Jared Flinn:
You're listening to the bulk loads podcast. Your number one resource for everything bold freight trucking.
Jared Flinn:
Hey, guys. Jared Flynn with the Bulk Loads podcast. Got Tyler with me.
Tyler:
What's going on?
Jared Flinn:
I'm gonna let you kick it off with this amazing truck feature.
Tyler:
Yep. Today, we have Jason Sallie with Sallie Farms Trucking, out of Warsaw, Missouri. And, Jason and Krystal, his wife, they have been, Bulkloads members with us since 2013, and they have been also, Smart Freight users since the beginning as well.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Jason and I go back. Actually, Jason, Rachel Biesterfeld, who is our CEO on Smart Freight, we go back to the Bartlett days. And I can specifically remember him meeting Jason. I forget what year it was, but it was in Saint Joe, Missouri. It was at Lifeline Foods. We were up there, and he was up there, I think, loading out some DDGs, but got to meet him for the first time. But then since then, met his brother, Jeff Sally.
Jared Flinn:
We actually did and I think it was our 2nd truck feature video was with Jeff Sally. He drove down here because they're just north of here in Warsaw, about 40 minutes north and did that one. It was, pretty cool, interesting to say the least. We were still learning how to do these truck features, and he graciously came down. But, yeah, cool rig.
Tyler:
Yeah. Very cool. Joe actually went out there and took this picture. But, yeah, it's just so cool. I mean, it's a work of art. And I think, if I remember right, Joe was telling me that Jason is actually getting this truck ready. He plans to actually take it to shows, and and enter it in, truck shows and stuff. So hopefully, we can get out there and we can record a whole video just on this truck, and Jason kinda walking around and talking about it.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Cool. So speaking of cool photos, you asked last week about the Idaho trip. I said, let's wait till this episode. But, yeah, I wanted to highlight just some photos. Joe was with us. We did some really cool videos, which he's gonna release soon, but I wanted him to throw up some of these photos. But we got to go out there and meet with John Pocock and his family.
Jared Flinn:
The guy was just immensely humble and hospitable for us. But, yeah, I got to go out, and I'll let them throw some of these slides. But everything, went to go out and witness potato harvest and watch them actually harvest in. So my son came along, got to ride in the tractor while they were harvesting, but got to go to see where they go for storage, but then even got to go to the manufacturing warehouse where these things are getting cleaned
Tyler:
Wow.
Jared Flinn:
And processed, all the AI automation. And, again, it's just cool. We deal with so many types of commodities and products in bulk trucking. So it's awesome to see everything from not just grain, but potato harvest. Yep. Joe and I, we were up in Pennsylvania where we saw, the wineries and even that's there's a huge amount of bulk that's involved with that. So, yeah, just cool experiences. With that said, we are we have, I think, 4 more videos lined up, but we are getting more and more interest of that to be featured.
Jared Flinn:
We wanna feature you in one of these videos. It's twofold. We get to share it to our audience, so they get to know about you. We get to use it as advertising for us. Yep. But, again, it really gets to promote your company and hopefully allow more businesses to see what you do both from hiring standpoints, but even customers.
Tyler:
Yeah. Exactly. And all you have to do is just drop down if you're on YouTube, or wherever you're listening actually in the show notes. There will be a link that you can fill out. It's not much. It's just asking, just about your operation, and anything unique that you'll be able to bring to the table, and then it allows you to schedule some dates that maybe can work for you, to where Joe and, possibly Jared, if you're available to go out to your operations, spend some time with you, we'd greatly appreciate it.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. We're gonna be in Lancaster, PA coming up the end of this month. So if you are up in that area, reach out to me.
Tyler:
We'd love
Jared Flinn:
for sure to stop and meet you. We'll be up there for 3 or 4 days doing some video shoots out there. So super excited about that. Awesome. So awesome. Well, today, getting into the podcast, we're gonna bring back Rick Johnson and Kirk Erickson. If you remember, we had them on a couple months ago, talking about their lease purchase program and got to talking with them. They live here in Springfield.
Jared Flinn:
And wanted to dive in a little bit more and talk about speccing out trucks.
Tyler:
Yep.
Jared Flinn:
You know, a lot of times sometimes we talk macroly about these subjects, but even talking in the details when if you're in bulk and there's all different ranges of bulk, but specifically, how do you make sure and spec out a truck so you're running the most efficiently and really affordably for those clients?
Tyler:
Right. Yeah. It's a it's a great episode where they dive deeper in, to this whole lease purchase thing, but they also point out, some practical and impractical things in trucking. One of the things they mentioned is, like, you know, these high cost show trucks that a lot of guys are driving. You know, sometimes those are impractical, especially for new guys getting into the industry and starting in this business. There's no need to try to, go after that show truck and and, you know, spend all that money even though they look cool, Jared, and I would probably drive 1. But they just touch on some of those practical tips, and it reminded me of you were just at Fultz Trucking, SpeedNet, their forum, and, you know, they're the largest hopper bottom specific, company in the US. And I think how they got there is by, you know, a lot of people giving grief for all the Volvos and everything they run.
Tyler:
But whenever you look at the operation, the efficiency that they're able to bring to the table with running those certain types of truck for bulk freight, I think it shows for itself, you know, how they've been able to grow like that.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
And I always think I have to give a disclaimer because we love all trucks. We love the show trucks. We know that operations are different. So we're not for against other ones. Our goal with this podcast is to bring all different sides to the table, and then you, as the company can decide what fits your operation. So, again, love the the the decked out show trucks we see at deal companies. A lot of those are working class trucks, but also we know that there are some companies that focus on more technology and efficiency and run those trucks as well. So there's a combination of both.
Jared Flinn:
So, hopefully, we give you the content for you to make the best decisions on that. So and I also say some of the things Rick and and Kirk say, they've been in this business for 40 plus years. So there's a lot of knowledge and wisdom, may not match up or align with yours, but we wanna bring both sides so you can make the best decisions.
Tyler:
Well said.
Jared Flinn:
I wanted Garrett to when, and again, maybe I'm poking fun. I'm not picking fun. I'm just funny, but, like, when I say that their older guys have this wisdom, but they remind me of, like, you're too young to remember, like, the Muppet characters, the 2 older gentlemen, like, the presidents. Like, they would always kinda be, like, jamming, like, back and forth, but maybe Garrett will throw up a photo of those. But, like, I was like, that would be them, but I'm not making fun of them. It was just something funny. I like to That is I like to, have humor with a lot of what we do. You know me for a little bit.
Jared Flinn:
So I I always think when I when I saw that video of them together and and there's one that they have where they were turned around looking at this truck behind you and, just reminded me of that. So cool. Well, with that said, here is my conversation with Rick Johnson and Kirk Erickson. Kirk, Rick, thanks for coming back on.
Rick Johnson:
Good morning, Kirk. Kirk. Good
Kirk Erickson:
afternoon. I'm sorry.
Jared Flinn:
Thank you. Well, we, had quite a bit of reactions from our last show, so we wanted to bring you back on and probably get a little more gritty in what we talked about. Because when you talk about lease purchase and financing trucks, man, there are so many sides of the aisle. There's so much debate going on. Even before we hit the record button here, we were just talking about some of those details. So, man, hopefully, we can keep this in 30 minutes. We want people to say too, I think we're gonna get really expose some really good information out talking about trucking. But, Rick, I wanna point this to you first.
Jared Flinn:
Talk about I think from when we talked about this lease purchase program, putting these guys with a good company. And I think about it. If I'm a driver company driver, yeah, I like this program. It sounds like this is a good way to get started.
Rick Johnson:
Mhmm.
Jared Flinn:
But am I gonna haul for somebody that I really wanna work for? I think that's a really big important question. You all really kind of point or guide drivers to companies. Right? Can you talk about that?
Rick Johnson:
Well, we have well, I have trucks at 28 different companies, and we don't know what their gross settlement is because we don't ever get involved in their personal money. But what we do know is when they struggle to make their payments. So typically, that is across the board. If you have a flatbed carrier where you've got well, I got one right now that's got 19 trucks. There's only 5 of those guys that are doing really well. So I don't direct anybody to those folks. I don't I don't desell them. It's just a new guy if he asked me to do what about so and so? Well, I've got 5 guys there that do pretty good and the rest of them don't.
Rick Johnson:
I'd be happy to give you their numbers, you can talk to them. So I don't bad mouth any company, but I wanna see them do well. Yeah. Typically, the higher paying companies have higher standards. So the higher the standard, the better quality a driver, the lower the turnover. Same way with a truck. You gotta have a support system, you gotta have it decently priced, and you have to stay with him cradle to grave.
Jared Flinn:
Hey, guys. Many of you all know, but we've created a collection of children's books called Semi Sam. These books were spurred when my kids were little, my boys. We couldn't find books on trucking and on agriculture. So I got together and thought of this idea to create a fictional character called Semi Sam and really encompass the story lines behind agriculture. Since we've started, we've created 4 different books. We're about ready to release a fall book called Semi Sam Sam
Rick Johnson:
and the pumpkin
Jared Flinn:
harvest. If you haven't yet, you can find these on Amazon. But also if you're a member of Folkloads or you have resources that you want these to go to, we love to gift them out to people. We send them to a lot of our clients that, give them out in parades and other different events, conferences, and we would love to do that just as a thank you from us. Reach out to us. You can contact us at support at boltblows.com. You can go to any of our social media or you can go to amazon.com and find the semi sam collection. We hope that you enjoy these for your kids, grandchildren.
Jared Flinn:
Thank you very much. God bless. Talk about higher standards. What do you mean by some company that have higher standards?
Rick Johnson:
For example, Oakley. Yep. Bull collar.
Jared Flinn:
Yep. Big client of ours.
Rick Johnson:
160 trucks. They wanna be at a 1,000 trucks by the end of the year. In January, we had 2 trucks there, and we did it as a test to see how well they do. They did very well, so I added 4 more. They did very well. So I added 4 more. They did very well. I got 13 there today and 2 more going.
Rick Johnson:
So we began to direct guys in that way because they have high hiring standards. If you've had over 2 jobs in 5 years, they don't want you.
Jared Flinn:
Okay.
Rick Johnson:
You have to be a single owner operator with a truck 5 years or newer, and it has to be PTO compatible. And that's a big deal when your predominant used truck dealer, specialize in used, mostly Freightliner fleet trucks. A Freightliner fleet truck is not a PTO compatible truck. Those automatics don't come with the PTO feature, right, unless you order it that way. I mean, we've known that for years because we were on the tank business. So we try to point them gently in that direction. And if they qualify, their chance of success is twice what the next guy says. If he hears, oh, so and so, I got a buddy that told me he's doing really well over there, I I don't know what really well means.
Rick Johnson:
I've never been able to put really well in the bank, It's just like putting miles in the bank or whatever. I need to know the dollars and you need to know the dollars. So do your homework, just like do your homework on on us before you Yeah. But you wanna know who's my trucks? I'll give you any names you want. You can call. So we try to we try to help them be successful because if they are, we are.
Jared Flinn:
Sure. So you said right now, the obviously, and I know this, the fly bed market is tough. You know, we've had Really tough. Some local companies here I know of, specifically in the Springfield area that have went out of business. So in, like, today and we know the market's changing, but, like, today, where are you pointing guys that are interested? Like, what type of freight? You don't wanna give me specific companies or you can't give a specific companies, but what what type what type of equipment?
Rick Johnson:
The 2 that we recommend the most is Bruce Oakley and Little Rock for and dump hopper, or they have a few pneumatic tanks.
Jared Flinn:
So it's gonna be bulk stuff that a lot a lot of our listeners are already used to.
Rick Johnson:
The other one is Keenan Advantage Group, which is tank freight, because typically the same qualifications require I mean, apply to both. Both sides need mid roof trucks, 15 liter or better power, good warranty, very reliable, less than 5 years old. And that equipment fits their need, fits our equipment and our concept perfectly.
Jared Flinn:
So Where specifically here in the US or region are they looking for trucks? Because I think that's a big question. Our podcast covers all 48 states, Canada, and all over. So we got guys listening to California and New York, wherever. But for this example, again, and for the listeners, because I wanna get really gritty, where would where would these guys need to be located based out of? Because I think, like, the guys living right now in Columbus, Ohio, is there even an advantage to this?
Rick Johnson:
There is. We have trucks based in Louisville, Kentucky. I mean, right now, we're in 28 states, predominantly Midwest, Southeast. That doesn't mean we can't be. It's just that's our bread basket. And they're scattered all over. We have 12 in Gainesville, Georgia that run out of a Kin Advantage Group. Hope Hall, Alabama, Decatur, Alabama, Loudoun, Tennessee
Kirk Erickson:
Springfield's right here
Rick Johnson:
in Springville. Springfield, Jacksonville, Illinois. Where they live and where they work out of, we don't really care, except we have yet to reach out to California because our safety net doesn't reach that far. In other words, we don't have a good maintenance network there to help them to get repaired. So we try to stick to essentially, call it the Colorado line east, minus the northeast.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Sure. You said maintenance. I wanna go down this. And, Kirk, you can even elaborate on this as well because, man, I've, recently and there's gonna be a show that's coming out soon talking specifically about maintenance and software. Mhmm. But this I was talking about especially when you deal with maintenance, first off, people are always behind, and they don't take maintenance as serious as they should. And secondly, a lot of people don't even know what's covered, like, when you have warranties and stuff going on.
Jared Flinn:
Like, it's like this again, it's open my eyes like it's the wild, wild west when it comes to people not taking care of equipment, And that can be this this company I was talking to, they preach that they can almost save $7,000 a year in maintenance costs by using the program. That's to debunk. We'll talk about that later. But talk about maintenance because you said that's a scary one for new owner operators or lease purchase because Sure. You know, versus other programs, you get something something breaks down, then all of a sudden, man, you don't know what to do or now you're stuck with the bill. But talk about how you all help in that regards when you're dealing with maintenance.
Kirk Erickson:
Rick, go ahead.
Rick Johnson:
Really good question.
Jared Flinn:
This is a big one, I think. Yeah. I mean, this is the main reason.
Kirk Erickson:
Be the biggest.
Rick Johnson:
This is a £300 elephant in the room. We have a guy right now that's on a 2024 Lone Star. He noticed his wheel seal was leaking. I said, well, there's a problem. And he just happened to call me because he couldn't get all the maintenance. He was in Glenwood, Arkansas. And I said, well, you better get it to the dealer, something fishy going on here. I this is the second wheel seal I've heard going out in one of these trucks.
Kirk Erickson:
Same truck.
Rick Johnson:
Same mileage, same truck 2 weeks ago on the front axle. So I sent him down to Texarkana, which is the international deal, 85 miles away, and it was raining. By the time he got there, they said that the, vent plug was leaking on the front differential, and it allowed rain to get in and dilute the oil in that front end. It was gonna be $16,000 fixing. I had a cow. Well, maybe a calf. And they're not they're not one to bore you. No.
Rick Johnson:
And they're one of the warranty. Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
So did I say that real real quick? Is that falling on you or the driver?
Kirk Erickson:
Here you go.
Rick Johnson:
Well, it's on now. We've accepted responsibility of that first, because that rear end has a half a 1000000 mile warranty on it. What do you mean you're not gonna honor it? So their excuse was because it let water in there, I said the reason the water got in is that valve on top of the front differential come in screwed enough, and it was in a heavy downpour on his way to Texarkana. Your valve on the front of that thing was loose when he got there, and it's on the report. That let water get in that front differential, that's where the water came from. Mhmm. And that's a big issue. Well, that's a fluke.
Rick Johnson:
I said, tell you what I'm gonna do. I got 10 of those trucks. All of them within 30,000 miles of one another. I'm gonna be on the phone to every one of those drivers before the day's out. So and
Jared Flinn:
this you this is you talking to the international service department? No.
Rick Johnson:
Me talking to the driver. The the driver. Okay. And he was there at the repair shop. I said, I'm not gonna let this stand. You you this this truck, this guy's a runner. He'd been in a year about a year 4 months. He'd run a 180,000 miles.
Rick Johnson:
Great driver. He paid off his first truck, got that one. So I had our Doris, our maintenance lady, help me. We called all 10 of those drivers. 9 out of the 10 of them had the same problem, they didn't realize it. They got out and checked that little, it's like a hollow bolt that screws into that housing. There's a fault in it and it was backing out. And when it backs out and it rains heavy enough, it's spewing some of the fluid out, and it's causing water to get in.
Rick Johnson:
And so I called them, and they're like, well, that's a fluke. So driver's supposed to catch that. I said, it's on the front axle, That's on the driver's side. You know, all that junk that's around there that if he's got a trailer, he can't see that.
Jared Flinn:
This is you talking to international.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. Mhmm. So they said, we're still not gonna do it because Spicer says so. I said, well, I'm not gonna let this go. You get your you get your donkey at international on the phone because 9 out of 10 of these trucks are that way.
Kirk Erickson:
I've got 5 the same and we're gonna
Rick Johnson:
I called Kirk. I said, you got 5. Check them out.
Kirk Erickson:
Yep. We're gonna go in on the same side.
Rick Johnson:
We're escalating it to them and the guy said, well, it's on the driver. I said, no, it's not. You're failing to uphold your warranty because you just wanna give somebody a no and push it off on me or the driver, and that's not gonna stand. So he said, I still don't think I'll do it. I said, tell you what, I'm represented by Louder Johnson here in Springfield. They have 200 attorneys. You're gonna meet one of them next week. So either we can work this out or it'll get real ugly because it's not right.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. All I'm asking you is right thing. It's just not my truck. Yeah.
Kirk Erickson:
Now now And you
Rick Johnson:
got 9 out of 10 had the same problem. The drivers caught 2 of them and fixed them themselves, but they thought it was a minor thing. But the fact that it's loose, it's a bad setup and that they Mhmm. They come with all that little, like, what what do you call that tape you put around?
Jared Flinn:
Oh, that, what tape? Teflon tape. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. White Teflon. Yeah.
Rick Johnson:
They had a little bit of orange Teflon on those threads in that factory one. But it was very small and it was allowing them to vibrate loose.
Jared Flinn:
Mhmm.
Rick Johnson:
And the front axle is where your different is where your, power divider is. So there's a little more vibration there. And typically, those will run maybe 5 to 10 degrees hotter than your rear axle. So the combination of those things was causing those to back off. And you're telling me that a driver should be able to crawl under there and check that and know to look for that? And what maintenance manual is that? What alert did you ever put out of that effect?
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. So and we can talk about this forever.
Kirk Erickson:
I wanna
Jared Flinn:
get I wanna plow this, but, like, so this is as we speak right now, this is still ongoing
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. Right now. And I told him to check all history.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. But for that driver specifically
Rick Johnson:
He's not gonna worry about that bill. He didn't do anything wrong.
Kirk Erickson:
Yep. And that's kinda awesome. I I think that's fair enough.
Rick Johnson:
Doing the right thing. Well, it is. It's not a question of the money. It's just doing the right thing. If you do the right thing, the money will fall. Yeah. It's just that simple.
Jared Flinn:
Whereas if that driver was out, got his own got a loan
Kirk Erickson:
He'd have been in the
Jared Flinn:
with the bank and got that truck. Yeah. He has no power whatsoever.
Rick Johnson:
What's he gonna pay for that?
Kirk Erickson:
He would have never known and and nobody would have ever gone to bat for him. He'd have just been out there at the He
Rick Johnson:
lost $16,000 $16,500,000 fix. And the worst thing is, this was Thursday of last week. That truck won't be repaired until Tuesday of next week because they had
Kirk Erickson:
horrible All the down times. Right.
Jared Flinn:
So and you said this before in your last podcast. I don't wanna speak for you. You guys do provide trucks if a truck's down?
Rick Johnson:
That's part of your program?
Jared Flinn:
So he can get another truck and run and keep going.
Rick Johnson:
He can get a loaner truck not working. He can get a loaner truck? I said, look, Cedric. His name is Cedric Gibbs. He lives down in, south of Jackson. I said, you can do 1 of 2 things. Can you find something to do for because this is gonna take them a week while we fight over this, or do you wanna come and get a loaner? And he goes, well, it's 6 one and a half a dozen other. Could you help me out with some money next week? And I said, call me today and tell me what you need. And he called me today, he was practically in tears.
Rick Johnson:
I gave him 15
Jared Flinn:
How many tears thinking
Rick Johnson:
about it? Well, I gave him $1500. And he said, well, what do I need to do? I said he said, I'm not I'm not asking I'm not begging for this. I said, Cedric, if you do the right thing, the rest of it will take care of itself. You didn't you didn't create this
Kirk Erickson:
mess. Right.
Rick Johnson:
You're just the guy that got caught in the middle, and you're saving us 100 of dollars down the road by finding this, and it's a relatively easy fix. Mhmm. Had we known about it upfront, all this have been eliminated.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. But preventative. Yeah.
Rick Johnson:
So Told him it's the best 1500 I've spent today.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. So that's man, that's great.
Rick Johnson:
You can't
Jared Flinn:
go home
Rick Johnson:
and tell your wife, gee, honey, My truck broke, and they hung up on me, and I'm out the
Kirk Erickson:
That's that's about what they would get probably 98% of the other places. They would say, sorry. It's on you.
Rick Johnson:
Do that for you. I ain't doing that wrong.
Kirk Erickson:
It's on
Jared Flinn:
you. Talk about just to finish this conversation on maintenance, or move on to a couple more topics before we run out of time. But, what do you all do to help make sure that these drivers have a good maintenance program?
Rick Johnson:
Well, we have 2 full time people that assist them. Where we're going eventually is to get the online, what do you call it, where you get the check engine light, you can read that check engine light? The codes? Yeah. We run
Jared Flinn:
only Diagnostics and all that stuff.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. So that if there is a problem with the truck, we know about it probably as quick as he does. We can already start working on it. But that's that's to hear down the road. In the meantime, what we try to do is we require they have the truck serviced every 35,000 miles, and they're required to send us a copy of that receipt. Okay. The reason they have a maintenance account is so they take the money out of it and pay for it.
Jared Flinn:
That's right. They that they so you guys pull they have a reserve or maintenance account.
Rick Johnson:
And that maintenance
Jared Flinn:
account. It's automatically. It's not just
Rick Johnson:
It's 4% compounded interest weekly. Now they don't get rich off that, but you're keeping their money in a separate account. And if the money is there, they're more likely to service the truck. If you say you're on your own maintenance wise, money gets short or they forget, they're gonna run it too far. We have a record of every truck, and we we have a program that uploads those miles regularly. And we know when the last service was done. So usually, we'll get a story of, well, I did it myself. We'll find send us some sort of receipt for the oil and the filter.
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. We do a set amount, instead of so a lot of companies do it on a cents per mile basis for maintenance. We do it normally around $200 a week, and that's in there. The count that is for tires mainly and bigger expenses, but if they need it, it's it's there for their use.
Rick Johnson:
Okay.
Jared Flinn:
Nice. I'm gonna move a little bit away from maintenance, but also talk about you know, earlier in this conversation, I mentioned we've seen some companies go out of business. Mhmm. Some some fleets that, quite frankly, I didn't even I would never thought that this would be happening. There's one then locally flatbed carrier that, that went out. Maybe that you've encountered this, but say you do have a lease purchase driver there with the trucking company that goes out of business. What happens next? I know you can't be the saving grace for everything, but, like, what happens to that driver? Because he still gotta find a place to make money. He's still on the hook for the purchase of the truck.
Jared Flinn:
Right? Sure.
Rick Johnson:
He is, but those interim payments, we've waived those until he gets square. The only thing we don't do is if he quits without something else lined up, he owes the payments. You shot yourself in the Let's say
Jared Flinn:
that that, you know, he gets noticed this this Friday or whatever that
Kirk Erickson:
shut right.
Jared Flinn:
They're shut down. He's gotta figure out something else to do. He calls you, Rick, or Kirk, says, hey. I this company, they they closed their doors. I don't have a job.
Rick Johnson:
Spend his payments until such time as he gets the new job.
Kirk Erickson:
Mhmm. We'll help him.
Jared Flinn:
And then you all I mean, he it's on his on him to do him or her, but you all will help facilitate, see if there's other options for him to get advice. Because I mean, see your advantage too that he gets back to work as Sure.
Kirk Erickson:
We'll have ABC. You can go check out. Let us know which one suits you the best that you think, and we'll look at it.
Rick Johnson:
We we we don't wanna take money out of their personal account. We wanna we want them to pay their truck payment out of what they've earned. Mhmm. And so the only exception to that is don't call and say, I went fishing with uncle Joe last week. I want you to waive a payment.
Kirk Erickson:
Make you make my payment.
Rick Johnson:
That little click you hear, that's me hanging up. Yeah. I can't fix it.
Jared Flinn:
Sounds like you've done that at 10%.
Rick Johnson:
I feel it.
Kirk Erickson:
It's gotta work as a business for both parties.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah.
Rick Johnson:
But if your if your intent is there, and you didn't do anything wrong, then you can't punish the guy. What could he have done? Could he have known that was gonna happen? Typically, when they're gonna do that, you're the last one to know.
Kirk Erickson:
Or could it be getting all gone fishing with uncle Johnny?
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. Yours. You're stuck out in the world and you can't even fight me. I'm sorry
Kirk Erickson:
about that.
Rick Johnson:
So and and we've had that happen a time or 2, but we're we've got one right now on a watch. And we're we're like the buzzards sitting on the fence.
Kirk Erickson:
They know it too. They know it.
Rick Johnson:
Your whole situation is a little suspect, and they're a flatbed
Kirk Erickson:
carrier. Uh-huh.
Rick Johnson:
I've got trucks and trailers. I mean, we have 50 flatbed trailers.
Kirk Erickson:
I've had some
Jared Flinn:
Oh, you do trailers too?
Kirk Erickson:
Trailer too.
Rick Johnson:
Uh-huh. Anything for a buck. Yeah. No.
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. We've got I've got tanker.
Rick Johnson:
I'll rent your go kart
Jared Flinn:
if you want.
Kirk Erickson:
Tanker and flatbed trailers, so does Rick.
Rick Johnson:
So we've got one on a watch right now. Yep. Because we can tell that it's it's shaky.
Kirk Erickson:
I'd say I'd say shaky at best. Right.
Rick Johnson:
And and he knows. Yeah. He's had trucks
Jared Flinn:
Hey, is that just information you're getting from the drivers?
Rick Johnson:
No. Yeah. Some of it. At the end of the day, there's it's kinda figuring out your wife cheating.
Kirk Erickson:
Well
Rick Johnson:
You may not have called her yet, but you got a pretty good idea something's going wrong.
Kirk Erickson:
He's a little closer to the fire than I've been, but he's got some pretty good intel.
Rick Johnson:
So Yeah. These guys talk.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah.
Rick Johnson:
And a certain amount of it is BS. You only hear it from 1 guy, you kinda discard it. When you hear it from 6?
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. Well, you can tell also by how their payment stream has been.
Rick Johnson:
Mhmm.
Kirk Erickson:
When they quit paying on time, and next thing it turns into Monday, and then maybe Monday turns into Tuesday. They don't have a little cash flow problem. You know what I mean?
Rick Johnson:
And you visit with a company and say, is this you have a problem with this guy? No. No. He's a good driver. Well, why didn't he make any money? Well, you know, it's been tough. Well, I'm sorry. This is not a business for the week. That's tough. You work on it.
Kirk Erickson:
That's one thing we often don't know is what they are able to take out before we see a settlement, what the company maybe is taking from the driver. That's something that's a little bit of an unknown that we have to watch real close.
Jared Flinn:
And to be clear, because I thought maybe I had this wrong, but I thought sometimes the company itself pays you all and then you all settle with the driver. Is that not the case? Or how does that work? How does the payments go?
Rick Johnson:
I don't have any like You
Jared Flinn:
don't have any? Okay. He has
Rick Johnson:
a couple.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Some like that. Okay.
Kirk Erickson:
Some like that. But, generally, we like to have the company break it out to where we get paid separately from the driver. Some of the places actually do pay the driver in full, and we have to take it out of their bank account.
Jared Flinn:
But then some companies will just pay you directly then the driver they're versus the driver paying you.
Kirk Erickson:
I have one. I like that, but that's really not a very optimal program. Okay. Yep.
Jared Flinn:
Yep. Kinda last question, and we'll kinda camp out here a little bit. We talk about kind of who this program's really a fit for. Mhmm. But talk about who it's really not for. I think that's more important in in a in a really transparent way, non biased way. Now this isn't from Rick Kirk as owners of the leasing companies, but, like, who, like, who who doesn't really fit programs like this so you know Mhmm. Like, this isn't gonna be a long term lasting thing.
Rick Johnson:
A guy that wants a show truck or they wants to spend a quarter $1,000,000 for a truck, and I
Kirk Erickson:
was And that's finance it. Right.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. That's a high risk proposition. You don't start a taxicab company with a Porsche.
Jared Flinn:
Yep. I remember you saying that in our last podcast.
Rick Johnson:
Yep. Well, it's true. You you don't. If you're looking to make money in the business, you don't want that expensive.
Jared Flinn:
What's that balance? I'm gonna cut you off here because I yeah. I I believe you. I mean, there we got
Rick Johnson:
a show trip credit for
Jared Flinn:
you in
Rick Johnson:
the quarter. Yeah. What Parts are great if you can afford it.
Jared Flinn:
But, yeah, what's the balance? Because I do know, though, a lot of these owner operators want a nice truck. They do. I mean, it's like just like the house that you live, the house I live, like, I want a beautiful house to live in. If you
Rick Johnson:
can afford it.
Jared Flinn:
If I can
Kirk Erickson:
Do it. That's right.
Rick Johnson:
If you
Kirk Erickson:
can't We're gonna know. We're gonna know.
Rick Johnson:
And it it all depends on if it's a dream for them, and some guys, it is.
Jared Flinn:
It is. It's your Totally. That's what they got. I mean, that was one of the reasons they got into it. Because, man, I grew up watching these trucks. You wanna
Rick Johnson:
hand me $20, I'll order you one of those trucks. Yeah. But I'm not gonna order 1 based on your say so. It's too risky. The turnover rate in those trucks are twice as high as the others.
Kirk Erickson:
Well, your payment's gonna be maybe 700 or $800 a week more for that fancy truck. That's a lot.
Jared Flinn:
And I guess I know the answer to this. Then why do they keep making those trucks, or why do they keep people buying if they know that the higher risk?
Rick Johnson:
Well, do you know the difference? Good question.
Jared Flinn:
And, again, I'm not I'm gonna get some flack from our listeners because they're like, you don't know. You're like, were
Rick Johnson:
you gonna drive this this time? On stable.
Kirk Erickson:
Well, the trucks we have over by and large
Jared Flinn:
It's like the great debate in trucking.
Kirk Erickson:
We've got beautiful trucks.
Rick Johnson:
7 years ago, you could buy a decked out 389 with APU and everything on it for about a 152,000. Today, those same trucks are 250 some thousand.
Jared Flinn:
Almost $100,000 more?
Rick Johnson:
There you go. Yeah. It's a simple matter of math. But your
Jared Flinn:
freight rates haven't justified that.
Rick Johnson:
No. And do you think it costs that much more to build that truck? No. Absolutely not. Yeah. There are 40 to $50 more than a 5.79. Now if you wanna pay that and you can demonstrate that you can make that much money and all, and you're willing to put some skin up, we got something to talk about. But if you want me to take all the risk, I'm not gonna do it because I'm not gonna help you fail. I don't need a show truck.
Rick Johnson:
I need something you can make money with. So figure out what you wanna do, and if you and if that's your long lost dream and you wanna pursue it, I can help you. But you have to have skin in the game. Don't put that burden on me because I won't do it.
Kirk Erickson:
There's a there's a reason why you don't see fleets, I'd say, a 100 trucks or more, any of them that have a fleet of 380 nines. You just don't see it hardly ever, do you? I mean, you can think of any place. There's a reason why they don't have those for fleet trucks. So, I mean, those are a special owner operator truck for 1 guy, one particular deal. If he can make it work right, most often not.
Rick Johnson:
And they are literally highly desirable. That guy that powder coated his purple Mhmm. Right there. Awesome, Trent.
Jared Flinn:
It is.
Rick Johnson:
Awesome. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I see it right there.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I saw
Rick Johnson:
it on the podcast. He has the gear shift even. I mean, I think he said in the podcast, he's gonna have to get with his powder coat guy, and he needs to take another part off and send to him.
Kirk Erickson:
No. Tell him what just the fenders cost on it.
Rick Johnson:
That is his pride and joy. More power to him.
Jared Flinn:
Oh, look at Brad. He's proud
Kirk Erickson:
as he can be in that direction.
Jared Flinn:
Sure. Oh, bloody.
Rick Johnson:
He is living his dream. And if he can do that and make a living with it, my hat's off to him.
Jared Flinn:
I guess the difference now that I really dissect this, it's you're talking about that entry level guy that's getting into it and the success rate for him. Now if that entry level guy grows into another truck or Mhmm. Man can start running his own fleet, and then one day wants his own personal ride to be Mhmm. Kind of that show quality
Rick Johnson:
Mhmm. Go for it.
Jared Flinn:
Once I
Kirk Erickson:
get used to
Jared Flinn:
it. Yeah.
Kirk Erickson:
Sure. I mean, I
Jared Flinn:
think I think of the same thing when I meet young employees or people that wanna get on the business, and they, like, they already wanna be they already wanna be at the penthouse. It's like, guys, you guys are down here. We there it's there's a growing process to doing that.
Rick Johnson:
You gotta earn it. Mhmm. Nobody's gonna give it to you.
Kirk Erickson:
I'm gonna think about it. How long do you think he's been doing that to get to that stage? I bet he's been doing it his whole life. Yeah. Probably Look
Rick Johnson:
at Robert Lowe. He started with 1 dump truck, what, 40 years ago. Didn't do too bad.
Jared Flinn:
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. He's done okay. Yeah. I think that's the heart of it. It's just like that great debate because I think there's so many guys. Like, even when we do those videos, like, that video there generated 20,000 views versus the truck.
Jared Flinn:
Because of the truck. Yeah. Because of the truck. And there was another one, that Dreamsicle one that was Yep. 17,000 views. I mean, just the gods of you. Like, there's just there's just so much interest. So, I mean, I don't know if it's even a false narrative about, like, hey.
Jared Flinn:
You can get into trucking, and you can be driving one of these tomorrow versus, like, hey. The real reality is is you probably need to be driving something, you know, that's more economic, more affordable until you grow into a point where you can crunch the
Rick Johnson:
numbers bigger. Your way.
Kirk Erickson:
Guarantee you, he carries a portable washer in that truck with him. And that thing is clean all the time. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's all
Rick Johnson:
the same. Unfortunately, we don't get much of a discount on a truck like that. It's a one off. Right.
Jared Flinn:
And is it just because the demand is so stinking high on this?
Rick Johnson:
It is. And that's why the price is so high. It's But
Jared Flinn:
the turnover
Rick Johnson:
is just as high. It is because the guys get in over their heads. See, that truck right there is probably 6 mile a gallon.
Kirk Erickson:
Maybe.
Rick Johnson:
If he drives it, he probably treats it like a child.
Kirk Erickson:
A flat bumper. From the look of everything. Yeah. I see.
Rick Johnson:
I mean, this is baby. But these new trucks, 9 miles a gallon loaded is nothing. Mhmm. Do the math on the difference, that's $400 a week on 23100 miles. Yeah. You wanna give up that much in fuel economy because that's the square nose? It's your money, but understand the math before you do it. And if you've got a wife, explain it to her because she's gonna be all over you when your paycheck's not
Jared Flinn:
good.
Kirk Erickson:
Unless she's riding in the truck with you.
Jared Flinn:
Besides the actual price of the truck Mhmm. And the debate on the classic versus the more economic ones, who else isn't a fit for this type of program?
Rick Johnson:
Well, entry level drivers can get started with this program. Mhmm. If they have decent credit, they can get in a late model reliable truck without coughing up 20 or 25 grand. That's the hurdle that most of them can't overcome. I mean, if they could, you better offsetting on that 20 grand. You'll need it someday for something. Don't spend it on your first venture.
Kirk Erickson:
They go to a dealership, they're gonna be at 20% down, probably interest rate of, what, 20% gonna be All
Rick Johnson:
depends on their credit rating.
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. It depends on their credit.
Rick Johnson:
Got a guy that claimed today. He's one of our owner operators. He's not my truck. He's the owner. He claims and he's got a 767 credit score. And he claims with 25% down, he can get his for 12 a half percent. With 25% down.
Kirk Erickson:
It's the best deal I've heard. 12 a half percent? And that's the best
Rick Johnson:
deal I've
Kirk Erickson:
heard yet. Mhmm.
Rick Johnson:
I mean, trust me. It it's not uncommon to hear a number that starts with a 2.
Jared Flinn:
Oh, yeah. I assume some of these big dealerships, though, are working directly with these truck lines to help establish those or create discounts.
Rick Johnson:
They say they are. Yeah.
Kirk Erickson:
They say they are. Yeah.
Rick Johnson:
If you're a first time buyer or a half time buyer and you go to truck dealer x On a one off. On a one off, and you buy that truck, does he care if you fail or not? He's got his money from the bank, he's done with you.
Kirk Erickson:
And you got 20% down.
Rick Johnson:
It's one and done. He's got your money, and it's up to the finance company to get the rest. So his interest in your financial future just isn't there.
Kirk Erickson:
Mm-mm.
Rick Johnson:
I mean, why would it be? He's a one and done. We look for repeat buyers. The same guy that starts with a 4 year old used truck, if he does well, he's gonna come back and wanna order a new one or upgrade or whatever. That's why our number of trucks actually paid off by the original guy is not that great, probably 20, 25% maybe, because they upgrade. And we tell them, start small, show us you can do it, you know, get your cash flow going, learn the ropes, and then start chasing your dream.
Jared Flinn:
You know, right now, talking about some of these big trucking company failures and, just freight still being, a lot of capacity, a little bit of freight hauling rates down. I guess, is there should drivers maybe be thinking about waiting to to do a program like this, or there is there still enough business out there? I guess the question is is, like, there's never perfect timing, but should you be should we wait till should we wait after this election? Should we wait after the year? Should we see how things are faring? Like, it just seems like and I don't wanna create panic with this podcast, but, man, there's still a lot of instability. We still don't know where interest rates are gonna go, when freight's gonna turn. I've been in this. You guys been in this longer than I have, but 20 years, I've seen these cycles. They come back out of it. You know, you get
Kirk Erickson:
Gosh. Every time they come back.
Rick Johnson:
Well, there's a word for that.
Jared Flinn:
That time when should they be looking at it with With all these trucks in the market, I mean Yeah. Is the price of these trucks
Kirk Erickson:
gonna go down? No. No.
Rick Johnson:
You're getting ready to see a big increase, probably $75100 a truck, January 1 with the next level EPA requirement.
Jared Flinn:
No. Which you talked about in the last one, that new Yeah. So you
Rick Johnson:
need to get in. If you're gonna jump in
Jared Flinn:
When when should a guy be looking at this? Like, if it's been for the past 6 months.
Rick Johnson:
Don't do it between Thanksgiving and, say, the end of January.
Jared Flinn:
Why is that? Well, think about it.
Rick Johnson:
You're in the south. Between Thanksgiving and New Year's, you got 6 holidays. All for running? Right. And freight is a mess. Oh, my god. Trying to get off your feet. Thanksgiving, Christmas,
Kirk Erickson:
New Year's.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. And their season.
Kirk Erickson:
And deer season.
Rick Johnson:
That's a real thing downside.
Kirk Erickson:
Holiday. Huge holiday.
Rick Johnson:
That's I'm serious.
Jared Flinn:
I agree. I'm one of them. There you go. Alright.
Rick Johnson:
You can come in my backyard and shoot that one that's eating my trees.
Kirk Erickson:
They will budget their time around deer season more than they will around Christmas.
Rick Johnson:
But the point is, freight is disruptive. And you don't know when Christmas and New Year's are gonna fall. Have it fall on a Wednesday and you've destroyed 2 weeks in a row.
Jared Flinn:
Yep, I love that from
Rick Johnson:
So the worst thing you can do is jump into this during that time. Stick with what you got and wait until after the start of the year. Now, the election will be over too, but at the end of the end of the day, election worries, so so, holidays are real. Yeah. I don't know which one of those fools are gonna be in the White House, and I don't wanna waste my time talking about it. Because I can't tell you that.
Kirk Erickson:
I would probably steer almost anybody off a flatbed just in generality, right now.
Rick Johnson:
Yep. Because that gets slaughtered worse.
Kirk Erickson:
I I really would. That's that's one place I'd be really wary of. There's they're all struggling.
Rick Johnson:
If you're in it now, save your money and ride the storm out. Yeah. And if you survive to the 2nd week of January, you'll be fine.
Kirk Erickson:
Yep.
Rick Johnson:
And if you're sucking up all your maintenance money now and you got a whole truck
Kirk Erickson:
Yep. You You're you're in trouble.
Rick Johnson:
Our highest turnover rate in flatbed is between Thanksgiving and the 1st of the year.
Kirk Erickson:
Just like clockwork.
Rick Johnson:
Yep. I mean, the the herd gets the end every year. My guys at Oakley, not a one that missed a payment between on any of these holidays. Not one guy.
Jared Flinn:
Oh, wow. Yep.
Rick Johnson:
Not one guy.
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. We're pretty excited about that opportunity.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Very cool. Man, that's all I got for this show. Man, I appreciate you guys coming in. Just, I'll I'll start with you. 1st, Kirk, any final words as we close out of here? And again, if you're listening to the podcast, we're gonna put all their information in the show notes. So you'll just have to click down below, and you'll be able to get in direct contact with either Rick or Kirk, in in their program specifically. But, Kirk, I'll throw it over to you.
Kirk Erickson:
The only thing I'd say really in in parting would be, right now would be a good time in general for a driver, I think, to get involved, especially on a new truck. They're less expensive now than they're ever gonna be. And like Rick said, they're gonna be at least $75100 next year. The year after that, I hear even more. I just, I I think it would be a good time to try to get into it now before they do get very expensive.
Rick Johnson:
Okay. Very cool. Rick? I'd say tell them do your homework. Don't believe any one source. Do multiple sources. If you're thinking about going to x, find some actual drivers you can talk to, not 1. Same way in our business, don't judge us by what one says. Call 4 or 5 of those other guys and find out what they have to offer.
Rick Johnson:
Mhmm. Do your homework. Don't go into it blindsided.
Jared Flinn:
Nice. Awesome. Well, Rick Johnson, Kirk Erickson, man. Appreciate you guys coming back in. I'm sure we'll probably spin out another, show down the road as you guys kinda keep this evolving. Excited. I know you've already had some interest from our last show. Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
And that's been cool to hear that, some people are. And, man, it's crazy. We're just, we're a little bit in uncharted waters right now, but you guys have been here. I've been here before. We know that, hey, the demand's gonna pick back up.
Kirk Erickson:
Every time.
Jared Flinn:
There's gonna be need there's gonna be people that need to get this freight moved. And, man, if you're out there and looking to take that move and become a driver, man, I think this is just a really good program to step in or at least have a conversation with these guys. Sure. And that way, you're kind of a little bit, hedging, you know, your bets versus just going in and and taking every risk. So Rick and Kirk, man, thank you guys for coming in again. God bless you all.
Rick Johnson:
Thank you.
Jared Flinn:
God, I think they said this on the last show, but they spec out a lot of trucks for Bruce Oakley Trucking Yep. Which most people know, they're one of the larger dry bulk carriers. I think, if I remember right, 800 plus trucks today that they have in their fleet, and they probably have doubled that in the last 4 years, which is crazy. But they they actually spec out trucks and have lease purchase guys that go on and haul Bruce Oakley's freight.
Tyler:
Yeah. And it's cool that, Kirk, and Rick both know the, basically the requirements that these guys, have. I think he was saying, you know, a lot of these, companies that whenever you lease lease onto them, they require that your truck be, you know, so many years old, and they have all these requirements. So, it's cool that they help these guys spec out to be able to lease on to different companies. Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
It's really a plug and play. It's not just providing the lease purchase, but finding that the matching you up with the company that can use that equipment most efficiently and put you on the right track for hauling freight. So, cool. And then, yeah, I just thought it was interesting. Like, man, just, we you all know this as listeners, but the price of trucks have I mean, almost went up a $100,000. That's crazy. It was interesting. John Pocock even said when we were out there that just a lot of that had to do with even right, wrong, or indifferent, some of these tariffs that were put on on steel just raised the cost of a lot of things that steel goes into trucking, manufacturing, and all that.
Jared Flinn:
So there's just been, yeah, costs have went up on all this, but I guarantee we're gonna probably gonna see these setback a little bit.
Tyler:
Yeah. Andy was saying that, you know, freight rates haven't kept up with those increasing costs. So Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully, we see that those both freight rates going back up and costs going back down. Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
Cool. Awesome. Well, Kirk and Rick, thank you so much for always coming on and, just giving us your wisdom and knowledge in the industry. Couple of things before we head out of here, we finally have the bulk freight conference date.
Tyler:
Yep. We are getting everything lined out slowly but surely. The dates that are set in stone stone right now are April 16th through 18th, in April of 2025. It's going to be in Branson, Missouri. So just right down the road from Springfield where it was last year, this conference is going to be bigger, better. There's gonna be, better content that's provided. There's gonna be cooler stuff that's happening, you know, maybe some get some of those show trucks inside the building. And we're also able to do just a multitude of just cool things for the attendees that are buying tickets.
Tyler:
We're able to offer discounted hotel rates and do a whole lot of other things, so it's gonna be really cool. If you want to know more, go to bulkfreightconference.com. You can also enter your email. I think ticket sales, if everything goes accordingly, we're going to get those live in the next week or 2. But what you can do right now to make sure that you reserve your spot is just go ahead and enter your email. This is not saying that you for sure are going to push purchase a ticket. It just lets us know, hey. You wanna be, you know, the first person to get notified whenever ticket sales go, on sale.
Jared Flinn:
April 16th through 18th, I know that's a busy time for some people. I will say this. We've kinda looked at all these dates. This is the best one that really fits the majority. But I'll say this, even if you think it's gonna be tough or can't make it for all of it, man, come down for a little bit. There's direct I mean, there's flights that come into Springfield. Yep. Man, I would love for you if there's just one day that you can show up.
Jared Flinn:
I know there's been some guys that I've talked to that have said, Jared, that's just absolutely, like, that's the busiest time of my season. Man, if you can get away for 24 hours, have somebody fill your role, I guarantee it'll be worth it. You will see the rewards from it, not for our sake, but the contacts and networks. I hear from people all the time that we're there and continue to develop new relationships and contacts with those people. So make sure April 16th through 18th Yep. Branson, Missouri, 45 minutes just south of here. Tons of fun stuff to do. If you've never been to Branson, Missouri and wanna bring the family, highly recommend it.
Jared Flinn:
There's just I mean, the golfing, the lake, all the Branson shows. It's really they, they've characterized it as like an inner Disney world. Like brand like Branson now is kind of that in inland or Midwest Disney World. I mean, there's different attractions and shows and Silver Dollar City and all those you can do. So, man, mark your calendars today, April 16th through 18th 2025, Bulk Freight Conference in Branson, Missouri. We wanna see you there. It's gonna be awesome. Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
So cool. Last but not least before we head out of here, we just finally got this. You've been hearing me talk about it, but Semisame in the pumpkin hall is now available. We have copies in here. We'd be happy to send you. You can actually just go to Amazon. Drop down below, you'll see a link, and you can click on them and, get them mailed to you. Again, the goal of this book has always been to promote trucking Yep.
Jared Flinn:
And agriculture for children out there, for them to see the values of it. Obviously, all of our guests are excuse me. All of our listeners are in the trucking and freight industry, and what better way to promote them and let kids see what we're doing. This is, I think some people have said this is probably the best one yet because who doesn't like fall number 1?
Tyler:
Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
And then we have some really good humor in here that, that just makes it a fun book. So, man, get a copy of this. Reach out to us at podcast at bulkloads. We'd be happy to send you a free copy, or you can drop down to Amazon. If you have a classroom or a church or community, sports team, anything like that, reach out to us. We would love to get this in the hands of those children out there.
Tyler:
Yep.
Jared Flinn:
And, we see that as, as a thank you from us to you.
Tyler:
Yeah. And I will say you are correct. Fall is the best season, which we are entering in now. If you think the fall is not the best season, you're wrong. That's just fall is the best season. I will say you gave me one of these books. I took it home, for my boy, and he's 4 years old. I don't think he's read it yet, but we're definitely gonna read it this week.
Tyler:
He loves these semi Sam books, so I'm excited to read it to him.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Actually, when I was, one of the trips, the, the son who has kids was saying that they love these little books. They read through them. So it always just warms my heart. So, yeah, would love for you to get these in your home and, reach out. Be happy to do that. Awesome. Cool.
Jared Flinn:
Any last things before we head out?
Tyler:
I think we covered it.
Jared Flinn:
Okay. Cool. As always, when we close out of here, we wanna extend the opportunity to pray for you and your family and your business. We know the, couple examples. Just this morning, we were praying the hurricane and what that's done. Again, personally, I don't believe I mean, it just it seems like it's not getting the attention that it deserves. Right. Man, still just a lot of families, people not accounted for.
Jared Flinn:
We are praying for those down there. Also, we still know that we are in a slump. We know that there are companies struggling out there, both, business wise, but then just entering their family, and we wanna be a resource for prayer. So, if you'd be willing, send us an email to prayer at bulkloads.com. We would love to take that and share that with our team here. All that's done internally, we don't do it outside of here. We don't broadcast anywhere. We would love to pray for you and your family, and, man, we consider that an honor and privilege to do so.
Jared Flinn:
So awesome. I'll let you close this out.
Tyler:
Lord, we come to you today just to simply spend time with you, Lord, and talk to you. We ask that you just continue to bless us and watch over everything that we do. Lord, we know that all of our blessings that we receive, Lord, is nothing by our works but, you know, everything that you've been able to give us, Lord. We ask that, you just watch over all the victims of this hurricane, Lord, and all these natural disasters. Lord, we ask that you just be with them and give them hope. Show them that there is hope. And Lord, we ask that, you just keep everybody safe. Anybody that is has missing family members, Lord, you just be with them in this time.
Tyler:
Lord, we also ask that anybody going through any financial, disasters or Lord, we ask that, you be with them as well. Show that there is light at the end of the tunnel. And to persevere, Lord, we ask that you just be with all of our drivers, you know, delivering goods across the country Lord. That you just be with them. Keep them safe Lord. And anybody who's going through anything, we ask that you just give them the courage to lift that up to you, and and put you in control God. Lord, we, love you and thank you. Amen.
Jared Flinn:
Amen. As always, thank you for listening to the Bulk Loads podcast. If you haven't yet, please subscribe. And if you know just a few people that can find value in this, maybe they're getting started in trucking and just trying to figure out those next steps. Maybe they can't go out and just purchase a truck, but at least purchase program would work for them. And we'd love for you to share this episode with them so we can help those companies start a business and thrive in life. So thank you so much for listening to the Volkowitz podcast. And as always, God bless.
