes punched in them
in that period of time. As far as the competition,
you have to fill the hole, square the thing off,
get it polished and then ready to be painted. And
watching these people again it's not something I've ever watched before.
(07:16):
But the sponsor, one of the sponsors of the competition,
three M products. They were here and it's interesting to
see the judges walking around with their clipboards and looking
at any all the individual stations where these people were
working and talking to the people afterwards, they were saying
it was a little nerve wracking again if they've only
(07:38):
done it, if it is their first time, but some
of the people that have been here before, it's not
so challenged or not so intimidating, because as you're working
and you're doing something, you got somebody walking by and
they're looking at what you're doing, and they're writing something
on a note, or they're doing check marks or something
like that. You're going, well, what are they looking at you?
What are they seeing? What are they not? So it's
(08:02):
fascinating for it's really fascinating from that aspect. And as
they were describing to me, I had the opportunity to
talk to Mitch Davison. He is head of the collision
department for Rush Trucks Center, and we'll have him on
over the sometime over the next couple of days to
talk to him. But how the three m people will
go through and there is they will judge on approach,
(08:28):
how they repair, how they go about because apparently on
the repair of these holes and stuff, there's a couple
of different methods or ways that you can do that.
So they judge them based on the what selection they made,
and then of course their technique of putting it together. Now,
on the paint side, they had two fenders that were
(08:49):
there that they were repairing or not repairing, but painting,
and to see them buff the thing out, do the
prime and then they had colors to choose from and
they were going to then do the colors of the
individual fenders and they talked about that. They had to
(09:10):
make sure that well, one of the things is they
could put striping on it, so you could put a design,
and they told them, well, time permitting, be as creative
as you want, because that will be part of the
judging process. And so seeing the technicians work on those
and how they're looking at that and how they're approaching that,
(09:31):
polishing it and so on. It was. It was very
interesting and I don't know who's going to win. They
haven't announced that yet, but they've got the semi finalists,
some of the lists there. But the competition is just
intense and the number of people involved. And we've got
a couple of interviews coming up. We're going to be
(09:51):
talking with Jody Pollard in the next segment. Jody Pollard
is the senior vice president of the senior vice president
Vehicle Aftermarket Sales and Rob Nixon, vice president of sales.
We've talked to them, talk about the talk to them
on this program before and then to finish up, we're
going to be talking with Chris Purcell. He was the
(10:12):
Grand Champion winner last year and in twenty twenty one,
and hopefully he wants to try to repeat this year.
I'm Kevin Gordon, America's truck In Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
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Trico aftermarket sales and Rob Nixon, VP of Sales. If
you listen to America's Trucking Network before, you know we've
talked to these two gentlemen before, usually by phone, but
actually here at the twentieth anniversary of the Rush Enterprises
Tech Skills Rodeo, we actually get to do this in person,
which is really a thrill for.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
This is great and here for us to do this
in person.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
It is now.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I think we spoke a couple of years ago at
the MATS.
Speaker 7 (12:08):
Conference when we were given the truck away. Yeah, that
was a pretty unique event.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
That was quite an event.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, now so far, this being my first time here,
this blows me away. The dedication of Rush Enterprises to
this end of the business and the amount of time, effort,
money put into this because you described that last night
very well, so kind of go through that with us
(12:33):
a little bit.
Speaker 7 (12:34):
Yes, people, twenty years ago, right here in Nashville, Tennessee,
we started our first tech Skills rodeo. It really was
just primarily focused on our technicians. We thought about it,
how do you recruit somebody to come work for you,
but also how do you retain them and then incentivize
them to do all the training and to really hone
their skill set throughout the year. And we said, you know,
(12:55):
a tech rodeo might be the way to solve for that.
So that's where it all originated within the thought process
because we knew technicians are very hard to attract and
to keep inside your business, and they're the heartbeat of
the dealership. So that's how the rodeo kind of started
in concept and theory and we put it in action.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
It's crazy what it's turned into.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Now.
Speaker 7 (13:15):
We we really kind of touch every point of sale
person We had our dealership parts of personnel, after market
sales reps, obviously.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Technicians that evolved.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
We just you know, when you start off with the
tech Skills rodeo, you've got the people in the service department.
Then I guess a natural natural evolution of that would
be maybe the collision center. I don't know if that
body shop personnel. And then all of a sudden, I
guess maybe it was was it was it pressure from
the other members of the team and say, well, hey,
what about our skills, let us get involved from the sales,
(13:48):
leasing and.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
All that great question.
Speaker 7 (13:50):
We even dropped technicians skills rodeo, that's what it was.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
Originally.
Speaker 7 (13:54):
We dropped it to just tech because of the technical
attributes of every single person that compete here at the rodeo.
And the reason really was we tried to understand, hey,
we had this one particular purpose in mind on how
you retain technicians, but how do we use this as
an overall engagement event for employees that may not necessarily
(14:14):
get the recognition that they need every single day. And
really it's about their enrichment of their career and that
they have a place that they can feel like is
going to invest in them for a bounty full career.
So parts of people were you know, parts of people
are pretty unique individuals. They got to be accurate one
hundred percent of the time, or a lot of things
downstream don't get right right, So that's well, let's recognize them.
(14:37):
Let's make sure that they we recognize the best of
the best collision. Have you've seen some of this work
here at the show. These guys are masterpieces on how
they do collision and paintwork. And then we talked about
our overall purpose as a company, how can we incorporate
the real mission behind what we do? And at Rush Enterprises,
(15:02):
you know we have a purpose. It's to keep the
global economy up and running by committing to our customers
that we give them the maximum amount of uptime. And
so we bought our salespeople a part of that process
well as well, because it's a real culture thing here
at Rush. And probably what you've witnessed Kevin over the
last twenty four hours is people love this rodeo. I
(15:24):
mean they they get really excited about it. And there's
obviously some unique things that are going to happen on
Tuesday night. We potentially can crown a new champion. I
saw you talk to Chris Purcell a few minutes ago,
and he's all about the rodeo. Really humble guy, very
talented technician, but I mean the first time he won,
(15:45):
he won over sixteen thousand dollars in cash and prizes.
That's a life changing event. Oh yeah, especially in a
time of year where you know, you could use a
little extra cash on Christmas time. And what's unique why
we called it the rodeo is because really the time
frame you see everybody wearing Western attire here. It's like
our little version of the NFR, you know, So the
(16:05):
National Finals Rodeo.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
And so on Tuesday night we'll.
Speaker 7 (16:11):
Give out two hundred and eighty eight thousand dollars to
our employees and in twenty years of doing that, that
will eclipse the three million dollar mark. And making sure
our employees know that they are our most important asset
and we try to treat them with the respect and
dignity and a job. A lot of times it just
gets forgotten. So that's what this thing is all about.
(16:32):
I'm really proud to be a part of it. Russy's
extremely enthusiastic about this event, and everybody who works on
this committee they have regular jobs too. They really throw
their heart and soul and making sure that our employees
have a grand time. And lastly, it's really a way
to bridge the relationships and partnerships with our suppliers, you know,
we're pushing their products every day and a lot of
(16:52):
times that knowledge is transferred here at the rodeo and
what new product lines are out there, so we can
go tell our customers the next thing that they're on
the horizon with the product lines.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
We're speaking with Jody Pollard, he is a senior vice
president Vehicle Aftermarket Sales, and we're gonna be talking roun event,
but this aspect of it, and we mentioned that you
mentioned the individual of suppliers. The fact that their participation
in this and the various displays around here is mind
(17:25):
boggling because you know, when I walked in, I didn't
know what to expect and it was beyond the expectations
that I had yesterday filling and setting up the station.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
And looking around everything.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Now, this is not cheap to put this on and
for people that you know they sounds tech rodeo and
this sort of thing. Now, there is a lot of planning,
there's a lot of investment, and there's a lot of
logistics and a lot of money involved in this.
Speaker 7 (17:53):
Yeah, and again, yeah, this is not cheap. And moving
it to Nashville to kind of commemorate the twentieth annivers
had its own logistical challenges. And obviously you you plan
for these things a year round, but this one you
had to plan about four years in advance. And you know,
the trucking industry has had a little bit of challenges
(18:14):
this past year, so it was extremely nervous in terms
of how we could fund this event. So I put
my best timeshare salesman had on and UH went to
talk to our suppliers and they have just completely amazed me.
They floored me in terms of they believe in this
Rodeo two and they stepped up in every tremendous amount
of way to make sure that we we had a
(18:37):
really good event. And UH we fully funded by the suppliers,
fully funded, fully funded. And the thing that I would
tell you is like the unique connection we bring every
single aftermarket sales rep to Nashville. There are four hundred
in our company, and so for them, that's the value
because they get to touch to every they get to
(18:58):
touch and talk to every single after market sales rep
about their product line.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
So that's the real.
Speaker 7 (19:04):
Value that we brought in about seven years ago and
making sure that every single aftermarket sales rep is here
and we have a sales conference even on Sunday. You
didn't get to witness that, but eight am on Sunday
we have a sales conference and we're challenging them on
how you know, they can meet our strategic objectives in
this year and beyond.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
That's incredible.
Speaker 7 (19:25):
But this event, it's like seven events in one and
you'll see tonight it's a pretty cool event to where
we bring who will be competing tomorrow in the finals.
You know they're all testing right now, but who's going
to be the finalist to go after the big money
on Tuesday gets announced tonight, So it's always a special time.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Okay, let's bring Robin here and we'll introduce him and
then we'll transition to the next segment because we're getting
up against a little bit of a break here. So
Rob Nixon, VP of Sales, I want to talk a
little bit about.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
Yeah, I'll just you know, really add to what Jodi
spoke about.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
We're on the trade show floor right now where we've
brought in all of our suppliers and vendors, and at RUSH,
we really pride ourselves as being product solutions providers. You know,
if I'm an aftermarket salesperson and I'm calling on a
customer and they've got something unique or they need a
product solution, We've got to learn about that product.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
So it gives us.
Speaker 6 (20:19):
An opportunity to gain product knowledge, meet our suppliers so
that we've got personal relationships with them and we really
know who's who so that we can better serve our customers.
So in total, you know, there's four hundred and forty
aftermarket salespeople here that includes our That's.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Why I was curious about how many people are involved.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
Four and forty.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
So imagine, folks, You've got technicians from around the country
coming here to compete, and you've got four hundred and
forty vendors that support this right that bring their equipment
and their stuff here for people to compete. And the
cost of this thing is three million dollars.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Yep, we'll have to.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Pick this up on the other side of the break
let that sink in free putting the the just the
sheer volume of this alone is incredible.
Speaker 6 (21:06):
Yeah, it is a big annual event, and it's really
you know, the one time per year that we get
to bring everybody together, and it gives us an opportunity
to not only talk about our results prior year, but
really what we're focused on is the future.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
What a strategy.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
What are we trying to accomplish at RUSH as an
aftermarket sales team? And so you know my expectations, and
I know they did. They'll walk out of this event
and they understand.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Stop right, sure what they expect when we come back.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
I'm Kevin Gordonmericus Tructing Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 8 (21:39):
News Traffic and Weather News Radio seven hundred w l W, Cincinnati.
Speaker 9 (21:46):
The President comments on the latest school shooting, seemingly placing
the blame on the school. If you're twelve thirty reports,
I'm Ley mawin breaking now. No arrest have be made
from the shooting at Brown University, where two students were
killed nine others injured. ABC News White House correspondent Karen
Travers got the latest comments from President Donald Trump.
Speaker 10 (22:07):
President Trump said he didn't know the motive of the
shooter at Brown University this weekend. He spoke about the
investigation with reporters in the Oval Office.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
We're going to see what happens. Hopefully they're going to
capture this animal.
Speaker 10 (22:19):
Asked whether the f behind Director Cash Pttel had told
him why it's been so difficult to find the suspect.
The President said, quote, it's always difficult and seem to
put the blame on Brown. Karen Travers, ABC News, The
White House.
Speaker 8 (22:31):
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Weather Center on news Radio seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 11 (22:38):
It won't be quite as cold Tuesday morning, but still
pretty rough out there as we dropped down to seventeen
degrees Tuesday afternoon, some bigger improvements. Highs will be near
thirty seven with a lot of sunshine helping him out
away more of that weekend snow, and then it won't
be as cold Wednesday morning, only dropping down to thirty two.
From your severe weather station, I'm night First Warning meter
(22:58):
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Speaker 5 (23:02):
Clear skies and twenty three degrees.
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A group of elderly, low income tenants made their voices
heard on proposed rent increases of the Victoria Visit disapartments.
Now they're getting a small temporary reprieve, building owner Kingsley
and Company announcing a deal until at least March that
maintains current rents with no addictions planned. Eleven tenants in
a low income program faced rent increases of over one
(23:25):
thousand dollars per month. Former Cincinnati Bengal And Company owner
Jinnerdoon and Duque said, so act we'll cover the rent
difference through March. Hamlet County and Cincinnati officials continue to
seek grants and tax breaks to help permanently cover this
difference for the tenants.
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Your next update is that one.
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Speaker 13 (24:14):
Here's our trucking forecast for the Try State and the
rest of the country and the Try sit Overnight skies
clearing the low down to seventeen sunny Tuesday high of
thirty seven. Wednesday mostly Claudie Sky's becoming sunny, highs in
the lower forties. Afternoon rain Thursday, a high of fifty
three nationally into Tuesday. Heavy snow seen in the Great
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(24:35):
and Ontario. Meanwhile, further west, heavy snow scene in the
Cascades and Northern Rockies.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Seven hundred WLW. I'm Kevin Gordon. This is America'strucking Network.
Continue our conversation with Jody Pollard, Senior Vice President Vehicle
Aftermarket Sales and Rob Nixon, VP of Sales and pre
Before the break, we were talking about the different aftermarket
people that are here and the events, and then what
you want them to come away with and what you
guys want to come away with too.
Speaker 6 (25:07):
Yeah, sure it again, it's in a great event where
you know, primarily we get to initially talk about the
environment we're in and you know, I've been on your
show before and we talked about that it's still an
inflationary environment. And we get to review those numbers and
really we get to we get to the core of
what is the sentiment of our customer and quite frankly,
you know, we feel like they're getting squeezed. They're always
(25:30):
consistently looking at their maintenance costs and how do they
do that? So, you know, I hope all of our
aftermarket salespeople leave this event really strategically looking at our
primary two initiatives, and that is one we want to
drive more value to our customers. We think they need it,
you know, with five percent inflation this year, and it
may roll up a little higher than that.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
That's what expected in the industry.
Speaker 6 (25:51):
In the industry, spricing just keeps going up, and so
we think it's going up much faster than the number
of miles driven per year.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
So there's a little disk there.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
There's a separation between what's it costing me to maintain
my fleet versus my primary revenue running. If you just
looked at it from a ratio standpoint, there's about a
four percent disparity there. So we want to drive value
as a company, and driving value is not always just
about price. It's about alternatives as well. How do we
as a company provide more value. And then secondly, it's
(26:21):
about speed. We want to get faster as a company,
and we want to get faster from a.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
Part standpoint, just the basics.
Speaker 6 (26:28):
You call in, you order a part, how quickly does
it take me to get that to you the end user?
Speaker 5 (26:35):
And well the important.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Thing about that too is how quickly you can get
that to the end user against Rob Nixon, vice president
of Sales, Obviously that part is needed for a truck
that's down right, and if the truck is down, it's
not on the road and generating right exactly. And so
to speed up that process and to make sure that
that is done on a very fast basis is extremely important,
(27:00):
which then again is a value to the customer that
you guys provide that maybe somebody else doesn't provide.
Speaker 6 (27:07):
Absolutely, and speed to delivery all starts with Phil Rate,
and Phil Rate is do I have the part on
the shelf when you called me? So we've got to
be really good at that before we ever start thinking
about pulling the part, putting on a truck and dispatching
that to the customer.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Well, and the overall concept of the number of parts
and the availability of the parts that there are, you
have to be very good of making sure that you
have the right mix of parts.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
That you can't stock everything.
Speaker 6 (27:38):
No, I mean ince when you think of AI, that's
typically what you used in the industry to not only
you've sold it to reorder and making certain you've got
not just the right part, but the quantity on hand
in the shelf. And you know, at Rush we still
carry over four hundred million dollars in parts inventory across
one hundred.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
And fifty seven locations. So speed is it for part,
it's delivery.
Speaker 6 (28:01):
And when we think about service, this is where strategically
we want to continue to expand our mobile service operations.
And so why is that so important mobile service because
speed equals dwell time lowered for our customer. So without
a doubt, if I can come to the customer versus
them coming to me, we can cut that dwell time
(28:22):
in half. So we think our customers expectations just continue
to want faster service, faster repair. We talked about it.
If it's not running, they're not generating revenue, so out.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Of time we cut them back.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
And the timing of that mobile service could actually be
when they're on their downtime, so it's not necessarily taking
them off the road. There may be a brake system
or you know, the hours of service, and they may
be off at a particular time, and if the mobile
service can get to them and then take care of it,
then it's a win win because they're not off the
road technically right for any long period of time, and
(28:57):
there's truck is serviced and service well so it doesn't
break down later on as well.
Speaker 6 (29:02):
And when you think of that strategically trying to decrease
the dwell time and speed, it's really it's about hours
of operations.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
When will you work, do you work weekends? Will you
work grievyard shifts?
Speaker 6 (29:13):
All those things, And really our mobile service team is
geared up to do those things. They're working less traditional
hours than our brick and mortar technicians on the yard.
So anyway, they've got a great skill set. So many
of them are here with us today. I'll have a
great time interacting with them tonight and tomorrow. But we
value those technicians and they help us meet our strategic
(29:36):
in we want value and we want speed for our customers.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Oh and you guys provided for sure.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Because I know a lot of people that I talk
to from time to time in the business. They're always
raving about rush truck centers. They're talking about how.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Good it is.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
So before we get out of here, one of the
things we need to talk about, and we're talking with
and now with Jodi Pollard, Senior vice president Vehicle after
Market Sales, is we've got some emission standards, emission changes
coming up with the first of the year.
Speaker 7 (30:04):
Well it'll be a twenty twenty seven. So I mean
we've talked multiple times this past year. I don't think
too much has changed and respected the landscape of complexity
that this year has brought for our industry, everything from
interest rates to the general freight economy. I should start,
I should start right there is the general freight economy
(30:25):
due to just being too much capacity, but also you know,
just the regulation uncertainty that has just happened to our industry.
And there was a lot of clear things that were
made with the Trump administration, with the ev mandate going away.
Speaker 5 (30:38):
There's been a lot of good work.
Speaker 7 (30:40):
But in respect to what was the law of the
land before the Trump administration was that we were going
to get to thirty five milligram and Knox by twenty
twenty seven. And I believe this the manufacturers as well
as the EPA is going to keep that as the
law of the land.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
For your listeners, you know, I would just.
Speaker 7 (31:02):
Tell you that there's a certainly amount of inventory on
the ground that if you are making a truck purchase
because your business requires it, you know this next calendar,
you're you really need to contact the rush truck centers
because you know this, you could get into a particular
area where it's limited amount of allocation or some form
(31:23):
of allocation leading into an emissions change in twenty twenty seven.
So we are already out there telling our fleets to
start playing now, but sometimes the small to mid sized
carrier guy doesn't necessarily know all this information. With each
technology change, the first you know, bad out of the box,
if you will, has its set of challenges. Always new
(31:44):
products had its set of challenges, and I'm not speaking
fearedom in any stretch of the imagination, but we know
the product or what it is today and how it performs.
So if you are trying to make business decisions based
on capital deployment on buying new trucks, you really need
to start thinking about doing that right now because it
(32:06):
could get very tight in the second half of twenty
twenty six leading into twenty twenty seven when the emission
change does happen.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Well, of course, you know there's a there's a timeframe,
and I mean, if you have to place the order,
the company needs to know how many they have to
manufacture and then plan for people coming in at the
last minute.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Type of thing.
Speaker 7 (32:29):
So and certainly it you know this industry in your
customers or excuse me, your listeners. It's been a challenging
year out there, and you know they're probably put.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
Off the truck sale or truck buying for a while now.
Speaker 7 (32:44):
And you know, there's a lot more miles that are
on trades that we're seeing right now. Six hundred thousand
mile trades were the traditional five hundred thousand miles or
even that those three hundred thousand miles. So you've got
to be pretty conscientious of that too by extending your mileage,
because that resist becomes a factor when you go, you know,
want to buy a new truck. So it's been a
(33:06):
it's been a very what I would say, it's been
a constant news cycle in the trucking industry right now.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
But well, and the thing is that we've talked about
in the past is that you guys are there not
just to sell vehicles, but to actually educate them and
work with your customers that to let them know what's
going on and so that they can plan ahead and
know where they need to be.
Speaker 7 (33:33):
Yeah, for me, it's every week seems like I just
made a comment about that news cycle. I am relearning
things that I've already learned because I was a year
ago talking about battery electric vehicles and this year I'm
not talking about battery electric vehicles. I'm talking about thirty
five milligram Knox. So yes, education is a very reliable
(33:55):
source when you're making business decisions and the rules are
getting a little bit more established, so you know how
to plan for your fleet.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
And so you know anybody out there that are looking
to plan this www.
Speaker 7 (34:06):
Dorush Truck Centers dot Com exactly and we can definitely
serve your needs. We have plenty of inventory on the
ground and we can always use one of our truck
sales specialists to spec you as a specific truck.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Very good, Jody Polers, Thank you very much.
Speaker 5 (34:19):
Jody Poler is good to be with you. Happy holidays.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Happy holidays to you too.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Vice Presidents of Vehicle Afromarket Sales and Rob Nixon, VP
of Sales. Thank you guys both for stopping by and
certainly appreciate it. I'm Kevin Bordon, America's struck In Network
seven hundred Wlwright.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
News Radio seven hundred WLW and iHeartRadio Station Guarantee Human
seven hundred WLW HI Heard Radio.
Speaker 5 (34:47):
This is Jim. Hello.
Speaker 12 (34:48):
Jim started advertising with iHeartRadio way back in April.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
And now I have customers out the door. And this
is Sarah Hi. She start.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Seven hundred WLW. I'm Kevin Gordon. This is America's struck
A Network. I have the pleasure of speaking with Chris Purcell.
We're at the Rush Enterprises twentieth Anniversary Tech Skills Rodeo,
and well I have again Chris Purcell. Last year was
the Grand Champion, already had done well.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Anyway, We'll leave it up to you. Tell us all
about yourself, and I guess, sir.
Speaker 14 (35:27):
I've been with Rush Truck Centers for twenty six years,
been to the rodeo eight times. This is my last year,
was my second time as Grand Champion, and I'm here
competing again in the International Medium Duty Division and hoping
to do it again.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
But all I can do is try. Well, That's all
you can do is do your best.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
That's right now, looking back in terms of the competition,
the eighth time, right that you competed, that's right. What's
the difference between year one and I guess how many
times did you compete before you won the first grand prize?
Speaker 14 (36:02):
I believe it was six times competing before I won
the Grand Champion the first time back in twenty twenty one,
and that was actually virtual, so it was online.
Speaker 5 (36:11):
A lot of it was question and answers.
Speaker 14 (36:13):
There was a little bit of interactive diagnostics, you.
Speaker 5 (36:16):
Know, over the computer.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Uh huh.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
But yeah, one Grand Champion twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Okay, so I guess I would obviously twenty twenty one.
Having to be virtual is completely different than doing to
the person.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
Yeah, winning it in person was great.
Speaker 14 (36:30):
Just the atmosphere we had, the camaraderie and everything that.
I don't congratulating you, the cheers, the pictures, interviews afterwards.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
I mean it was just a big deal.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Yeah, absolutely, that's that is I mean, well, being the
top champion and anything is great, and the fact that
this is one of those areas of expertise and so on.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
So what was the competition like so far this year?
Speaker 14 (36:58):
It's the same in the essence that they bug your truck,
they don't give you any information. When the clock starts,
they hand your work order, you got a customer complaint
on there, and you go from there. Sometimes they're looking
for procedures, sometimes they're looking for your knowledge, and you
never know which path is the best.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
To take uh huh? Now is okay? I mentioned that?
Speaker 2 (37:19):
So is there a starting point or I guess everybody's
a little different the way they approach things, or is
it pretty much the same or if you.
Speaker 14 (37:28):
Kind of take it from a shop environment, I mean
you want to go by your knowledge to kind of
fast track the diagnostic and repair. So based on the
symptom you would want to tackle it off of, you know,
your experience, where do you start? I'm going to check
these few things first before I go to a manual
or before I start a procedure.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Now, because in a lot of instances, I would assume
that it's something that maybe you've encountered before.
Speaker 14 (37:53):
Correct ye, And sometimes well a lot of times at
the shop, there are a lot of things you do
see repetitively. So yeah, you've seen this happen two or
three times, so you're going to automatically go there to
see if that's the failure and this it is?
Speaker 2 (38:05):
How like going to the manual and saying, okay, step one,
step two, step three, correct, I can skip all that
because I've seen this before. I've heard about this before.
Let's start at step five, six seven.
Speaker 14 (38:16):
That's right, And in this environment, it may be something
you've run across before, but it may not.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Uh huh.
Speaker 14 (38:23):
The judges they figure out the bugs every year. They
put the bugs on the truck for you to figure out.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
I think that would be kind of an interesting task
right there alone. Okay, how can we challenge these guys
this year about this? By the way, I'm speaking with
Chris Purcell. He is the grand champion last year and
also in twenty twenty one, a service technician out of
Atlanta and.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Joining us here.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
So I guess, from the standpoint of the people setting
this up, what could we complicate or what can we
do to make this a little more challenging this year
last year? How can we do this? I think that
would be kind of a I.
Speaker 14 (39:04):
Think it's this challenging itself, just just because of the unknown. Well, uh,
your judge has a clipboard and he's got boxes he's
marking off, and.
Speaker 5 (39:11):
You have no idea what they are.
Speaker 14 (39:13):
Uh huh, you don't know, like I said previously, if
they're going for a knowledge or procedure. Oh okay, So
as far as what they can do to make it
more challenging, they do a really good job every year.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Well you know, you know, you look at I look
at these things in terms of I don't know if
you've watched any of the cooking shows or the cooking
competitions where they have the judges, and from what I've noticed,
it's not like that because in those instances, the judges
will come around and they'll be asking the person questions
and going, well, you know, why are you using this
ingredient on this and you're trying to do this. They're
(39:47):
not supposed to interfere. They're just observing. And then you said,
you don't know what they're observing or what they're asking,
whether they're looking for on the procedural point, did he
do this, this and this or the technique even correct.
Speaker 14 (40:01):
We try to ask questions throughout and most of the
time we either get most of the time the judges
tell you I can't answer that, so they give no guidance.
Speaker 5 (40:12):
Say you're on your own. You're on this sick Er swim,
You're on your own. If you make it to day
two competition.
Speaker 14 (40:18):
It's a little bit different because you have to test
on in my category, you test on an international and
then a Peterbilt, and being an international technician, I'm familiar
with Peterbilt.
Speaker 5 (40:29):
They do kind of guide.
Speaker 14 (40:30):
You as and they would ask you what would you
do working on your product an international When you would
describe that to them, they say, well, we got something
similar to that.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
So day two.
Speaker 5 (40:41):
You get a little bit of.
Speaker 14 (40:42):
Guidance when you're working on the unfamiliar product, but when
you're working on your own product, there's no guidance.
Speaker 5 (40:48):
It's just you do what you do.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Oh that's cool. Now let's get to you for a
moment here.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Yeah, Chris Persall is the Grand Champion last year and
also in twenty twenty one, hoping for a third champion
chip this year. You've been with the company for fourteen years,
you said, twenty six, twenty six, Oh my goodness, I'm sorry. Oh,
there's somebody person right before you.
Speaker 6 (41:10):
That was.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
But so what got you in the got you into
the business in the first place?
Speaker 3 (41:15):
How did you come about?
Speaker 14 (41:17):
Right to high school, I was working at automotive quickly places,
changing oil, moved up to another place, did a little
bit more as far as tune ups breaks and got
a call that they were looking for an opening for
electrical tech.
Speaker 5 (41:30):
At that time, noally motor trucks.
Speaker 14 (41:32):
And now there's a fairly large Automotive group in the
Atlanta area, and I worked there started worked there in
ninety nine and I'm still the same location. But Rush
purchased Nally's truck side through an acquisition in twenty eleven,
so I've been at the same location since nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
Wow, that's great.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
So in terms of you wanted to get into that
industry right from the start.
Speaker 5 (41:59):
I think it.
Speaker 14 (42:00):
You get that sense of accomplishment for making repairs. I've
got the curiosity wanting to know why something failed, why
something works.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
I always had that.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
That's kind of along the lines of, I guess the
engineering brain type of thing where people always want to
figure out how something works, how it's put together, how
it you know, why it's not working, how it works,
and dig into that.
Speaker 14 (42:21):
Right in our industry, you know, sometimes you run across
a lot of repeat failures because nobody ever found the
root cause of what issue was, uh huh. And I
get a lot of that in my shop. If something's
been to this shop, that shop, or even at our
shop a time or two, then it ends up in
my lap to figure out why it keeps happening and
(42:42):
make sure it doesn't happen again.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Oh, that's great.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
So in terms of this year, as far as the
competition is concerned, stuffer competition or can you even tell?
Speaker 14 (42:51):
At this you see a lot of the same faces
year after year, and you know everybody that makes.
Speaker 5 (42:55):
It here is a good technician.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Uh huh.
Speaker 14 (42:57):
The repeat competitors, I mean, you know that they've got
a leg up on the guys that's never been here before.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
H huh. They kind of know.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Well, you guys know what to expect when you come in,
and so it's not a culture shock for you exactly.
Speaker 5 (43:08):
It's it's a different experience every time.
Speaker 14 (43:12):
The nerves never go away, but at least as opposed
to a newcomer, the season techs that's been here numerous times,
they know what to expect, so they're a little bit
more of a challenge, I would say, even though you
don't know what your score is compared to somebody else's.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
Again, we're talking with Chris Purcell.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
He is the past Grand champion in twenty twenty one
and last year and hopefully again this year. One final
question for you, any advice for anybody interested in getting
into this area? What can you recommend? What do you
you know? How do you suggest people get involved.
Speaker 14 (43:47):
If you're looking to get into the heavy duty truck
repair aspect as a technician. There are a lot of
trade schools out there, and RUSH has a great program
as an entry level. After you've graduated trade school, they've
got an entry level mentor program that they'll bring you
in and it's a great head start.
Speaker 3 (44:03):
Uh huh.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
And so again, and I've seen it seems that with
the younger people that are getting a little bit more
interested in the trades than they have been in the past.
I don't know if just a feeling on my part
or we're actually seeing.
Speaker 5 (44:16):
It, it seems that way.
Speaker 14 (44:17):
I mean, I don't know if it's got anything to
do with the expense of going to college for their aspects.
I mean, there are trade schools related to this industry,
and I'm sure that comes with the calls, but maybe
it's not as much.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
Of them now, exactly right. And that's a great career too.
Speaker 14 (44:32):
It is very fulfilling too when you enjoy the you know,
like I said, the satisfaction of making repairs getting trucks
back on the road.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Well, fantastic best of luck to you, Chris. I certainly
appreciate you stopping buy and all the best for the competition.
Speaker 5 (44:45):
Thank you, Kevin.
Speaker 3 (44:45):
It's nice mating again.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
Chris Purcell is the grand champion in twenty twenty one,
last year and hopefully again this year. I'm Kevin Gordon,
America's Truck and Network seven hundred w LWUS.
Speaker 8 (44:59):
Traffic, Weather, News Radio, seven hundred w LW Cincinnati.
Speaker 9 (45:06):
Their sons in custody for their deaf but that's not
the big shockwave for Monday. With your top of the
hour report, I'm Lee mawin Breaking Now.
This is America's Trucking Network with Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Welcome aboard, Thanks for tuning in on this Tuesday morning.
We are on the floor twentieth anniversary Rush Enterprises Tech
Skills Rodeo at the Gaylord opry Land Resort and Convention
Center in Nashville, Tennessee. And I want to tell you,
for my first time, I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
What to expect.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
But yesterday when I came in actually Sunday, when I
came into the event or came into the venue to
get the booth set up, get our equipment set up
and everything, I was surprised by the number of vendors.
I come to find out that there's over four hundred
and forty vendors. They are paying for this, they are
(00:49):
sponsoring this, and this is an opportunity at this tech
tech Rodeo of where Rush Enterprises brings together all their
different technicians MCANX and they've expanded this into not only
people in the collision center, but also the leasing, the
parts department, the sales department, all different aspects of their
(01:10):
business coming into what they call their Skills Rodeo to
show their skills through certain testing, written tests.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
And the qualifications even.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
To get here, and then they test their skills while
they're here and award the prizes. And it's absolutely remarkable.
Now where we are located, it's amazing because we're right
at the beginning, right in the front. Kind of set
the stage for you. Right across from us is a
display from International Truck and a little bit over as
(01:45):
Peter Bilt, I look up the aisle here I can
see Azuzu, and I see Lucas Oil, and I see
some of the other vendors, and we'll probably talk about
them over the next couple of days because we're here.
We're here today, we'll be here Tom and the the
actual well actually, since this is running at night, we
(02:05):
were there actually Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and then at Tuesday
night they we'll have the various awards ceremony. Uh So
it's it's been a lot of fun up to this point.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Kind of let me set the stage.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
For you how we got here, because they say, you
know the old saying showing up is half the battle.
Well it was more than half the battle. Uh you know,
having to pack up everything to bring it to the show,
and making sure that you know when you're traveling but
making sure that I had all the recording equipment and
(02:39):
everything set up so that we could actually do the
show from here. That was interesting, but you know, we've
done it before, We've gone down to Mats and kind
of figured we had a handle on it, but of
course you have to throw the wrinkle into it. On
Saturday when we drove down, we what we had what
three weather emergencies or weather advisories we nugain in between
(03:01):
the week left in between what was an advisory one
and Advisory two. And on our way down here we
stopped for dinner and I think we had Advisory three
on the way as well. But getting to the and
I got to tell you, if you've never been to
the Gaylord opper Land Resort and Convention Center, it is
(03:22):
just absolutely amazing. All under one roof the amount of
the convention center, of the floor space, and just the
venue itself for the resort hotel, all the amenities that
you can imagine they have this They have actually two
atriums and the it's kind of well, it's basically the
(03:45):
rooms are set up as a horseshoe if you will,
or brackets and the balconies all look over this courtyard
and one is the restaurant area and there's water features
and so on, and then another one that's actually this
canal that runs through and that you can actually take
a little boat ride through and see the entire the
(04:09):
entire area. Walking around, you go down these different corridors
and it's not just a hotel, but you go down
to this area between the two atriums and there's a
whole bunch of shops.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
You actually feel like you're.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Walking through a city and walking through city streets and
doing a window shopping and seeing all the different different
shops on either side and all the stuff that's available.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
And of course they have all.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
The amenities in terms of spas and all that sort
of thing, which is amazing. But coming in on it
was kind of an interesting scheduling process. We got in
on Saturday, kind of late because of the delays and
a little bit of snow delay and whatever. But Sunday
(04:58):
they had the venue where a lot of the vendors
were getting set up. But at the same time they
also have the beginning of the competition, and so they
had the body shop competition over in Smyrna Tech, Tennessee,
which is about a twenty twenty twenty five minute drive
from here, and since it's part of the competition, I
(05:20):
wanted to drive over and see that, and so getting
the directions for that, and then going to watch that
and seeing them compete, and then trying to time it
so that I got back here in order to set
the booth up and everything. And then we had a
cruise last night on the General Jackson that was again
(05:40):
sponsored by Rush Truck Centers, Dinner and Entertainment. It's about
a four hour cruise I think it was from start
to finish by the time he got on the boat.
And again, if you've not been down to Nashville and
tried that, of course I wouldn't suggest doing it.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
What was attempt last night?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
It started out I think at eighteen degrees and by
the time we got off the boat it was five
with a windchill factor in the minus figures, So not
a whole lot of time spent out on the deck
and taking pictures. But you'd run out there and try
to take a couple of pictures of the scenery and
drown through the downtown Nashville area and try to get
some of those pictures, but then run back in and
(06:23):
wore them up. A little bit and run back out
and try to get a few more pictures.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
But it was a lot of fun crews.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
But yesterday Sunday morning, I got up and I went
over to the Collision center again down in Smyrna, Tennessee.
And the way they set this up is they have
two basic competitions. They have the competition of the repair
and then the painting process. And in the collision department
(06:52):
they had a fender, a fiberglass fender that had two
of the corners broken off and holes punched in them
in that period of time. As far as the competition,
you have to fill the hole, square the thing off,
get it polished and then ready to be painted. And
watching these people again it's not something I've ever watched before.
(07:16):
But the sponsor, one of the sponsors of the competition,
three M products. They were here and it's interesting to
see the judges walking around with their clipboards and looking
at any all the individual stations where these people were
working and talking to the people afterwards, they were saying
it was a little nerve wracking again if they've only
(07:38):
done it, if it is their first time, but some
of the people that have been here before, it's not
so challenged or not so intimidating, because as you're working
and you're doing something, you got somebody walking by and
they're looking at what you're doing, and they're writing something
on a note, or they're doing check marks or something
like that. You're going, well, what are they looking at you?
What are they seeing? What are they not? So it's
(08:02):
fascinating for it's really fascinating from that aspect. And as
they were describing to me, I had the opportunity to
talk to Mitch Davison. He is head of the collision
department for Rush Trucks Center, and we'll have him on
over the sometime over the next couple of days to
talk to him. But how the three m people will
go through and there is they will judge on approach,
(08:28):
how they repair, how they go about because apparently on
the repair of these holes and stuff, there's a couple
of different methods or ways that you can do that.
So they judge them based on the what selection they made,
and then of course their technique of putting it together. Now,
on the paint side, they had two fenders that were
(08:49):
there that they were repairing or not repairing, but painting,
and to see them buff the thing out, do the
prime and then they had colors to choose from and
they were going to then do the colors of the
individual fenders and they talked about that. They had to
(09:10):
make sure that well, one of the things is they
could put striping on it, so you could put a design,
and they told them, well, time permitting, be as creative
as you want, because that will be part of the
judging process. And so seeing the technicians work on those
and how they're looking at that and how they're approaching that,
(09:31):
polishing it and so on. It was. It was very
interesting and I don't know who's going to win. They
haven't announced that yet, but they've got the semi finalists,
some of the lists there. But the competition is just
intense and the number of people involved. And we've got
a couple of interviews coming up. We're going to be
(09:51):
talking with Jody Pollard in the next segment. Jody Pollard
is the senior vice president of the senior vice president
Vehicle Aftermarket Sales and Rob Nixon, vice president of sales.
We've talked to them, talk about the talk to them
on this program before and then to finish up, we're
going to be talking with Chris Purcell. He was the
(10:12):
Grand Champion winner last year and in twenty twenty one,
and hopefully he wants to try to repeat this year.
I'm Kevin Gordon, America's truck In Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I need.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
This is the Reething reward on America's Trucking Network on
seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Lionel Racing is announced the top ten die cast of
twenty twenty five. Number one is Justin Allgeiers Traveler Whiskey Chevrolet.
Number two Dale Earnhardt Junior Budweiser Speedway Classic Late Model
number three Justin Allgeiers Traveler Whiskey Race Version. Number four
on the list of top ten die casts of twenty
twenty five is Chase Elliott NAPA Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
(10:53):
Echo Park Win. Fifth on the list is William Byron's
Exalta Daytona five hundred win. Number six on the die
cast list is Kyle Larson Hendrickcars dot Com Championship Car.
Number seven is Kyle Larson's Hendrickcars dot Com Phoenix Race Version.
Number eight is Connor Zelich Red Bull. Number nine on
the list is Josh Berry's Motorcraft Las Vegas win and
(11:16):
number ten Shane van Gisbergen's Red Bull car.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I need this is the racing reward on America's Drugging
Network on seven hundred WLW, Say Dennison, a t n it's.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Former Bengal and Pro Football Hall of Famer Anthony Munos.
Did you know that ninety five percent of the Anthony
Munos Foundation's funding coast directly.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Trico aftermarket sales and Rob Nixon, VP of Sales. If
you listen to America's Trucking Network before, you know we've
talked to these two gentlemen before, usually by phone, but
actually here at the twentieth anniversary of the Rush Enterprises
Tech Skills Rodeo, we actually get to do this in person,
which is really a thrill for.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
This is great and here for us to do this
in person.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
It is now.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I think we spoke a couple of years ago at
the MATS.
Speaker 7 (12:08):
Conference when we were given the truck away. Yeah, that
was a pretty unique event.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
That was quite an event.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, now so far, this being my first time here,
this blows me away. The dedication of Rush Enterprises to
this end of the business and the amount of time, effort,
money put into this because you described that last night
very well, so kind of go through that with us
(12:33):
a little bit.
Speaker 7 (12:34):
Yes, people, twenty years ago, right here in Nashville, Tennessee,
we started our first tech Skills rodeo. It really was
just primarily focused on our technicians. We thought about it,
how do you recruit somebody to come work for you,
but also how do you retain them and then incentivize
them to do all the training and to really hone
their skill set throughout the year. And we said, you know,
(12:55):
a tech rodeo might be the way to solve for that.
So that's where it all originated within the thought process
because we knew technicians are very hard to attract and
to keep inside your business, and they're the heartbeat of
the dealership. So that's how the rodeo kind of started
in concept and theory and we put it in action.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
It's crazy what it's turned into.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Now.
Speaker 7 (13:15):
We we really kind of touch every point of sale
person We had our dealership parts of personnel, after market
sales reps, obviously.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Technicians that evolved.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
We just you know, when you start off with the
tech Skills rodeo, you've got the people in the service department.
Then I guess a natural natural evolution of that would
be maybe the collision center. I don't know if that
body shop personnel. And then all of a sudden, I
guess maybe it was was it was it pressure from
the other members of the team and say, well, hey,
what about our skills, let us get involved from the sales,
(13:48):
leasing and.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
All that great question.
Speaker 7 (13:50):
We even dropped technicians skills rodeo, that's what it was.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
Originally.
Speaker 7 (13:54):
We dropped it to just tech because of the technical
attributes of every single person that compete here at the rodeo.
And the reason really was we tried to understand, hey,
we had this one particular purpose in mind on how
you retain technicians, but how do we use this as
an overall engagement event for employees that may not necessarily
(14:14):
get the recognition that they need every single day. And
really it's about their enrichment of their career and that
they have a place that they can feel like is
going to invest in them for a bounty full career.
So parts of people were you know, parts of people
are pretty unique individuals. They got to be accurate one
hundred percent of the time, or a lot of things
downstream don't get right right, So that's well, let's recognize them.
(14:37):
Let's make sure that they we recognize the best of
the best collision. Have you've seen some of this work
here at the show. These guys are masterpieces on how
they do collision and paintwork. And then we talked about
our overall purpose as a company, how can we incorporate
the real mission behind what we do? And at Rush Enterprises,
(15:02):
you know we have a purpose. It's to keep the
global economy up and running by committing to our customers
that we give them the maximum amount of uptime. And
so we bought our salespeople a part of that process
well as well, because it's a real culture thing here
at Rush. And probably what you've witnessed Kevin over the
last twenty four hours is people love this rodeo. I
(15:24):
mean they they get really excited about it. And there's
obviously some unique things that are going to happen on
Tuesday night. We potentially can crown a new champion. I
saw you talk to Chris Purcell a few minutes ago,
and he's all about the rodeo. Really humble guy, very
talented technician, but I mean the first time he won,
(15:45):
he won over sixteen thousand dollars in cash and prizes.
That's a life changing event. Oh yeah, especially in a
time of year where you know, you could use a
little extra cash on Christmas time. And what's unique why
we called it the rodeo is because really the time
frame you see everybody wearing Western attire here. It's like
our little version of the NFR, you know, So the
(16:05):
National Finals Rodeo.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
And so on Tuesday night we'll.
Speaker 7 (16:11):
Give out two hundred and eighty eight thousand dollars to
our employees and in twenty years of doing that, that
will eclipse the three million dollar mark. And making sure
our employees know that they are our most important asset
and we try to treat them with the respect and
dignity and a job. A lot of times it just
gets forgotten. So that's what this thing is all about.
(16:32):
I'm really proud to be a part of it. Russy's
extremely enthusiastic about this event, and everybody who works on
this committee they have regular jobs too. They really throw
their heart and soul and making sure that our employees
have a grand time. And lastly, it's really a way
to bridge the relationships and partnerships with our suppliers, you know,
we're pushing their products every day and a lot of
(16:52):
times that knowledge is transferred here at the rodeo and
what new product lines are out there, so we can
go tell our customers the next thing that they're on
the horizon with the product lines.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
We're speaking with Jody Pollard, he is a senior vice
president Vehicle Aftermarket Sales, and we're gonna be talking roun event,
but this aspect of it, and we mentioned that you
mentioned the individual of suppliers. The fact that their participation
in this and the various displays around here is mind
(17:25):
boggling because you know, when I walked in, I didn't
know what to expect and it was beyond the expectations
that I had yesterday filling and setting up the station.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
And looking around everything.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Now, this is not cheap to put this on and
for people that you know they sounds tech rodeo and
this sort of thing. Now, there is a lot of planning,
there's a lot of investment, and there's a lot of
logistics and a lot of money involved in this.
Speaker 7 (17:53):
Yeah, and again, yeah, this is not cheap. And moving
it to Nashville to kind of commemorate the twentieth annivers
had its own logistical challenges. And obviously you you plan
for these things a year round, but this one you
had to plan about four years in advance. And you know,
the trucking industry has had a little bit of challenges
(18:14):
this past year, so it was extremely nervous in terms
of how we could fund this event. So I put
my best timeshare salesman had on and UH went to
talk to our suppliers and they have just completely amazed me.
They floored me in terms of they believe in this
Rodeo two and they stepped up in every tremendous amount
of way to make sure that we we had a
(18:37):
really good event. And UH we fully funded by the suppliers,
fully funded, fully funded. And the thing that I would
tell you is like the unique connection we bring every
single aftermarket sales rep to Nashville. There are four hundred
in our company, and so for them, that's the value
because they get to touch to every they get to
(18:58):
touch and talk to every single after market sales rep
about their product line.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
So that's the real.
Speaker 7 (19:04):
Value that we brought in about seven years ago and
making sure that every single aftermarket sales rep is here
and we have a sales conference even on Sunday. You
didn't get to witness that, but eight am on Sunday
we have a sales conference and we're challenging them on
how you know, they can meet our strategic objectives in
this year and beyond.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
That's incredible.
Speaker 7 (19:25):
But this event, it's like seven events in one and
you'll see tonight it's a pretty cool event to where
we bring who will be competing tomorrow in the finals.
You know they're all testing right now, but who's going
to be the finalist to go after the big money
on Tuesday gets announced tonight, So it's always a special time.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Okay, let's bring Robin here and we'll introduce him and
then we'll transition to the next segment because we're getting
up against a little bit of a break here. So
Rob Nixon, VP of Sales, I want to talk a
little bit about.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
Yeah, I'll just you know, really add to what Jodi
spoke about.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
We're on the trade show floor right now where we've
brought in all of our suppliers and vendors, and at RUSH,
we really pride ourselves as being product solutions providers. You know,
if I'm an aftermarket salesperson and I'm calling on a
customer and they've got something unique or they need a
product solution, We've got to learn about that product.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
So it gives us.
Speaker 6 (20:19):
An opportunity to gain product knowledge, meet our suppliers so
that we've got personal relationships with them and we really
know who's who so that we can better serve our customers.
So in total, you know, there's four hundred and forty
aftermarket salespeople here that includes our That's.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Why I was curious about how many people are involved.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
Four and forty.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
So imagine, folks, You've got technicians from around the country
coming here to compete, and you've got four hundred and
forty vendors that support this right that bring their equipment
and their stuff here for people to compete. And the
cost of this thing is three million dollars.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Yep, we'll have to.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Pick this up on the other side of the break
let that sink in free putting the the just the
sheer volume of this alone is incredible.
Speaker 6 (21:06):
Yeah, it is a big annual event, and it's really
you know, the one time per year that we get
to bring everybody together, and it gives us an opportunity
to not only talk about our results prior year, but
really what we're focused on is the future.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
What a strategy.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
What are we trying to accomplish at RUSH as an
aftermarket sales team? And so you know my expectations, and
I know they did. They'll walk out of this event
and they understand.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Stop right, sure what they expect when we come back.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
I'm Kevin Gordonmericus Tructing Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 8 (21:39):
News Traffic and Weather News Radio seven hundred w l W, Cincinnati.
Speaker 9 (21:46):
The President comments on the latest school shooting, seemingly placing
the blame on the school. If you're twelve thirty reports,
I'm Ley mawin breaking now. No arrest have be made
from the shooting at Brown University, where two students were
killed nine others injured. ABC News White House correspondent Karen
Travers got the latest comments from President Donald Trump.
Speaker 10 (22:07):
President Trump said he didn't know the motive of the
shooter at Brown University this weekend. He spoke about the
investigation with reporters in the Oval Office.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
We're going to see what happens. Hopefully they're going to
capture this animal.
Speaker 10 (22:19):
Asked whether the f behind Director Cash Pttel had told
him why it's been so difficult to find the suspect.
The President said, quote, it's always difficult and seem to
put the blame on Brown. Karen Travers, ABC News, The
White House.
Speaker 8 (22:31):
Now the Ladies Forecast from the Train Heating and Cooling
Weather Center on news Radio seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 11 (22:38):
It won't be quite as cold Tuesday morning, but still
pretty rough out there as we dropped down to seventeen
degrees Tuesday afternoon, some bigger improvements. Highs will be near
thirty seven with a lot of sunshine helping him out
away more of that weekend snow, and then it won't
be as cold Wednesday morning, only dropping down to thirty two.
From your severe weather station, I'm night First Warning meter
(22:58):
Ale the just Mark Stitz here is Radio seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Clear skies and twenty three degrees.
Speaker 9 (23:04):
A group of elderly, low income tenants made their voices
heard on proposed rent increases of the Victoria Visit disapartments.
Now they're getting a small temporary reprieve, building owner Kingsley
and Company announcing a deal until at least March that
maintains current rents with no addictions planned. Eleven tenants in
a low income program faced rent increases of over one
(23:25):
thousand dollars per month. Former Cincinnati Bengal And Company owner
Jinnerdoon and Duque said, so act we'll cover the rent
difference through March. Hamlet County and Cincinnati officials continue to
seek grants and tax breaks to help permanently cover this
difference for the tenants.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
Your next update is that one.
Speaker 9 (23:43):
I'mley Mawen whose radio seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 12 (23:46):
The free iHeartRadio app is the number one app for
the holidays, Christmas, the amazing iHeart Christmas and playlist you'll
love all in one place.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Open the app.
Speaker 5 (23:59):
Search Holiday and let the festivities begin. Do you own
a small business? A seismic shift is coming. It's time
to get super short coming soon.
Speaker 13 (24:14):
Here's our trucking forecast for the Try State and the
rest of the country and the Try sit Overnight skies
clearing the low down to seventeen sunny Tuesday high of
thirty seven. Wednesday mostly Claudie Sky's becoming sunny, highs in
the lower forties. Afternoon rain Thursday, a high of fifty
three nationally into Tuesday. Heavy snow seen in the Great
Lakes region over parts of the coastline along Lakes Erie
(24:35):
and Ontario. Meanwhile, further west, heavy snow scene in the
Cascades and Northern Rockies.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Seven hundred WLW. I'm Kevin Gordon. This is America'strucking Network.
Continue our conversation with Jody Pollard, Senior Vice President Vehicle
Aftermarket Sales and Rob Nixon, VP of Sales and pre
Before the break, we were talking about the different aftermarket
people that are here and the events, and then what
you want them to come away with and what you
guys want to come away with too.
Speaker 6 (25:07):
Yeah, sure it again, it's in a great event where
you know, primarily we get to initially talk about the
environment we're in and you know, I've been on your
show before and we talked about that it's still an
inflationary environment. And we get to review those numbers and
really we get to we get to the core of
what is the sentiment of our customer and quite frankly,
you know, we feel like they're getting squeezed. They're always
(25:30):
consistently looking at their maintenance costs and how do they
do that? So, you know, I hope all of our
aftermarket salespeople leave this event really strategically looking at our
primary two initiatives, and that is one we want to
drive more value to our customers. We think they need it,
you know, with five percent inflation this year, and it
may roll up a little higher than that.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
That's what expected in the industry.
Speaker 6 (25:51):
In the industry, spricing just keeps going up, and so
we think it's going up much faster than the number
of miles driven per year.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
So there's a little disk there.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
There's a separation between what's it costing me to maintain
my fleet versus my primary revenue running. If you just
looked at it from a ratio standpoint, there's about a
four percent disparity there. So we want to drive value
as a company, and driving value is not always just
about price. It's about alternatives as well. How do we
as a company provide more value. And then secondly, it's
(26:21):
about speed. We want to get faster as a company,
and we want to get faster from a.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
Part standpoint, just the basics.
Speaker 6 (26:28):
You call in, you order a part, how quickly does
it take me to get that to you the end user?
Speaker 5 (26:35):
And well the important.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Thing about that too is how quickly you can get
that to the end user against Rob Nixon, vice president
of Sales, Obviously that part is needed for a truck
that's down right, and if the truck is down, it's
not on the road and generating right exactly. And so
to speed up that process and to make sure that
that is done on a very fast basis is extremely important,
(27:00):
which then again is a value to the customer that
you guys provide that maybe somebody else doesn't provide.
Speaker 6 (27:07):
Absolutely, and speed to delivery all starts with Phil Rate,
and Phil Rate is do I have the part on
the shelf when you called me? So we've got to
be really good at that before we ever start thinking
about pulling the part, putting on a truck and dispatching
that to the customer.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Well, and the overall concept of the number of parts
and the availability of the parts that there are, you
have to be very good of making sure that you
have the right mix of parts.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
That you can't stock everything.
Speaker 6 (27:38):
No, I mean ince when you think of AI, that's
typically what you used in the industry to not only
you've sold it to reorder and making certain you've got
not just the right part, but the quantity on hand
in the shelf. And you know, at Rush we still
carry over four hundred million dollars in parts inventory across
one hundred.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
And fifty seven locations. So speed is it for part,
it's delivery.
Speaker 6 (28:01):
And when we think about service, this is where strategically
we want to continue to expand our mobile service operations.
And so why is that so important mobile service because
speed equals dwell time lowered for our customer. So without
a doubt, if I can come to the customer versus
them coming to me, we can cut that dwell time
(28:22):
in half. So we think our customers expectations just continue
to want faster service, faster repair. We talked about it.
If it's not running, they're not generating revenue, so out.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Of time we cut them back.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
And the timing of that mobile service could actually be
when they're on their downtime, so it's not necessarily taking
them off the road. There may be a brake system
or you know, the hours of service, and they may
be off at a particular time, and if the mobile
service can get to them and then take care of it,
then it's a win win because they're not off the
road technically right for any long period of time, and
(28:57):
there's truck is serviced and service well so it doesn't
break down later on as well.
Speaker 6 (29:02):
And when you think of that strategically trying to decrease
the dwell time and speed, it's really it's about hours
of operations.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
When will you work, do you work weekends? Will you
work grievyard shifts?
Speaker 6 (29:13):
All those things, And really our mobile service team is
geared up to do those things. They're working less traditional
hours than our brick and mortar technicians on the yard.
So anyway, they've got a great skill set. So many
of them are here with us today. I'll have a
great time interacting with them tonight and tomorrow. But we
value those technicians and they help us meet our strategic
(29:36):
in we want value and we want speed for our customers.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Oh and you guys provided for sure.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Because I know a lot of people that I talk
to from time to time in the business. They're always
raving about rush truck centers. They're talking about how.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Good it is.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
So before we get out of here, one of the
things we need to talk about, and we're talking with
and now with Jodi Pollard, Senior vice president Vehicle after
Market Sales, is we've got some emission standards, emission changes
coming up with the first of the year.
Speaker 7 (30:04):
Well it'll be a twenty twenty seven. So I mean
we've talked multiple times this past year. I don't think
too much has changed and respected the landscape of complexity
that this year has brought for our industry, everything from
interest rates to the general freight economy. I should start,
I should start right there is the general freight economy
(30:25):
due to just being too much capacity, but also you know,
just the regulation uncertainty that has just happened to our industry.
And there was a lot of clear things that were
made with the Trump administration, with the ev mandate going away.
Speaker 5 (30:38):
There's been a lot of good work.
Speaker 7 (30:40):
But in respect to what was the law of the
land before the Trump administration was that we were going
to get to thirty five milligram and Knox by twenty
twenty seven. And I believe this the manufacturers as well
as the EPA is going to keep that as the
law of the land.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
For your listeners, you know, I would just.
Speaker 7 (31:02):
Tell you that there's a certainly amount of inventory on
the ground that if you are making a truck purchase
because your business requires it, you know this next calendar,
you're you really need to contact the rush truck centers
because you know this, you could get into a particular
area where it's limited amount of allocation or some form
(31:23):
of allocation leading into an emissions change in twenty twenty seven.
So we are already out there telling our fleets to
start playing now, but sometimes the small to mid sized
carrier guy doesn't necessarily know all this information. With each
technology change, the first you know, bad out of the box,
if you will, has its set of challenges. Always new
(31:44):
products had its set of challenges, and I'm not speaking
fearedom in any stretch of the imagination, but we know
the product or what it is today and how it performs.
So if you are trying to make business decisions based
on capital deployment on buying new trucks, you really need
to start thinking about doing that right now because it
(32:06):
could get very tight in the second half of twenty
twenty six leading into twenty twenty seven when the emission
change does happen.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Well, of course, you know there's a there's a timeframe,
and I mean, if you have to place the order,
the company needs to know how many they have to
manufacture and then plan for people coming in at the
last minute.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Type of thing.
Speaker 7 (32:29):
So and certainly it you know this industry in your
customers or excuse me, your listeners. It's been a challenging
year out there, and you know they're probably put.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
Off the truck sale or truck buying for a while now.
Speaker 7 (32:44):
And you know, there's a lot more miles that are
on trades that we're seeing right now. Six hundred thousand
mile trades were the traditional five hundred thousand miles or
even that those three hundred thousand miles. So you've got
to be pretty conscientious of that too by extending your mileage,
because that resist becomes a factor when you go, you know,
want to buy a new truck. So it's been a
(33:06):
it's been a very what I would say, it's been
a constant news cycle in the trucking industry right now.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
But well, and the thing is that we've talked about
in the past is that you guys are there not
just to sell vehicles, but to actually educate them and
work with your customers that to let them know what's
going on and so that they can plan ahead and
know where they need to be.
Speaker 7 (33:33):
Yeah, for me, it's every week seems like I just
made a comment about that news cycle. I am relearning
things that I've already learned because I was a year
ago talking about battery electric vehicles and this year I'm
not talking about battery electric vehicles. I'm talking about thirty
five milligram Knox. So yes, education is a very reliable
(33:55):
source when you're making business decisions and the rules are
getting a little bit more established, so you know how
to plan for your fleet.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
And so you know anybody out there that are looking
to plan this www.
Speaker 7 (34:06):
Dorush Truck Centers dot Com exactly and we can definitely
serve your needs. We have plenty of inventory on the
ground and we can always use one of our truck
sales specialists to spec you as a specific truck.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Very good, Jody Polers, Thank you very much.
Speaker 5 (34:19):
Jody Poler is good to be with you. Happy holidays.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Happy holidays to you too.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Vice Presidents of Vehicle Afromarket Sales and Rob Nixon, VP
of Sales. Thank you guys both for stopping by and
certainly appreciate it. I'm Kevin Bordon, America's struck In Network
seven hundred Wlwright.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
News Radio seven hundred WLW and iHeartRadio Station Guarantee Human
seven hundred WLW HI Heard Radio.
Speaker 5 (34:47):
This is Jim. Hello.
Speaker 12 (34:48):
Jim started advertising with iHeartRadio way back in April.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
And now I have customers out the door. And this
is Sarah Hi. She start.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Seven hundred WLW. I'm Kevin Gordon. This is America's struck
A Network. I have the pleasure of speaking with Chris Purcell.
We're at the Rush Enterprises twentieth Anniversary Tech Skills Rodeo,
and well I have again Chris Purcell. Last year was
the Grand Champion, already had done well.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Anyway, We'll leave it up to you. Tell us all
about yourself, and I guess, sir.
Speaker 14 (35:27):
I've been with Rush Truck Centers for twenty six years,
been to the rodeo eight times. This is my last year,
was my second time as Grand Champion, and I'm here
competing again in the International Medium Duty Division and hoping
to do it again.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
But all I can do is try. Well, That's all
you can do is do your best.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
That's right now, looking back in terms of the competition,
the eighth time, right that you competed, that's right. What's
the difference between year one and I guess how many
times did you compete before you won the first grand prize?
Speaker 14 (36:02):
I believe it was six times competing before I won
the Grand Champion the first time back in twenty twenty one,
and that was actually virtual, so it was online.
Speaker 5 (36:11):
A lot of it was question and answers.
Speaker 14 (36:13):
There was a little bit of interactive diagnostics, you.
Speaker 5 (36:16):
Know, over the computer.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Uh huh.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
But yeah, one Grand Champion twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Okay, so I guess I would obviously twenty twenty one.
Having to be virtual is completely different than doing to
the person.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
Yeah, winning it in person was great.
Speaker 14 (36:30):
Just the atmosphere we had, the camaraderie and everything that.
I don't congratulating you, the cheers, the pictures, interviews afterwards.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
I mean it was just a big deal.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Yeah, absolutely, that's that is I mean, well, being the
top champion and anything is great, and the fact that
this is one of those areas of expertise and so on.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
So what was the competition like so far this year?
Speaker 14 (36:58):
It's the same in the essence that they bug your truck,
they don't give you any information. When the clock starts,
they hand your work order, you got a customer complaint
on there, and you go from there. Sometimes they're looking
for procedures, sometimes they're looking for your knowledge, and you
never know which path is the best.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
To take uh huh? Now is okay? I mentioned that?
Speaker 2 (37:19):
So is there a starting point or I guess everybody's
a little different the way they approach things, or is
it pretty much the same or if you.
Speaker 14 (37:28):
Kind of take it from a shop environment, I mean
you want to go by your knowledge to kind of
fast track the diagnostic and repair. So based on the
symptom you would want to tackle it off of, you know,
your experience, where do you start? I'm going to check
these few things first before I go to a manual
or before I start a procedure.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Now, because in a lot of instances, I would assume
that it's something that maybe you've encountered before.
Speaker 14 (37:53):
Correct ye, And sometimes well a lot of times at
the shop, there are a lot of things you do
see repetitively. So yeah, you've seen this happen two or
three times, so you're going to automatically go there to
see if that's the failure and this it is?
Speaker 2 (38:05):
How like going to the manual and saying, okay, step one,
step two, step three, correct, I can skip all that
because I've seen this before. I've heard about this before.
Let's start at step five, six seven.
Speaker 14 (38:16):
That's right, And in this environment, it may be something
you've run across before, but it may not.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Uh huh.
Speaker 14 (38:23):
The judges they figure out the bugs every year. They
put the bugs on the truck for you to figure out.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
I think that would be kind of an interesting task
right there alone. Okay, how can we challenge these guys
this year about this? By the way, I'm speaking with
Chris Purcell. He is the grand champion last year and
also in twenty twenty one, a service technician out of
Atlanta and.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Joining us here.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
So I guess, from the standpoint of the people setting
this up, what could we complicate or what can we
do to make this a little more challenging this year
last year? How can we do this? I think that
would be kind of a I.
Speaker 14 (39:04):
Think it's this challenging itself, just just because of the unknown. Well, uh,
your judge has a clipboard and he's got boxes he's
marking off, and.
Speaker 5 (39:11):
You have no idea what they are.
Speaker 14 (39:13):
Uh huh, you don't know, like I said previously, if
they're going for a knowledge or procedure. Oh okay, So
as far as what they can do to make it
more challenging, they do a really good job every year.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Well you know, you know, you look at I look
at these things in terms of I don't know if
you've watched any of the cooking shows or the cooking
competitions where they have the judges, and from what I've noticed,
it's not like that because in those instances, the judges
will come around and they'll be asking the person questions
and going, well, you know, why are you using this
ingredient on this and you're trying to do this. They're
(39:47):
not supposed to interfere. They're just observing. And then you said,
you don't know what they're observing or what they're asking,
whether they're looking for on the procedural point, did he
do this, this and this or the technique even correct.
Speaker 14 (40:01):
We try to ask questions throughout and most of the
time we either get most of the time the judges
tell you I can't answer that, so they give no guidance.
Speaker 5 (40:12):
Say you're on your own. You're on this sick Er swim,
You're on your own. If you make it to day
two competition.
Speaker 14 (40:18):
It's a little bit different because you have to test
on in my category, you test on an international and
then a Peterbilt, and being an international technician, I'm familiar
with Peterbilt.
Speaker 5 (40:29):
They do kind of guide.
Speaker 14 (40:30):
You as and they would ask you what would you
do working on your product an international When you would
describe that to them, they say, well, we got something
similar to that.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
So day two.
Speaker 5 (40:41):
You get a little bit of.
Speaker 14 (40:42):
Guidance when you're working on the unfamiliar product, but when
you're working on your own product, there's no guidance.
Speaker 5 (40:48):
It's just you do what you do.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Oh that's cool. Now let's get to you for a
moment here.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Yeah, Chris Persall is the Grand Champion last year and
also in twenty twenty one, hoping for a third champion
chip this year. You've been with the company for fourteen years,
you said, twenty six, twenty six, Oh my goodness, I'm sorry. Oh,
there's somebody person right before you.
Speaker 6 (41:10):
That was.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
But so what got you in the got you into
the business in the first place?
Speaker 3 (41:15):
How did you come about?
Speaker 14 (41:17):
Right to high school, I was working at automotive quickly places,
changing oil, moved up to another place, did a little
bit more as far as tune ups breaks and got
a call that they were looking for an opening for
electrical tech.
Speaker 5 (41:30):
At that time, noally motor trucks.
Speaker 14 (41:32):
And now there's a fairly large Automotive group in the
Atlanta area, and I worked there started worked there in
ninety nine and I'm still the same location. But Rush
purchased Nally's truck side through an acquisition in twenty eleven,
so I've been at the same location since nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
Wow, that's great.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
So in terms of you wanted to get into that
industry right from the start.
Speaker 5 (41:59):
I think it.
Speaker 14 (42:00):
You get that sense of accomplishment for making repairs. I've
got the curiosity wanting to know why something failed, why
something works.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
I always had that.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
That's kind of along the lines of, I guess the
engineering brain type of thing where people always want to
figure out how something works, how it's put together, how
it you know, why it's not working, how it works,
and dig into that.
Speaker 14 (42:21):
Right in our industry, you know, sometimes you run across
a lot of repeat failures because nobody ever found the
root cause of what issue was, uh huh. And I
get a lot of that in my shop. If something's
been to this shop, that shop, or even at our
shop a time or two, then it ends up in
my lap to figure out why it keeps happening and
(42:42):
make sure it doesn't happen again.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Oh, that's great.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
So in terms of this year, as far as the
competition is concerned, stuffer competition or can you even tell?
Speaker 14 (42:51):
At this you see a lot of the same faces
year after year, and you know everybody that makes.
Speaker 5 (42:55):
It here is a good technician.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Uh huh.
Speaker 14 (42:57):
The repeat competitors, I mean, you know that they've got
a leg up on the guys that's never been here before.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
H huh. They kind of know.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Well, you guys know what to expect when you come in,
and so it's not a culture shock for you exactly.
Speaker 5 (43:08):
It's it's a different experience every time.
Speaker 14 (43:12):
The nerves never go away, but at least as opposed
to a newcomer, the season techs that's been here numerous times,
they know what to expect, so they're a little bit
more of a challenge, I would say, even though you
don't know what your score is compared to somebody else's.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
Again, we're talking with Chris Purcell.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
He is the past Grand champion in twenty twenty one
and last year and hopefully again this year. One final
question for you, any advice for anybody interested in getting
into this area? What can you recommend? What do you
you know? How do you suggest people get involved.
Speaker 14 (43:47):
If you're looking to get into the heavy duty truck
repair aspect as a technician. There are a lot of
trade schools out there, and RUSH has a great program
as an entry level. After you've graduated trade school, they've
got an entry level mentor program that they'll bring you
in and it's a great head start.
Speaker 3 (44:03):
Uh huh.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
And so again, and I've seen it seems that with
the younger people that are getting a little bit more
interested in the trades than they have been in the past.
I don't know if just a feeling on my part
or we're actually seeing.
Speaker 5 (44:16):
It, it seems that way.
Speaker 14 (44:17):
I mean, I don't know if it's got anything to
do with the expense of going to college for their aspects.
I mean, there are trade schools related to this industry,
and I'm sure that comes with the calls, but maybe
it's not as much.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
Of them now, exactly right. And that's a great career too.
Speaker 14 (44:32):
It is very fulfilling too when you enjoy the you know,
like I said, the satisfaction of making repairs getting trucks
back on the road.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Well, fantastic best of luck to you, Chris. I certainly
appreciate you stopping buy and all the best for the competition.
Speaker 5 (44:45):
Thank you, Kevin.
Speaker 3 (44:45):
It's nice mating again.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
Chris Purcell is the grand champion in twenty twenty one,
last year and hopefully again this year. I'm Kevin Gordon,
America's Truck and Network seven hundred w LWUS.
Speaker 8 (44:59):
Traffic, Weather, News Radio, seven hundred w LW Cincinnati.
Speaker 9 (45:06):
Their sons in custody for their deaf but that's not
the big shockwave for Monday. With your top of the
hour report, I'm Lee mawin Breaking Now.
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