Jared Flinn [00:00:18]:
You're listening to the bulk loads podcast, your number one resource for everything bulk freight trucking.
Jared Flinn [00:00:28]:
Hey, guys. Jared Flynn with the Bulk Loads podcast. Got Tyler with me. What's going on? We have a treat for our listeners today.
Tyler Allison [00:00:36]:
I would classify this as legendary. Legendary.
Jared Flinn [00:00:39]:
Yeah. I think without a doubt, this thing will go super viral. But before we get to that, as we always do, we have a truck feature. I'm gonna kick it over to you.
Tyler Allison [00:00:48]:
We have a truck feature from Fabian Terrazas with Terrazas Trucking Inc. Out of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. And he's got a Joe's gonna throw the picture up, but he's got a pretty nice white Peterbilt there pulling a pneumatic. It looks like it's all shine tight and everything.
Jared Flinn [00:01:06]:
I think that's great.
Tyler Allison [00:01:07]:
Maybe gray, maybe color blind.
Jared Flinn [00:01:09]:
Yeah. It's a super light gray. I'll blow it. We'll let our listeners decide on the color, but Comment
Tyler Allison [00:01:14]:
on YouTube. Is it white or gray? White. I'm saying gray.
Jared Flinn [00:01:17]:
I'm saying like a light, light gray.
Tyler Allison [00:01:19]:
I'm sticking with white just for the just for the cause.
Jared Flinn [00:01:21]:
And, man, we're giving the pneumatics some love today.
Tyler Allison [00:01:24]:
I know. Yeah. I don't know why, but Maybe Joe's We love we love all the bulk trailers.
Jared Flinn [00:01:29]:
Yeah. We are supportive of all bulk. We're gonna probably get some comments that we need to drop more in dumps in there or walking floors, belt trailers, you know, actually, the price, some of those we haven't even featured yet. We need to make sure and splurge the love around.
Tyler Allison [00:01:42]:
If you wanna be featured on this podcast that reached 100 and thousands of viewers, get your trucking company, featured on here. Send us a Facebook message, with a picture of your rig, or you can simply just email us
[email protected]. Email us some pictures, and we'll we'll feature you 1 week.
Jared Flinn [00:02:00]:
That is so great. Alright. Where did you get wiped out of that?
Tyler Allison [00:02:03]:
I I'm blaming it on my side.
Jared Flinn [00:02:04]:
Drop down. Everybody tell us what you think in the, comments below. So speaking of pneumatics, today's podcast, we have Tri State Commodities on. They are a hopper bottom and pneumatic company, and, if you've never heard of Tri State commodities, you're probably living under a rock.
Chad Shupe [00:02:23]:
Yep.
Jared Flinn [00:02:23]:
And I'm not trying to offend anybody, but this company, like, in my years beginning, like, they are a legendary, iconic bulk trucking company in the United States.
Tyler Allison [00:02:33]:
Yeah. And they're they're one of those companies where if you pass their truck on the road, you know who it is without having to see the name or anything like that.
Jared Flinn [00:02:40]:
Yeah. They have developed a crazy good brand, the, the color of their trucks. Yep. And you go to toy shows, you see their trucks in die cast models. There was a toy show up in Saint Louis where someone made, like, a full representation of their terminal
Tyler Allison [00:02:55]:
Jeez.
Jared Flinn [00:02:56]:
Which was just amazing. And, we yeah. We did. If you haven't seen, Joe, did and some of our guys, they went out there a couple months ago and did a video. Yep. It's on our YouTube page, but highlighted them. And and what is this? Like, 25,000 or 30,000 views already. It's crazy and but just a really good showcase of them.
Jared Flinn [00:03:14]:
You all know we like to highlight companies. They've been with us forever, but we'd like to see companies and that they can share their story, more importantly, where we can get good information of where or why they've gotten to where they are. Yep. We'd love to show that. We know that there are people at all stages in their business cycle, some that are at 1 couple 1 to 2 trucks trying to get to that 10 truck range, 10 to 15 trucks trying to get to that 20 range. So this one is a treat for you. I guess, more importantly, what I loved about this was Jack Shoop, the owner, is on their 97 years old
Tyler Allison [00:03:47]:
Yeah. And he's still sharp, man.
Jared Flinn [00:03:48]:
Yeah. No pun intended. Yeah. Shoop sharp. But, yeah. But then Chad came on as well, grandson. He is the 3rd generation on there running the show. So, we'll dissect this after the, podcast.
Jared Flinn [00:04:02]:
Yep. But, man, you guys are in for a treat on that one on this one. So cool. With that said, here is my conversation with Jack and Chad Shupe of Tri State Commodities. Chad and Jack, thanks for joining.
Chad Shupe [00:04:16]:
Thank you so much for having us today.
Jared Flinn [00:04:19]:
Well, I feel like this is such an honor, honestly, to have you, Jack, on the show. And and, Chad, You guys are an iconic trucking company. And, when I joined when I got in the business 20 years ago working for, grain company, like, your name was one of the ones that just kinda was always imprinted in my mind as just a as a a large bulk trucking company. Obviously, we'll talk about the colors and just like your your brand is, like, one of the best, in the business. But, just to kinda set the tone, Jack, man, if you just wanna go back to the very beginning and talk about how all this started.
Jack Schupe [00:04:59]:
Well, Tri State just prior to Tri State, I was doing piggyback in here for the packing house. Putting piggybacks on and off for the rail. And that ended just about the right time. They went shipping by piggyback and went to where they cut the beef all up and no no more hanging beef for for the trucks, which, they had a lot of problems with anyway. But, that's at that time, it was right around, 1971, and I gave up the piggybacking and just just started getting, in the well, I knew what we I had a friend in Salt Lake. His name is Myron. What's he like? Anyhow, he and I were good friends, and he I I talked to him out there at the corporation, and he said, well, why don't you try to get in the, start hauling for us? And, they had a lot of customers in this area. And so we we did.
Jack Schupe [00:06:25]:
We got started that way and took a couple trucks, and we just grew from that. I mean, over the years, kept adding trucks and adding we got into the big diamond. All the salt customers around. Mainly, it was salt, but it was other agriculture products too.
Jared Flinn [00:06:49]:
Yeah. Would and before Tri State, was it it was Shoop Brothers. Right? Was that you and another?
Jack Schupe [00:06:55]:
I I was with Don Shoop for 20 years with Shoop Brothers.
Jared Flinn [00:07:00]:
Okay. And Don is who is that? Is that your
Chad Shupe [00:07:04]:
Don is his older brother.
Jared Flinn [00:07:06]:
Okay. So it was brothers. Okay. Got
Jack Schupe [00:07:08]:
it. And at that time, you know, I was I was still the head secretary for Shoe Brothers. They had about over 20 trucks at that time, and we had they had a new place in right in West Greeley by the big bypass
Jared Flinn [00:07:35]:
Yep.
Jack Schupe [00:07:36]:
When when I sold out to John. And then I went to this piggyback then, and then it worked in the the, salt business and but, anyway, we we got along pretty good with, kept adding trucks and what have you and customers. And we did a lot for the packing house here on pulling products from Denver, but it just kept growing and growing from there. And, it ended up with back then, you could get good drivers and they all wanted to drive. We kept adding trucks until we moved into the total number that we had there in a matter of started about 70 and and been going ever since.
Jared Flinn [00:08:31]:
Yeah. Talk Jack, if you don't mind, talk about, you know, we this podcast, you know, we're reaching now, I mean, 1,000 upon 1,000 of trucking companies specifically in the bolt on business. And a lot of our guys are at all stages in their business career. Some are just starting off. Maybe some are 1 or 2 getting you know, trying to get to that 4 or 5 or 20 plus or, you know, trying to get to that 50 plus. If you don't mind, talk about, you know, you just start growing from there. Obviously, you gotta have the business to support the growth. And I guess sometimes when you look at businesses that grow, sometimes it's maybe what your competition isn't doing good at, you're doing better at.
Jared Flinn [00:09:09]:
But by talk about that growth stage, how did you you know, how were you able to meet those demands and keep getting that business to keep growing?
Jack Schupe [00:09:18]:
Well, I had I had good help to start with, and, I can't say we were the experts at it at the time, but we grew and grew with that great Salt Lake Chemical Company in Salt Lake. That's where we did all of our business, packaged in bulk salt. And we first, we had hopper bottoms, and then, around here, we got going with all the packing houses. They they were full of salt all the time and mostly bulk in. They put it with every time they put in a new place for under underground rail, well, we'd go to them and says, oh, you don't wanna do that. And and they went. We got places where they've already built for for getting rail shipments, but they never get it in. We we we talked them all into it.
Jack Schupe [00:10:23]:
But
Jared Flinn [00:10:25]:
You you mentioned there just having good help, but were you talking about maybe the drivers, having good drivers that were representing your companies that Yeah. Helped sell your your service even more?
Jack Schupe [00:10:34]:
That's true. Yeah. Back then, drivers well, they were even younger, some of them, you know, not even just barely old enough to drive interstate. My son drove, his one of them interstate when he was wasn't old enough, then they got on to in Salt Lake about the driver's license, but he kept driving. But, of course, most of them were they weren't necessarily experienced drivers, but they were weren't afraid of work, you know, and that that's what we had to know how to do.
Jared Flinn [00:11:19]:
Yeah. I guess when you, when you were starting this and really kinda growing, did you have a a number of trucks in mind? I mean, did you say, yeah, one day one day I wanna be at 30 trucks or I wanna be at 40, or did it just I'm just curious because sometimes you you you wake up or blink your eyes and all of a sudden, like, oh my gosh. You know? Now we have an operation with x amount of employees and x amount of trucks serving x amount of companies.
Jack Schupe [00:11:44]:
Back then, it wasn't hard to get good drivers. I mean, seem like there's far more of them than especially now, you know, a lot of our, other truckers around here complain about aren't able to keep their trucks going because of the driver. Do you have to have a drop drivers that are eligible to to drive interstate. Of course, it's opened up now on trucking, you know, about that time when it was deregulated in nationwide that you didn't have to. There were so many everything under licensed truckers, But, then they released it to you get a hold about anything you wanted to hold. Didn't have to have any, any rights at all. Yeah.
Jared Flinn [00:12:42]:
Jerry, I wanna bounce over to you just a little bit, but, man, talk about growing up. Man, you have a I mean, just a ton of wisdom from Jack over the years, but, like, kinda growing up in the business, being 3rd generation, what were some of those characteristics that you noticed from even Jack and even your father like, in the trucking business that that has led to the success of TriState?
Chad Shupe [00:13:05]:
Yeah. I can I can definitely speak to it with my dad? It's just the the dedication he had. It was I mean, he I can remember lots of times we'd be on vacation. He'd be on the phone with the driver talking him through. Okay. If you do this, I think he can get it started because he's our head mechanic and probably one of the best diesel mechanics, in my opinion, in the country. And I just remember him, you know, evenings, weekends, vacations. He's on the phone trying to get so and so started in.
Chad Shupe [00:13:30]:
He's stuck in Texas, and we gotta get him. And even now, he's still he'll go on road calls. I actually went on vacation about a month ago over to California, and we had a truck break down over in Eastern Utah. He drove all the way out there that same day as I was going out there. Then on the way back, we crossed paths, and he's got an orange pickup, so I joke with him. I'm like, all I saw was an orange blur. I didn't know if it was a truck or you or what. I just saw an orange flying past.
Chad Shupe [00:13:58]:
But just the dedication that they've both shown over, you know, the last I've been alive for 30 some odd years and I've seen the work that my dad has put in and and my grandpa has put in and and that it really matters to them. It's not just kind of a paycheck. It's something that they're very passionate about. My dad is he still does all of our engine rebuilds, and you'll he's almost always out there tinkering with something.
Jared Flinn [00:14:22]:
That's awesome. Yeah. You know, Jack, before we start recording, we're talking about our conference that we had last month, here in Springfield. But, we had a a gentleman, Redding Trucking, and he's, he's 2nd generation, and now he's passing on to his son's 3rd generation. But he got up and spoke at our conference, but he was even talking about how he stole he's planning not just his sons, but talking about the grandchildren that are gonna be coming up in the business. But if you don't mind sharing, like, how do you and this is a tough question, but, like, how do you instill those characteristics where, you know, the next generation wants to take over the business and serve the clients and then the generation after that. Because, Chad, I loved when you when we came out and did a video, which, I recommend all of our listeners to go watch that video that's on YouTube, but you talked about you're the 3rd generation, and sometimes when you get to that you know, get to those generations, you know, they they they nickname the the squanders. They usually fail at the business.
Jared Flinn [00:15:16]:
They sell the business. They get out of it. But, man, you guys are going strong. But, Jack, how do you how do you instill that in those? Because I'm even asking selfishly. I have children now that I'm thinking of, you know, hey. Is is this gonna be a family business, a generational business? You know, how do I set that up the right way? Hey, guys. I hope you're enjoying this podcast with Jack and Chad Shoop of Tri State Commodities. I feel there's so much wisdom that we can learn from this podcast and some of the other ones that we've produced.
Jared Flinn [00:15:46]:
That's why we love bringing guests like this on to share with you so you can help and grow your business. I started in the grain trucking business almost 20 years ago. We started bulk loads 14 years ago, and we have taken these principles that we have learned from other successful trucking and freight brokers and shippers and applied them to our series, our umbrella of companies, and we wanna share those with you. Hopefully, you're a bulk loads member, but if not, we would love for you to check that out, bulkloads.com. We also have payment solutions geared to help small businesses under smart freight funding. We have a TMS program that we would love for you to check out. We also deal with truck insurance. So we have developed a series of these solutions and services to help you as a small business owner.
Jared Flinn [00:16:33]:
Again, we have a saying around here. We wanna take people from poverty to prosperity and really help them grow their business. It's our heart and passion, and we wanna serve you too. So check out those other companies. If you haven't checked them out, the links will be in the show notes below. Thank you as always, and god bless.
Jack Schupe [00:16:52]:
Well, the main thing right now, it's hard to to make dollars. It's just with the fuel price and everything. I mean, everybody realize that that's eating you alive, but I can't remember. See, I'm 97 years old, and so I've forgotten a lot. I told the lady a while ago is 81 and, she was talking. And then later she said, boy, I just have trouble. I said, ma'am, it'll get worse. And, anyway, to answer your question, the main thing, what made it grow more than I, but my 2 boys.
Jack Schupe [00:17:47]:
I mean, we had we had 2 boys, and now we got 24 great grandchildren.
Jared Flinn [00:17:54]:
Oh, what a blessing.
Jack Schupe [00:17:55]:
What a blessing. I'd say we're we had one born just the other day, but, I don't know that I can fill you in it. A lot of the growth had to do with the my friendship with this Dwayne Millard, when he was he was president of Great Salt Lake Chemical Company. He was the one who was coming to me. What we get get hold it. These customers, you know, we filled some that he had no transportation, but we also encouraged it and, did a lot of building up ourself. But, like I say, I was, I traveled me and my wife traveled a lot of miles in 4 different motor home. And so my kids had a lot to do with operating it, but they had good friendship and good backing with a lot of our people.
Chad Shupe [00:18:56]:
Just just from my perspective, I think there was a real buy in from my dad and my uncle because they were always around it growing up. So it was something that they loved and that they had something invested in it. So I think you have to you you have to make it work their while. Right? They have to have some kind of a reason to keep coming back, and I think that's something that he did really good at. He he, like, from the time I've been born, he he was gone a lot of the time. So he like he said, he was traveling in his motor home, and he trusted that they were gonna make the right decisions and kinda let them take over the reigns. So he like I said, he let them have their own personal investment and then kinda have a little skin in the game where he kinda said, you know what? I'm I'm ready to kinda take a back seat. I'm gonna let you guys run this show.
Chad Shupe [00:19:43]:
And he let them make decisions themselves and kind of enable them to take over things.
Jack Schupe [00:19:48]:
Well, that's exactly what they're doing now. I don't have any any any input at all, and they have it all. I don't know whether they're just taking them to death, but this
Jared Flinn [00:20:02]:
Well, yeah, and I'll ask this in another way, Jack. I mean, obviously, the your boys are running it, and you got the grandchildren involved too. But, I mean, probably at one time, you coulda easily sold the business. I mean, you probably could have exited the market, probably turned a good rate of return and just did your own thing. But like, you're sitting here today at 97 years old, still. I mean, I know you're not active in the business, but you're still have a pulse on it. You're still a man of influence influencing your children, your grandchildren, great grandchildren. Why I mean, I just wanna hear, honestly, why I mean, that's incredible.
Jared Flinn [00:20:39]:
Like, what drives you to do that?
Jack Schupe [00:20:44]:
Well, this, I never really intended getting as big as we were. But, Yeah. I I can't answer that.
Chad Shupe [00:20:55]:
I think the Lord drove
Jack Schupe [00:20:56]:
me, but
Chad Shupe [00:20:57]:
The Lord bless the business. Right? You've said that before. It's, it just kinda was meant to be.
Jack Schupe [00:21:02]:
Yes. And it's taken off. I was trying to think some something else. But
Jared Flinn [00:21:11]:
Well, you mentioned the Lord. I'll kinda I'll just kinda add to this, Jack, and I'll kinda hold that thought. But, like, you know, they talk about, like, you know, in the Bible, the the they never talk about retirement. There's no word of retirement in the Bible. And, it's something that I've kinda prayed on, meditated on. And, yeah, hopefully, they want to add the means that we're if I don't have to work, I don't have to. But, like, you know, the lord commands us to work until we the day we see him.
Jack Schupe [00:21:37]:
That's true. Yes. And and I believe, my my family works. They're all involved in churches, and and they're all Christians. Tickled me to death. That's what I was driving for, and you couldn't ask for any more than what I have. And everybody tells me. Yeah.
Jack Schupe [00:21:59]:
And, but we none of them ever got in trouble. Never did call me.
Chad Shupe [00:22:07]:
That you know of.
Jared Flinn [00:22:10]:
Well, now we're gonna spill the beans on the podcast. Yeah. So, hey, I I wanna move on because, man, there's a lot I wanna cover, but I wanna respect y'all's time. Talk about the orange. Like, that is an iconic orange. Where did the where did the iconic orange color come from?
Jack Schupe [00:22:28]:
Well, when I was at shoe brothers, my brother and I, really picked the blue and white, what they were. But later on, I I saw orange on, well, a lot of things where you see orange on the highway trucks, but I've always liked orange. And, my brother well, his wife was involved with Shoot Brothers, and she was secretary there too. And and I had an airplane, which I was flying around then, and 2 brothers was going good. And so I decided to sell out to my brother. I mean, we had a peaceful agreement and, that's when I moved over and started piggyback in Tri State. But, the orange, I I just think there's nothing. Everything around here is orange.
Jack Schupe [00:23:35]:
We even made it our big, wearer shop and everything. Orange white white doors. And I've had a lot of people tell me, boy, really, that is a beautiful shop now.
Jared Flinn [00:23:52]:
Well, there's there's people in, like, that had no idea and know nothing about the grain industry or bulk business, but they know tristate commodities because of that color. My, I have a brother that he was in St. Louis at this toy expo, and this guy had a full replica of the tristate, terminal with the transloader and everything. He took these pictures and sent it. But, like, I mean, there's thousands and thousands of people that have seen this and have no idea that it's like, man, this is a great you know, this is a commodity bulk commodity company, you know, hauling bulk commodities. So I think, like, I guess whether you knew it or not, like like, the branding that you brought by just the color and the uniformity of this, I mean, has propelled the business, I think. I mean, crazy odds.
Jack Schupe [00:24:39]:
People we do we do have a a truck that would happen to be black when it was new, and so we put the orange fenders and
Chad Shupe [00:24:50]:
Got you. Some orange in there.
Jack Schupe [00:24:51]:
Yeah. Everything and that looks good too with that much orange in there. It really does.
Chad Shupe [00:24:56]:
Yeah. It's kind of taken on like, like you said. There's people who maybe don't know much about the grain industry. And you say, oh, it's the orange trucks you see. Oh, yeah. I've seen those truck. Yeah. I know that one.
Chad Shupe [00:25:07]:
But those guys who built that model display, Aaron Hofmeister, they're mostly his trucks. And then, Ken Reimer, he built most of it. The 2 of them did. And, I mean, they've got, like, between the 2 of them, like, a 120 trucks, and they came out here and took pictures. And it's kinda taken on, like, a little following of people who just kinda love our trucks even if they're not directly involved with us. So it's neat to see the the orange just catches your attention.
Jared Flinn [00:25:34]:
Yeah. And the, and I forget the brand that that makes these die cast bottles, but, like, you know, you can buy these online, and how many thousands of these have been sold that are sitting on the shelves in thousands of businesses or homes or kids playing with them on the on the, you know, living room floor. I think that's just it's an awesome awesome legacy to have.
Chad Shupe [00:25:55]:
Yeah. The the little toy trucks, they get they get pricey. We had the the show truck. They did a model of a while back, and my kids kinda play with it from time to time. And I got on eBay a while back and was looking, and they sell it for, like, $400. I'm like, oh, we're playing with that. We need to keep that. We might need to sell that one of these days.
Chad Shupe [00:26:12]:
So it's it's pretty neat to see. But, yeah, like you said, he just he liked the orange, and it's kinda stuck around all these years.
Jared Flinn [00:26:21]:
Jack, go
Jack Schupe [00:26:22]:
ahead. Oh, go ahead. Jim Ernst, who's a manager of the Olag Kenworth. Maybe you know him. But we've been good friends for years. And he called me about a month ago, and and we've been in a while. I hadn't heard from him. He's he's retired now, but he says, Zach, if you can do it, can you get me one of those TriState? What do you call them? Models.
Jack Schupe [00:26:55]:
Model.
Jared Flinn [00:26:55]:
Models. Yeah.
Jack Schupe [00:26:57]:
And I said, I sure can. Yeah. He's seen a lot of them around. Of course, he still, gets around. He delivers cars now for he's retired, but he delivers for the dealers around there in old ones. And, so he he said he sees our trucks still quite a bit. So he's back in that country. Yeah.
Jack Schupe [00:27:27]:
We've been I
Jared Flinn [00:27:29]:
I have a couple more questions I wanna ask. And, you know, for for that trucking company out there or that guy or gal that's looking at getting started in trucking more in 2024. I mean, you started this business, what, almost 50 years ago or maybe over 50 years ago. But, so, I mean, you've you've weathered the storms. You've seen the ups and the downs of the cycle. But what's just some good practical business advice you could give or encouragement maybe for those that are looking at getting into trucking today?
Jack Schupe [00:28:04]:
Well, first of all, don't start in a big debt. I mean, you gotta borrow money, but it should have some capital or something to back them up with to be able to get the type of, trucks that they they can haul them and and, for financing, you know, that that would make the world a difference. And, have a family that works with you. That's in favor of it too. There's not a lot of these women that care too much about space in truck drivers that have to be gone, quite a while, but it just worked out better if you had all all that type.
Chad Shupe [00:28:53]:
Have everybody on board. Right?
Jack Schupe [00:28:55]:
Yeah. Yeah. I Yeah.
Jared Flinn [00:28:58]:
That's so good. I think too I mean, in any business, but, man, you have to have the the support of a family, especially your spouse. If you have a spouse that said, hey. I I support you a 100% because, yeah, that's your that's your person that's cheerleading, taking care of the business when it's home, you know, when you're on the road and and things can't get done. But, yeah, I think that what about for those businesses too that, say, you know, say somebody's been trucking for 5, maybe 10 years. They got a couple trucks, but, man, they wanna have they they wanna be like Tri State one day. They wanna get to have, you know, 50 plus trucks or 60 plus trucks. What would be some some wisdom that you would cast or give to those people?
Jack Schupe [00:29:43]:
Well, now it's sure different than when I got it. I I think you realize that on about anything today. It's it's kinda hard to get started. But, yeah, the main thing is experience. If they get some guys in there that really wanna do the find drivers that are interested in it. And we found a lot of the the better drivers we found come off of the farm. You know? And they can do it, operate, and, you know, if you have a breakdown, they'd know what to do most of the time or what have you.
Jared Flinn [00:30:28]:
Yeah. And I've said before, we're we're losing more and more of those as people leave the farm. Like, there's less and less of those drivers. I I've said that all the time that, the drivers we had 40, 50 years ago just they're they're becoming less or nonexistent because those guys, you know, there there's not as many people coming from the farm anymore.
Jack Schupe [00:30:47]:
Yeah. And it's, like, new trucks now are out of this world. When when I started, the truck was, 24,000, I ordered with Monfort when they ordered a bunch. We got them from the same deal, but anyhow, 24,000 Now they're over 200,000. I know you're getting a lot more truck. There's no question. Why don't
Jared Flinn [00:31:20]:
you go the price.
Jack Schupe [00:31:21]:
But, you just, it's hardly the the I think, right now, the ones really can survive is to man post the coast. You know, you're not, you don't stop and sleep for so many hours or anything. They cost you, would you get there quicker? And I think a lot of the over fact, I know a lot of the over goes from ghost to ghost run 2 men. And, as as what it would take with I any anybody that had could especially local hauling, you know, not in your own state. But there's there's a lot of that, and I think it takes, the game run older trucks and, take care of them when they break down or what have you. But as far as, the coast to coast, I haven't had any experience with that, but I know guys that have and have told me that that I didn't know that they are kinda shifting to 2 2, 2 men, even a man and wife, in a truck and go coast to coast. And, it's when you have to stop, you know, like your log does now, and you gotta sleep and run that truck. Well, not necessarily run the truck, but it costs you to sit there no matter what.
Jack Schupe [00:33:07]:
But you're wearing your truck out, and and, it just cuts it down when you're talking about putting on a lot of miles. But but I think, you know, there's still somebody that has a good operation to maybe run 3 to 500 miles. And you could know they have customers and what have you. It's just hard to seem like right now to to get into it like I did by far. You know? But, times times change, and maybe there'll be a lot of things will change the work people. Somebody could get start up a business and go forward.
Jared Flinn [00:34:00]:
I I
Chad Shupe [00:34:00]:
think to this point earlier of don't take on a bunch of debt just because you want 30, 40, 50 trucks. You know? We've we've built tri stakes slowly over the years. And I think if we were to say, oh, we're we're gonna grow to a 100 trucks, we'd be taking on, you know, 1,000,000 and 1,000,000 of dollars of debt, and that's not. So it I think a lot like what he said. If if there's good paying business there, then you expand slowly. And if you can keep getting the good lanes and like he talked about earlier, we've established customers with, you know, delivering salts to to hide plants and feed stores that we've dealt with for 30, 40 years at this point. So we've built relationships slowly. It's not just something that, you know, we snapped our fingers and we're gonna take salt to everybody in the Northern Colorado region.
Chad Shupe [00:34:45]:
It took a lot of work on his part and a lot of other people that have preceded me, and it it's not a quick it doesn't happen like that.
Jack Schupe [00:34:54]:
And him too. He puts in a lot of hours. Yeah.
Chad Shupe [00:34:59]:
It's work. It's work. It's not just gonna happen. So if somebody wants to go to 50 trucks, it it's not just gonna happen overnight, but you can do it.
Jared Flinn [00:35:08]:
Yeah. No. That's good. Jack, final question I have for you, and this is something Chad had said when we did the the video. I don't think you were present at that time. And, man, Chad spoke so well on there. But one of the things he said at the very end of the video, he said, one thing that you've always quoted, he says you said, take care of the people that take care of you. Can you talk just a little bit more about that? I mean, I I firmly believe that.
Jared Flinn [00:35:35]:
But, like, what like, that was some wisdom that you've always that Chad remembered that you've said and you've casted out. Like, just give us a little more
Jack Schupe [00:35:43]:
Well, it is it's just, being interested in the driver's family Yeah. And and helping them, you know, when they have children and, it's tough for the wife to stay at home when you're going long distance. And it's just mainly looking for things that can help them. Even the wife, when the driver is gone, they need some help with the children and stuff. That's that's what I've always been, in the back of my mind is you you can't help somebody too much, and I think that that would be the best thing that could happen. You take care of it in the 1st place. Now you have to kinda, you you have to kinda taut them along because, good drivers are hard to find. And it's it's your we turn well, we're we're not getting any too many, interest for employment.
Jack Schupe [00:36:59]:
Yeah. But when you do, we've turned we've turned some away. It come either can't pass driving test or anything. But,
Chad Shupe [00:37:09]:
Gotta get the right ones. Right? Yeah.
Jack Schupe [00:37:11]:
To get the right one. And his, shed her her grand or or gray, one or the other take him in LA, one of her grandson. He's he goes on, takes him for a drive. Or they've all, naked any of my grandsons are up of age. He gets up on the truck and go anywhere. They've had that much experience.
Jared Flinn [00:37:40]:
Yeah. What what a reminder of what you said, it's almost and this is another principle I try to live by. You have to give before you can take. Like, you have to give to your employees. You have to give to your customers. You have to give to others out there before you take. And I think this world tries to tell us to take, take, take, take, take without, you know, without saying, hey. You need to give.
Jared Flinn [00:38:02]:
Give more of your time. Give more of your resources to to your family, to your employees. Let them know that, hey. They are seen. They are heard. We care about you.
Chad Shupe [00:38:13]:
Right. Yeah. And I I think, he's being a little modest. He's, I think everybody who's ever worked for him has loved working for him. Even if they didn't last year for more than a few years, I've had lots of drivers. He still calls lots of former drivers and checks in on them. He just did yesterday. He called a couple of former drivers and how's things going? How are you? How's how's the home life? And, I I just so I used to work in an out the office with Al.
Chad Shupe [00:38:42]:
He preceded me, and he just he told me this once. He said, I'm not a Christian. I'm not a church going man, but if there was ever anyone who was gonna convince me to become one, it would be your grandpa. Oh, wow. He practices what he preaches. Because I I think at one point in Al's life, he had he he helped him somehow financially with a car payment or and just that's the way he treated people is he took care of them. If they said that I I need to borrow a couple $100, he was gonna do it and he really cares about people. And that's something that I've always noticed and especially since I've been working here for, you know, the last 12 years full time.
Chad Shupe [00:39:18]:
As you notice how much everyone around here respects him, and he he remembers almost everybody's name even at 97. He still got them down, most of them. I had to help him a little bit every now and then.
Jack Schupe [00:39:29]:
Yeah. Some of the
Chad Shupe [00:39:30]:
newer ones, I'm like, hey. His his name's Bob.
Jack Schupe [00:39:32]:
It's that's Bob. But Dwayne Millard, you know, in Salt Lake, he's he's been in the Mormon church there, and they've been good friends wherever he and his wife. And, we've gone on a trip to, well, we've gone overseas and around. He and his wife, my wife. So, people like that, you just you just love to have. And I still get calls from them and call them. They'll say, just call me anytime. He's a popular guy.
Jack Schupe [00:40:16]:
Yeah.
Chad Shupe [00:40:16]:
He's always on his phone.
Jared Flinn [00:40:19]:
Well yeah. No. That is so awesome. And, Yeah. Jack, I think the legacy that you've you have and have left is just amazing. And, I think and I'll just be candid and say, man, god has blessed you so much. And, man, you're an inspiration to me, especially, but I know to our bulk community. I I consider it a privilege and honor to have you on the podcast like this and and share a little bit of your story out there for others out there, because, man, we you know, I say this all the time.
Jared Flinn [00:40:49]:
We're always looking I'm always looking for the the people ahead of me and and what they've done and the things they've done right to to serve others and treat other people, fairly. And I think that's at the end of the day. You just wanna you you wanna make sure that you're I guess, for me, making an impact in the lives of others, especially your family members, but the wider community that we live in. And, man, you have done that so much. So, man, god bless you. This is kind of the end of the podcast, so, yeah, I just wanted to thank you for for, again, coming on. Chad, may man, thanks for making this happen. Thanks for having our guys out there and do that.
Jared Flinn [00:41:23]:
And like I said in the very beginning, man
Jack Schupe [00:41:25]:
We shot done a better job, but he did get it. There's just so much
Jared Flinn [00:41:31]:
If you when I'm 97 years old, if I make it to 97, if I'm standing in front of a screen doing this, like, that is a dream come true. I think, yeah, you're ex you know, you still have so much wisdom and knowledge to give to others. You're still very sharp in my opinion, so don't feel bad at all. I think this was a phenomenal podcast. I know without a doubt that this is gonna be one that's gonna be received very well with our audience. So, yeah, I'll just end there. So, Chad and Jack, man, god bless you all. Thank you so much for coming on the boatloads podcast.
Jared Flinn [00:42:00]:
We sure appreciate it.
Jack Schupe [00:42:01]:
Thanks for having us, Jared. Thank you so much.
Jared Flinn [00:42:05]:
Tyler, I think we could spend an hour Yeah. Dissecting all of this, and I want him to go back and relisten to some of the things Jack specifically said that, obviously, he's got years of wisdom. And, again, companies, it's not just luck. I mean, there you can say there's a little luck involved, you know, on your journey, but, man, the business that he has created has been by trial and error and doing good business. Yeah. And just the,
Tyler Allison [00:42:34]:
I mean, the sheer number of people and clients that this company has been able to serve over the past 50 years, it's just remarkable. It I Jack is just one of those guys, like, you just wanna meet up with and just have a cup of coffee, like, just an hour of your time just because of the wisdom he has and the knowledge that he can share.
Jared Flinn [00:42:50]:
The one thing that I'll point out more than anything, and the only reason I point this out is because it's one thing I strive to do, talking about how the relationships that he's developed with customers. They talked about one of their big customers out there, I think, in Utah or Idaho that Jack got to be really good friends with, Salt Company, and developed that relationship. And, again, probably wasn't just for the business, but actually became good friends with him. But, really, Jack, taking the time to notice his drivers, notice the people, his employees. And I think that's something I try to be very diligent about, like, paying attention to our customers, but paying our attention to our employees. So I think he there's a lot there, but I think that's the one that for me, you know, as a leader, business owner, I really pulled away from that one.
Tyler Allison [00:43:35]:
Yep. And I I think it's so cool that Chad and Jack were both able to, sit on this episode together just because, I mean, you can see so much that Chad has taken away from Jack, you know, as, you know, his grandson and trying to, I mean, now Chad is really running this company, and is taking control of it. And I think it's so cool that he's aware of the statistics that he's having to battle with the different generations of businesses. Jared, we know that, you know, only 40% of businesses make it to the 2nd generation, but only 13% make it to the 3rd generation. Yeah. So it's it's really cool that, Jack is still in the business. He, you know, works, I think Joe, whenever he got back from the film shoot, said that Jack, you know, has a daily routine, always goes into the office. And so, it's so cool to see, Chad, you know, running the company with Jack and how Jack's still involved.
Jared Flinn [00:44:27]:
Super, super inspirational. Yeah. So awesome. Well, again, like we said early on, if you haven't seen, we did a video, a highlight video that Joe went out and filmed then. But, yeah, just look on our YouTube page. Joe will actually probably drop it on the links of this one, and it's it'll even show you more, more visuals of their operation, their translator, which is kinda cool. They're probably one of the few companies that have a a translator where the truck drives over and another one and and drops down into. And that was really cool how they got, innovative there.
Jared Flinn [00:44:56]:
Cool. What else?
Tyler Allison [00:44:58]:
So we have talked about our summer shirts in the past episode, but we are really now down to the wire. We wanna get this thing designed. If we wanna get it in production, I think we're gonna print, you know, 6, 7, maybe even a 1000 t shirts, and we're going to hand them out, completely for free, but we need to know then the design first. So this summer, we wanna feature a end dump, specifically an end dump in action, so raised up, unloading, or even loading, but we want to see your guys' pictures. We are going to make a Facebook post on our Facebook page, Bulk Loads. You can look it up, and you can submit your pictures through there. You can just comment on the post and just comment your end dump pictures or you can email them podcastbulkloads.com or we'll even put a forum post out there as well for our members to jump on there and upload their pictures.
Jared Flinn [00:45:47]:
Yeah. And, Joe, if you wanna throw up just a picture of the shirt we did this past winter, just to give you an idea, this is one of our members that that we did on there, and we wanna do something similar to this one. So
Tyler Allison [00:45:58]:
Yeah. I'm excited for it.
Jared Flinn [00:45:59]:
Yeah. So, anyways, I know it takes a little bit of, energy, a little bit of calories to do, but if you can send those to us, you can put them in the comments here or email them to podcast at bulkloads.com, and we wanna get those shirts going because we wanna get them out probably by the end of this month, month, by June timeframe so people can be wearing them at the the Lake County Fairs, all the events going on this summer. We want to be out there and, yeah, we're going to get some cool summer colors for that.
Tyler Allison [00:46:26]:
Yeah. I can tell you if I'm an in dump owner, I'm running to submit my rig because this shirt is gonna go out to thousands of shippers, brokers, other carriers. This is free advertising. Man. Yeah.
Jared Flinn [00:46:36]:
You're gonna be on, you know, probably over a 1,000 shirts. Yeah. It's gonna go out there. We'll have your name down the lower corner. So, yeah, make sure and do that. We, can't, drill that enough. We want some really cool photos that we can take and and get one highlighted for
Tyler Allison [00:46:50]:
Speaking of free advertising, we want to come and film your company Oh, yeah. Completely for free and do a, customer highlight. Joe is actually today is his last day working, fully in the office. He's actually going to move back to Iowa. He's still going to work full time with us, but he's gonna do a lot more on the road traveling and just filmmaking. So if you want us to come out and shoot, your company, your trucks, and just your overall story of how you got into trucking and what your company is today, let us know. Comment on YouTube, comment on Facebook, message us at any of our channels, and we'd love to set up a time and come out and film you.
Jared Flinn [00:47:27]:
I know some people probably are like, I'm not good in front of the camera. You've heard me say it. Awkward's awesome. I think this is one of those it takes an hour of your time, and it can pay dividends. Yep. I mean, dividends for your business. If you wanna grow your business, get more exposure out there. Trust me.
Jared Flinn [00:47:42]:
It's not by making Facebook comments and blah blah blah. It's getting it out there where we can feature it to our platform with over 8,000 companies that we can showcase. So, yeah, reach out to us. Let us highlight your video. One truck operates and ten truck, we don't care. Yeah. I mean, it's all part of our story, and we support all of that.
Tyler Allison [00:47:59]:
I will say Joe is a master editor, too. So he can make somebody I mean, he makes me look good every week. So, yeah, he can make anything look like a masterpiece. Very cool. What else? I think that's pretty much it. Just as a reminder, we've got the conference photos on the bulkfreightconference.comwebsite. You can go there's a photos tab. I know lots of people have been going and viewing those photos and downloading and sharing them on social media.
Tyler Allison [00:48:21]:
We appreciate all of you guys who are posting about the conference. But if you did not make it to the conference, go over to the the conference. But if you did not make it to the conference, go over to that website. You can view all the photos and all the content of this past year's conference, and you can also there's a spot where you can save your seat for next year. You don't have to pay right now for tickets, But whenever we nail down a date, tickets go live, you will be on the list to get first notified so you can go ahead and secure your tickets.
Jared Flinn [00:48:50]:
Very cool. Awesome. Well, if you've watched any of our podcasts, you know this. We, wanna just extend prayers out there for anyone that needs prayers. We, we take this very seriously. So if you have a prayer out there, smaller, big, whatever it is, if it's a cancer diagnosis, maybe it's a divorce you're going through, maybe your business is is failing right now, rates, cash flow is tight, reach out to us. We wanna be able to pray for you. Maybe you have, a son or daughter that, you're not getting along with or haven't spoke to in years.
Jared Flinn [00:49:27]:
All these prayers are super important, and we wanna surround you. We'd got some prayers in over the weekend, and, we wanna petition those up there. Again, we take those prayers. We pray for them in our organization here. We don't spread them out for others people to see. It is private and anonymous. So, yeah. If you could have a prayer, send them to prayer at bow close dot com, and, we'll put you on that prayer list.
Jared Flinn [00:49:48]:
Yep. So awesome. Do you wanna close this out? Yep. I will.
Tyler Allison [00:49:51]:
Lord, we come to you, today just to thank you and praise you, Lord. We know that, all of our blessings are your doing and none of ours, Lord. We ask that, as we go on and throughout this week, Lord, you just give us the strength and the courage to just keep on keeping on, Lord. We ask that we, you just surround all those out there who are struggling through hard times right now, whether it's, cash flow with businesses or relationships with parents or sons and daughters, Lord. We ask that you just lift them up and bless them, Lord. Give them the strength to keep on, moving forward, Lord. And we ask that, you just bless all those who are out on the road and just, keep America moving, Lord. We ask that you surround them and keep them safe so that way they can go back home to their families, Lord.
Tyler Allison [00:50:33]:
We ask that you just bless this industry as a whole. And, Lord, we ask that, you continue blessing us who are serving that in industry, Lord. We love you, and we thank you. Amen.
Jared Flinn [00:50:42]:
Amen. Thank you, Tyler. Thank you all for listening to the Bulk Loads podcast. And as always, God bless.
