Ray
[00:00:00] Ray: Amazingly
then I applied her professionalism.
Chris, Safety Dawg: You are listening to mr. Ray. Haight, one of our industries, most prolific and admired executives. And on today’s show, Ray is discussing driver retention and driver recruiting. And how in the world that you can possibly increase your retention. To drive up profitability. If that sounds good, stay tuned.
Welcome to the Dawg On-It Trucking Pawedcast. When it comes to trucking safety, the dawg is on it. What do we do on this show? I get to talk to some of the most influential trucking executives in our industry so that we can pick up new tips and tricks to use in our everyday. What was it that let’s get on [00:01:00] with the show?
Hey Ray, welcome to the Dawg On-It trucking Pawedcast. How in the heck are ya?
Ray: I’m good, Chris. I’m good. Thanks. Just like everybody else. I’m crew down here and. Well opening up and becoming a little more, social ideas, but, yeah, pretty good. All in all. I used to see the sun out and some nice weather for the next few days.
So hopefully, I’m hopeful, like a lot of people, this, this whole thing will start to slow down a little bit more. Yeah. I mean, it’s been a struggle, I think for everybody. Yeah. Truck drivers, especially during this COVID deal. Yeah. I think you’re right. Well, I’ve lost the thought though. I mean, and I know, yeah.
You know, I drove a truck for 10 years and I’ve never been one to suffer and solitude. I’m quite okay with solitude. So I, when I think of what the. When I think about the entire population who might be best equipped for that. And I think about truck drivers and specifically the long haul guys course.
[00:02:00] Yeah. Well, they’ve done an outstanding job, all of them and all the frontline workers have. Sure. You bet. You bet. You know, when you look at them in a different light, I, I, I love the trend in the positive trend that’s going on about our industry and our drivers. You know, can we sustain it that the fact that, you know, a good friends of mine, like Kevin Burke, shit that a trucking moves America forward the OTAs, and then you got out of a truck it and all their new stuff.
But I mean, all that, stuff’s great, but it comes from the inside and it goes out, but when it comes to the outside and comes in. And that’s the real guy and that’s what you can build on. I think, as an industry, really take advantage of this and make sure we don’t lose this opportunity. Yeah. It’s, it’s a huge opportunity.
Chris, Safety Dawg: I agree with you. can you tell us, or tell our listeners and Watchers a little bit about yourself? I know. I mean, gosh, I’ve known you for 25 or 30 years, since we’re both in Truckee and Southern Ontario. but I also know you are the [00:03:00] past chair of TCA. What else is hanging on your, your resume?
Ray: Well, I asked him, I have known each other for a long time. We’ve done a vote it, and obviously we got the memos on that, on the aircraft and the beer deal. Okay. So, yeah, I’ll get a little about myself, sir. I’m a second generation that had a few trucks and about three, passed away, very young. I, I took those trucks over and, drove truck myself for 10 years.
Chris, Safety Dawg: have a truck Ray, before you go on, did that was the coolest logo by the way, I think that was, was that your dad’s logo or was that yours?
Ray: No, I got, I, you know, there is a quick story on that, but a last author was a gentleman here in London who was a local artist, and he had done a lot of paintings specifically in the railway industry and greater detail, beautiful stuff.
But as, like a lot of us that was his passion, the sideline is sideline. And where you [00:04:00] put bread on the table was by doing logos and. He was doing logos on a couple of my dad’s trucks. And I got to know Lance, a very, very nice gentleman, him and his wife, Esther. And, I asked them when I started, you know, Southwestern express and Southwestern express was really meant to see the U S got the scales by, you know, we live in Southwestern, Ontario, but that logo with the cactus on it all fit was, you know, trying to make to.
How if people think we were from Southwest us and the company that we were working with that Alaina had a facility in Waco, Texas. So we were in London or in dash Waco, Texas with a logo, with a cactus. And we went on us. Okay. I have Kevin here, Chris, we went from being pulled in as a total unknown to most of these ways.
Scales through taxes are, you know, not texting so much, but Arkansas, Tennessee, all those Ohio two, [00:05:00] basically driving by and most of them are making certainly not getting pulled in. So anyways, that logo. was, served a dual purpose, but the talent behind it, was certainly lanced, you know? And I remember he came back.
I remember the day he brought it to me and said, it’s something like, this is what you’re looking for. And I went, wow. And I think he charged me 50 bucks. Amazing. Yeah. So anyways, I drove talk for 10 years. started a small company after, you know, I’m a poster child for what might be the driver shortage.
my dad was gone all the time and come from a, you know, moving family with the granddad is, he was actually, an engineer on the New York central and my uncle was an engineer and CN and my dad was. you know, a brilliant man and then he got sick of that started driving a truck. So, but he was gone most of time when I was growing up.
So when my kids came along, I decided that, I didn’t, I didn’t want to miss them growing up. So my wife and I, kinda stuck our necks [00:06:00] out. my wife, Connie, and, We serve a small company called Southwestern express in London, Ontario, and got that going up to about 50 trucks and then was approached by McKenna transport, the 12th, and then bill McKinnon.
And that ended up moving down to their facility, in the late eighties, early nineties in 2005. I left there, but the 2000 we amalgamated those two companies. And we are just starting with 300 trucks with 200 owner operators, hundred company trucks of a quarter million square feet warehousing. And what 20% of our revenue came from logistics.
So we really, busted the thing out. And, no at that time, the McCammon family is very, political through OTA and CTA and, they encourage me to get more involved in the United States. In that association. And I had brought with me a membership at TCA. And the funny thing with that was Doug Cutty, from Cutty foods and credit transportation was friend of mine.
[00:07:00] And I was trying to get their work to go to Western Canada. But the only way that Doug would give you their overflow freight was if I became a member. So that’s kind of how I became a member at TC. So yeah. No, I actually, the chairman I went to the, the officer’s Corp, it was a seven year program. So I became the chairman.
And prior to that, I was the chairman of professional truck drivers Institute. And I was involved with that from 2001, right through to just recently. And, also was the chairman of, Nat main North America training management Institute, which kind of comes with the role when you’re chairman TCA.
So that’s a brief oversight. I, I I’ve done and been involved in a number of different committees and things of that nature and other efforts. And most recently association profitability program. The best marketing plumber from, I’m not real fluent on TCA. I certainly [00:08:00] know PTBI not me better than TCA, which are all kind of, sons and daughters, I guess, of TCA.
Chris, Safety Dawg: But from what I understand that profitability program is one of the strongest or one of the biggest benefits to being a member of TCA. Can you explain a little bit of what that is and why a trucking company might consider joining TCA to get into that?
Ray: Yeah, sure. Chocolate carers association. And my, I guess biased opinion is probably the best value for social dollar association dollars that the trucking company Smith, because it’s very reasonably priced.
and it’s predicated on volume trucks. but it, again, it’s not, it’s about 10% of the cost of a lot of national associations. and just to put that off the table for people to investigate. I mean, back in the day, our 300 truck fleet spanning a couple of thousand dollars a year to be a [00:09:00] member, and the educational programs that are available and the, you know, the networking, getting to know your peers, if you’re a crossbar motor carrier, it’s invaluable and I’ve always felt that way.
And that’s been a huge, Support or TCA, and most recently through the whole COVID thing, education on, and sharing of thoughts with other trucking companies, what to do, during this crisis, they’ve been at the forefront of it and actually put something out every day. But I mean, if you can think of it, they’ve addressed it and, have left open the opportunity for carriers who might be.
Wondering which way to turn a source of that information. but you know, back about 15 years ago, chocolate curious association decided that, its members decided that a benchmarking program would be a great idea and that other industries have it, why couldn’t trucking. so what they did is they approached the [00:10:00] us department of justice because you have to have that type of thing.
Cruel. So they can ensure that there isn’t collusion of carriers to fix rates and those types of things. So they’ll put up, they’ll put a limit on what you can do and GCAS case. It was primarily wrapped around the expense side of things, more so than revenue. And you can’t talk about revenue and lanes.
There’s a vetting process to make sure that two carers aren’t in the room that might dominate a line or a specific shipper, all those types of things. But having said that, that thing got started and, 12 years later, it was still kind of, I won’t say floundering, but it had. 48 carriers. And then I think the reason for that was that they never kept up with technology.
And, certainly you can transport my, my then CFO. We were involved with it in . and I’ll at the time there was a huge, chasm [00:11:00] between, paid in us dollars. So it was hard to really kinda rationalize this thing. so we didn’t hang in there as long as I wish we would have, but, basically, you know, what you do is you, you know, these carriers got together and decided on a common balance sheet and I won’t go too deep in the weeds on this, but you can’t compare one thing to another, unless all the elements going into that comparison.
Are coming from the same direction, right. It’s just an exercise in futility. So the carriers got together and they made a common chart of accounts so that you are measuring things the same way. so when you look at a number of, they didn’t know exactly what went into that number, now you can do a comparison with another carrier.
So that guy going up was, certainly an important accolade. well, was barring it down though, was everything done on the spreadsheets, Excel spreadsheets. So a carrier would go to a meeting and he would get all this data and come in the size of about a two inch thick [00:12:00] craving. A telephone book and it was very, very granular and it just didn’t keep pace with technology.
So, I, at the time, care, I guess back, seven, eight years ago, was doing some consulting around here and there in the lab. I never envision myself playing that role off of being a tracker and running trucking companies. But, I ended up there and quite enjoyed it. So I was approached by them, a friend of mine.
I was consulting with NAL and Glenn and Chris Henry Ray and the Lindsay’s and when Chris Henry left and then a few years back, he came to me and said, Ray, I know you’ve tried to do this. I’m prepared to dedicate it. This is a period of time to develop hardware, some software that will streamline this and make it more available to the carriers and the people that work for them.
So Chris, who is a, a sharp as you’re going to find a set of both building this software and [00:13:00] it’s called GCA engaged. Now it’s there, it’s a original name of stack up and that’s the name of the company that he and I own. And we ended up with a licensing agreement, truckload carriers association. So that is the platform now.
So what that allows carriers to do any carrier, there’s like 531 data points, which sounds like it’s excruciating, but you don’t have to do them all at once. You can start really simple. So, okay. Go online for instance, measure. Their fuel costs compared to a competitor or a group of competitors. You’re driving costs as a portion or percentage of gross revenue, you can do all of these things and slowly build up to a certain number.
Now you can do that all online. You don’t have to, it’s really phase one. let’s say you can go on as officers, five carriers, and this is the DRG restriction, DOJ restriction. Then you can look at that from cause of carrots and see where you are, where you add up, which is invaluable. If you’re running a trucking company, [00:14:00] or even if you run on or off here, you don’t know what you don’t know.
You went thinking you’re very good on your maintenance costs. And then you go and look and you compare yourself to. Like size carrier in your geographic region, hauling van or whatever you’re doing and find out, you know what, I’m off 10%. Well, maybe not 10% on fuel cost can be different, some profit loss, but you can do that in every piece of your business and you can do it online.
And then after you get acclimated to that and feel good about it, then you can enjoy, you can. Moved from there to phase two, which is to become active in a ongoing benchmarking program, which is a group of carriers that you compare yourself. You meet typically before all this, you would need one-on-one at least twice a year.
And you would talk about these numbers and how to Chris, how did you get to that number? How did you, what magic sauce do you have that I don’t have, because you’re much better than I am. So you can have those conversations. you know, they have a lot of [00:15:00] things that spur off of that. One is called best practices, which I just love, wherever care brings the best idea that they’ve bumped into in previous six months.
And these are, these are, these companies are the best of the best and they’d be continue to improve. Right.
Chris, Safety Dawg: And I would assume, and you can talk about this. I would imagine one of those best practices is retention and recruiting that you talk about. Cause I know you’ve developed a program. That’s available through TCA that talks or trains how to improve your retention program, because you, you say that you had a company that had 120% turnover.
That one point.
Ray: Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. So, yes, retention is a part of the profitability program. I’m currently a consultant for truckload period association in half. The title [00:16:00] of retention coach. So retention is measured, but it is delayed delineated in a number of different ways. So we know, and I’ll say a few people know that companies with a stable workforce are safe, are safer cops, right?
So if you take that through to its ultimate end, what you’ll find is that low turnover typically, is a direct correlation to lower insurance premiums. Lower insurance premiums are a precursor to a best in class operating ratios. in my class and my workshop, I talked about the equivalent of a little turnover in each department, which in maintenance for me, I’ll give you a comparison.
What do you think the. value of a rolling asset truck or trailer might be after four or five years in a company that’s had one driver in it compared to a company with a hundred percent turnover. That’s probably had 10 to 15 drivers in a [00:17:00] single piece of equipment over four or five years. Obviously that asset value is much greater and you are much more, welcome to the used truck market.
People will wait for those assets. You’re not going to have to go looking for people to buy them. They don’t knock on your door. then I go from there, just the maintenance costs you can expand on all of these things. sales to me is a important one because we can have a stable workforce. You can train that workforce, the advanced, defensive driving, you know, we used to have standalone computers and you guy could take it.
You guys could take. No additional training, and conversation with sales and all of these types of things. So we’ve got a better educated workforce in our sector because they’re stable. You can’t train 120% turnover. No that’s sales for me, and also equates to what I call a higher quality of relevant.
Cause you have to say what workforce you can go looking for things that are more complicated and maybe be higher value. And those shippers will trust you because you have those, those numbers. [00:18:00] So again, you can go down. I’ve always said sympathy for that, you know, clerks, looking after drivers files with everything that goes into a driver’s file, 120% turnover with the 300 truck fleet.
Compared to 20%, are you kidding me? So you can reallocate that asset or that person to be doing other things rather than be not on the chase. You know, I am sure that flap, you can go on, you know, from their operations, dispatcher training, your entire workforce. On a weekly basis compared to activating, you know, on a 50 truck board, maybe 10 drivers, administration.
I say when we started stack up Chris and I, we had our first users call on, which is usually. where people who subscribe to the program will tell you what’s wrong with them, what they like about what they want to see in the future. Right? Interestingly enough, the first thing was, was CFOs that call and they want to know everybody else’s age accounts receivable, which [00:19:00] clicked in my head because what we’re talking about here is training truck drivers on paperwork and systems.
So if you have a lower turnover, you have a lower, lower age counts for them, and then it becomes a time cost of money. So that was very interesting to me. So you can equate, all of these things, that nickname, when we went to our, Morphosis from 120 and 20% journal, or we doubled their operating ratio, we didn’t do it because that will be done on our operating wrenches.
And that’s because of all of those things. So. You know what, typically, when I talk about retention, one of the questions that I get from the recruiters in the room. And so I’m going to say to people is, well, how much did you pay to recruit a driver? You know, I know they’ve been listening, but they just didn’t quite get the message, you know, cause I, my response would be, we certainly went through the, effort to find out where our recruiter, doc recruiting dollars were spent how effective they were, but really our effort was [00:20:00] to fill a much larger, you know, a group to look.
Fun a much larger funnel. Let’s put it that way. What we hired, right. People for the right fit. So my cost of recruiting is twice of yours or not. I kept the guy for five years. Yours might be very efficient after mine, but you had to hire 10. Yep. Yep. So it’s very interesting to see the effect of it. The other thing they, you know, it bothers the hell out of me, Chris.
I gotta tell you. You know, people have become disposable in our industry and knew prior to this, the human tragedy, people going home to tell the families that don’t have a job, you know, a a hundred truck fleet sending 120 guys home, either quit or fire. and we do it because we could be become them.
You know, just, it doesn’t bother us anymore and it’s just wrong. So that human element I met is been a big part of it for me too. I haven’t been a faster and we’ll put [00:21:00] links in the show notes below about, this program at TCD that if people are interested in it, but some of the things that I found interesting.
Chris, Safety Dawg: in that program or in the video that you have promoting it, you talk about a $6,000, cost and that’s just a number for recruiting a driver. And you’re talking about a 300 truck fleet that has, you know, 120% turnover compared to a same size fleet that only has a 20% turnover. What does that do to the bottom line again?
Ray: Part of the program and I, you know, that’s, I quit, I tell him I put that there because you’re going to ask that question. So I’m gonna give you that number, but that is granular, granular, really, to where the money is when you, when you look at each department in the inefficiency that, is there, that number, you know, that you just mentioned pales in comparison, it really does that.
Doesn’t add up if far sees [00:22:00] that number and just points up and also just for. Self promotion here. But, I do a consulting on the side, on my own too, through a no re consulting. So I concentrate a lot of effort at TCA and I’m dedicated to the membership there and the carrier membership, but I also, will, have offerings out to people who are not members.
Chris, Safety Dawg: I mean, that’s awesome. I don’t know of many talents here in Southern Ontario with the experience and the wide variety of experience that you have. you know, the exposure to TCA the exposure to the OTA, and CTA. Running your own company. That’s a lot of experience that people would be smart, to use if the kids so well, I, you know, Chris, to me, dryer retention and stability of a workforce, is he the profitability itself?
Ray: Just key to. To [00:23:00] being a good corporate citizen. I mean, it’s the prior to my chairmanship, I remember Jim O’Neill who, was chairman then. So it’s a, it’s a, it’s a moral obligation to burn a trucking company should be safe. And the CA hires should not be scared of pulling up the soda truck. They should feel more secure there than calling this other car.
And we’ve, you know, we have to, that’s got to be a cornerstone moving forward and, you know, funny enough, you know, he was spot on and a number of different ways, but certainly saw in the program that’s the, offered out, because it is predicated on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and one of the face. The one of the DBAs of that program is safety.
If you want to attract in routine drivers, you must be safe or they won’t stay with you. Then they all complete it’s that simple people have to be comfortable that they have a reasonable. You know, [00:24:00] cross there, being safe in their day to day lives. Cause they will leave that situation or their families will make them be one or the other and you can pay all the money in the world.
They’re not staying there. Yeah, no, they need to understand safety. And I really encourage the listeners and viewers to click on the link below to watch the whole video. But one of the things that you talk about in my experience as a consultant, And we’re not competing consultants cause you’re, you are at a different aspect.
Chris, Safety Dawg: A safety is one part of it, but running a company, you and I have called on you in the past. We’ve worked together on a few projects. I do not go into. A carrier or a, you know, United had a private fleet not long ago, a few years back, I guess now, but, I did not get in the weeds on safety. I prioritize safety and I talked to carriers about, you know, how they should view safety and how they should support it on waving.
Ray: But as far as [00:25:00] getting into, you know, the, the. I just do not have the desire or the capability to be able to do what you do, Chris and your other safety professionals, getting down into those and rules and drilling down on them and really understanding them, trying to debate other people. I start young and have a pathway through that.
I know how important this, or trust me, that’s paramount, but I don’t, you know, I don’t have to be with people like you out there in the world. I don’t have to know that stuff. I just.
Chris, Safety Dawg: Oh, that’s kind of where I was I’m alluding to is I’m in the safety department where you’re in the company, the corporate structure department, you’re at a higher level in the organization, but one of the questions I had about the Maslow hierarchy of needs when we get into the third level, most of my customers.
I think, you know, they satisfy the physical [00:26:00] needs. They satisfy the safety needs, but the social needs the communications in a lot of companies today. I see to be blunt suck, you know, with the advent of satellite communications and text messaging. There’s no personal communication happening anymore. Do you, do you agree with that?
Do you disagree? How do you see technology rolling into social needs and specifically communication as it. Pertains to retaining drivers.
Ray: you know, it’s, it’s, I’ll speak to that, but on a broad, Chris, you know, if there’s been a thought for a long time, the turnover in this industry, it’s just systemic.
It’s just part of it. It just comes with the frigging program and nothing could be further from the church. That’s delusional to think that way I turn over. Is no more unwinnable than any other [00:27:00] business channel challenge that accompany is going to come up with. Whether that’s putting on fifth package, that’s organizing your business.
It’s a business challenge needs to be addressed. It needs to be tackled. And people, maybe it is really amazing to me that companies, some of them choose to just live with it. Cause it’s part of the gig. I remember being on PC at Mt once and that’s the development side, me ran a hundred truck fleet and they delivered vitals to churches in the U S that was their sole customer.
And at the time the ATA was advertising a numbers that were over a hundred percent journal. This guy leaned into me. And so while we’re at 9%, we’re doing pretty good. No really you suck, you know? so yeah, and I hear that communication piece is paramount to this whole thing. I’ve done a book on it, starting with, of course, physical needs and, and safety needs.
before that manifests, our needs is get invited to your [00:28:00] audience to go and look it up because it’s been off since 1947. I believe they were having as well, brought that up and it really kind of nailed. the psyche of each and every one of us. And, he profound him or that, that we’re all driven.
Once we achieve a certain level, we’ve up to the next level. And I don’t need that to be true. Now on a corporate level, there’s a lot of companies uptake in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in there. manipulated to their own needs. And, that’s fine. In fact, I did the same thing because I contend when I talk to carriers that have high turnover, that the issue that you have to you start with is that the majority of drivers don’t believe too much of anything to say.
So unless you’ve got a firm foundation, then you can indicate all you want, tell them, you know, you can blow smoke. Do you know where all day long, tell them how great [00:29:00] they are, but if they don’t believe what you’re saying, it doesn’t mean that. So I started with something called the foundation, which is really getting into things like a commitment to change in commitment to a value statement, commitment to a standard.
of behavior within your copy that you don’t break off of. I believe truck drivers are from Missouri. Don’t tell them what you’re going to do should just do it and they’ll see it. You know, I love the London Nancherla police department to have this I, and I’ve used it a number of times. So I always give him credit, but on the side of the car too, Of cars.
It says deeds, not words. And to me, you start there and then you up there, but the communications that, and you’re absolutely right, but I mean, these things, there’s going to push out my program recently with carrier members of GCA and a number of the questions that I come in as. How long will this take, you know, how much does this cost?
All these? Like if you’re a high turnover, low turnover is a [00:30:00] journey and it’s a journey that you’re going to be on for years and years. You won’t even know you’re on that journey once you get it down to where you want it, because it’s now all of a sudden going to work. It’s fun. The relationships you have with people are real relationships because they endured a period of time.
Those folks don’t work for you. so communication is a paramount to this whole thing. People want to be recognized. They want to know what’s going on. I could give you all kinds of, you know, situations where that have proven that, trippy then into our company. but yeah, I, you know, during my workshop, I typically say, You know, I gave you information cause I trust you.
Right? I have conversations with people because you trust them. You live in the communities you live in because you are comfortable. There. You have friends that you’re comfortable with and you communicate with them. If I don’t communicate with you, it’s because I really don’t care about you. And I don’t know that your opinion.
And I would prefer if you just went and did [00:31:00] your job, that’s what I’ve heard. We’re going to do it. Yeah. That’s not sustainable.
Chris, Safety Dawg: Yeah, no, I totally agree. and I think there’s the disposability of truck drivers, as you said, is a disgrace in our industry. And I know for one, I hated firing truck drivers. because I recognize that I’m not firing one person I’m firing, the driver, the spouse, the kids, the impact on the community, possibly.
Ray: you know, Chris, that this is the mindset I have with our people. Yes, we had to let somebody go. We failed them. Yeah. How did we fail this first? We failed them because we, we shouldn’t have hired them to begin with. They weren’t a good fit. We hired a clean drivers pile, which is the last thing you want to do.
We did find out from them what their expectations of us were. Where did you find out what their vision of success was? Because we want them to be successful. You don’t have [00:32:00] happy employees. I don’t want is they want to achieve and then help them achieve that you were on. so I looked at those things as we felt as person, how would we do it?
Chris, Safety Dawg: Yeah, absolutely. So, Ray, to be respectful of your time, like to, Just start closing this down. So a couple of things that, We talked about engage, through TCA, the measuring, fleet program. How do you say it correctly?
Ray: Well, it’s, it’s kinda a long when it’s a TCA TPP, truckload carriers, association, truck load, proper billing program, engage, which is primarily engage or SAP.
Chris, Safety Dawg: So, I mean, that’s a huge benefit to being a member. the other thing that I would encourage listeners and Watchers to explore is the TCAs retention program. And on the show today is the TCA retention coach. [00:33:00] so Dave, anything you want to speak just before we wrap up, either or Anne. How about Natmi and PTDI.
Ray: Okay. yeah, I I’ve been fortunate to be involved in both of those organizations and, was the chairman of both of them at one time. certainly professional truck drivers Institute has come a long way and it it’s, It is then mentioned many times in FMC essays, rulemaking, and it’s been the platform for, actually, myself and Kim Richardson and another gentleman through the apprenticeship program on Charlotte’s predicated on teeth at PTBI.
So I know it’s a great platform. It is, shouldn’t be the minimum standard and proud to see Melton Ontario. And it is predicated to a large degree on PTBI. and, No. The entry level driver training girl in the United States has been paused and manipulated and screwed over and lobbied to the point where it totally competency based if it should come out in the next two years.
this is one of those [00:34:00] look, this is like waiting for the leash and when the fricking talk with thing to happen, this is going on for decades. But, you know, it’s a great program is currently a, I’m not sure the numbers right today, but I believe somewhere between 10 to 12,000 truck drivers annually are graduated to that.
We’ve got a number of those courses. Non-charter and I urge anybody that might be watching this and might be interested in becoming a truck driver tool for those schools that have that accreditation. Then you will be insured with a minimum standard. Of training that will touch on everything you all need to get.
You started on a successful career compared the worst thing that you want to do. Anybody watching this who’s thinking of getting into this career is to price shop training that you got a low quality shop. And then when you find comparable qualities, then you might look at price with doona, do not go up there saying, you know, PTBI courses, eight, 10, 12, grand.
And I can get it over here now, you know, for 3000 [00:35:00] bucks, I mean, just don’t do that and you’re putting yourself in jeopardy makes no sense. so, that, that me, I just think the world of nappy and was the chairman of that, 2008, 2009. and I’ve been involved with a prior to that, but the credit stations, that they offer for those trucks and properties that are listing, include, you know, certified director of safety and safety assistance, certified, record of maintenance.
These credit stations are amazing to me because they really, they equate to some op time upfront cost and time of your people of that. The factor you will be much more profitable and much more profitable. the maintenance side will have that individual graft and maintenance program that they’ll have to interior that ear too.
It’ll make them trend the common breakdown, instead submit to. Not be what they’re going to do to correct those things, just so that [00:36:00] individual can keep their accreditation. And Chris, you’re an instructor, not me on the safety side of things. You get all the value of this and the experience and not to me, the other car, this cause, you know, this is just the way I am as a human being.
But. The sharing of knowledge and, and the, the issues that you can share with your peers that you have maybe been frustrated with, that they may have experienced, safety around to me. I mean, I love being with the folks that are involved in all these things, because there’s passion there. And if you ever get sick of this industry, say I’ve had enough of this crap.
Get her on that group for any limited amount of time. And then you will read a reinvigorated. Even the quality of the people and the people’s intent that are involved with us. I think that goes to almost any association within our industry.
Chris, Safety Dawg: If you’re getting a little bit down, I’ll hang around with some of the key people at OTA, because those are [00:37:00] the passionate people at CTA, a truckload carriers.
NATMI. I mean, we all have, if you are who you associate with, and if you decide to associate with people that have negative attitudes, then that’s how my attitude is going to be. But I choose to associate with people like you.
Ray: Well, I appreciate that Chris. I do. So I just point out to you that, you know, ATA, OTA, CTA, all these associations, they don’t do a very good job of telling people the things that they fend off and they’re expensive to join the on money, but there’s, it’s very expensive to live in Iowa, to live in DC and to lobby against.
People who don’t understand our industry, but have been given some power and some authority. The next thing you know, we get some ridiculous legislations coming down [00:38:00] the pipe and Saudi’s got to be, you know, at the forefront of that and, be trying to fend those things off. So, you know, a lot of those associations, they have that as their priority and, and thank goodness they do.
Yep, no GCA, a truckload carriers association has recently gotten the advocate advocacy ring to Winnie too, because they didn’t see really a national association in the U S that was specific to a truckload chair. So they’ve got into that and they’ve been very successful at it, but still their strength is education.
It’s profitability of their carriers. It’s bringing them up to speed. It’s spending a conduit from carrier to carrier. I, I have been involved with TCA since mid eighties that I, amongst all those things. It has been the, the lifelong friendships, the, the, when I was running a carrier to pick a [00:39:00] phone up and say, Hey, I’m stuck at a sterile somewhere or a.
You know, I need somebody to get under a load form into Sue’s got up and just the learning piece, you know, I know a big piece of the program called mentoring. Well, I got that from Kevin Birch. He’s a lifelong friend of mine who passed 80 Sherman MTC charmer. And he showed me the whole program on a date and Ohio when he was using first drivers.
They’re not a huge impact on our business. So, you know, I’m made the association guy and I can ramble a bit off of that, but, you know, I also feel free to stop, but you know, if you’re going to be in this industry to be a contributor to its overall success, not just drama, but you want to be successful.
I know by doing it. And I think that’s a great. Ending point any re your contact information will be down below. And I am courage our listeners and Watchers to reach out to you. If they’ve got questions, any last words ready that you want to leave with? Hi, you know, very, [00:40:00] very strenuous times in an industry that is reliant on, Margins that are not typically those of other industries.
you know, when we retire, we’ll have 97, 97 and a half percent operating ratios. It doesn’t take much in the disruption of the flow of those lines to turn a positive into a negative. So, you know, I wish everybody the best it’s time to get together. It’s time to learn from your peers. People are being successful in this form.
They’re at least treading water. How are they doing it? Do you need to find out how then, then, you know, if there’s access for that information, even TCA, they’re putting stuff out daily. It’s to all everybody there, they’re not restricting it to nonmembers. So access to information is out there. And the other thing for us, I got to tell you, I know this firsthand misery loves company and you know what we’re suffering.
We’ve got ready. Things are cooperating now, how are you coping? How are you doing? So it’s not just me. There is shared [00:41:00] in here. So I suggest that to people. And of course on the file now it’s the drivers, I mean, difficult role at the best of times, amazingly difficult role now. So thank you all for being up there.
Then I applied her professionalism. Thank you so much for being there.
Chris, Safety Dawg: Perfect. Thanks Ray, for appearing on the show. I appreciate you very well.
Ray: Thanks for having me dressed. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Chris, Safety Dawg: Hope you love the show. As much as I did, please leave us a, like a thumbs up a review, a comment, a rating, if it is so much, and I do really appreciate your time. And join us again next week for another exciting injured.