Episode 3 - Millennial Values and Changing Regulations
In our 3rd episode we break the show into two segments: Millennial Stuff & Trucking Stuff. In "Millennial Stuff" we discuss a recent poll that surveyed millennials and boomers about the values each generation states are most important to them. You can find the poll results in the following articles:
Americans Have Shifted Dramatically on What Values Matter Most
Then, we pivot to Trucking Stuff and chat about the recent HOS regulation changes. We end the episode with an in-office chat we had this week inspired by the recent trucking company closures and a tweet from an ATA economist about what's happening in the spot market.
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GATS attendee: Like, you want me to be honest?
Michael: Please.
GATS attendee: They're too…they're disrespectful, and a tad bit lazy. That's all I'm saying about it.
Michael: Okay, what advice would you have for millennials?
GATS attendee: I would advise them to find some mentors or some people that are older that will help them become a little bit more respectful, a little bit, get a little bit better work ethic, and get a little bit better open minded about issues, stuff like that. Like I work with a bunch that when the vote was last year, I asked them all “You guys gonna vote?” “No.” “Why?” “Well, why should we?” “Okay, because you just should, you know, there are countries where people don't get to vote.” And so anyway…
Michael: Welcome to Trucking for Millennials where we engage with the future of freight happening now. My name is Michael Clements.
Aaron: and I'm Aaron Dunn. And we're here to help trucking and logistics professionals stay up to date and ahead of the curve.
Michael: As our industry evolves, we're connecting with every step of the supply chain as part of our mission to increase transparency and provide a world class freight solutions.
Aaron: Trucking from Millennials! Alright, so, Episode Three, three of the Trucking for Millennials podcast. We made it three episodes and we're coming hot off of a Labor Day weekend. Did you have a good Labor Day? We haven't really talked about that at all.
Michael: I had a wonderful Labor Day
Aaron: What did you do?
Michael: So I got I got the privilege of going to a Backstreet Boys concert this weekend. So much fun.
Aaron: Hashtag millennial life! How was that man?
Michael: It was wonderful. But it was it was a good time. It was a my wife just got done with her bachelor's degree and so she wanted that as a nice little gift. So I took her to the Backstreet Boys concert on Sunday night and we had a blast.
Aaron: That's awesome. So you're you're you're not ashamed of that at all?
Michael: No, not at all.
Aaron: There's a lot of husbands and dudes in general that would just be like “No, I'm passing on that. Go with your girlfriends, but..”
Michael: I was definitely more ashamed of it when I was in probably sixth or seventh grade. And it wasn't cool. If you still listen to Backstreet Boys, you know, yeah. But you know, growing up, I was probably like, third or fourth grade when those songs started coming out. And I mean, everybody listened to it. You know, it's so catchy and we were talking about it like, you know, it's really not dirty music. It's not bad. It's just, it's just boy bands, you know, man, pop.
Aaron: What's your favorite backstreet boy song?
Michael: Backstreet’s Back. That was good.
Aaron: Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Well, that's fun. Mine was very low key. I did go shopping and stuff we went shopping. And that's about it. Like we didn't really do much. So, uh, yeah, it's a Trucking for Millennials time. And we've got two segments that we're going to cover today, some Stuff that came up some trucking news that we're going to get to here in a little bit. But before that we're going to cover millennial stuff. So millennial stuff!
Michael: Let's talk about us.
Aaron: This article came across, you know, my desk, my attention caught my attention. And it's a it's an article from Wall Street Journal and NBC News. They did like a poll of around 1000 people, and they were talking about values. So this is about millennial values, what young people value and you know how that differs between what older people value what the older generations value. And just going to read this here a little bit, it said, “As Americans 21 years ago to say which values were important to them and strong majorities pick the principles of hard work patriotism, commitment to religion and the goal of having children. Today, hard work remains at the top of the list, but the shares of American listing the other three values have fallen substantially driven by changing priorities of people under the age of 50. Views varied sharply by age among people 55 and older, for example, nearly 80% said patriotism was very important, compared with 42% of those ages 18 to 38, the millennial generation and the older members of generation z.” So, you know, nearly 80% of 55 and older said patriotism was important, while 42% of the younger people said, Yeah, not so much. So two thirds of the older group, older generations cited religion as very important compared with fewer than one third of the younger. So I just thought that was interesting how, you know, younger people tend to be less patriotic than older people. And I just thought it was an interesting, you know, differentiation. We've got some more data here, but one quote that we could pull from this from this study someone 31 year old so millennial generation from Austin, Texas fellow Texan howdy said “Patriotism for the sake of patriotism means nothing to me. She said, If you believe in the values that your country's expressing, and following anyone to support those, then sure, but just a blind association with wherever you happen to be from that just doesn't seem logical.”
Michael: I couldn't disagree with that comment more.
Aaron: Why?
Michael: So really, I feel like that's the kind of aggravating crap that we see that they're publishing that a millennial said this, you know, for, I just want to get one thing straight millennials. I'm a millennial, but I'm an American. First and foremost, I'm an American. And I believe in patriotism. I believe in the red, white and blue. I believe that we should believe in our country and trust our country above all others. This is the country that gives us the opportunity to do the things that we want to do to have the open opinions that we want to have. And it really, you know, from coming from a family with, with veterans, being around veterans, having good friends that are veterans of even even the current the current war that is going on, these things are very aggravating to hear and, and I understand I get it, you know, maybe the country doesn't believe one thing or 10 things that you think you need to believe believe in America or not to put your hand over your heart and sing the national anthem. Those are little things that I think are we're we're missing as a generation right now. I mean, I haven't seen anybody's free speech taken. You know, if anything, we have more we're more capable of free speech these days because of social media and all the different outlets that are there. So to to disagree with our country and the ideals that it stands for. Well, the ideals that it stands for is exactly that. It allows someone to be able to stand up and disagree with the with the direction or with the country or with patriotism or, or whatever you want to think but you know now I think that if you're someone who doesn't, who doesn't believe in patriotism or you know, believe in something some sort of get some sort of proud being proud out of being an American, then I think something's wrong with you.
Aaron: Yeah, yeah. Okay, so another thing that was, you know, staying at this, like, particular graph was pretty interesting, because it talks about the cross generation. So like the difference, the differences between generations, and how they think about these particular values. So, you know, we, when we're looking at this, we see, you know, millennials and Gen Z and then boomers in the silent generation and patriotism, like the article said, it's like 80% for the boomers were 40% important for millennials. Believe in God. There's pretty widespread, having children, there's a closer spread, it’s like more like 25% from millennials and boomers around 45% in terms of valuing that is very important. But the rest of the hard work, you've got, you've got millennials up there like value in that 82% 83% boomers a little bit more, but still in the higher 80 to 90 percentile. Financial security, they're pretty much dead even around 80% is very important. Tolerance for others. Very similar. Millennials are a little bit more valuing… Millennials are valuing tolerance, a little bit more than what boomers do, according to this, you know, stat breakdown, but they're both pretty much even on that 80%. margin. And then self fulfillment. There's a little bit wider gap where boomers are valuing that around 60%, whereas Millennials are around 75. Maybe. What do you think about that kind of breakdown?
Michael: So we have another poll.
Aaron: Yeah.
Michael: Gathering statistics to compare the millennials to everybody else. And what I love about this is is, you know, can we go back and pull up the poll from 1969 that compares this the thoughts that boomers were having, and maybe where some of these things ranked whenever they were in their 20s and 30s? Because, I mean, we're looking at this and, you know, yes, patriotism, belief in God, having children. Those the three things are not as important to millennials right now as they are boomers. But were those things is important to boomers as they were, you know, their parents and the generation before their parents? You know, I don't know, I would like to see how that breakdown is and how this actually evolves over time. You know, having children. It's funny that we have this in here too, because, you know, all my life I felt like you know, there were people you know, there were friends of mine and others who had kids at a young age and it was always all “You're having two kids, you know, kids too young.” And then now it's all “You're too old to have kids…you’re getting too old, better have kids.” I wish everybody get off our back about when they have kids.
Aaron: Right.
Michael: You know, I think that's our own decision. And, you know, being 31 and not having children yet, but planning on having children like this is still important to me. But is it the most important thing going on in my life right now? No. But I think it's important in the household, but you know, what I'd really like to look at too is the hard work, financial security, tolerance for others and self-fulfillment. All four of these are almost in line with each other. They're almost on top of each other on this graph. And so the things the intangibles of what makes up someone who can be a contributing member of society, I see that these things are really all in line and so really is our direction that we're headed. That…Are we digressing? By no means. Do I believe that patriotism, belief in God, and having children… do I think those are going to increase with millennials over time? Absolutely.
Aaron: Yeah, I think it's pretty interesting to kind of examine those things. And as we've been talking to, you know, just different generations like we did at Great American Trucking Show, lots of people that are much older than us, you know, we were engaging with them and what they thought about millennials and stuff and they had, you know, some particular things to say about that.
GATS attendee: They're spoiled, spoiled, spoiled, rotten, need to get a job and go to work move out of mommy and daddy's house.
GATS attendee: Don’t hire millennials.
GATS attendee: That era just hasn't got it together yet. They're relying on somebody else to
make their way for them.
Aaron: Which is totally fine. But I think you know, when you're talking about, you know, opening up a discussion with maybe the older generation, it's good to say good to start with what we have in common, which is, you know, hard work, financial security, tolerance for others, you know, self-fulfilment that's a little wider gap, but still, it's like if you work hard, and you know the value of you know, being financially secure and if we're talking about trucking and being successful and and career, then start there, start there with Hey, I, you know, I'm just looking to be the best at this particular trade at in this particular industry that I can be and I'm willing to work hard. I don't think anybody would disagree with that regardless of how old they are.
Michael: Yeah, I mean, self fulfillment is definitely going to be up there on any 20 or younger 30 year old’s list. I would have to say it that doesn't shock me that self fulfillment is up there that high. And I think as we as we do get older, we definitely start seeing the world through different lenses and we become more open to other ideas as well as not just the direction we think we need to be headed, but who's going with us and who are we carrying with us and who are we helping and all those things. I just think are we mature and we we get better at these things over time. So to say where these stats are represents our generation, maybe at this point in time, but does that represent us as a whole and where we're going to be.
So we also wanted to talk about on the show today. Let's get into some trucking.
Aaron: Let's get into some trucking.
Michael: So big news right now going on in the industry. Let's discuss the hours of service comment period, because this is really big, and it means a whole lot to truck drivers. And even if it doesn't mean a whole lot to you, it means a whole lot to how things are going to be transported, what rates are going to do. And also really, at the end of the day, what does it mean to the drivers on the road, I think and that's whether it's important to you, or if you're a driver, and it's important to you. This is actually a very, very great opportunity for anybody that's in the trucking industry to have a voice. And so what's going on right now is the FMCSA has opened up a 45 day comment period, and this opened in the middle of August, and they had their first comment period or their first I guess session was at GATS in Dallas, the Great American Trucking Show. And what they did was they allowed truck drivers and anyone in the industry to stand up and talk directly to FMCSA people and voice their opinion of what they think the hours of service changes should be. And the next, the next one will be in Washington DC on October the 10th, from one to 3pm, Eastern Standard Time. And if you can't be in Washington, DC, there's no problem with that. You can comment online and they've made this I would say somewhat easy. I've went through the process and it's actually it's not too hard, but it's not the easiest to navigate. And so we have made it easy for our listeners. But if you'd like to go directly to the site, it's just regulations.gov is where you can go make those comments. But if you also just want to go to go.PDQamerica.com/comment that's going to take you directly to the screen right where you top you hit submit and your voice will be heard. These also by law have to be reviewed by the FMCSA. So this is a great opportunity for the big guy, the little guy, anybody to be heard directly by our government and influence positively the hours of service rules. So here's here's here's what they're going to be able to comment on here is number one, flexibility for the 30 minute break rule by tying the brake requirement to eight hours of driving time without interruption for at least 30 minutes, and allowing the brake to be satisfied by a driver using on duty, not driving status rather than off duty. The number two item, modifying the sleeper berth exception to allow drivers to split their required 10 hour off duty into two periods, one period of at least seven consecutive hours in the sleeper berth and the other period of at least two consecutive hours either off duty or in the sleeper berth. Neither period would count against the driver’s 14 hour driving window.
Aaron: But that's great because that's going to actually allow for naps.
Michael: And naps are important.
Aaron: Naps are important. A powernap is a powerful thing, especially if like you're going to you know, wake up so like instead of doing 10 hours sleep period, you have to commit to that 10 hour time. Now they can do like a seven hour sleep period. With three you know, they can they can mix and match it.
Michael: Nobody wants tired drivers. I think everybody I'm guessing we're probably 98% of the population other 2% of those shippers that don't care. We know those folks are out there. But I think 98% of people will care if these drivers are tired and they want their safety put in first and this let these guys be in control. You know, let them be in control of their situation. They are professionals. So the third item allowing one off duty break of at least 30 minutes but not more than three hours that would pause a truck driver’s 14 hour driving window provided the driver takes 10 consecutive hours off duty at the end of the work shift. Number four: modifying the adverse driving conditions exception, but extending by two hours the maximum window during which driving is permitted. Number five: changing the short haul exception available to certain commercial drivers by lengthening the driver’s maximum on duty period from 12 to 14 hours and extending the distance limit within which the driver may operate from 100 air miles to 150 air miles. What all of this means to truck drivers, to the trucking industry is it seems like there's some flexibility on the way but they don't know exactly how to implement it or where it should be given. So what I like is that our the FMCSA is probably doing the smartest thing that it can and it's asking the industry it's asking people and these five rules here these five laws that are I don't know what they call them. Whatever they're going to do to the law, amend it or change it anyway, changes anyway. So no matter what they're going to do, this seems like this is moving them in a, in a progressive direction and one that's going to that's going to give the driver more flexibility over time.
Aaron: Yeah, yeah. And one of the greatest things that I'm learning about, you know, truck driving in general, and what a lot of truck drivers value about the profession itself, is the autonomy that they have. The fact that they say, you know, every every driver that I talked to is at, you know, I'm my own boss, essentially, you know, I'm my own boss, even if they're least on with the carrier and 95% of their loads are from one carrier, you know, and, or one shipper, you know, there’s still a degree of autonomy. When you're out there on the road, you have the direct control of how you get that load to, you know, Point A to Point B and you it's in everybody's best interest to equip the driver, the best way that they can do their job in the best way possible. So yeah, that flexibility that you're talking about. That's exactly what the drivers need, because they don't need to be micromanaged if they just need to be able to have the tools of the trade available to do their job, right. And it's a good thing to put greater trust in the driver, because they don't, you know, they don't want to do a bad job either.
Michael: Well, what they're estimating is it's going to save over $275 million annually and just flexibility for companies and for the drivers to make their own decisions versus being put on a break or whatever in inconvenient time, which is going to result in over $2 billion of savings to the industry and the carriers over the next 10 years. And that that 30 minute rest break. Why that is such a big deal is it's going to save about an estimated 80 million hours per year by tying it to driving time and being able to use it as on duty not driving rather than going off duty. The savings could be far greater though if you calculate the time in there that it's going to that it actually takes for a driver to find time, and where to take that 30 minute break. So the savings is actually probably this is just a number, you can put on the basic math of the 30 minutes. And if we do this and do that, well, now you can also take into account the time it takes to get there and get out of there. Because this is gonna allow a driver to possibly take this when they're loading, unloading or on a job site. And I think that that's a brilliant and a good thing for drivers.
Aaron: But hey, maybe not all drivers agree. So that's why they put the comments in there or, you know, they might have an even better decision say, “Well, you know, why not?” Yeah, that's actually Louis Pew vice president of OOIDA. He said “30 minutes, why not 10 minutes?” you know, you know, so instead of, you know, breaking up the break period to, you know, these, this, this one mandatory half an hour block, can't wait to split it between, you know, 15 minutes or whatever. So, that's his suggestion and if you agree, you might want to put your in there.
Michael: Well, at least we're going this direction. And we're not saying we're not telling the driver how they should spend their 30 minute break. So at least we're moving in a direction. But, you know, I have to agree with Louie that, you know, let you know, get this regulation outta here. I don't know…Regulation can be a good thing. It doesn't hurt and it does keep people safe. But sometimes it can be overbearing, and especially if you're the ones dealing with it in the industry.
Aaron: Yeah, yeah. It's a balancing act for sure.
Well, is there anything else that you needed, we needed to cover on trucking stuff? What's what else was happening this week?
Michael: You know, we had an interesting conversation this week around the office, just discussing the companies that are closing down and the possibilities as to why some of these major carriers that you know, employ thousands of people why they're going out of business.
Aaron: I wanted to know what yours and Chase’s take was on that and you know, it was kind of based off of a tweet from American Trucking Associations economist. So we've got that clip for you right here.
Michael: I think it's just a simple question of supply and demand. I think it's just like anything, any industry right now that's going through going through changes in the digital age. I think the spot markets just getting hit right now. And it's going to be a simple question of supply and demand for the businesses that are going to be able to make it, they're going to be around. For the ones that can’t and don't run frugally enough or have bad practices or practices that not even bad practices, but they haven't pivoted correctly in this new digital age. Those are those companies are going to go but what's going to happen is the companies that are that have made that progress or the newer companies that are coming along that are already fitting into that that new mold of what a spot market carrier looks like. I think you're just going to see either their business increase and fill in the gaps or it's just a supply demand.
Chase: From what I took out of that, it basically said that a lot of the companies that are closing down our operating spot market. I could definitely see how a spot market especially a volatile spot the spot market like we're in right now. I mean it makes it hard to do things like, you know, projections and budgeting and you know, from a company standpoint, the lack of contract work can definitely make it difficult to be sustainable.
Michael: I think that's what happens you know, you get a lot of we had a busy year last year, spot market was good. A lot of people want a lot of people went out and bought trucks and invested in it like so. Is there really a slowdown or is there just a correction? I think that's got to look at is it a slow down or is it just a correction?
Katie: Hi, this is Katie at PDQ America. Remember to subscribe so you don't miss fresh perspective on what's happening in the industry. You can follow us on social media @pdqamerica. And if you'd like more information about our show, send an email to podcast@pdqamerica.com.