Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / Saturday Sitdown With Zach Miller on Truck Drivers’ Day 8-12-23

Transcript

Saturday Sitdown With Zach Miller on Truck Drivers’ Day 8-12-23 · OneLegUpAlex Media

• 0:01
  Here's your host, Alex Garrett. Well it's Saturday, and you know we
• 0:07
  keep this Alex Garrett Podcast Network Engine going as much as a truck driver revs
• 0:13
  up his engine every day. Right, And it is truck Driver's Day.
• 0:18
  And who do I turn to but the guy that I know has the most
• 0:21
  knowledge about trucking because he's in the trucking industry. You know him as my
• 0:25
  buddy, Zach Miller. You know him as my colleague Zach Miller as well
• 0:29
  in the radio world. But exact, you're my guest again. Welcome back,
• 0:34
  sir. Oh, it's good to be back, Alex. This said,
• 0:37
  feel feels right, you know, it feels like we're back to normal
• 0:40
  here. Now we were gonna do like a beer podcast, beers in the
• 0:44
  podcast every one day, but for now this was more urgent because there's a
• 0:48
  lot in the trucking world which I was not in tune with until I opened
• 0:52
  up my Gothamist email, and truckers might be having a heavy price to pay
• 0:58
  for their overweight trucks. First of all, truck Driver's Day. I know
• 1:02
  you didn't know this was today, but I looked on the international days and
• 1:04
  observances. Here it is. Yeah, it's cool. I guess it's like
• 1:08
  International Truck Driver Day. I know that. You know, the National Truck
• 1:12
  Driver Appreciation Day is in October. I know, Truck Driver Appreciation Week I
• 1:18
  think is either in October or late September. But you know, it's the
• 1:23
  cool thing about trucking is it's not a national industry. It is global.
• 1:29
  You know. Here in the US, obviously we have cross border freight between
• 1:33
  US, Canada and Mexico. And it's really cool that internationally there's a day
• 1:40
  of recognition for our hard working men and women who who drive trucks and deliver
• 1:45
  all the goods and services that society requires. All Right, I know I
• 1:49
  always hit you with the news, but we got to clarify. You're not
• 1:52
  yourself a truck driver. So how is well, I'm not who's not a
• 1:56
  truck driver? Get himself involved with the truck driving industry? Where did you
• 1:59
  get your start? Well, it's not it's a truck driver. Is there's
• 2:02
  one job in the industry. The industry has various careers. Drivers of course,
• 2:09
  mechanics, technicians, dispatch. But there's so much office work. There's
• 2:14
  you know, accountants and lawyers like anything else. Management level positions, and
• 2:20
  I think one in twenty seven jobs in the state of New York is in
• 2:24
  the trucking industry. So it's a massive industry. The truck drivers are a
• 2:30
  critical component of it, but they are a component of it. I got
• 2:35
  involved in because my father is a lawyer who works with the trucking industry.
• 2:40
  He is a traffic lawyer and his clients are trucking firms, and so I
• 2:44
  got involved working for him. That's how we met Alex, because we started
• 2:50
  a website, new York trucks dot dot com and a radio show, New
• 2:55
  York truck Stop Radio. I actually forgot the name of it for a second
• 2:58
  there. And I was on the board of the Talking Association of New York
• 3:00
  for a while and last October I transitioned to a staff position with the Trucking
• 3:06
  Association of New York. I am the director of Metro Region Operations. So
• 3:10
  advocating for the hard working truck drivers is a full time job for me,
• 3:15
  and I'm honored and privileged to have it. And to be clear to the
• 3:17
  listeners, you're not advocating on behalf of them today or speaking on behalf of
• 3:21
  them. This is you and I talking about the talking world. Yeah,
• 3:23
  exactly exactly, Alex. Alex shot me a message and said, hey,
• 3:28
  it's International Truck Drivers Day. Let's talk about And I said, well,
• 3:30
  that's great. Always happy to talk about truck drivers and what we need to
• 3:35
  do to support them. Well, last time we talked was around the convoy
• 3:38
  time. But but you do truckers post pandemic, are they still feeling the
• 3:43
  hardships that they felt in pandemic? And also, you know, is the
• 3:46
  supply chain are they still are is a slupply chain easing up for them or
• 3:53
  is it still a challenge there too. Yeah, there there's still a bunch
• 3:55
  of challenges. And I think it's due to due to you know, the
• 4:01
  higher than expected inflation, because the freight weight weight the freight rates have been
• 4:11
  down and they've still been down, and we're seeing a lot of companies with
• 4:15
  their businesses down. You know, it varies, but we're hearing as high
• 4:17
  as thirty percent. At the same time, though, there's still a lot
• 4:24
  of movement. Like the Port of New York, New Jersey became over the
• 4:29
  last year the busiest port in the country, So there's a whole lot of
• 4:32
  freight moving in this region New York, but you know the Northeast region that
• 4:38
  that the trucks are handling. So it really does depend a little bit on
• 4:42
  what type of freight the company halls. There are challenges, and I think
• 4:46
  overall things are down, but they're not, you know, they're not completely
• 4:51
  shut down, and it's not devastated. And you hear things like Yellow filing
• 4:56
  for bankruptcy, which is going to have an impact on the LTL industry.
• 5:00
  We're already starting to see that. So it's it's a very interesting time.
• 5:03
  I feel like every time you and I have these conversations, you know,
• 5:06
  it's easy to frame it as good or bad. It's not really the case.
• 5:12
  It's just it's it's different, and it's there's challenges and they're also opportunities.
• 5:15
  There are companies are going to pick up some of these loads and really
• 5:18
  build themselves up over the next coming years, and that's what this industry has
• 5:24
  always been about. Well, legally with Yellow, I know it's been a
• 5:29
  really hard fight against the team shot. I guess I don't know it's but
• 5:32
  your father has not been involved with the Yellow No no, no, no
• 5:35
  no. He he handles New York traffic violations he does not get involved in
• 5:43
  you know, Nation years. How does a ninety nine year company, a
• 5:48
  trucking company like that just all of a sudden father breakercy? What was leading
• 5:53
  up to that? Do you did you follow that? It's it's I mean,
• 5:56
  it's I think it's similar to you know, how does like a company
• 5:59
  like Sears go under or you know, start struggling. We we've we've seen
• 6:02
  in this country long, long time companies struggle and the story usually there there
• 6:10
  are a couple of different reasons for it. Bad management is always going to
• 6:13
  be at the top. They're not really spending their their money wisely. I
• 6:18
  know they had an acquisition that didn't quite pan out for them. I know
• 6:23
  that they kind of got squeezed by some of their competitors. You know,
• 6:26
  they got that federal loan during COVID that probably they shouldn't have gotten it.
• 6:32
  It's it's it's really a host of factors. You know, I know their
• 6:38
  management would love to turn around and blame the teamsters, but you know that
• 6:43
  that that's not necessarily reality. And there have been cases where, generally for
• 6:49
  smaller companies, there have been cases where labor and management contract disputes did lead
• 6:56
  to the closing of the company. So it has happened this industry. I
• 7:01
  do not believe yellow is one of them, though I think yellow can be
• 7:04
  tossed up to other factors, not because of labor. And on that point,
• 7:12
  for those that may not appreciate the truck driving world as much. On
• 7:15
  truck drivers Day, we see them go to and fro. But I still
• 7:18
  don't think the idea that they do fourteen fifteen hour holes, if you will,
• 7:23
  gets appreciated enough to you. No, not at all, not at
• 7:26
  all. And it really speaks to the fact that here in New York City
• 7:32
  they don't have a place to park. I mean, nationwide, we have
• 7:34
  a truck parking crisis. There is only one truck parking spot for every eleven
• 7:42
  drivers on the road, which is really abhorrent. And that goes to it.
• 7:46
  You know, they're federally regulated in terms of their hours that they can
• 7:49
  drive, so when it's time to pull over, when it's time to rest,
• 7:53
  they have to do it. They are federally mandated to do it.
• 7:57
  And I am one thing that I'm encouraged about it. We're really starting to
• 8:00
  see some proactive movement, at least here in New York City, in a
• 8:03
  New York State, about providing more spaces for our truck drivers to park and
• 8:09
  take their rest when they need to. So, so, to really answer
• 8:11
  your question, I do think the appreciation is starting to get there, starting
• 8:15
  to get through. Now. It's it's New York City. There's nimbiism,
• 8:18
  there's costs of real estate, there are concerns that make it a challenge.
• 8:24
  But I'm glad to see people understanding the challenge and working towards solutions. And
• 8:28
  that shows to me that, yes, people are looking at their truck drivers
• 8:33
  a little bit differently, with more respect and more appreciation. You know,
• 8:41
  movies like uh the Bandit, you know, Smoking in the Bandit sort of
• 8:46
  portray these truck drivers as these tough, gritty, uh you know, husky
• 8:50
  kind of guys and whatnot. But you get to talk to them, what
• 8:54
  is their morale like these days after the pandemic, You get to know them
• 8:58
  that well. Er, Well, it's so there's really two types, right,
• 9:03
  I mean there's a lot, but let's just break it down into two.
• 9:05
  There's your over the road truck drivers, which I think is more they
• 9:09
  carry the image of smoking the bed. And then there's your local your local
• 9:15
  haulers and the local ones are Yeah, they're frustrated. It's it's very challenging
• 9:22
  to operate in this city. It's very costly to operate in this city.
• 9:26
  They take great pride in the work that they do and the safe work that
• 9:31
  they do, but there are those frustrations as well. I think, you
• 9:39
  know, it's really more just about regulatory climate and actual space to operate more
• 9:45
  than pandemic. I think a lot have moved on from the pandemic, honestly,
• 9:50
  at least in what I'm hearing. The only time they bring it up,
• 9:54
  and Rifley so is when they say, hey, you know, we
• 9:56
  were out there during the pandemic. We were the ones that were and show
• 10:00
  that kept everything moving. And it's frustrating for them then to turn back and
• 10:07
  constantly get hit with these ticketing and these regulations and the fact that there's this
• 10:13
  less and less space for them to operate, which again the city is addressing.
• 10:16
  They are looking at it. The city is not naive to that.
• 10:20
  IDOT has done a great job of installing commercial loading zones throughout the city,
• 10:26
  including neighborhood loading zones in residential areas. For that for those e commerce deliveries.
• 10:31
  So there is a balance going on, and I think there's a mix
• 10:35
  of truck drivers let's see that and are aware of it and are appreciative of
• 10:39
  it, and those that you know have their issues with the city and with
• 10:46
  operating in the city. Well, I was going to say, one of
• 10:50
  those issues has to be congestion pricing, right, I mean, there's there's
• 10:52
  some stuff going on with that. Are truckers noticing a hit with that,
• 10:56
  Well, it hasn't gone into effect yet, so there hasn't been a hit
• 11:01
  yet. But yes, they are very, very very aware of what it
• 11:05
  could mean and are really actually starting to crunch the numbers of what that economic
• 11:11
  impact could be. But yet, no local operator is going to get caught
• 11:18
  off guard when congestion pricing comes around, that's for sure. Would you see
• 11:24
  the trucking industry pulled like what the New Jersey did, which is a whole
• 11:28
  lawsuit against the City of New York and City New York. I mean,
• 11:31
  could that happened? Well, I mean the city already started to Staten Island
• 11:37
  jumped into New Jersey's lawsuit. The lawsuit is, the crux of the lawsuit
• 11:45
  is that the MTA did not run their full environmental review. They ran a
• 11:54
  smaller assessment, and the lawsuit is to say the assessment was not sufficient.
• 11:58
  You need to run the full economic I'm environmental review or the environmental impact statement,
• 12:03
  I think is what it's technically called. So that's what that lawsuit is
• 12:07
  about. And I think there definitely were considerations that weren't met, So I
• 12:16
  think the point is pretty valid, especially when you look at the numbers that
• 12:20
  are still pre COVID numbers. So it's sort of hard to formulate this projection
• 12:26
  moving forward when you're using faulty data. And so I'm curious to see how
• 12:33
  that lawsuit goes. How that lawsuit progresses, I think it makes a lot
• 12:37
  of sense, But you know, I'm not a lawyer, I'm not a
• 12:39
  judge. We'll see, but yeah, so you know, the Borough of
• 12:43
  Staten Island already has signed on to that lawsuit, while it is just you
• 12:50
  and I. I do want to know since we've last talked, you've had
• 12:52
  a lot of career moves how those moves impacted your knowledge of the truck being
• 12:58
  in ustry. And I feel like you're getting more of a knowledge now that
• 13:01
  you're you're in this right, Well, yeah, and and the knowledge just
• 13:05
  comes from talking to more people throughout the day. You know, I think
• 13:09
  we're getting calls from fleets of all different sizes asking questions of you know,
• 13:16
  they're usually around a couple of the same topics. But I'm getting that different
• 13:20
  perspective now that I didn't have the fleet perspective before. But now you just
• 13:24
  get deeper into it and you spend all day, you really do have a
• 13:28
  better understanding of what type of freight is hauled and the challenges in hauling that
• 13:39
  freight in a place like New York City and the metropolitan area. So it's
• 13:43
  it's been a really great experience thus far, and you know, excited to
• 13:48
  keep keep growing. You know, you mentioned congestion pricing. That's going to
• 13:52
  be one that that we're going to be very focused on. And I know
• 13:56
  you mentioned the b Q early or that's another one that we're going to be
• 14:00
  heavily focused on. Here, Well, let's get to that. So there's
• 14:03
  gonna be like an overweight truck ticket. Now, what's going on with this?
• 14:09
  So basically what let me let me take a step back for a second,
• 14:16
  because it is a little tricky. The state has weight requirements based on
• 14:24
  the size of the vehicle, so it could go as high as eighty thousand
• 14:28
  pounds depending on the axle. So in a lot of cases, typically in
• 14:35
  construction, there are reasons to allow trucks to go over that weight, and
• 14:41
  they're issued permits called divisible load permits. So there are upstate permits and downstate
• 14:48
  permits. In New York City used to be included in downstate permits, and
• 14:52
  they froze it, but a company that had it was able to keep it
• 14:58
  and transfer it to another their truck, you know, and when they've replaced
• 15:01
  their truck with newer vehicles, but nobody else could get them. So created
• 15:07
  a have and have not system in terms of companies that could apply for these
• 15:11
  divisible load permits for loads going, you know, on New York City's highways.
• 15:16
  The challenge is, of course, those permits are still given in the
• 15:20
  surrounding county so NASA, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Duchess,
• 15:24
  et cetera. So you have a system where companies are able to attain a
• 15:31
  divisible old permit in all these other areas in New York and then once they
• 15:39
  get onto the New York City Highway system, they are then deemed overweight.
• 15:43
  That's just one challenge. So that's one reason why people ask, well,
• 15:48
  why are there overweight trucks? That's one reason. Another reason is that,
• 15:54
  again usually in construction, a truck will go to the job site and the
• 16:00
  job site will load the truck and the truck then just has to go.
• 16:03
  The driver doesn't know how much the truck weighs. You know, they want
• 16:07
  to assume that the contractor is doing right and loading the truck to the appropriate
• 16:12
  way, but they don't always. There's a serious lackage of waste stations in
• 16:18
  New York City. That goes to the parking shortage we talked about earlier.
• 16:21
  We don't have overnight parking, we don't really have waste stations. That's a
• 16:23
  problem. So you have these trucks that they didn't want, they didn't load
• 16:27
  themselves, they are not sure how much they weigh, and then you know,
• 16:34
  low and behold, they get on the highway system and they're pulled over
• 16:37
  for running over weight. Now where Now, mind you, this is just
• 16:45
  citywide in general. This is not specific to the BKWI or the Way in
• 16:48
  Motion program that's that's going into effect. But the larger vehicles. It did
• 16:56
  put wear and tear on the roads and over time. You know, the
• 17:00
  BKWI is rather old piece of infrastructure. It needs it needs significant work and
• 17:06
  so the overweight trucks are just they banned on the BQWI anyway to permit or
• 17:12
  not, you know, they're they're they're not able to travel on those roads
• 17:15
  because the BQI needs to be repaired. And that's a whole other conversation.
• 17:19
  But to help with enforcement, they had this idea to do automated enforcement with
• 17:26
  it, which is the way in motion, which allegedly we don't know how
• 17:30
  this works, I mean, if it really works or how the it's all
• 17:34
  calibrated, but allegedly the truck will go over the censor and if based on
• 17:41
  the axle, if it's deemed to be overweight, there will be a camera
• 17:47
  that will take a picture of the license plate and send an overweight ticket to
• 17:52
  the company. That the ticket's going to be six hundred and fifty dollars a
• 17:55
  pop. Now, there's a ninety day warning period, so the warning period
• 18:00
  went to effect on August tenth. The actual enforcement will begin on November eighth.
• 18:07
  So with this, with this warning period, I would hope that that
• 18:14
  any sort of problems with the system can get worked out, that that fleets
• 18:18
  understand why maybe their truck was overweight. If it was overweight, you know,
• 18:25
  if it's not, how they how do you contest it? But if
• 18:29
  it is, maybe they could understand why, and you know, they could
• 18:33
  have conversations with the contractor if necessary, or they could re route if necessary.
• 18:37
  We really don't know much about it. We hope to learn more over
• 18:44
  the next couple of weeks and and and kind of go from there. But
• 18:48
  it's a first in the nation type of program, So you know, how
• 18:52
  accurate is it, how well does it work? Who can say? We
• 18:56
  don't know right now, Zach, I gotta ask, is this because we've
• 19:00
  talked about the whole progressive idea that they don't want cars or trucks on the
• 19:04
  road. This isn't one example of that targeting of vehicles in the sense of,
• 19:11
  hey, this truck is on the road, it shouldn't be on the
• 19:14
  road. We're going to punish that. Yeah, it's a great question.
• 19:17
  I don't I don't know if that's exactly what it is. Because there is
• 19:22
  an understanding about the how vital the BQE is as a freight corridor. And
• 19:30
  why you know, there's like thirteen thousand trucks a day on the BQE.
• 19:33
  And what DOT is saying what they've found since they've been practiced, you know,
• 19:40
  I guess I'll use the word piloting, but it's really more playing around
• 19:42
  with these sensors over the last couple of years. Is about ten percent of
• 19:47
  the trucks are are overweight. And look from there, how many of them
• 19:51
  have the permits outside of New York City. We don't really know. It's
• 19:55
  kind of skewed data, but at least it's a starting point. So what
• 20:00
  we're talking about is at most ten percent of those thirteen thousand trucks, So
• 20:06
  the majority of the truck traffic is still going to flow through the BQE.
• 20:11
  It at least in terms of what we've been hearing. It really is targeting
• 20:17
  those overweight trucks that that cause more wear and tear in the roadways. And
• 20:22
  and I'll be honest, you know, as they were looking at some of
• 20:25
  the ways on these trucks, we've seen trucks that are like grossly overweight.
• 20:30
  I think it was something like one hundred and seventy four thousand pounds, which
• 20:33
  is utterly, utterly unacceptable. So it's not a straight up anti vehicular type
• 20:40
  of program. I think that the goal of reducing overweight vehicles is an honorable
• 20:51
  one. My critique is the notion that this is the only tool in the
• 20:56
  toolbox. It is not it it could be a component. Enforcement is always
• 21:02
  going to be a component, whether that's you know, whether that's automated or
• 21:07
  via officer. And given the constraints of the BEKY itself, I do understand
• 21:11
  why if they could efficiently do this with automated enforcement instead of having a cop
• 21:19
  pull over a truck on the side, you know, Like I, there
• 21:22
  are reasons why it makes sense. It's just we don't quite know how it
• 21:26
  works yet. And that's where a lot of the sort of critique is is
• 21:32
  in the unknown and in the fact that if this is holistic, if it's
• 21:37
  hey, and let's make sure we get to the visible load permit system back
• 21:42
  and hey, let's make sure we have way stations and the truck drivers know
• 21:47
  where those way stations are and they're tied to parking and things that that's like,
• 21:51
  okay, okay, we're really working on the problem, in which case
• 21:55
  you know, I think we have something there, all right. Well,
• 22:00
  I know that ticketing is kind of a thing that you and your dad talk
• 22:03
  about a lot. And the camera. You know, the cameras are just
• 22:08
  over all over the place. It feels like our truckers impacted by that.
• 22:14
  You know, now we can switch from overweight to just camera ticketing in general,
• 22:17
  our truckers really affected by that, maybe more than other drivers, or
• 22:22
  seeing it, I'm not sure they'd be more than other drivers. I think
• 22:25
  a lot of the at least the speeding I don't think those are really going
• 22:30
  to truck drivers. I mean, you really can't drive a truck all that
• 22:33
  fast in New York City, and nor should you. I think it's more
• 22:37
  passenger vehicles that are really getting hit with, at least with the speeding cameras.
• 22:42
  I know that truck drivers do have issue with the bus cameras because a
• 22:48
  lot of times the truck can can be in that lane to make the turn
• 22:55
  and they're still getting tickets anyway. So for what I'm hearing is, you
• 22:59
  know, when they fight them, they win, but it's still a real
• 23:03
  pain to get the ticket and take time to fight it or hire someone like
• 23:06
  my dad to do it. You know, there's a cost there. There's
• 23:08
  either a time cost or financial cost to fight a ticket that you shouldn't have
• 23:12
  gotten. But that really is specific to the bus lanes. And that's why,
• 23:18
  honestly we're really supportive of bus ways. Bus way means that that's what
• 23:23
  they have on Fourteenth Street, for example, where a truck and a bus
• 23:29
  can be in that lane. They're they're legally allowing that lane, and so
• 23:33
  there's not even a question the truck is not going to get a ticket in
• 23:37
  a bus way. And that's exactly I think. I think you should come
• 23:41
  down to one to eleven again and get your pull your hair out to see,
• 23:45
  oh wow, that one lane because there's still that one lane issue around
• 23:48
  the city that bothers me and I know it bothers you too. Yeah,
• 23:52
  the is it like you mean in general or is there a specific spot?
• 23:56
  And believe me, I've got issues with both of them. But yeah,
• 24:00
  you need to have two lanes of traffic, you really do. Remember was
• 24:04
  going to be after pandemic that was gonna be fixed up again. But obviously
• 24:07
  those bike lanes are here to stay. So well bike I mean, but
• 24:11
  the bike lane, it's the The question to me is that it's not you
• 24:18
  know, bike lane, not bike lane or anything like that. It's just
• 24:19
  you when you put in a bike lane, you want to make sure that
• 24:23
  the bike lane is built safely and could keep the cyclists safe, and you
• 24:27
  want to sort of avoid any unnecessary conflict. So when you put a bike
• 24:33
  lane on a major thoroughfare, at the very least, you do have to
• 24:37
  make sure that there's more than one lane to travel for the vehicles to maneuver
• 24:41
  around each other and stay away from from the bike lane. And then you
• 24:48
  know, they occasionally they look to put bike lanes on truck routes in industrial
• 24:52
  zones, and it's like, listen, just as there are spaces in the
• 24:56
  city where your large trucks really shouldn't be, there are places in the city
• 25:00
  where you really don't want cyclists going. It's it's not a good mix for
• 25:06
  anybody. And I think the city needs to be a little bit more cognizant
• 25:08
  of that as they design the bike lane network as well as the reevaluate the
• 25:14
  truck route network. I mean, these are really important networks for transportation here
• 25:17
  and you have to look at it holistically, and you have to make sure
• 25:21
  that you're not causing unnecessary conflict with these road unit users vulnerable or essential.
• 25:29
  All right, I want to get away from the whole trucking thing for a
• 25:33
  second, because we also talk to city news. We talk about local stuff
• 25:36
  and things that drive both of us crazy. That's that's kind of how our
• 25:38
  bond is right in our first But could the trucking industry look at this migrant
• 25:47
  crisis and say, hey, you want to help us out? Is there
• 25:48
  a possibility that employment could be happening here? I am so glad you asked
• 25:53
  that. I really really hope, So I really really hope there is a
• 25:57
  pathway to to careers for people to move through transportation and really move through trucking.
• 26:04
  And it does kind of circle back to truck driver appreciation, right,
• 26:08
  Our industry needs more truck drivers. We do. We have a shortage,
• 26:12
  and we also have a truck driver population that is on the older side.
• 26:18
  You know, they're they're gearing up for retirement. So how great an opportunity
• 26:23
  it really is to have people who are who are in the country, who
• 26:29
  want to be here, who want to roll up their sleeves and work hard
• 26:32
  and live a life that they you know, dreamed of. Sure, they
• 26:36
  grew up hearing stories of the American dream, and it's like there's a pathway
• 26:38
  to do it here. And and I think it's really something to be cognizant
• 26:44
  of and to work with government agencies and and you know, educational institutions,
• 26:48
  particularly trade and tech institutions, to to get people trained up and staffed up
• 26:56
  and move them into careers and transportation. And I think eventually with the goal
• 27:00
  of getting a commercial driver's license. You see a recent pilot program in thinking
• 27:08
  of Southwest is now suing former pilots for its training costs our trucking industry.
• 27:15
  They're not that cash shop where they could start suing people that left the industry.
• 27:19
  Hey we train you for this. I mean that that won't happen,
• 27:22
  will it. I that is sort of beyond me. But I would hope
• 27:26
  not. I really really would hope not. And I would hope that because
• 27:30
  they're such a need for the employment. I really hope that that places like
• 27:37
  teach and train are not predatory and how they're doing it. Again, it's
• 27:41
  not the part of the industry that I'm most familiar with, but it is
• 27:45
  certainly an essential part of this industry. And I really hope that people who
• 27:51
  are interested are able to get the proper training and job placement that they're looking
• 27:56
  for. All Right, I know we've you've been around trucks forever, but
• 28:02
  come on, you see those big freights make that turnaround like say a busy
• 28:06
  New York City street. That's all impressive to me. I'll always be it.
• 28:07
  Oh, it's incredibly impressive. I mean, that's the thing. You
• 28:11
  gotta remember. These are trained professionals. They have a special license, they
• 28:17
  have credentials. They do this every day. And that's not to say that
• 28:22
  they all do it perfectly. Sometimes they make mistakes, sometimes they go down
• 28:27
  to place they shouldn't go. But the skill level is incredibly, incredibly high.
• 28:33
  And that's it. You know, we've seen it. We've seen them
• 28:37
  make some turns and pull into tight spaces where you just have to stand there
• 28:41
  and clap because it is it is almost impossible to do something like that,
• 28:48
  and yet they make the impossible happen every day. One last thing, or
• 28:52
  a couple more things, but one thing that you talk about the training and
• 28:55
  the skill set. I mean, we unfortunately talk about law enforcement maybe not
• 28:59
  coming home because of the risky environment, our truck drivers. Family is worried
• 29:03
  for their safety every day they're on the road. I mean, I I
• 29:10
  wouldn't. It's they're dangerous right there. They're definitely dangerous. And if you
• 29:15
  follow nationally, you know, you follow trucker news naturally, if you're in
• 29:19
  a Facebook group or something like that, you do see that it happens more
• 29:26
  often than it should around the country where you know, you'll see a driver
• 29:30
  who gets into a crash and is not going home that night. So it
• 29:33
  is it is a horrible tragedy that happens, and I would imagine that that
• 29:40
  that there might be some concern with the families. I can tell you this
• 29:42
  though, that there's also a lot of pride in the families and they're proud
• 29:47
  that their spouse or parent or you know, brother child is doing something essential
• 29:56
  day in and day out and keeping our economy moving and keeping our commu unities
• 30:00
  well supplied. And for the first time this year, I went up to
• 30:07
  Syracuse too for the Truck Driver Championship. Every state association has their truck driver
• 30:14
  Championships and then they have the national Championships, and uh and my gosh,
• 30:19
  what a treat it was to see these drivers and how they operate, and
• 30:25
  how they value their safety, and how supportive their families are. You know,
• 30:30
  it's it's cool. It's like a it's like a sports sports event,
• 30:33
  Alex, where you have the families come and they tailgate and they're they're cheering
• 30:37
  on their loved one and then they have a big awards banquet at the end
• 30:41
  of the night. It's it's really really a wonderful, uh and special experience.
• 30:45
  And so I have no doubt that there's always that you know, sort
• 30:49
  of concern. But I think there's the pride out ways the concern. And
• 30:56
  that's why you know, we had a show call the Auto lab. Right.
• 31:00
  We always talk about the trade schools, and I would say, this
• 31:03
  is no different. Trucking industry needs truckers. And the problem is, you
• 31:07
  know, and I know it, the rolling up their sleeves is not a
• 31:11
  concept in this generation before us and so or after us. I should say,
• 31:15
  So, I want to tell you, I want I want to tell
• 31:18
  you a story, Alex, because this speaks to it. A couple of
• 31:21
  months ago, I was at a like working group of to discuss exactly this,
• 31:30
  more trades education, more drivers drivers ed, you know, education like
• 31:34
  that, getting people who may not be on a college track, or may
• 31:37
  not be on a college track right out of high school, getting them trained
• 31:42
  and placed in all sorts of career technical careers that we are desperate for throughout
• 31:48
  the city. And there are you know, I was obviously there representing the
• 31:52
  trucking industry, and there are a couple of teamsters shops there as well as
• 31:56
  some other fleets, so it was a really good mix of people. And
• 32:00
  I was talking to a teamster who got his son at a high school or
• 32:06
  I guess maybe when he was twenty twenty one, whatever it was. I
• 32:08
  got him a job, you know, got him placed in the union,
• 32:12
  got him a job. This kid, I think he was twenty five twenty
• 32:16
  six, was making like crazy money. I think it was seventy five or
• 32:22
  eighty thousand dollars a year, I mean, just an incredible, incredible living.
• 32:27
  And he was telling me his son, he'd go out, he'd you
• 32:30
  know, he'd go to the clubs, he'd because you know, you're twenty
• 32:32
  six year old making an eighty thousand dollars, Yeah, of course you are.
• 32:36
  But and he again, you know, he's in the union, he's
• 32:39
  on a financial an outstanding financial track but most people could only dream of.
• 32:45
  And he quit. Well, first he was arguing with his dad. He's
• 32:50
  like, my boss was so hard on me, and his dad goes,
• 32:52
  you understand the equipment that you're operating right, like you know this isn't a
• 32:57
  joke, Like you know what happens if you don't operate this properly, Like
• 33:00
  he's hard on you to prevent that from happening. Also, you're twenty six
• 33:05
  years old. He's trying to teach you, so you become one of the
• 33:07
  best. He's like, oh, it's too hard on me, so we
• 33:10
  quit to become a TikTok influencer. He's like, I see these kids and
• 33:16
  they make millions of dollars on TikTok. It doesn't look like they're working very
• 33:20
  hard. I want to do that, And his dad is just like,
• 33:22
  listen, I can't. I can't stop you from doing this. I just
• 33:25
  want to let you know how stupid this decision is. You're on a trap
• 33:30
  right now where you will be able to buy a house with a very little
• 33:36
  with a very low mortgage because your income is going to be so high in
• 33:40
  your thirties, and you're going to throw it all away for a lottery ticket
• 33:45
  basically. But he wrapped up the story telling me that's kind of the mentality
• 33:52
  that a lot of his friends have. Now, I would never say that
• 33:54
  for a whole generation. I think that's ridiculous. People have different viewpoints within
• 33:59
  every generation. But that really stuck to me, and that is a concern
• 34:06
  moving forward, no doubt about it. So this guy did. Indeed,
• 34:08
  Quinn's job is what I'm hearing, right, uh huh. His teamsters job.
• 34:15
  That is mind blowing considering a lot of people get into the field for
• 34:20
  the benefits of self. I mean, the pension all that, absolutely absolutely,
• 34:24
  and they're proud of it, and they should be proud of it.
• 34:28
  I mean, they'll tell you how you know what they're sort of income to
• 34:31
  debt ratio is. It's it's for most part, it's pretty outstanding. Many
• 34:37
  of us are quite envious of it. But you know what, they work
• 34:40
  hard and they earn it. And that's kind of the thing about trucking there
• 34:46
  there's very lucrative, but you have to work really hard. And you know,
• 34:54
  I understand if people are like, well, I want to just I
• 34:57
  can make millions of dollars on YouTube or millions of dollar on TikTok is like
• 35:01
  it kind of can't though, but you know you could only you could only
• 35:07
  explain it so many times, Zach, I know that you do different panels
• 35:10
  or are you sort of public relations as well within the in the trucking industry
• 35:15
  or what exactly is your role? Yeah, I mean, I think I
• 35:19
  think that sort of forward facing, doing media appearances, speaking at at panels,
• 35:25
  that's part of it. That's part of what the association or you know,
• 35:30
  people who are in associations, is kind of what we have to do.
• 35:32
  And it's great because the thing is, the truck drivers are out there
• 35:37
  six days a week, the fleets operate twenty four seven. The people who
• 35:45
  do the hard work day in and day out, they're they're busy. They
• 35:49
  don't have the bandwidth to get out there and speak for themselves and explain how
• 35:54
  things work, you know, to media or to government or to these great
• 36:00
  conferences. So it really is the role of the advocates to do that on
• 36:05
  their behalf. And so that's why I'm really proud to be able to do
• 36:08
  that for them. Well, I know that you very get very reward,
• 36:13
  you feel very rewarded doing that and it's an industry that you know like the
• 36:16
  back of your hand at this point because you've been in it since you were
• 36:20
  a kid. How is Dad? By the way, for the audience that
• 36:22
  may remember you from those dad is? Dad is doing great? He is?
• 36:29
  He It's it's funny because between some courts being opened back to him in
• 36:34
  person, but a lot of hearing is also being done remotely. Uh,
• 36:37
  he is. He is typically juggling court appearances via zoom and and and via
• 36:44
  running to court in person. But but yeah, I appreciate you asking about
• 36:49
  him. He's doing well, and I will let him know that that you
• 36:52
  and I spoke and that that he's that you sent his best. Well.
• 36:58
  One one other thing, you know, we we kick around the transportation news
• 37:01
  of the of the day. Any of the ounce alarming to you or worth
• 37:05
  noting? Uh, while I have you here today on the Alex Scare podcast
• 37:08
  network, I don't I wouldn't necessarily say alarming. I think that I think
• 37:21
  that, if anything, it's a really fascinating time to be following this stuff
• 37:28
  because there are we don't know how things are going to look in a decade.
• 37:34
  We don't know exactly what technologies are going to come to the forefront.
• 37:37
  You know, one topic we didn't talk about today is a lot of the
• 37:42
  environmental regulations, you know, a lot of the push to zero and near
• 37:46
  zero mission vehicles. So it's going to be a lot of a lot of
• 37:51
  change, a lot of things that we just don't know but need to be
• 37:55
  prepared for. So I think that what what from where we're recording today twenty
• 38:05
  twenty three to twenty thirty three. You know, I'm gonna use the pun
• 38:10
  buck a lot because it's going to be a very interesting ride here. Well,
• 38:15
  you know, you gotta come back and we'll dump into that, maybe
• 38:17
  do that beer in a podcast things and review that. Because no, as
• 38:22
  I mentioned earlier, the environmental regulations are I hit stay gonna kill the industry,
• 38:27
  but they're gonna kill and it's you think yellow. I think other trucking
• 38:30
  agencies and trucking industry, trucking companies are gonna go under through these regulations.
• 38:35
  I could be very dire here. Well it's not. It's certainly not going
• 38:38
  to kill. Like the industry is very very resilient and knows how to how
• 38:44
  to adapt. I think I am of the belief that it's never one thing
• 38:54
  that causes a company to go under it is a serious of things. Now
• 39:00
  there will be like that sort of kill shot, so to speak. But
• 39:05
  companies that are prepared, companies that are well managed, will exactly no,
• 39:14
  they will adapt. They will adapt and they will succeed. And our responsibility
• 39:19
  is to make sure they have the tools and the information to make those decisions,
• 39:24
  and and and to push back on some some things that are onerous.
• 39:29
  You know, it's one thing to have a goal in place, to have
• 39:35
  a massive increase in zero mission vehicles. It's another thing to put a year
• 39:38
  target on it when you don't know what the technology looks like, you don't
• 39:43
  know the capabilities, you don't even have an infrastructure grid set up, so
• 39:47
  you know, there's there are goals, and there are goals. And to
• 39:55
  to sort of put a mandate in place before things are ready is a problem.
• 40:02
  The thing itself not necessarily the problem. And that's you know, the
• 40:07
  challenge that I think the industry is going to go through as they rush to
• 40:13
  meet unrealistic timelines, not necessarily unrealistic technological mandates. If you know what I
• 40:22
  mean, I do, well, we'll have to double that into and I'll
• 40:24
  have to listen back to that because I was a little little worried. But
• 40:28
  I'll definitely check back on this podcast and listen and have some followup for you.
• 40:32
  But real quick, why, ay, should we thank a trucker today
• 40:36
  on truck Drivers Appreciation Day? And why should we thank a trucker to put
• 40:39
  a bow on all of this? Well, here's a thing. If you're
• 40:45
  listening to this podcast and you're not homeless, you're not hungry, you're not
• 40:51
  naked, you have a trucker to thank for that. That puts a bow
• 40:57
  on it, all right? And I do I do want to say,
• 41:00
  you know, because Alex and I were recording this on zoom. I understand
• 41:04
  most people aren't gonna be able to see that. But right behind me is
• 41:07
  a certificate I got from then Mayor Di Blasio for the Essential Workers Parade,
• 41:14
  thanking the essential workers, and I proudly display it on behalf of all the
• 41:19
  truck drivers who kept New York City afloat during the pandemic. And what did
• 41:22
  you report to me? What he said? In he said something out loud
• 41:27
  at the parade. So the T shirt I was wearing the back of the
• 41:30
  T shirt had hashtag thake a trucker and he pointed to me and he said,
• 41:34
  thank you truckers, and I was just like both the Blasio all right,
• 41:37
  didn't expect to hear that from you. That's awesome. And not only
• 41:42
  that, there's a there. You guys aren't the kidding of heroes at the
• 41:45
  Essential Workers Parade. So there's that too. That was a fun day.
• 41:51
  That was great. And the plaque is there, so people have got to
• 41:53
  check it out right outside. I got I gotta check it out. I
• 41:55
  actually have to be at city Hall next week. I'm gonna look for that.
• 42:00
  All right. Maybe we'll do in a second episode while you're down here,
• 42:01
  do a beers and a podcast I'll call adapting Zach congratulates on everything you've
• 42:07
  been up to since we last talk. Then we'll do this again for sure.
• 42:09
  Thanks Alex, always appreciate it. Thanks always for joining the Alex S.
• 42:14
  Garrett podcast Network.