Episode 19 - Naughty or Nice List Christmas Special

In this episode Michael and Aaron chat about whether or not these topics belong on Santa's nice list or naughty list:

Uber Freight 

FreightWaves 

Celadon 

Truck Drivers 

Tesla 

Automated Trucks 

Electric Trucks 

Transport Stocks

Trump 

Congress 

Infrastructure 

Trade Deal

FMCSA 

Millennials 

Boomers 

Podcast Listeners/Guests 

GATS 

Dallas Cowboys 

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Aaron:
Trucking For Millennials.

Michael:
Dashing through the snow in a big 18-wheeler ...

Aaron:
Trucking For Millennials.

Michael:
You could probably do one with Frosty the Snowman. Ricky the truck driver.

Aaron:
I bet there's a truck driver named Frosty out there.

Michael:
Ricky the cool truck driver listens to our show ...

Aaron:
Okay, do you want to start the show?

Michael:
Let's get it kicked off.

Aaron:
All right. Welcome to trucking for millennials. My name is Aaron.

Michael:
My name is Michael.

Aaron:
And this is the last episode of 2019.

Michael:
The Christmas edition.

Aaron:
Happy holidays to you, listener. If you're listening to this, in two days it's going to be Christmas, and I hope that you get everything that you asked for. And I hope your kids do too.

Michael:
And if you don't get everything you wanted, you're going to get coal, like some of the people on this list.

Aaron:
Yeah. Good segue.

Michael:
So what are we doing today, Aaron?

Aaron:
We've got a naughty list and a nice list, and it's all trucking for millennials themed. And we're going to run through this list of different things around the industry that we enjoy, that we don't enjoy, and the world, things that impact trucking in different ways, and our economy, how we think about things, and just some fun stuff too. And we're going to rate, and we're going to predict, whether or not they made Santa's nice list or naughty list, based on what happened with these topics throughout the year. That's what we're going to do.

Michael:
Let's do it.

Aaron:
Okay. Do you want to kick it off?

Michael:
Yeah, let's get kicked off here. The first one on the list is going to be FreightWaves.

Aaron:
FreightWaves, where are they on your list?

Michael:
They made my good list.

Aaron:
Same.

Michael:
They're going to get some good gifts this year. I really like what they're doing, they're promoting the industry, they're making guys like us who have a podcast in the industry, they're making our lives easier I think, because people are more inclined to the media side of this business now, and they want to know, people like to hear the opinions of others.

Aaron:
Yeah, and it's good to just have more conversation happening within the industry. More information is a good thing. This industry talks quite a bit about transparency. Logistics talks about transparency all the time, and I think that is a good point. The more information, the more media, and the more people talking about things, the more transparent we're going to be. Yeah, I agree. Nice list.

Aaron:
Okay, for me the second one, Uber Freight.

Michael:
Uber Freight.

Aaron:
Uber Freight.

Michael:
What do you got for Uber?

Aaron:
I put them on the nice list. I put them on the nice list, because they're pushing the industry forward. Even if it might be a little uncomfortable at times, makes brokerages kind of wide eyed a little bit because they might become a threat or what have you, they're doing really innovative things, and they're making everybody just kind of adjust. And I think that's a healthy thing. I think anything that can enter a market that makes people work harder, or push to do better, is a good thing, so I'm going to give them a nice list.

Michael:
Yeah, I'm going to put Uber on my nice list too. They're driving progress in an industry. Although they in a sense are a competitor of ours, and they make our life a little bit harder, I think at the end of the day they're helping our industry evolve, helping freight brokerages and trucking companies get better. Do they have some kinks to work out, do they need to work on their PR a little bit? Yes, I think some of those things need to be worked on, but all in all I think Uber has the direction of the industry ... Like they got it in its scopes, and I think they're doing a good job. They're not trying to come in and bulldoze everybody, they're just trying to be another player in the industry. So they make my nice list.

Aaron:
Awesome.

Michael:
For the next one on the list, I am going to sneak one in here, because it goes right along with Uber Freight, but Amazon this year, who got kicked off with all of their freight and all their trucking and everything ... As far as being on the naughty or nice list, I'm going to put them on the nice list just because they're trying to figure out how to get packages to my door faster. I can't be upset about that, so Amazon makes my nice list.

Aaron:
All right, yeah, I'll put them on my nice list too. They're a monolithic company, and they're continually just ... Their name is almost synonymous with disruption, market disruption, so anything that they think they can disrupt, they're just going to go ahead and do. It's an inspiring thing to watch, and ultimately makes everything better. It's kind of along that same lines, yeah, you're right.

Aaron:
Next one, Celadon.

Michael:
Celadon.

Aaron:
That's a naughty list.

Michael:
That is really naughty.

Aaron:
I'm not going to broad brush and put everybody under Celadon on the naughty list, because that's definitely not accurate.

Michael:
Mm-mm.

Aaron:
But the upper management that are responsible for Celadon's failure, they were doing illegal things, financial fraud, all that kind of stuff, that led to what has been the largest trucking company failure in US history. That's not a light point, you know what I mean, that's a pretty serious thing. So lots of people lost their jobs, unfortunately. Thankfully, kind of going back to FreightWaves, they put up a job board to help funnel people into other companies, other drivers and stuff like that. So I think a lot of the drivers have found work afterward, but Celadon, they definitely belong on the naughty list. There's definitely going to be some cold recipients from that executive team.

Michael:
Yeah, and they may be receiving some years in prison as well.

Aaron:
Yeah, does Santa deliver coal to prison?

Michael:
He may have to find a way. I agree with you 100%, the people of Celadon, the hard working people, the truck drivers, the dispatchers, the people on the ground level, I hope all those people, keep those people in your thoughts and prayers this Christmas, because there's a lot of folks without a job, and that are curious as to how they're going to get their next decade started off. Overall, yeah, the execs in that company definitely deserve a big old lump of cool.

Aaron:
Yep. What you got?

Michael:
All right, next on my list I'm going to have automated trucks. And I'm going to go ahead and give automated trucks, they're going to be on my good list. Just because I think the progress that they're making, how they're trying to ease them into the industry, we're not being overtaken and truck driver jobs are being lost all around. They're really easing this thing into the industry and trying to make it work with what we've already got going on, versus trying to completely reshape everything and tell everybody, "By the way, how you're doing it's wrong." I don't get that feeling. I think that the automated trucks are actually doing it, they're going to end up being a good thing, especially on interstates. I think they're eventually going to be safer for truck drivers, it's going to be more efficient.

Michael:
At the end of the day I think that's a lot of false narratives, that drivers are going to lose their jobs because of trucking automation. I think that's a false narrative, because you're still going to have to load, you're going to have to unload, and once you get off that interstate driving through city streets, highways, county roads, those type of things, you'll never be able to automate that process. You can automate it to a certain extent, but no. So I'm going to give automated trucks and the folks that are working on that, they're going to be on my nice list.

Aaron:
I agree. Just so everybody knows, we don't know each other's naughty and nice, so we'll see if we're going to go ... Right now we're batting 100, like equal, but who knows if we'll disagree at some point. But yeah, I agree, automated trucks, it's an exciting thing to watch happen. There's going to be continually, in this next decade, there's going to be so much advancement in this technology, and so much practical application that happens, it's going to be really interesting to watch who picks it up, and how it fuses into our lives. That's a good point that you made, about how it's just slowly evolving. Everybody's kind of just evolving with it.

Aaron:
When we talked to Marcus at GATS, he talked about how there's going to be people pushing through the door, and those people are going to get some mud on their face. Because there will be some trials that happen, which is going to be unfortunate, but I suppose that's just the risk that you take when you're pushing things like that forward.

Aaron:
The next one, electric trucks.

Michael:
Electric trucks, what you got?

Aaron:
I've got like a quick stat here, which I thought was interesting, about electric trucks. Anheuser Busch, making beer for the holidays and for America, placed an order of 800 Nicola trucks, they're hydrogen electric trucks. It's not fully electric, but half of it is. So 350 miles for an electric battery, and up to 750 miles with hydrogen. So they ordered 800 of those, and they have a goal to reduce their carbon footprint by 25%, and that's part of why they're doing that. So electric trucks are going nowhere. I think you can probably tell that they're on my nice list. It's going to be interesting again, how they're going to be used. I don't think it's going to be a 100% replacement for diesel trucks, and of course they're not going to go anywhere any time soon. But it's interesting how that's going to be utilized. Because so many trucks don't go a huge distance. So many shipments stay within this 300 mile, 150 mile, 200 mile range.

Michael:
So we are going to differ here. Electric trucks are on my naughty list.

Aaron:
Uh-oh.

Michael:
I'm tired of hearing about the progress that we're making in electric trucks and everything. At the end of the day, where's the infrastructure? Where's your mechanics? How many diesel mechanics are going to be out of a job? Although we may get these trucks, and it may get here eventually, where are you going to get that thing serviced in east Texas if you're driving through here and something happens to you, and who even is going to want to work on that truck, especially in oil and gas country.

Aaron:
Yeah.

Michael:
So I'm just thinking to myself that the electric trucks, we've been hearing about them for close to a decade now, it's this and that, and I think it's good, I think that's all right, Anheuser Busch is wanting to promote more efficient operations and have electric trucks, but I'd also like to know where are these trucks going to be going? Is it going to be long haul? Who's going to service them, who's going to take care of them? There's a lot of questions there to be asked, and I'm sure some of the folks in their business, they can answer some of these questions, but as far as the industry goes, they're on my naughty list. I'm not impressed.

Aaron:
Well said. That's a great point. That's a great point, and shows how you've got a little bit more experience than me, a lot of bit more experience than me, in the industry of thinking of the actual overall impact of what electric trucks would mean, and how important it is to do it right instead of just do it. What's next?

Michael:
Tesla. Speaking of electric and automation.

Aaron:
Yeah?

Michael:
So Tesla actually makes my good list this year. I really like the progress that they've made over there. Maybe not just for the industry, is why they're on my good list, but just overall I think what they're trying to promote with their vehicles, and trying to put people in automation. There was a stat that ... I think there's been over 3,000 or 4,000 deaths on Texas roads this year. For automated vehicles, I think that number total, all time, is less than five or 10. And so whenever you start looking at these numbers, and I'm not trying to devalue a life, but what I'm saying is, whenever you compare these numbers of automation to non-automation, I think it's time we start introducing this more into our lifestyle and what we have. I think that you're going to see in the commercial or consumer car area, you're going to see that trend really start to pick up in the early 2020s.

Michael:
So Tesla is on my good list as far as what they're doing for the semi truck industry. I've already said it, the electric trucks, they're on my naughty loss, I'm not impressed, and even with Tesla, it's just a big game with them, but overall though, their business and what they're trying to do in pushing the new age vehicle forward, they make my good list.

Aaron:
Yeah. Tesla makes my good list too because I want a cyber truck real bad. Chelsea, my wife, does not want me to have a cyber truck.

Michael:
I want you to have a cyber truck.

Aaron:
Thank you. We'll just have to go to dinner or something, you can explain to her why. Because it's not working for me.

Michael:
You just have to put that Trucking for Millennials sticker on there whenever you get it.

Aaron:
Exactly. So they get on my nice list just for the cyber truck, that thing's legit.

Michael:
Yeah.

Aaron:
Let's see here. Getting out of that kind of category, I think. I've got ... Uh-oh, naughty word coming up. Trump. I'll go there. I'll go there. We're talking trucking stuff, so we're going to talk a little bit about politics, infrastructure, that kind of thing. Trump belongs on the naughty list. He belongs on the naughty list.

Michael:
Let's hear it.

Aaron:
It kind of goes without saying, I think. Regardless of your political bent, the guy is not easy to listen to in terms of, if you're reading tweets, he's constantly insulting people. I heard this on a podcast the other day, we have Triumph the Insult Comic Dog as a president. And I was like dang, that's pretty accurate. It's kind of funny sometimes, but it's also very distasteful. He's somebody who sees a hornet's nest and just wants to kick it, just because he can. He belongs on the naughty list for that, and that's where I'll leave it.

Michael:
Yeah, so Trump is going to make my nice list. He's getting all the gifts for Christmas this year. The reason why is, I have to agree, I can't stand him on Twitter, he drives me nuts, but I'm just going to give it to the man: it doesn't matter how much they dish at him, he's just pow, pow, pow, beating right back at everybody and he doesn't back down. I think that there's something in that, that resilience that he has to just continue pushing. And I do think there's a group of people out there that he is pushing for. I'm not going to put Trump on my naughty list this year, Trump's going to go on my good list, especially because of the year that he's had in dealing with the things in DC, and what he's had to deal with ...

Michael:
I'm not by any way gauging his job performance or who he is as a person, I'm just going to put him on my nice list, because I just think that if anybody had to do their job with as many people yelling at him and getting in the way that he does, none of us would be able to do what we do. So for him to be able to continue to continue, I'm going to say running our country, I know that would get some disagreement from others, but I think he makes my nice list, yeah.

Aaron:
All right. Controversial. Controversy on the Trucking for Millennials Podcast. What do you think? Tweet us. Message us. Something. All right, what's the next topic?

Michael:
Oh, next topic, I've got, oh yeah, Congress. Boom, boom, boom.

Aaron:
Oh yeah, keeping it political. Boy. What do they got?

Michael:
I wish I could impeach all those assholes, boy I wish ... no, they make my naughty list. Congress is terrible. I think they've had a lot of opportunities this year to work on two things, and that was infrastructure and redoing our justice system. I haven't seen either one of those things make progress, and these are two things that the Republicans, the White House, and Democrats, were all in agreeance that they needed to improve, and none of those things got improved this year. So Congress to me is on my naughty list, and then they just impeached Trump. In the house, he's not gone. There's people who think he's gone, but no. Congress definitely, I hope they all get a lump of coal. Republicans, Democrats, independents, all of them, I hope they all get a big old lump of coal in their stockings for Christmas.

Aaron:
I also had them on the naughty list today. It is frustrating. They just passed a bill for $1.4 trillion in spending for ... To curb the shutdown and all that kind of stuff. They constantly talk ... Well actually nobody really talks about how our spending is out of control, but everybody goes ahead and spins. Spinning's out of control. They need to curb our deficit and that kind of thing, and there's nothing ever talked about. That's never talked about, because both parties want to just keep spending like we have it, like we can print money. We can though.

Michael:
I don't know.

Aaron:
But they do get a lump of coal, I think, from Santa Claus this year. There can be a lot more done to meet in the middle and stop fighting on partisan lines.

Michael:
Maybe Santa will bring us a new Congress for Christmas.

Aaron:
Man, that would be good. A whole bunch of men and women under the tree, just fill up. Yeah, that'd be great. But yeah, Congress, naughty list, tired of it.

Aaron:
Speaking of, infrastructure. So I did look up what's happening on infrastructure. There's not as much pressure on the infrastructure changes, because the bill that they signed last time is going to continue until the end of 2020. But apparently there is a rep from Wyoming trying to push to get stuff done this year, and since they just signed to get a whole bunch of stuff before the end of the year, obviously his good work didn't go noticed. But apparently there is a guy that's working to make those changes, and really put it at the top of a priority list, so that's good. I'm going to put that rep from Wyoming, I don't have his name written down, sorry, but I think he's the Republican rep from Wyoming, on the nice list there. They're working toward getting that done. Apparently there is a rehabilitation backlog to get infrastructure back up to speed at 90 billion.

Michael:
Wow.

Aaron:
Which is a lot of money. So to say that kind of goes back to Congress being naughty, that they didn't put that as a priority for this session, but hopefully next session, I'm going to be optimistic that this guy, and everybody else, after listening to Trucking for Millennials and understanding that they got a lump of coal from us, take the right appropriate actions.

Michael:
Yeah, I think as far as infrastructure goes, as a whole it's on my naughty list, just because I think it does need improvement. Here in Texas we don't see a whole lot of that, but I've been able to get out across the country some this year. And really whenever you get up into states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, you see a lot of crumbling infrastructure up there in the northeast. To me there are areas of this country that need help. Recently went out to California, there's places out there that look like a third-world country. You wouldn't even believe it whenever you see it. So I think that there are areas of this country that are suffering, the infrastructure is not there, and so I give infrastructure a naughty right now. That's something that, going back to our government, they need to get on top of and make better.

Aaron:
Yep. What's next?

Michael:
Let's go with the trade deal, China and America.

Aaron:
Okay.

Michael:
Yeah. I don't know if this'll be the common theme, but it's going to make my nice list, the trade deal is. The reason being is because they've been able to basically postpone this thing, they still haven't came up with one. They probably should've had a solid trade deal in place for me to put it on my nice list, but ultimately the markets have stayed where they needed to stay. We've had growth in our country. I feel like we have reemerged as a world power. Well I don't know if we ever got knocked off our house, but I think in the eyes of the world we were coming down, and I think with some of the leadership we have in our country right now, we are showing that we are top dog. I think there's a group of Americans out there that don't mind being top dog in the world, and so to me, the trade deal right now, we are winning that war with China, we're winning it with Europe, we're winning it across the world, and so that's going to make my nice list this year.

Aaron:
On the trade deal, apparently it's like phase one, and I don't know if that's kicking the can, or it's just because these things are very complicated. For me the trade deal that happened just last week or what have you, they reduced tariffs from 15% to 7.5%, and the it's supposed to deescalate stuff. I've got some extra notes, but overall I think I would give it a nice list as well. Just because it seems like there is progress being made. For as brash and terrible of a public persona Trump has, I think that he's the right person to check China, kind of in the chin as they try to exert their power. They're the number two economic power in the world, and what they're doing, the way their government is set up, it makes it very dangerous for a power like that to grow even more and even faster in different realms. I think Trump is rightly checking them in a kind of bully type of way, and it's forcing them to make concessions that they wouldn't otherwise have.

Aaron:
So I think the trade deal is good, I think it's progress, and hopefully it continues down this path of where we can contain what they're doing, and the progress that they're making, or the negative implications like Fentanyl and all that kind of stuff that's coming from China, that they haven't really done much to curb. So hopefully it trends that way. I would say it gets on my nice list.

Aaron:
The State of Louisiana Permitting Office. I know this is a random one, possibly, but it gets on our naughty list.

Michael:
Yeah. Some companies and some individuals may have had to deal with it, I know that we did. This postponed loads, basically someone had hacked the entire state of Louisiana's transportation systems, and they weren't able to issue permits for, I think it was around four or five days. It really stopped commerce in their state, it was harder to move loads, we had customers, oil and gas customers, that were not happy with not being able to get their oversized equipment delivered to them, so they get a big lump of coal. And hopefully a new IT guy.

Aaron:
Yeah, hopefully. So do the hackers. Hackers get the naughty list too, because they're kind of a victim of this.

Michael:
Hate hackers.

Aaron:
The permitting office is a victim of this. But at the same time this goes to show how our industry, the trucking industry, and a lot of these government agencies, need to catch up in the technological world. They're kind of sitting ducks a lot of times, and that's why they become targets. Tyler, our local government neighbors, they got hacked in a similar way. Their website got hacked, so nobody could pay their bills and all that kind of stuff, her recently as well. These people that, they're in local smaller communities, that kind of thing, or agencies that just don't invest a lot in protections and security and tech, they become ... What is the word I'm looking for? Prime targets for that kind of stuff.

Michael:
Yeah.

Aaron:
So yeah, naughty list.

Michael:
Naughty. Next on there is going to be the FMCSA this year. To me, the FMCSA, I'm going to put them on my nice list. I hope I don't get a bunch of ugly messages for that, but I'm going to put them on my nice list. I know the ELD law fully went into effect in December and everything, but really they made my nice list because of the fact that they're going out and asking, earlier this year in August and September and early October, they were asking people what they thought should happen with the new hours of service laws, and how they could be made better to better reflect what drivers want. Not just what they want, but actually need. And so the fact that they were listening, the fact that they gave drivers and companies a platform to be able to speak on, and to be able to be heard, I think that was important, so the FMCSA makes my nice list this year.

Aaron:
Yeah, that's a good point. I would agree. I know a lot of truck drivers, after speaking with them, just heard one two days ago say "I hate all regulation," all that kind of stuff. I totally understand the plight there. It can make it difficult, but at least they are listening, and they give you the opportunity to give feedback. Whether or not they take it, I understand, but yeah, I think overall there are efforts being made to make sure that they do right by drivers, so that's good.

Michael:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Aaron:
Go ahead.

Michael:
To round out, really most of the transportation topics too, one of the things that I was looking at is transportation stocks this year, and what companies were good, what companies were not good. And really it wasn't a, overall for the transportation this year stock-wise, it wasn't great, but there were some really big winners if you had invested earlier on in the year. And some of those companies are going to be XPO Logistics, who were up over 45% this year. Werner Enterprises, Saia, Old Dominion Freight Lines, and Knight-Swift transportation, all of these companies were up over 50%, so if you had invested in them at the start of the year you would've done really well. But on the other hand, if you had invested in Celadon, Covenant Transportation Group, Metatron, or USA Truck, these companies did not do well, and ultimately Metatron and Celadon went out of business, and then Covenant and USA Truck were both down over 30%.

Michael:
So it was a rough year for some companies. Now there were a lot of other companies in here that were winners and losers. Martin Transport was a winner, Landstar had a 17% gain this year, but overall the transportation industry, I think, its sector did not perform very well, but I think it was more of, if you're looking at averages, I think it was the companies that went out of business this year that really drug that number down. But overall transportation stocks make my nice list because, I'm going to be nice to them, because I hope next year's much better.

Aaron:
Good karma, good karma. Coal karma. All right, transitioning to millennial stuff a little bit.

Michael:
Millennial stuff, yeah.

Aaron:
Millennial stuff. Millennials. Nice list, naughty list?

Michael:
What have you got?

Aaron:
I think our generation gets the nice list.

Michael:
Yeah, I'd put it on the nice list.

Aaron:
I'm going to go ahead and just give myself and our generation a pat on the back. It could be said that we were naughty for the "Okay boomer" retort that came about, that we talked about with Rachel Premack, but I think overall our generation, we're good people. It's hard to broad brush a whole generation badly, so nice list for me.

Michael:
Yes, millennials make the nice list for me too. I want presents for Christmas, not coal. So no, millennials make my group. I think that we're all trying, we're trying to figure out our way in the world, we've had a lot of noise in our way, a lot of reason to not want to do well. And I think yeah, yeah, yeah, there's still people living in their parents' basement, whatever, but at the end of the day I think millennials are doing a good job with what we've been given. I think there's a lot of leaders emerging out of our age group. You already see that in local politics and local leadership, in business, entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs. So to me, millennials are definitely on the nice list this year.

Aaron:
Yeah. There's a lot of ambition.

Michael:
And a couple of millennials started a trucking podcast this year.

Aaron:
Hey! Speaking of ...

Michael:
Boomers.

Aaron:
Okay yeah, we can just go to boomers. What have you got for boomers?

Michael:
I'm going to put boomers on my nice list.

Aaron:
I think you should. Save mood.

Michael:
Really, I do, I think boomers are ... They can be critical at times, but so can we. Our generation is very critical. And ultimately I think that the boomer generation has been good, I think that they've set ourself up for a good direction. I'm not going to get into what I think of the national deficit, but I will say I think that ultimately we've been given a good direction, we're going to inherit a lot of really good things and a lot of really good progress that has been made.

Michael:
Really you could look at, since the 1960s and 70s, around the globe, how many things are better, like world hunger, than what they were back just 30, 40, 50 years ago. And I think that's credit to the boomers, and I think that although they are getting a little bit older, I don't think that's any reason to disregard the accomplishments that that generation has had, and still making, but also the leaders that they have that have taught the leaders of our generation that are going to carry on and continue progress in this great nation, in the trucking industry and all over the place. So yeah, boomers are on my nice list.

Aaron:
That's nice of you to say that, especially considering when we went to GATS and we talked to a lot of older people, and they didn't have so many nice things to say about millennials. We're probably going to cut some audio in there for that. But for the most part, I would say 92% or something like that of older people that I speak with, they speak to the younger generation and about the younger generation, at least when we're working side-by-side, that they need us. They're excited for us. They want to see us continue and grow and develop, and they see us as a resource, and a valuable resource, of information, because they don't know a lot of stuff. So I think boomers belong on the nice list, because for the most part all of them are nice.

Aaron:
Then, sneaking another one in here for the generation X. Because I'm sure we have some generation X listeners, and we never talk about you, because it's Trucking for Millennials. But at the same time, you probably get a nice list too because, I don't know, you probably deserve it. You deserve something. Nobody talks about you.

Michael:
Yeah, we should not overlook the overlooked generation. Gen X, yeah, they're on my good list. They're all good.

Aaron:
I don't know why, but yeah, you belong on the nice list I guess. What else we got? Podcast listeners.

Michael:
Podcast listeners. They all make our nice list.

Aaron:
Yeah, you guys are nice.

Michael:
Thank you.

Aaron:
Really. It is pretty awesome, the fact that we just started this podcast in August, and we've put it out every week, and every week we've had listeners, and week over week we've had more listeners. It's been consistent, there's never been a dropoff, except for Thanksgiving, which is understandable. But it's been exciting to watch and learn from other people as they listen and interact with the videos and stuff like that that we come out with to get input and that kind of stuff. So I just really appreciate you, the listener for listening and tuning in every single week. It really means a lot to us, and I think it's really an exciting thing. This is only the beginning. We're wrapping up the end of this year, but we're not even a year into this podcast, and it's growing every single day. So shoutouts to you, podcast listener. You deserve all the gifts.

Michael:
Yes. I hope the trees and the stockings, there's gifts everywhere. I hope Santa comes down your chimney and brings you everything you want. All the podcast listeners, thank you all for your support. It is motivating to us. I know whenever we started this show we thought we had something here, but the proof has been in the pudding. Week after week we have seen numbers increase. And very excited about all y'all that listen out there, and thank you for making this show meaningful for us, meaningful for you, and meaningful for the industry.

Aaron:
Awesome. We just gave you a lot of compliments, so if you could just give us a review, that'd be great. Or share with a friend, that would be awesome. That's my selfish take, but anyway, moving right along. What else you want to talk about?

Michael:
We've covered most of it. I think one of the only deals on my list right now are the Dallas Cowboys, and they're on my naughty list. It's been a up and down year, I don't know what's going to happen, I'm frustrated. I'm really happy we just beat the rams. Now this weekend, the show will come out after the game on Sunday against the Eagles, but that game is going to determine if they're on my naughty or nice list come Wednesday.

Aaron:
Oh man, you're not giving a definitive answer.

Michael:
I know which list I want to put them on, but if they win the NFC East it's going to be hard for me to put them on the naughty list. I'm going to give the Dallas Cowboys ... I'm going to pass, and I'm going to wait until after Sunday to make that decision.

Aaron:
Yeah, their Christmas gifts might come late, is what you're saying.

Michael:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Aaron:
I'm going to put them on the naughty list. I'm just going to go ahead and do that.

Michael:
Okay.

Aaron:
Because there was so much anticipation for this year. Like this was going to be the year. Which is typical for Dallas fans, Dallas Cowboy fans. We always say "This year is our year." But it seemed like everything was coming together, we had Amari Cooper last year, and this year he was going to come into his own type thing. We kind of stumbled out of the gate consistently this year. We're seven and eight right now? No, eight and seven. I think we're eight-

Michael:
Seven and seven.

Aaron:
Seven and seven, okay. Seven and seven, sorry. So we're seven and seven, and we have the Eagles coming up. We should beat them, but who knows.

Michael:
Who knows.

Aaron:
That's the uncertainty. The uncertainty there is what keeps me going. Naughty. Don't like it. Well we have GATS here. That goes on our nice list.

Michael:
Yeah, GATS is great.

Aaron:
We had fun. We kicked off the podcast there too, and met a lot of people there. So shoutouts to those ... Oh, and shoutout to our guests. We didn't really shoutout. We shouted out podcast listeners, didn't shoutout podcast-

Michael:
We had some wonderful guests this year on the show.

Aaron:
We've had amazing guests this year.

Michael:
Super cool.

Aaron:
It's so encouraging how welcoming the trucking industry is, especially to just new ideas and stuff like that. We could've been very easily dismissed. Shoutout to our guests, it's been really cool to meet and develop relationships with them. Everybody, that counts for everybody.

Michael:
Thank you guests. Get many presents.

Aaron:
Yes.

Michael:
I think the last one on our list is going to be truck drivers. And of course truck drivers make my nice list. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for being the reason why we can even have a show called Trucking for Millennials. Thank you for being a truck driver so there can be freight brokerages, there can be dispatchers, there can be shippers, there can be movement of goods across the country, we can have goods in our country. So thank you to the drivers, you make the nice list this year and every year.

Aaron:
For sure, for sure. Coming into this industry, I had a very outsider view of the industry. I saw trucks on the road, but I didn't notice them, type thing. And now, working alongside drivers every day, paying attention to the industry, paying attention to what matters to truck drivers, and learning from them and how they think, and all that kind of stuff, I've learned a whole bunch, and it's broadened my perspective on the work that you do if you're a truck driver. And they definitely belong on the nice list every year, they definitely deserve all the gifts that are coming to them, because of the hard work that happens.

Aaron:
Just the other day our driver Sam was driving through a dang blizzard essentially. It's stuff like that you just don't even consider or think about all the time if you don't live up there or what have you. That's just a thankless job in a lot of ways, so thank you truck drivers, for listening, but more than that, making sure that America runs.

Michael:
Yeah, and so as we close out 2019, as we close out the 10's, the decade of 2010 through 2019, and we start the 20s, just want to tell everybody that, thank you for your support, thank you for listening to our podcast, thank you for supporting the trucking industry, and ultimately we hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.

Aaron:
Yeah, and again, we're an open book in a lot of ways. We're planning content for 2020, we want to keep on keeping on, we want to keep trucking. One episode every week, at least one episode every week, and so please send us any kind of ideas you've got for trucking topics, what you'd like us to talk about and cover. We'd appreciate it. Always looking for new guests too, so if you'd like to come on the show, talk about something, send me an email. A-A-R-O-N at PDQ America dot com. Any kind of ideas or feedback that you have would be appreciated.

Michael:
Well I guess that's going to be it for us in 2019 and in the 2010s, huh Aaron?

Aaron:
Yeah, man. Merry Christmas everybody.

Michael:
Merry Christmas, and thank you for listening.

Aaron:
Oh. Don't forget. Epstein didn't kill himself.