William and Robin Sikora Part 2

[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Wave Express podcast. [00:00:03] Speaker B: Delivering everything you need to know to. [00:00:05] Speaker A: Stay safe and profitable out on the road. [00:00:11] Speaker B: This episode is part two of our conversation with William and Robin Sikora. If you haven't already, we encourage you to go back and listen to part one to follow along with our conversation. Thank you so much for listening and enjoy, William, because one of the best practices that I've learned from other drivers and I've deployed myself and now I recommend it, is when you encounter that grumpy dealer who's having a bad day and acts like you've offended them by bringing them inventory, outclass them, not in their face. But, for example, I delivered one time to a dealer in North Carolina, and I thought I'd done a pretty good job. I mean, they opened at 8, I got there at 9. Open unscathed, no issues, perfect piece. Add to your inventory. And the guy taking the unit in, who happened to be the dealership manager at the time, was a Saturday morning. And he said, yeah. He goes, I'm busy. You're gonna wait for me today. That's not what I wanted to hear. Right. But my response was, you know what? I agree. This is your business and I'm on your time, so I'll be over here. Let me know when you need me. I'll never forget his reaction. He paused like he wasn't sure what he just heard. Looked at me again like, you're the guy that just brought. You're the driver who. And pretty soon I. Without. Without any more than that. His attitude had turned 180 degrees and he stopped whatever else he was doing and checked the unit in. I didn't ask him for that. I said I was on his time and I'm standing by because I think he encountered me. He was having a rough day, who knows? But he encountered that service and ethic and he encountered it unashamed. I mean, just unbridled. I'm here to serve right now. I was getting served by this guy who was a BLEEP to start off with. I delivered this class A diesel motorhome and I was going over across town to pick up a brand new semi tractor to bring back up to the Midwest. And he said, do you need a ride? And I said, as a matter of fact, I do. I need to get over to, you know, the semi shop to pick the tractor up. And he goes, come on, I'll take you. No joke. This is a true story. We drove through McDonald's. What do you need, Joe? I got. I don't recommend McDonald's. Not good for drivers to eat that stuff. But you know, hey, that was a nice gesture, right? So I went from, not every time is this going to happen. I mean, this is one of the best case scenarios, right? But you encounter the butthead, you give him class. I mean, just unbridled class and service ethic in return, and you're getting a ride across town in McDonald's. That's the best case scenario. But it's a perfect example of what happens when you show up correct and you let the other guy be having his day, whatever that day is, and you give him your best game. And the results often follow suit. [00:03:00] Speaker A: Last year was what, May or June. We did all those loads in Oregon. I did like 18. I was going to do all these reloads out in Oregon, get paid to go out there, do a whole bunch of reloads. I deliver to the first guy. I won't say where it's at, but I pull in there and I deliver it. And he was just rude. He didn't just tell me. He just either hated his life or his job, but he was just miserable. And I was there for like an hour. And I'm like, man, how am I going to make this work? Because I got to come back here every day. I come back the next day, he was at lunch and I pull in and I see him walking his dog coming back from lunch. And what do I do? I run right over there, ask him about his dog, start playing with his dog. All of us, we were best buddies after that. Next 17 loads. He actually see, I'm one of these guys, I'm like, I will make your job easier. You tell me where you want that trailer. It will be there, will be unhooked, the battery will be in there, it'll be all slid out, the door will be open. It'll be ready for you to do your thing. I'll help you any way I can. And that's what I try to do for all the dealers. So they don't, you know, they're not. I want them as quick as possible to do their job, but I'll do as much as I can to make their job easier. [00:04:02] Speaker B: And you know, they talk about language, that is spoken language and then nonverbal communication, right? What you communicate non verbally in those gestures is I'm here to help. And how many people are upset with that gesture, with that form of communication? They love it. Whether they tell you or not, they love it. And so you show up and you give them something they love you. Get a little bit of that love back. That's great advice, William. [00:04:26] Speaker A: And by the third load, he's like, you either park there or there. That's not open. Go park it out there. Get it all set up for me. And I was in and out of that place 10, 15 minutes. 10, 15 minutes. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Only reason I quit doing those real. I was exhausted. Time to come back. I needed a break. I try to do that with all the dealers. You know, I try to work, but. [00:04:45] Speaker B: You know, no, that's beautiful. [00:04:46] Speaker C: Had you returned that bad attitude in kind, what do you think would have happened if his attitude would have affected what you were going to do and how you were going to engage with that guy at the dealer? [00:05:04] Speaker A: If I'd have let him get to me, it would probably affect my whole day and everything I was doing. But I remembered him. I remembered his name now. And I'm bad with names. I'm really bad with names. So for me to remember your name, I spent a lot of time with him. And then every time I'm coming in there now. How's your dog doing? You and your girlfriend getting any sleep? Because the dog will keep puppy. They got a new puppy. [00:05:23] Speaker B: And I wondered where you're going with that one. You really do know this guy. [00:05:28] Speaker A: I made friendly connection with people, right? And it turned out a great thing. I guarantee when I go up and see him again, he's gonna be like, where the hell you been? I'm like, because you got too much snow up here, right? [00:05:39] Speaker B: That's fair. [00:05:40] Speaker A: We try to do that with all the dealers. [00:05:42] Speaker B: You know, that is one of the paradoxes of this trade. There is such value in returning to a place you're familiar. But like we discussed earlier, you don't want to just go on that. You want to go all over because there's so much to learn and experience out there. But you make a connection like that, and you return to that connection, that can be very good. [00:05:59] Speaker A: Well, see, and I've been doing that because my. I know. I know when every scale's open, my structure. I know pretty much where every officer's sitting. I have a routine that I know. I know my dealers. I know what I can do, how I can get it in there, where to put it, what time to be there to beat the other drivers. These are all the things that you try to figure out when you're doing this. So I know how fast I can just go out west and do those same runs. And Rob was like, I'm tired of looking at the same road. [00:06:20] Speaker D: I'm like, okay, I'm going crazy. [00:06:22] Speaker A: So we change it up. [00:06:23] Speaker D: Show me something different. [00:06:24] Speaker A: And then we change it up. And I'm like, all right, this turned out good too. And, I mean, it worked out fine. But, yeah, you can. You have to. You just keep. You keep doing that. Then this turn into a job, and then I won't enjoy it like, I have been. Right. [00:06:35] Speaker B: Have you had any interactions with the DOT officers? [00:06:39] Speaker D: Oh, don't jinx us. [00:06:40] Speaker A: Don't jinx us. [00:06:42] Speaker B: It's interesting you say that, because I think a lot of people do feel that way. Like, it's kind of the boogeyman. [00:06:46] Speaker A: Right. [00:06:47] Speaker B: I will tell you this. I've had dozens of interactions in the live environment with law enforcement officers, DOT officers. I have yet. Alberta, Canada, accepted. I have yet to have an unpleasant interaction with us DOT officer. And most Canadian officers, for that matter, too. British Columbia had wonderful interactions. [00:07:06] Speaker D: That's always our question asked, have you seen. Have you been there? [00:07:11] Speaker B: Well, so the same principle applies. Like, we're talking about with the dealer. Like, some. You don't know. This guy's law enforcement, Right? So you don't know if he just got done helping clean up bodies. You don't know. They see it all good and bad and ugly. [00:07:23] Speaker A: His wife's cheating on him. That'd be the guy I would get, right? [00:07:27] Speaker B: And let's just assume you get that guy, William. [00:07:29] Speaker A: Oh, I'm gonna be the best guy. [00:07:29] Speaker B: And he pulls. Thank you. He's gonna come up, say, you know, you know how fast you were going. I hope it was okay. Whatever. Your response is gonna set the tone for the rest of the interaction. [00:07:38] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:07:39] Speaker B: And if that law enforcement officer deems you to be a decent fellow just trying to do a job for honest pay, guess what? Who wants to harass that, right? [00:07:48] Speaker A: Well, we try to do everything right. Have the right license plate on the back of the unit. Everything's clean, presented normal. Everything's hooked up the way it's supposed to. The truck looks good. We're clean. We don't look like we've been sleeping in the truck for six months. Because I watch them. I watch them all the time. Come up behind me. You see them slow down. You know, they're checking stuff. They'll come up. They're looking at my hitch. They're trying to find something wrong. They come over, and they look in the window at me, and you just smiling. And then they go. Several times I told Robin, I said, we might get pulled over here. And then they left. And I think that's, you know, if I'm there playing on, you know, TikTok like the guy the other day that almost ran us off the road. That's they're looking for all that stuff first of all. And then their next it's quota, you know, or this guy's been through here a hundred times and I ain't stopped him yet because I'm always waiting for that one because I'm always seeing the same guys all the time. [00:08:34] Speaker B: So I hear you again describing forms of nonverbal communication. The condition of the rig, the condition of the cockpit, the condition of yourself. These convey messages and they convey code meaning, right? So yeah, you're absolutely right. The guy who shows up sloppy shows up with a nasty looking rig, things out of sorts, missing his plaque can have a much harder inspection than the guy who comes correct 100%. [00:09:03] Speaker A: That's what we try to do very well. But I hope it never happens. But it will. It always going to happen sooner or later. [00:09:08] Speaker C: Tell you what, if you do have one and you get a clean one, it's 100 bucks. You can make money. [00:09:17] Speaker B: 100 bucks just for doing your job right. I've tried and we love paying it too. [00:09:21] Speaker D: I bet. [00:09:22] Speaker A: I always tell Everybody I don't. 100 bucks means nothing to me. Because first of all, no matter how good you think you are, ask William. [00:09:30] Speaker C: For right and cut that out of the. [00:09:33] Speaker A: All I need is that one officer that's having a bad day. And I've heard it from other people. I'm like, yeah, but did you make his bed day bad? Because I meet so many people, we meet a lot of people. And after I talk to them for a while, I start to sense their attitude. And if that, if I'm sensing that attitude and they're talking to that officer that way, they're screwed. They lost that battle already. [00:09:55] Speaker B: I was one time pulled over for going too fast. I hope no one's listening. I was one time pulled over for going too fast and the officer came up to my window and he said, do you know why I pulled you over? I said, in fact I do. He said, any reason you were traveling that fast? I looked him in the eye and I said, stupidity. I didn't get a ticket. He said, hey, you're right, that was stupid. Can you tone it down? I said, I absolutely can. I don't want to get pulled over again. And I will absolutely tone it. No ticket, you move on. Not even a warning changes the way you engage. As Mike says, it changes Everything. It sets it the way you want it. [00:10:33] Speaker A: That's my biggest thing. I try not to speed at all. The only way you do is if it's just you. A lot of traffic come around somebody, and all of a sudden the construction thing popped up and there's an officer sitting right there, you know, or that school zone, like you've been nailed before. [00:10:46] Speaker D: A long time ago. [00:10:47] Speaker B: But yes, you mentioned construction zone. I think that's key. A couple of things come to mind. And thing number one is this. Guys like you, William, and guys like Mike and anyone who's out there doing his job, right, you guys are saving lives. And you need to hear that message. You're approaching a construction zone, you're throttling down. You're looking for the hi Viz characters, right? You're saving lives. I mean, it's nothing less honorable than that. And that is how it should be thought of. The other thing that comes to mind is the high vis. I don't know if you. You're like, Mike and me, we like, you know, masculine, dark colors. And when you're out on the road, I cannot recommend enough that there be like a high vis vest within arm's reach so that if you have to get out of that truck, people see you a long way off. Just like those construction workers in those construction zones. That's. That's how you not get hurt. High vis. Joe Braun recommends it. [00:11:42] Speaker A: Yeah, we had one of them the other day. My. The wind was so bad in Wyoming, one of my signs finally bent up. And Robin's like, you're gonna lose it. It's gonna take the window off. And I'm like, I ain't pulling over on that road. I'm gonna get run over. So we're arguing and finally I thought I was gonna lose the sign. I'm like, how can I? Sign blew out of that window. [00:11:56] Speaker D: I mean, it was like, it's going to go. It's going to go. You need to pull over. It's going to go. [00:12:01] Speaker B: Maybe it was just happening. [00:12:01] Speaker D: Would have went if he didn't. [00:12:03] Speaker A: I grabbed my bright. I grabbed my bright jacket and I jumped out there real quick and duct taped it on there. But I didn't like driving down the. [00:12:08] Speaker D: Road with duct tape. [00:12:10] Speaker A: I'm like, yeah, no, I'm that guy. They're going to pull me open. [00:12:14] Speaker D: Hey, at least you had duct tape. [00:12:17] Speaker A: Tell you big recommendation. If you're getting into this line of work, get some duct tape. [00:12:22] Speaker B: That's actually really good advice. I would add to the list electrical tape I like to tie my, my electrical cord. I like to electrical tape it to the frame. Just keep it from dancing and playing around. And like, I like to electrical. I like to electrical tape the plug into the seven way, you know. [00:12:36] Speaker A: Oh, really? [00:12:37] Speaker B: Keep that tight because that all it takes is for that to come a little loose and you're talking off as a friend. [00:12:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Or worse. I got something new. [00:12:44] Speaker D: Sweet. [00:12:45] Speaker B: That's like a little mini safety school here in the recording room. [00:12:49] Speaker C: The other tape that you should probably have in your, in your truck is like a painter's tape because if you take, if you use duct tape to say something's flapping on the unit. [00:13:02] Speaker A: Decals. [00:13:03] Speaker C: Yeah. If you, if you use duct tape, it is frowned upon by, by whoever's checking your unit in at the dealer and it's hard to get off and you can do some damage. [00:13:15] Speaker B: Okay. [00:13:16] Speaker C: So that, that would be the, the only. [00:13:19] Speaker A: I had a door fly open, but I was able to, I was able to put the duct tape around the rim of it. So I was on that rubber piece, but that's the first thing I thought of. And then when I delivered, I ran out there and peel it off real quick so they didn't see it. [00:13:29] Speaker B: Yeah, smart. Hey, there's working hard and working smart. That's working smart. So. [00:13:34] Speaker A: But yeah, I never thought of the painter's tape. I wasn't sure if it would even hold it. But I do. Yeah, the duct tape, because we've had decals just fall off line down the road lately. So I mean, it's possible that it would definitely take it off. So. Hey, I learned more today. Look at this. [00:13:47] Speaker B: I'm learning. Well, we're learning things too. Well. Yeah. Anyways, the, the season that we're in, early late winter, early spring, 2025, it's looking pretty good. I want folks to know that we're, we're getting buried, our yards are filling up and we're looking hard for more drivers. Some think of this as a highly seasonal endeavor and there are seasons that have that characteristic. This likely isn't one of them. The end is not in sight right now. So we've. Camping World just had its fourth quarter earning call today, this morning, and they're incredibly bullish about the RV market. They're acquiring dealerships. They're expecting a better year this year than last and a better year year than last, next year than this year. So it's, that's a very good bellwether for folks that are following those kind of indicators. We're in a good market. And it's a good time to enter the trade. If folks are wondering, see, I talk. [00:14:44] Speaker A: To all those guys, don't I? What are you guys selling? Any of these cheaper units that I'm hauling every day? They sell as fast as they get in. All those Cougar 5th wheels, they're moving them as fast as they get in. And I always do. The reason I do that is because if you were YouTube, and YouTube says, RV world's dead. I'm like, the RV world's not dead. I can count hundreds of units going down. I'm talking to the dealers. There's some guy reading a spreadsheet. [00:15:07] Speaker B: Sorry, none taken. [00:15:11] Speaker A: Reading that spreadsheet. [00:15:12] Speaker B: I have a tattoo of a spreadsheet. [00:15:14] Speaker A: And he's telling all these people that it's dead. And I'm going, you can't always go by that, because, I mean, I was in the motorcycle business for a long time, and, you know, when I would sell motorcycles in. In the winter months, those people would not register those until March or April. Okay. So a lot of the dealers or a lot of the paperwork is not even done yet. So they don't think any of those units even sold. They're waiting for people to go to register them. I'm assuming RVs are the same way you sell an RV. They don't go and register them right away. They're just sitting there. How does that go onto that sheet where they. Where they talk about that type of stuff? So I'm thinking you guys don't know what you're talking about. [00:15:48] Speaker B: Yeah. So what we do know, wholesale shipments. And that's typically what we look at as a wholesale carrier. We care about wholesale shipments. Today on the earnings call, Marcus Lemonis said that he hoped to push the industry to 400,000 units this year. Not a bad year. [00:16:03] Speaker A: See, I worry that you guys are going to push all those units there. We're going to fill up the dealer, and nobody's buying them. So I'm looking at the other end of it all the time, too. [00:16:11] Speaker B: Yeah, that's fair. You know, you bring up an excellent point, William. When you're a single driver out on the road doing your thing, you feel small. I felt small when I did it. And you feel like what you just said, if we get all this work done, it's going to end. And that's scary. That's. Now I've invested in this, I've learned it, I've become proficient, and it's going to end. Not true. It's an illusion. It is Nothing to worry. It's not going to end anytime soon. This thing is going to keep going for a long time. And those who are considering this trade or who are in this trade, and if you're having one of those moments where you're feeling isolated and you're feeling small and you're feeling like the world is against you, number one, validate that, because that is, in fact, not an unhealthy take on reality. You are kind of alone. It seems like the deck is stacked against you a lot. And really nobody out there is trying to help you but you. Now, with all that said, there's thousands of people just like you doing the same thing, possibly feeling the same way. And this is one of the beautiful things about the Riverstone life is you are helping people understand that they're not alone, that there is a community, that there's sectors of the economy who are engaged in this. And I will tell you here at Wave, we love our drivers. How can you not. There's so many good people who are involved in this, and if those people are struggling, we want to know about it. We have resources, we have tricks learned from decades of experience. And you've passed your one year anniversary. You know so much more now than you did a year ago. Imagine what people who've done this for decades and have thousands of contacts, imagine what they know and imagine how helpful they can be if, if you're in a struggle or for goodness sakes, maybe you feel like you're struggling with us. Let's talk about it. We'll fix it, all right? Because we are not here to terminate contracts. We're not here to discipline. I mean, we're here to support and attract people who love this business and want to keep doing it and doing it successfully. So that's why I put that plug in there. [00:18:18] Speaker A: Well, and Brandon, let me just. We're good at this, right? Let me, let me spin off that one. Do you think by all the new drivers that we're bringing in, it's going to destroy the business? [00:18:32] Speaker B: The opposite will happen, William, to answer your question. Although let me. Let me just validate that for a second because again, if I'm that solo driver, I'm behind my windshield watching the road come at me and I'm thinking waves, trying to get me to refer people into this thing. And the more I do that, the less there is for me. It's an understandable perspective. I get it. I get anyone who has that impulse or that thought. I understand how that thought occurs. It's wrong in fact, not only is it wrong, it's the opposite of the economic reality we're in as a carrier. This is the reality we're in. The more volume, the more of the demand that this company can service, the more we will be rewarded. It builds on itself. So let's say I'm Joe Solo Joe, out in the truck, driving along and I'm like, well, I do know a guy who might like this, but I don't know if I want to refer him because maybe he'll do the things I want to do. Well, let's just say you do refer him and he does do the things you want to do. The reality is there's going to be more of those things to do and you haven't lost anything. This is the economics of we're like a utility. We're like the electric company. Our customers, when they flip the switch, they want light. If they say transportation, they want the thing to go. They don't want me, president of Wave, going, hey, hey, Bob, how'd you like that last delivery? They don't have time for that. They want the delivery. Right. So we are that utility type service to customers who order thousands of these things. So if I have an extra 20 guys tomorrow than I had yesterday, I'm going to move 20 things faster than I moved yesterday. And what's gonna happen to the flow? It's gonna compound, it's gonna multiply. So if I'm a customer, if I'm a shipping customer, I go, okay, carrier A has moved this volume in this amount of time and here's Wave Express and they've moved this amount of volume, which is higher in a shorter period of time. Who is going to get the orders? The higher performing carrier. So I'm trying to answer your question to the best of my ability and as factually and as economically soundly as I can. The fact is the more drivers who are our best people come from our best people. And more good people means more good service to customers means more business awarded. That's how this business works, has for decades. [00:20:57] Speaker A: Well, the only thing I ask is we have our people that think we're awesome and we have the other people. [00:21:01] Speaker D: That tell me, R.R.V. [00:21:03] Speaker A: Transport ruining R.V. transport. So we deal with, we get it from both ends, from all the referrals. But I tell every people, you know, there's people that you can't hire because of their driving record or whatever, you know, their background insurance won't approve them. They go, I talk to these people all the time. They're working For Horizon. They're working for Indiana. They're working for that other one that I. That he couldn't get hired at. So our channel just doesn't help Wave. Our channel is helping the whole industry is the way I look at it. I mean, if the drivers are all out there, there's more. More work can get done. I mean, I don't know, but everybody tells me that within two to three years, we're going to be beaten a buck 30amile, and we're not gonna have no work. [00:21:39] Speaker B: 100% wrong. The economics of that are flat flawed to the core. The opposite is true. I say so, but I don't say so because I think I'm brilliant. I say so because I've lived it for the last 25 years. And that's just how it works. [00:21:51] Speaker A: That's why I ask you. Because, I mean, you know what you're talking about. You'll be doing this. You know, it is. You can't fix every driver's problem out there. You can't. You know, when that person, when they reach out to us and say, hey, William, they didn't hire me. They won't tell me why. Well, that I can't help, that there's some reason they couldn't. But. But I guarantee a lot of it's probably insurance. You know, they need to get you insured. If they can't get you insured, you're gonna have to go try somebody else. [00:22:12] Speaker B: I appreciate you saying that because, number one, that's God's honest truth. You have to be insurable. In fact, I'll go a step farther. You have to be easily insurable. And I'll add another layer that a lot of people won't have thought through. So you have to be that. You have to be not only insurable, but easily insurable. And you have to be defendable in front of 12 jurors. Not just defendable. Easily defendable. Because guess who the designated JLE is. Us. [00:22:41] Speaker A: Well, and another thing, too. If that driver can't get hired by Wave and goes works for somebody else for the next three or four years, then he might better come back and work for you. Maybe. You never know. [00:22:50] Speaker B: 100% true. You build a clean track record. 100% true, William. A ticket from two years ago now becomes four years old, and now we don't care about it anymore. That's right. [00:22:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I told him, because I get guys, they're like, well, I went, I couldn't work for Wave. You're working. You're working all the time I said, we're all working, I went for this company. I hadn't got a job in two weeks. And I'm going. That's why I told you, go to wave. He goes, yeah, but I couldn't do that. I said, well, just work. If this is what you truly love and want to do, sometimes you gotta just sacrifice. Sacrifice. And you can get to that point because you. We all screw up in life and we have to pay for it, and then we're able to get to the next point. And that's what I tell them. [00:23:24] Speaker B: Very true. We get applications sometimes that there's something, let's say, fairly bad in the past. But if that in the past is like 1985, you're not the same person now that you were. And I will happily overlook that blemish from a few decades ago because I don't believe you've had a clean track record. Clean track record since that time. You're who I want. [00:23:48] Speaker A: That's what I tell people. So these are the questions that people. [00:23:50] Speaker D: Yeah, right. [00:23:51] Speaker A: We get a lot. [00:23:52] Speaker D: We do, yeah. Especially money wise. Everybody's fixated on money, and we get that because you're earning a living. Everybody says since we're bringing so many people into this industry, they're concerned that the per mile is gonna, like, go down 30, 40, 50, 60 cents to, like. [00:24:13] Speaker B: I think if we were in a diminishing trend, if RV sales were decreasing significantly, that might be a factor. What they. They may have some position to make that claim, but at the, at this, for the foreseeable future, they do not. For the foreseeable future, we're coming off of some. 2022 was a horrible year. 2023 got a little better. 2024 got about 15% better than that. 2025 is looking to be about 20% better than 22. This is the trend you want to be in. And if I thought that trend were going to end anytime soon, listen, I don't want a thousand people mad at me. I would say, look, guys, here's when I think the trend will end. And I would tell you I don't see the end. Okay? I see growth in the RV sector. There are. Here's what's happening. Younger people are buying RVs. We have families who are buying second and third RV trailers. The little ones, like you mentioned, they have more than one place to go. And they would. Instead of pulling them all over, you know, they put them different places or they let their kids use them or whatever it is. We have more minority purchasers first time purchasers in the business, in the industry. So these demand is compounding. Right. And Covid was weird because people didn't have other options. Like you weren't going on cruises, you weren't doing international travel. You, you pretty much, if you wanted to get out and do something, you bought an rv. So we had a spike. But here's the good news. Even though the year after that stunk, it was kind of a crash. Well, the all of these were all sold to a bunch of new time owners. But once you get into this thing, you kind of get hooked. And so those first time buyers are becoming repeat buyers and they're having children and those children are becoming buyers as they age and so forth and so on. So the trend is not ending anytime soon. So the people who are afraid that you're diluting the supply side of this thing, they're wrong because the demand side is growing and growing healthfully and the supply side is necessary for that to continue. Tell them that. [00:26:19] Speaker A: Plus there's got to be a number. How many drivers out of 10 that you hire and put through this class and go out here and work? In my mind, probably three of them. Stick with it. [00:26:28] Speaker B: I mean, I don't say for a year out of 10. How many people will be here a year from now? Now it's different for different carriers here. Here it's going to be about six. Okay, six to seven of those people will be here a year from now. Our turnover is about that. On average, trucking turnover is over 100% annually. We don't measure turnover, it's a negative measure. We measure retention. So our goal as a company quarter to quarter is 90% retention. Now if you extrapolate that out for a year, that's essentially 60% retention annually. And that's about what we get. [00:27:03] Speaker A: Okay, well I just figured because everybody's, I'm like, you know, it doesn't matter. They hire 20 people. So many of these people are going to go out here and they watched William and Robin on YouTube and just said, who I'm gonna go do that. They get out here and go, I don't like driving. You know, they're gone. [00:27:16] Speaker B: You know, that's, that's actually a minority of people. Believe it or not, a lot of people come out here and they, once they taste it, they're like, wait a minute, I can go where I want to go. I kind of control how I do it. I'm my own boss. The only person I'm really answering to is the dealership. I'M delivering to and the dot cop I might meet on the way. Joe doesn't care. I mean, he cares that I'm safe and legal. But apart from that, knock yourself out. I'm not there micromanaging how you do things at all. No one is. So that's very attractive to a lot of people. That freedom, that flexibility. And I would say that's the best part of this job, is the amount of self determination there is and the freedom and flexibility. So. So there are people who come and don't like it. That does happen. But there are far more people who come and do like it. And either something bad happens to where they have to leave sadly, or they do the thing we've already talked about and they start spending all that revenue. They buy something nice that they don't need, or they chrome out the truck. They got a truck payment and a chrome payment. I'm like, what are you doing? That chrome doesn't make money because they're. [00:28:19] Speaker A: Used to working a regular job, getting a paycheck, and all of a sudden they come on here and they kick butt and make $25,000 in one month. And all of a sudden I'm rich. Oh, I'm gonna buy that new thing. And I keep telling them, don't do that. You know, we do that. We get so many people that tell us this is the best thing there. I mean, that's the reason we keep doing it. Right. I mean, I brought this here because I thought, you know what, you can see your family, you can do everything you want to do and still make some money. [00:28:41] Speaker D: And if you have a partner, it's even more fun. [00:28:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Because when you're not with me, I'm. [00:28:45] Speaker D: It's work. [00:28:47] Speaker A: I kind of. I just don't have that. I need you along. It just keeps. It doesn't feel like a job. [00:28:51] Speaker D: So I said, it's more like work. [00:28:53] Speaker A: So. And we get so many. Robin, because. Yeah. People text me all day long. So Robin reads the text message to me. She's like another super guy. This guy's on his fourth load. Happiest thing, everything. And we got. We got a lot of people that. This works out absolutely perfect for them. I mean, that's the reason we did it. [00:29:08] Speaker B: I mean, I love. So let me. The people who criticize you for referring people into the business. I'd like to show. Share something there. I refer. I have three brothers. All three of them have worked in this trade because of me. Mom and dad have cousins, uncles, neighbors, friends, long distance, long forgotten friends. College buddies, whatever. Almost my entire network have at one time participated in this. As a result of my referral, no one has ever come back and said, you know, I really wish I hadn't done that. They. Not all of them are here doing it, obviously, but those who did it did it for a while, and most of them enjoyed doing it that I know of. No one's ever given me a negative report, so I'm as guilty as you guys are in terms of referring people into this. But for anyone who's in doubt, the result of those referrals was we had a better industry, we had safer drivers, There was less loss out on the road because our best people come from our best people. I just give that up to anybody who cares to criticize you for referring folks. It's just not how it works. It's an inverse reality. [00:30:15] Speaker A: I just think it was a great topic to bring up because I'm right here with you guys. [00:30:18] Speaker B: I love that you brought it up. I'd love to talk about it all day because that idea has been out there and it needs to die. It needs to die and maybe suffer a little bit and then die or whatever. But it's the wrong idea. [00:30:29] Speaker A: Well, and it's not the experience we have. I mean, most of the experiences guys have been doing this for a long time, and all the new people coming in, they have that positive out. We bring. The people we bring in, I think, are that type of people positive. I mean, the ones that we truly get, that we stay in contact with every day. I mean, like I told Robin today, I said, when I started this job, I had 25 contacts in my phone because I'm one of these people. If you're not on my phone, you can't get a hold of me. And I just don't. I just don't come commute with all you do that. I got 238. So that's how many people that are telling me. And you know how great it works. I mean, I know where the bad weather is and I work around it. I mean, I got the guys in front of me and they're stuck in a rest area waiting. And I know that I'm going a different route. Right Where I'm not going back that route. [00:31:14] Speaker D: Yeah, we build a community. [00:31:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it's working really good. We got a lot of great people. A lot of great people. [00:31:19] Speaker B: That's all. Some of the best lessons come from your other driving contacts, right? [00:31:23] Speaker D: Exactly. [00:31:23] Speaker A: That's what this has brought us, is the people wouldn't you. Our number one thing we've got from it is the people, wouldn't you say? [00:31:29] Speaker D: I agree. [00:31:30] Speaker A: I mean, I've created some great relationships with some people I never thought I would have. [00:31:34] Speaker D: Right, right. [00:31:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:35] Speaker B: Excellent. Well, thank you for doing that. We appreciate it. We've been beneficiaries of it, and those same people, and you are as well, so nice job, guys. [00:31:44] Speaker D: Thanks. [00:31:44] Speaker A: It's been great.