Episode 30 - Wisdom from the Elders

In this episode you'll hear timeless wisdom from trucking industry veterans we had the opportunity to speak with at the 2019 Great American Trucking Show. 

This episode is a direct result of listener feedback! Be sure to leave a review with your thoughts or suggestions about the content you'd like to hear so we can continue to improve the show each week! 

Never miss an episode by subscribing to the Trucking for Millennials podcast on these platforms:

Aaron Dunn:
Everything you eat, everything you wear, everything you want is done by a truck. And trucking is not an eight to five job and home every weekend. You've got to work for a living.

Michael Clements:
Welcome to Trucking for Millennials, where we engage with the future of freight 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, great solutions.

Aaron Dunn:
Hey, thanks for listening to Trucking for Millennials. Thank you for joining us. Pretty cool episode we've got lined up for you based on your feedback. So quick shout-out to Aldon, podcast listener. He gave us some feedback, said that he wanted to hear more from the old-timers, the wisdom from the industry, people with that experience that you can only get through experience. Not from a book or a course or what have you, the real stuff. So, went to the archives and found some conversations that were had at The Great American Trucking Show in August when we launched this podcast. First conversation is with Michael and a older gentleman with many years of experience behind him and he's still working in the industry today. And then, it pivots to another conversation that Chase, our general manager had with another group of guys with considerable amount of experience and both conversations cover trucking, the millennial generation, the future of trucking... and really good advice from people who've been in it, been in the industry for quite some time.

Aaron Dunn:
Just wanting to give Aldon a shout out, and a thank you for that feedback because we prize all feedback, we welcome it, it'll only make this show better and we're looking forward to next month. We're going to Mid-America Trucking Show, to do similar conversations, and these type of conversations are going to be top of mind because of this feedback. So we're going to go out and seek the wisdom of the elders while we're there, but we're also going to introduce you to other movers and shakers within the industry, like we always do on Trucking for Millennials.

Aaron Dunn:
Just wanted to give you a brief intro about what's happening for this episode, but the shout outs aren't over. One more shout out before we get into those two conversations from Will-I-am86. Will-I-Am apparently listens to the podcast and gave us a five star review. So thank you. Will-I-Am86, he says understanding trucking, solid puck podcast that covers current events and news in the trucking industry. That is what we do. If you'd like a shout out on the podcast, then I encourage you to become a five star fan of the podcast and leave a thoughtful review. Anyway, enjoy this episode and we will see you next week.

Chase:
Mind if I record?

Speaker 4:
Shoot.

Chase:
Okay, so what is your opinion of millennials?

Speaker 4:
Millennials? They still got to learn. Go back to school. Listen, don't listen to the dictation of the professors. They have a one track mind of liberalism. And get the real answers. Look, listen, then ask questions. I never see them ask questions. They listen, but don't hear anything. Ask questions. Then you'll really understand what the real world's like.

Chase:
All right, what advice do you have for millennials that are in the trucking industry?

Speaker 4:
There's many of I had to hire and eliminate. This is work. It's not game, and if you don't like to work, this is not the business to be in. And besides that, everything you eat, everything you wear, everything you want, is done by a truck, somewhere. And trucking is... it's not an eight to five job and home every weekend. You've got to work for a living. If you buy a truck, you better plan on being in it 11 months out of the year.

Speaker 4:
As you grow and learn and it's... You got to be safe. You drive with three or four cars in front of you, you watch what you're doing, you hear about these trucks that drive themselves. Well, there's an old saying, "airplanes been flying themselves for over 30 years, and you'll never get in a plane without a pilot", that's the same way with a truck. And when I'm saying that is due to the fact that trucks get... The people up on the planes up top, talk to each other. No one talks to themselves down here, it's all in that little phone that your life runs around. Talk to people, you'll learn something. Listen, you'll learn something and you're never too old to learn. Besides that, that freight won't jump on that truck by itself and it won't jump off by itself.

Chase:
So what do you think about automation in the industry?

Speaker 4:
Love it. Cause that's what I deal with right now. I get to drive all of the state-of-the-art trucks before all the truck drivers do. I travel all over the United States and Canada. I get to do whole test tracks, I get to see the stuff, play with the stuff before the truck driver do. So now, eventually it will be like the "Beam me up, Scotty" type thing. But not my generation, not your generation, probably another two or three down the road. But who knows? We still got to learn.

Chase:
Yes sir.

Speaker 4:
Things are still changing.

Chase:
What encouragement would you give to someone that's contemplating getting into the industry?

Speaker 4:
They better be ready to work and there's going to be rough roads up and down. No, life is not fair. You have to work at it and you got to learn from it and learn what mistakes from your mistakes, because everything's everybody's mistake. Listen to everybody. You go to the truck stops, get in and get out. Don't sit there and chew the fat, because you don't make money if the wheels don't turn.

Chase:
All right.

Speaker 4:
Very simple.

Chase:
That's good stuff. So, well I guess what, as far as automation, what's the coolest thing you've been able to drive so far?

Speaker 4:
I've got one sitting in here right now that drives itself.

Chase:
So fully automated?

Speaker 4:
Fully automatic.

Chase:
Wow.

Speaker 4:
I just push the button, but that one's only... I would say if you go in stage, probably stage two. We still learning. Like I said, planes have been flying themselves for over 30 years, but you'll never get in a plane without a pilot...

Chase:
That's right.

Speaker 4:
And they talk to each other. Trucks and cars don't talk to anybody. People don't even talk to anybody. So...

Chase:
How many years do you think we are away from that truck being on the road, in mass production?-

Speaker 4:
I'm driving right-

Chase:
In mass production?

Speaker 4:
In mass production, it already has been done. I've been driving these for six years.

Chase:
Oh wow.

Speaker 4:
But it's slowly coming on. You see that? With the cars, it starts beeping as you crossed the line or, you seen the advertisement on a car that slams on the brake for you. Well I've been doing that for over six years. It's there, it's coming. But stop and think about the truck, a car is parked, stops in front of you. You're doing 50 miles or less, that truck, right now, will stop and not hit it. But there's a problem, you get over 50 miles an hour, you got 80000 pounds pushing, physic comes to play. And when physics comes to play, all bets are off. So that means right back to the human fact, is you've got to keep your eyes on the wheel, keep eyes on what's going on and don't pick up that phone. You can talk to... The trucks have where you push the button and it'll talk... you talk on the phone. But you got to keep your mind on what you're doing. Stop and listen and ask questions.

Chase:
So, I guess, tell us your thoughts on millennials.

Speaker 4:
On what?

Chase:
Millennials, the millennial generation.

Speaker 4:
Millennials?

Chase:
Yes sir.

Speaker 4:
Just like anything else, you got good and bad. And everything I've dealt with, guys that are out there, new to the industry that to them all it is, is a paycheck. And then, I've met the rare few that actually want to do the job right. Are safety conscious, and are willing to listen to the more experienced drivers, and learn the right way how to do things, and everything. Because you get told by safety department and the company that you work for, that you're the captain of your ship. You decide if you run or not, you decided if a trailer is safe or not when you pick it up. And then you got other guys that literally, it's just a paycheck. All they do is hook up the trailer and go. They don't check it, they don't pre-trip it or post-trip it. I worked for Warner, and that off was a day cab. I worked a 12 hour shifts, 4:00 PM to 4:00 AM. I would leave Dallas, go to TA truck stop in Prescott, Arkansas. Swap loads with drivers usually coming out of West Memphis, Arkansas.

Speaker 4:
Most of those guys, it was just a paycheck. They didn't care about safety or anything. Yeah, I've literally picked up one trailer that was supposed to pull, the tandem had already shifted on the trailer, and the right side tires were rubbing the underside of the trailer, the outside edge of the trailer.-

Chase:
They just kept riding on.

Speaker 4:
Basically I had to layover, I lost a whole day's pay because I had to layover, and pull that to a tow yard behind a tow truck. And because, at that point they were going to scrap the trailer but it had to sit there and wait for them to get the equipment out and another trailer out, to get the load off that trailer, and then on to a new trailer. I literally, one night we got new freight liners in, so I'm bringing the guy a new truck, as well as the trailer, picking up his old international. I was fortunate enough to be able to park next to the guy. So I got out, didn't see him around the truck at all. He was actually... Even though it was a true day cow, he was sleeping on the floorboard of the truck.

Speaker 4:
So I grabbed my flashlight, and I was going around, one of the inside tires on the tandem, the only thing that was left was the side wads. Finally got him awake, and I sit down, I go, I sure hope you've already reported this, and you'll have it in line to get a new tire on in the shop. And he sits there and he goes, what are you talking about? I sit down and go, come here, went around, shone my big flashlight onto it and everything. Guy really had the balls to sit there and go... "When did that happen?" Which means, the guy never pre-tripped, he never post-tripped.

Chase:
Right, right.

Speaker 4:
Okay. Those are the guys who give the industry a bad name. Those are the guys you need to get off the road.

Chase:
Do you think that that's specific to millennials, or is that just trucking in general?

Speaker 4:
Oh, well I've seen it kind of go the age range, but it seems like that, you have a lot more of the younger guys that... Well, at that particular point too, job market was tight...

Speaker 4:
I grew up in an era where no matter what job you do, whether you're the CEO of a company or the janitor of a company. A, you took pride in what you did because that was your job, and you had the integrity to want to do it right, [crosstalk 00:13:09] and do a good job at it.

Chase:
And you think that's lost with the younger generation?

Speaker 4:
It's lost with a whole lot of the new generation. Because I grew up in an era where, coming out the gate you were taught to respect everybody else. So everybody that I grew up around, you were taught by your parents that you respect everybody no matter what. It was up to them to lose your respect. So when you come out of the gate, with everybody respecting each other, you have a better... You have more people that... It's not like nowadays, where you run into the same... You have people that run around going, okay, I don't care who you are, you have to respect me. Oh, but by the way, you have to earn my respect.

Chase:
Right.

Speaker 4:
It's ridiculous. You've got to come out of the gate respecting everybody. You leave it up to the other person to do something to lose your respect, because in that way, it's a better society. Because you going to think more about the other person, you're going to be kinder to the next person.

Speaker 4:
It's like growing up, learning how to drive here in Texas. They say Texas is a state of mind, and it really is because, when I grew up, and first started driving, back in the mid seventies, it was a matter of, okay, somebody's got church and wants to get over, back up and let them over. That person, oh okay, hey thanks. I appreciate it. Or he'll wave. You know, it wasn't the middle finger wave. It was like a thank you wave. And so, you pull up to a four way stop, and you all kind of get there about the same time, it's like, "okay well, you go ahead and go first." I think you stopped just a smidge ahead of me, so go ahead.

Chase:
Just a little bit of courtesy-

Speaker 4:
Yes, courtesy, common courtesy. And that is lost so much on certain age groups nowadays. Like I said, they want everybody to respect them, but they don't want to respect anybody else.

Chase:
Yeah, appreciate your input.

Speaker 4:
No problem.

Chase:
You want a trashcan? You've earned one.

Speaker 4:
Sure, comes in handy.

Chase:
Yes sir. Thank you.

Speaker 4:
All right, thank you.

Chase:
May I appreciate you guys while you're around?

Speaker 5:
Well I think it's a little bit different. I don't think it's like an age thing. I think it's like the area that you grow up in. So like if you grow up in like a smaller town, you're going to have a different set of views and understanding, than if you were raised in an urban area, because you have two different viewpoints on like, security and how you grow up and you got different views obviously. I think as far as the millennial side of it, the younger kids, which I'm kind of on that borderline of millennial/whatever the other one was. What's the one before that?

Chase:
GNX.

Speaker 5:
Yeah. I mean I don't even know what I really technically am, but there's just a lot in lack of common sense. Cause I taught AG for a year, and just seeing how kids think is remarkable, because they don't think the most common thing ever.

Speaker 5:
So maybe in a country, you learn how to back trailers, you learn how to drive in situations that you may not know how to do in an urban area. I laugh because there's a commercial, I think about car facts, about the guy that buys a SUV and can't parallel park it. It's a little bitty car, and I'm laughing cause I drive a dually truck, and I'm like, I cry about parking at Walmart, when he's crying about having a huge amount of space in front of his SUV. So I mean, I think it just kind of depends on your upbringing and stuff like that.

Chase:
Sure, what are your thoughts?

Speaker 6:
My thoughts are...

Chase:
Oh gosh, she's going to be like other guy.

Speaker 6:
No, I won't talk that long. But I think millennials, they want to start where you're at now. Like I earned my seat, I earned my seat. It took me a while. I had older guys ahead of me, and I had to wait my turn. They don't want to work their turn. They want to automatically start right where you are. I've been driving a truck for 27 years. Now automatically, I want to start at the 27 year mark, just not getting their CDL. There's a lot of-

Chase:
They don't understand... Maybe they don't understand the work that needs to be put in to really...

Speaker 6:
After you've been driving for a long time, you've seen a lot of things that they hadn't seen yet. Right. And with experience comes...

Speaker 5:
I just got done with truck driving school and I'm in... There's so much more I wanted to learn, that they didn't even cover. They teach you how to pass the test, but they don't teach you how to actually live on the road and strap stuff down, and all of this. They'll teach you how to back a box trailer, but they don't teach you how to haul in flatbed. So there's a lot of life lessons you got to learn that millennials don't.

Chase:
Absolutely.

Speaker 5:
Technologies, they worry about technology, and they can't be off their stuff.

Chase:
So what advice would you give to millennials? Especially-

Speaker 6:
I would say, listen, respect and learn. Ask questions, because you don't know everything. I don't know everything, I've been doing it a long time, I don't know everything. Every time I go out I come up with some different experiences that I've never had before.

Chase:
Right.

Speaker 6:
And so I think, patience, I think.... It doesn't all come in one day. I mean, everybody wants it to but it doesn't come in one day.

Speaker 5:
I think the biggest thing is, older people aren't attacking you if they give you information. They just want to help you do better. And problem is, kids take it as attacks. Like, "Oh he's getting onto me, he's mad at me." No, he's just trying to help you do better. Take it in and learn.

Chase:
I guess from my standpoint, well, you guys see a disconnect between the older generation in trucking and the younger guys coming in, so those millennials who are coming in?

Speaker 6:
Yeah.

Speaker 5:
Yeah, I think so, because the older generation thinks, well why are y'all getting into this? This is our industry. Y'all need to find something else to do. When, at some point, you've got to pass the torch. And you've got to... You should be taking that opportunity to teach them how to take the torch, not push them out where they hate the older generations. At the end of the day, the older generations whose made you, so...

Chase:
Yeah, there's a lot to be said for having a good mentor.

Speaker 5:
Exactly.

Chase:
And at the end of the day, there really is.

Speaker 6:
There's a lot to be said that I think could come up.

Chase:
Yeah.