Episode 29 - Load it Or Leave it
In this episode we talk about two trucking articles:
C.H. Robinson Hit with $1.1 Billion dollar lawsuit
https://www.businessinsider.com/truck-brokerage-hit-with-1-billion-lawsuit-from-farmers-2020-2
Tennessee Based Trucking Company Ceases Operations After 69 Years
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/tennessee-based-trucking-company-ceases-operations-after-69-years?utm_content=116527494&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&hss_channel=fbp-179175252108775
Then we break down a new segment called Load it Or Leave it!
We break down three separate clips of audio we recorded when we launched our podcast at Great American Trucking Show.
We ask the public's opinion on the Millennial generation and the responses are thought provoking to say the least!
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Aaron Dunn:
Just what is your opinion of Millennials?
Speaker 2:
They suck.
Michael Clements:
Welcome to Trucking for Millennials, where we engage with the future of [inaudible 00:00:10] happening now. My name is Michael Clements.
Aaron Dunn:
And I'm Aaron Dunn, and we're here to help trucking and logistics professionals stay up to date and ahead of the curve as our industry evolves.
Michael Clements:
We're connecting with every step of the supply chain as part of our mission to increase transparency and provide world-class [inaudible 00:00:31] solutions.
Aaron Dunn:
We're recording.
Michael Clements:
We're on?
Aaron Dunn:
We're on. You're on. Trucking for Millennials.
Michael Clements:
Oh, hi, Trucking for Millennials.
Aaron Dunn:
Welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Thanks for listening, listener. Now, I'm going to ask you to do me a favor. Me personally, Aaron. I uploaded this podcast, we uploaded this podcast every single week for you. We record it every single week, and we appreciate you. Now, just want you to show the appreciation. If you could reciprocate, I'd appreciate that. Leave a review on iTunes, and I'll give you a shout out on the show. It's that simple. Just leave a review. The four star and five star reviews are our favorite, but if you have a different number of stars you want to leave, I'm open to it and you'll get a shout out. That's a guarantee. So, do that.
Michael Clements:
And in short, if you don't want to actually leave the review just hit that five stars and you don't have to worry about getting a shout out, you just get your five stars for us.
Aaron Dunn:
Yeah.
Michael Clements:
We'll take that, too. I would take that.
Aaron Dunn:
Yeah. You can be a five star fan. Do you want to be a five star fan of Trucking for Millennials? I think you should be. I think you're a five star fan of Trucking from Millennium.
Michael Clements:
I'm digging those trucking vibes.
Aaron Dunn:
If you'd like to apply, go to iTunes, leave your five stars there. Okay. First up, trucking news, right?
Michael Clements:
Trucking news.
Aaron Dunn:
We got some trucking news that's happening. CH Robinson. Have you heard of them?
Michael Clements:
Yes.
Aaron Dunn:
They're a big freight brokerage.
Michael Clements:
Just maybe the biggest in the United States.
Aaron Dunn:
Exactly. And you know what? There's some people that are kind of upset with them right now. Headline reads, "Farmers Slam America's Largest Trucking Brokerage with 1.1 Billion Lawsuit." Farmers in North and South America are suing CH Robinson, the world's third largest logistics company, accusing it of engaging in illegal business practices that defrauded them, Texas Public Radio reported Friday. David Moore and nearly a dozen other farmers accused CH Robinson, and particularly, it's fresh produce and products distributor, Robinson Fresh, of overcharging for shipping, holding onto the additional profits, and underpaying farmers for products like melons and asparagus. CH Robinson denied the farmers accusations. It seeks $1.1 billion in unpaid profits and punitive damages. Not a good day for CH Robinson CEO or upper management.
Michael Clements:
Now I'm curious. Is that the reason the price of my bell peppers had been going up?
Aaron Dunn:
What are you trying to make?
Michael Clements:
I like a stuffed bell pepper. You put some cheese, some ground beef in there, it's delicious. Like taco meat. And then you put that all in the oven. Recipes with Trucking for Millennials.
Aaron Dunn:
I love it. I love it.
Michael Clements:
But, no, it sounds like the farmers have 1.1 billion reasons to be upset with CH Robinson.
Aaron Dunn:
Yeah, yeah. I was reading into it before we started recording, and it sounds like there's multiple things going on where like CH Robinson might've gotten like a cut of the shipping costs or what have you. But there's an act that was like an agreement between brokers and farmers and growers that was done in 1930, very, very old, that controlled how much shippers and brokerages can charge growers for their product, at a set rate. And it sounds like they were doing some backhand deals, so like it seemed like they were getting the agreed upon rate and what have you on one end. But then, on the other end of like accounting and stuff, or other costs that they might be getting a break on, they didn't pass those profits to the growers. They just kept it. That's what they're accusing them of. So, it's a bad day for CH Robinson. It's not a class action lawsuit yet, and it's still kind of in development, kind of up in the air. He said, she said. Everybody's kind of pointing fingers at each other, but we'll see how this develops.
Michael Clements:
And CH Robinson has came out with a statement, correct?
Aaron Dunn:
Yeah. They said, "No, the heck we didn't." So, of course they did. And maybe that's right. Maybe it's unbased, or what have you, but that's why they have lawyers to argue about this until we get to read the next headline. But it's always good to stay up and up on your business practices because, otherwise, it's going to come back to bite you. Oh, and I thought it was really interesting that Arrive Logistics, here in Texas, the same week, in a matter of days after this came out about Robinson Fresh, they came out with Arrive Fresh. Oh, wow. So, take your business else, I guess. Is it coincidence? Maybe. But anyway, what's next?
Michael Clements:
Well, next on here is another trucking company closure.
Aaron Dunn:
Bad news.
Michael Clements:
Yeah. Bad news. Man, it seems like we've had one of these seems like every week on the show. This one now is out of Tennessee. They're a refrigerated carrier. At one point in time, had over 200 drivers. At the time of closure, around 35. So, this company started going downhill for a while, and it's a family owned, Howard Baer, out of Nashville, Tennessee. This was reported on articles on FreightWaves and Yahoo Finance. But they did cite the obvious, soaring insurance costs and ongoing struggle to find qualified drivers and citing government regulations as the reasons why they closed down.
Michael Clements:
But it's another one of these like you start digging into the article, you start digging into the reasons why they did, I think there were some family things there. There was a son that didn't want to take over the business. I think it probably sounded like he had the opportunity to, and the owner there, Greg Baer, they didn't work anything out. So, Greg basically saw that his company was not... There was no one to take the company forward, and they said... This is just a couple of quotes from Greg. He says, "Trucking just isn't worth it anymore. The government has piled on so many regulations on these drivers that most young people don't want to become truck drivers." And Baer said he lost his best drivers when the Federal Electronic Logging Device, ELD mandate, took effect in December, 2017." So, he cites that the ELD was really one of the biggest reasons as to why they're going out of business because he lost a lot of drivers that just decided to retire.
Michael Clements:
And this is something that I think the writing was on the wall for some of us that got in the industry right before that because we don't really know anything different than ELDs. We got it in 2013, we practiced with paper logs for a few years, but making the transition as a small trucking company, trucking outfit, it wasn't very difficult to go to ELDs. And it actually, we enjoyed the process because we've got a sophisticated GPS systems on our trucks. We can track, we can do things now, that used to, you had to have paper logging systems, you had a GPS system, you still had to do your IFTA reporting a certain way, and all this made it a lot easier. So, to me, the culture, I think it was more of a technological advancement than it was something that hurt us.
Michael Clements:
But I do understand, on the driver side, the ELD side, now if you're in a truck, I definitely think that there's some argument to be had. But I'm just saying strictly on the management side, I think it has made some things easier, but for the drivers and the trucks and their time management, it's probably more difficult. So, I see some of where they're coming from. But something else that sticks out here says, "Over the past 24 months, Howard Baer Inc trucks had been inspected 90 times, and 26 were placed out of service. That's above the national average. Its trucks were involved in seven crashes, including one fatal wreck over the same two year period." And that is unfortunate that there was a fatal accident, seven wrecks in two years with their trucks. As far as that being part of the national average, I'm not sure where it falls as far as wrecks, but I do know that they're out of service percentage was higher.
Michael Clements:
And so, what I'm wondering is if this company didn't have a cultural shift whenever this whole ELD... Like, I'm just trying to think about what was this company like in 2015 and 2016 as they were announcing the ELD mandate? Did tempers start flaring in those walls? Did they start focusing more on the ELD mandate than focusing on their customers and what they were going to do and how they were going to keep advancing in the trucking industry? And I think it was just a culture thing.
Michael Clements:
Obviously, I wasn't there, I wasn't a part of this. I'm just trying to give some deeper thought into all of us trucking companies. Nobody really cared for the ELD mandate, but how you handled it within your walls definitely probably bled out into how your drivers, how your dispatchers, and everybody felt about that law. And ultimately, if ownership and leadership in the company wasn't behind this and was frustrated with it, that frustration probably stemmed down but then also gave the drivers the right to be frustrated about it. Because I've been around a lot of older drivers who have just dealt with it, and they're fine with it now. They work it, they use it, and they're really not complaining anymore because some of them say it's easier.
Michael Clements:
So, I don't know. I think this is more of a cultural thing with the ELDs now at this point. It's a part of what we do. It's a part of who we are. And to be in 2020 and citing that as a reason why you wanted to close your business down, which... I mean, we can be clear, too, that Greg does say that they weren't broke and they probably could have kept on trucking, but he was just tired of dealing with them. Something else that he had mentioned in here, which was pretty strong, was he said he hopes all the ambulance chasers burn in hell. Saying that, like I'm just imagining what the culture was like in this company.
Michael Clements:
And it makes me think of the culture we have in PDQ and our dedication to safety, advancements in technology, trying to be a leader in this industry no matter what the regulators are throwing at us. Is it always easy? No. But I do think that there is a level to being able to run and pivot and change your stance. And so many of us, you look at culture in a company, and whenever I think about culture, everybody thinks that this thing just happens. And if you're not doing everything in your power to protect your culture and to promote a positive culture, you're doing the exact opposite of those things, and then you're promoting a negative culture, which doesn't create a learning based environment. It doesn't create a place that's welcoming to customers, welcoming to more carriers, vendors, truck drivers. It creates, really, a sour culture whenever your leadership is not on board with the direction of the industry.
Michael Clements:
And at PDQ, I think we try to look at culture is, it's not something we develop over a month. It's not something we develop over six months or two weeks or a year or two years. Culture is something that we do every single day. And it's every single day, how are we promoting a better culture amongst ourselves, but also, how are we trying to grow? How are we trying to learn? And that's something we try to do every single day at PDQ. And I just wonder if this company hadn't taken that approach in 2015 or 2016 had there not been somebody that would have taken this company or even purchased this company and taken it out right with the culture that it possibly could have had.
Michael Clements:
So, I'm just kind of looking at some of this and trying to kind of read between the lines, and I'm wondering if this wasn't more of a cultural thing than it was insurance, regulation, all the same issues that everyone else cites, plus all these other things. I would like to see what their safety scores were at before that ELD mandate and before they went to 200 down to 35 drivers. Did they actually have really good safety scores? Did they promote a positive culture there? When did that shift occur? So, just kind of some thoughts on it. A different angle, a different approach to look at it. But I think this just encourages other companies out there that if you want to stay in business in 2020, and you want to have a well-rounded trucking company, you need to be promoting a positive culture, and get rid of the negativity in your business.
Michael Clements:
We are all dealing with the same things in regulation cost, high insurance costs. We talk about it on the show all the time. And just because you deal with it and you promote a culture that's positive about it, doesn't mean you like it. It doesn't mean you love it, but it does mean it's a part of what we do. Whether we like it or not, we got to breathe in oxygen every day to survive. It's the same thing in the trucking industry. If you want to do this thing, you got to get on board with the changing regulations and onboard with technology. It's just the direction of the industry whether we like it or not, and you have an option whether to get onboard and promote that culture in your business or you can do the opposite. But I'm telling you, you're going to see more of this from companies that haven't been able to get on board. But three years later, after the ELD mandates [inaudible 00:14:20] place to be citing that, it's a culture thing.
Aaron Dunn:
I think you're right. I think you're right. Of course, we don't know all the details or what have you, but I mean, they did provide quite a few hints that would inform somebody that has the trucking experience that, yeah, there's more going on than meets the eye. And hey, if they want to just wash their hands of the whole industry, that's their prerogative. Yeah. You bring up a good point in that how important it is.Okay. Are you ready for a game?
Michael Clements:
Let's play.
Aaron Dunn:
Okay. So-
Michael Clements:
Does it involve either one of us getting a Gatorade bath?
Aaron Dunn:
No.
Michael Clements:
Okay, good.
Aaron Dunn:
Thankfully not. Probably never again. Until next year. We'll see. So, we have this new game on Trucking for Millennials called Load It or Leave It. Yeah. Load It or Leave It. And the point of the game is... So, we've launched this podcast at the Great American Trucking Show, and it was awesome. We got to network with industry leaders and just people in the industry that were attendees. Right? And while we were there, we had podcast interviews, and we also asked questions of those passer-bys, what they thought about Millennials. Just this survey and hear the thoughts of the public. Right? And we got some interesting responses, to say the least. So, we've got some of those recordings today, and I'm going to bring them up right here. And we're going to determine if we want to load what they say-
Michael Clements:
Should we put it in the Millennial truck and load it and carry it, or should we leave it behind?
Aaron Dunn:
That's it. Exactly. Exactly. So, let me bring it up here. Okay. So, here's the first clip. We were asking everybody. What do you think of Millennials? Here's the first one.
Aaron Dunn:
Okay. So, what we're doing for the trashcan, the in-car trashcan, it's a very popular item.
Aaron Dunn:
We also had in-car trash cans, and they were very popular.
Michael Clements:
Very popular.
Aaron Dunn:
We had to ask this question as a bartering chip. So, anyway.
Aaron Dunn:
But what we're doing is collecting information about like what is your perspective on Millennials in the trucking industry? So, what do you think, first of all, of Millennials ages 22 to 38?
Speaker 4:
I think they're a little naive.
Aaron Dunn:
Okay.
Speaker 4:
Millennials are... It's almost a bad terminology to give them because it's all lumped summed into one, where they're not really all Millennials.
Aaron Dunn:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah. To you, what makes up a Millennial? What is a Millennial?
Speaker 4:
A conservative.
Aaron Dunn:
Really? Okay.
Speaker 4:
Entitled. Not necessarily college educated, but expecting everything for the highest value.
Aaron Dunn:
Naive, conservative, entitled, and expecting everything.
Michael Clements:
For the highest value.
Aaron Dunn:
For the highest value.
Michael Clements:
Yeah.
Aaron Dunn:
Nothing but the best. What do you think? What do you think? Now, she did say one thing that I think is very interesting, and it's something that really comes up over and over again in these clips, which is, she said that it's not really fair to put everybody in the Millennial bucket because they're not all Millennials. Which goes to the point that people think Millennials are a thing other than what they are, and what they are, what Millennials are, are a generation based on when they were born, when we were born. Right?
Michael Clements:
You'd have to be pretty naive to believe that all Millennials aren't Millennials.
Aaron Dunn:
Exactly. Exactly. Millennials are just a generational designation based on how old they are. Right? And we're now the largest generation. 23, I think now. 23 in 2020, to 38. The cutoffs like 1996, I think. '97. One of the two. So, that's what they are, but she's saying that not all Millennials are that. But she goes on to cite, naive, conservative, all these other things. So, what do you think? Do you think we're naive? Do you think we're conservative? That one threw me off.
Michael Clements:
I mean, the Millennials are supporting Bernie.
Aaron Dunn:
A lot of them.
Michael Clements:
I don't know if she meant conservative in that context or what she was talking about, but I'm leaving this comment. I'm leaving it. I'm not loading that one up.
Aaron Dunn:
Yeah, I think we're going to have to leave this.
Michael Clements:
I'm leaving that one.
Aaron Dunn:
Entitled? Do you think we're entitled?
Michael Clements:
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I definitely think our generation's entitled, but it's what's made us. I don't know. I think there's a level that we think that things should be a certain way, and I think entitled in the way that she's saying it is that we feel entitled to things and nice things and big houses, luxury cars, whatever it may be. But I would have to say that whenever I say that we feel like we're entitled, I think we're entitled to clean air. I think we're entitled to healthy food. I think we're entitled to understanding what our government's doing. I think we're entitled to open opinion and media and social media. I think we're entitled to those things. So, I think there may be a little bit-
Aaron Dunn:
Free speech.
Michael Clements:
Yeah, free speech. I think that there's just a-
Aaron Dunn:
Expressing oneself.
Michael Clements:
Yeah. And I think that's something that every generation has been entitled to, and there is no difference in us feeling like we shouldn't be entitled to that at a young age either. So, as far as being entitled and thinking that, "I deserve this because I am 25 years old or 30 years old..." I mean, yeah, there's probably a handful of guys out there or ladies or whatever that are like that, but to throw us all in a bucket and say that's how all of us feel, I disagree. I'm leaving it.
Aaron Dunn:
Leave it. We're leaving it. Let us know what you think. Loading It or Leaving It. Here's another one. Okay? Ready for another one?
Michael Clements:
Let's hear it.
Aaron Dunn:
... the question?
Speaker 2:
About what?
Aaron Dunn:
Just what is your opinion of Millennials?
Speaker 2:
They suck.
Speaker 5:
They're cream puffs.
Speaker 2:
Cream puffs [inaudible 00:20:55].
Aaron Dunn:
What advice do y'all have for Millennials?
Speaker 5:
Grow up and shit happens and put your big girl panties on. Get over it.
Speaker 2:
Thank you.
Aaron Dunn:
I love how he says thank you at the end.
Michael Clements:
Well, he dug deep in the [inaudible 00:21:10] didn't he, Aaron?
Aaron Dunn:
Dig deep. It didn't take long to find this, find this one because we got a few of those type of cream puffs, put your big girl panties on. They're dumb, all this kind of stuff. Oh, man. The Millennial hate. Are we loading this one up?
Michael Clements:
No, I'm not loading this one up.
Aaron Dunn:
We got to leave this one-
Michael Clements:
We're leaving this one.
Aaron Dunn:
This is a cheap freight right here.
Michael Clements:
Yeah, this is... I almost made a Sage Robinson joke, but I'll refrain.
Aaron Dunn:
Tell me later. Yeah, some people get so... I mean, she talked about big girl panties. Her panties are in a wad about Millennials for whatever reason.
Michael Clements:
She just seems kind of ugly.
Aaron Dunn:
Yeah.
Michael Clements:
Just kind of mean.
Aaron Dunn:
Yeah. I don't know what... She must have not got... I don't know. I don't know.
Michael Clements:
I do like pastries though.
Aaron Dunn:
Cream puffs?
Michael Clements:
I mean, you know.
Aaron Dunn:
I don't even know what a cream puff is really.
Michael Clements:
Yeah. I'm thinking it's... I like puffy tacos. I like puffy tacos. I'd be at taco puff.
Aaron Dunn:
I think you're hungry.
Michael Clements:
I might be.
Aaron Dunn:
Yeah. All right, let's cue up the last one.
Aaron Dunn:
What is your opinion of Millennials?
Speaker 6:
They got a long ways to go. They have a long ways to go, and they need to... Everybody needs to get some experience, but some of them are being cut loose too early.
Aaron Dunn:
They've got a long ways to go, he says. Long ways to go.
Michael Clements:
I agree. I hope that I have a long way to go.
Aaron Dunn:
Same. Same. I'm looking for a long life.
Michael Clements:
Yes.
Aaron Dunn:
And then, we're getting cut loose too soon, and he alludes to experience, lack of experience and how that-
Michael Clements:
He's right.
Aaron Dunn:
How do we balance... I think, yeah, I think he's making a good point of that. You've got to balance the education with real world experience, and how doing something... Getting experience is a good thing and that's what we should be doing, but that can be risky depending on what you're doing, especially in the context of trucking. So, if you don't have a lot of experiencing, you can go over the road. That's a risk, and that should definitely be done with great care.
Aaron Dunn:
But also, maybe changing jobs. Maybe it's out of the truck. You're going into a new industry or what have you. That can be risk because you don't know how things are going to go, maybe industry-wide, that kind of thing. Who knows, some of these trucking companies, they might have new brand new employees, and next thing you know things are going south. So, that that can be a risk. Experience is important, but we've got to balance it with the learning.
Michael Clements:
So, are you loading it or leaving it/
Aaron Dunn:
I feel like he's a pretty reasonable guy. I think I would load this one. I would load it. I mean, we've got a long way to go. Yeah. Hopefully. And as far as experience goes and balancing that, yeah, you got to you got to balance the experience with the education. What about you?
Michael Clements:
Yeah, I'm loading it. I'm going to put it on the trailer, strap it down, maybe tarp it, protect it, take care of it. I'll pull this one down the road. And the reason I agree with it is, is just because, yeah, we do have a long way to go. We have a lot of experience and a lot of things we still have to get accomplished. Sometimes I kind of think of the Millennials as we're kind of like the resume generation. Like how do we just put things on our resume? How do we get more and more on there so we look better and better to our next employer? And ultimately, I think we have to be looking at, "Hey, how do we get the experience that we need to be able to solve the problems and find the solutions for our next position that we attain to be in versus just how do I get in that position?" It's kind of like-
Aaron Dunn:
That's a great point.
Michael Clements:
... it's kind of like the dog chasing the tire. You don't want to be the dog. You get the tire finally, you don't know what to do with it. You want to know exactly what you're going to have to do in that position if you get in a leadership position with a company. And so, if you plan on running a business one day, if you want to be a CEO or a COO or a CFO, or maybe you want to be the head dispatcher, the lead driver, whatever those positions may be, I definitely think that it's better for younger people to identify the direction they want to take their career. And not think about how they develop the resume to get there, but how they develop the experiences that they're going to need to solve the problems whenever they do get in that position. And I think that's what he's kind of alluding to is that, if you want to be in those certain positions, don't just think about how to get there, think about the experience that it's going to take to be able to do that job well.
Aaron Dunn:
That's a great point. Exactly. Yeah. It's not about having a job title, it's about generating the skillset that helps you become the person that executes on those things. Yeah. Yeah.
Michael Clements:
So, yeah, we'll load that one up.
Aaron Dunn:
Yeah. Load that one up.
Michael Clements:
Yeah. But cream puff, nah.
Aaron Dunn:
You can keep that. Keep the cream puff, lady.
Michael Clements:
If she said taco puff, like I said, puff taco, I'm taking that.
Aaron Dunn:
Awesome. All right, well that's this episode of Trucking for Millennials. Remember, if you want to be a five star fan of the podcast, go leave a five star review on iTunes. If you want to be four star, be a four star. If you want to be one star, you know what to do. Other than that, anything?
Michael Clements:
I think that's it.
Aaron Dunn:
Yeah. Let's roll. We'll see you next week.