Driver Recruiting Happy Hour Podcast

Darin:
Cheers everybody. And welcome to the Driver Recruiting Happy Hour. I am your co-host Darin Williams, president of CDLjobs.com. And with me as always is my co-host, the president of Ten4 Recruiting and a man who is right now, only a bill, but he's hoping to become a law someday, Matt Beach.

Beach:
What's up, man?

Darin:
Beach, say something nice to the people. Are you old enough to even understand that reference?

Beach:
You know? Absolutely not. I'm not as old.

Darin:
Oh, aren't you really?

Beach:
No, I have never heard that. That's gotta be an Iowa thing.

Darin:
It's no, it was Saturday morning cartoon. I'm just a bill. What do they call it? Schoolhouse Rock.

Beach:
Okay. Hold on. Yes, yes. Now, now, now it's coming back to me cuz when I was growing up, I was called my, my the neighborhood kids called me Chunky LC because,

Darin:
Oh I gotta write that down.

Beach:
That's fine.

Darin:
Chunky LC like L C.

Beach:
Yep. Cause I was chunky, lazy and I watched cartoons all the time.

Darin:
Chunky LC, which turns out later in life. Would've been a fantastic rap name.

Beach:
Yeah, it was. Yeah it could been it, but no, that's what it was. It was Chuck LC. I mean I would watch now that you it's it's it's start to bring back memories, but I was the He man, all the Bugs Bunny. I watched every single one. I can actually quote those. So they're actually, so I've got HBO Max, and then you can actually see all they've got all the old Bugs Bunny, every single episode on HBO Max. So

Darin:
Do they really?

Beach:
Yep.

Darin:
I did not know that.

Beach:
Yeah. I mean I was the kid that, that would go down at two o'clock in the morning, sit there, turning on channel 24 thinking it was HBO. We didn't have, you know, on all the squiggly lies and just sit there and watch, you know <laugh> well, so yeah, I was that old I'm that old I've kind.

Darin:
We had three channels and I think it was ABC that produced Schoolhouse Rock and they had all these things.

Beach:
Mm-Hmm <affirmative> Bloodhound Gang. You had the Bloodhound Gang. You remember that one? <Singing>We're the Bloodhound Gang. Whenever there's trouble we're on the double. Yep. Yeah.

Darin:
That might have been a Tennessee thing.

Beach:
No. Then there was the, what was the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 2.

Darin:
See, I think that was the Electric Company or Sesame street.

Beach:
It might Sesame Street

Darin:
Schoolhouse rock did Conjunction Junction.

Beach:
Yep.

Darin:
You gotta look. I mean, if you,

Beach:
I know, I know what you're talking about. He was the guy that was like this. He was like a big yellow blob or something, wasn't he? Looked like a potato

Darin:
That was Chunky LC back in the,

Beach:
That was Chucky. It was chunk <laugh>

Darin:
Let's bring in our guest here before we <laugh> go into a counseling session. <Laugh> We have got the Director of Transportation Operations at NFI, David Pike. David, come on in.

David Pike:
Oh, close on the title there. Director of Recruiting, National Recruiting for NFI, not Operations. I don't think I'd want that job.

Darin:
Well, you gotta update your LinkedIn profile.

David Pike:
Ah, hell. We supposed to do that every once in a while? I'll do that. Director of Recruiting, been doing it for 28 years, Darin.

Darin:
Oh yeah. We met how long ago?

David Pike:
28 years ago.

Darin:
Was it 28? Did you come straight from the military to Heartland Express?

David Pike:
I was about a year between military and Heartland. I came to Heartland at the beginning of '95. So this year would be our what? 27Th year. Almost 28.

Darin:
Yeah. So I guess 28 years later. Sorry. I'm kidding. Kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Yeah. So you came in as the... You're doing orientation or what were you doing? Was it recruiting?

David Pike:
I was doing recruiting down there with Alvin and the Atlanta Forest Park terminal for Heartland

Darin:
Forest park, Georgia. Yep. Was Bo still the terminal manager there then?

David Pike:
Yep.

Darin:
Remember Bo? What was Bo's last name?

David Pike:
I don't remember..

Beach:
Jackson.

David Pike:
Bo Jackson. Yeah, there you go. It was Bo Jackson.

Darin:
He went as hard as Bo Jackson, but nothing athletically whatsoever. Holy cow. You go going to do a week in Forest Park, Georgia back in the mid nineties with Heartland was you had to try to keep up drinking with Bo for five days and it was brutal.

David Pike:
Yep.

Darin:
And he would, first one to the office the next morning, always, no matter what that guy answered the bell, he was a pro. So I'm assuming he is dead now. So God bless Bo.

Beach:
Let's put that out there. If anybody knows Bo from Heartland back in the age, we can find him.

Darin:
I don't remember his last name.

Beach:
He will be our next guest on the podcast. Oh my Bo are, if you're dead, if you're not dead, if you're listening,

David Pike:
Matt will resurrect him just for this occasion, right?

Darin:
<Laugh> yeah. Oh, holy gosh. Did you

David Pike:
Take him into Deadpool there? Darin? Hope you didn't take him in the Deadpool. Right?

Darin:
I see. Now I've gotta do some counseling sessions here. We're gonna need to holy moley, do we know any, we'll have to figure out a, a guest who can talk us through our, our trepidations.

David Pike:
Yes.

Darin:
Oh so yes, Heartland Express 1995. So what's been happening since?

David Pike:
Oh man. For those of us like you and I and Matt, who've been in this business for a long time, man. I'll tell you, this has been one wild ride over the past decade, but 28 years, man, I think we've all seen everything change so immensely in our business. It's absolutely amazing to look back at where we started. You and I were talking back out in Vegas at the Tenstreet conference about how we used to do verifications over the phone. I'd pick up and call him Matt and say, Matt, what would ya do with this driver? Well, you wouldn't take him. I wouldn't take him either. Should never have been doing stuff like that in the nineties, but that's just how it was done. We didn't know any better. You know, but certainly as we learned, educate, improved, it's just gotten so interesting that nowadays you have to be so proficient at so many more things in this business of recruiting. It's absolutely gotten outta control. It's crazy.

Darin:
But in fairness I mean, none of the companies that do that stuff now existed back then.

David Pike:
No, not at all.

Darin:
I mean, they didn't, there was no Tenstreet. There was no anything. I mean, there was, there was what maybe three advertising agencies

David Pike:
Pollard Publishing was one. Yeah, a few others, that's it.

Darin:
Hundred publishers. But and no Tenstreet, no Asurint, no, whatever. You know, all the people that do the background stuff now and all that, they just didn't exist. No Driver Reach. I mean, none of the, they just weren't around. So it was a different time. And when I tell recruiters, if people bring me in or have me call in to do some training or something, I'll tell 'em when I tell 'em I used to hire seriously between 16 and 18 drivers a week, every week makes me sound like a hero, but man, it was so different.

David Pike:
Yeah.

Darin:
Mean we were doing, I was an order taker. Right. It was just, do you qualify? Yeah. Come in.

Beach:
I've heard it where drivers were just crawling, just crawling through windows, trying to get in just to get the job.

David Pike:
If you had the right job, Matt, they really were. I mean, I hate to say it, but they absolutely were. And you know, it really got interesting when we, we could start tracking phone calls. That was one of the first metrics we could get with call tracking to see how many calls you took and how many you answered. We thought everything was gold since then. So yeah, you're right. It was order taking back in the early nineties and late eighties in this business and through probably what, 2002, five, six in that timeframe. And it all really began to change.

Darin:
Part of my job used to be going in on Saturday mornings and tally up the little tick sheets. Cause we were doing Excel file that had all of our all of our advertising venues that we used, which was about 7, 8, 9, 10 magazines and 200 newspapers. And yeah, Atlanta would fax them in, Columbus would fax 'em in.

David Pike:
Yep.

Darin:
And my job was to do that. I I'd go through and put all those forms together to have it ready for the Monday morning report. Redo the sheets for the next week. Yeah. Holy cow. What a pain that was so it wasn't always easy. I had to work too Beach.

Beach:
Hey, where's your, where's your fancy microphone now?

Darin:
I <laugh>

Beach:
I gotta see the fancy microphone

Darin:
I was really hoping it would go unnoticed that the microphone disappeared from the podcast.

David Pike:
I'll give ya this one Matt, we're good with this one.

Darin:
I see he, I had one like that. <Laugh> I couldn't get the damn thing to work ever unless I, I, it was, it was horrible. I hated it. I am not sure

Beach:
It's safe to say we're so we're not doing the, the fancy microphone. That's it's gone.

Darin:
I still have the it's not gone. I know where it is. It's just not here.

David Pike:
We still got the fancy glasses on top of his head though, Matt. We're good.

Beach:
He does.

Darin:
That's how I know where they are.

Beach:
You know, they're there, just so you know, they're on top of your head

Darin:
<Laugh> I tried the ones that click in the middle, you know, and I got, I don't know, I gotta, I gotta take my next size down a notch before I do that again. I about hung myself.

Beach:
I've gotta get glasses. That's a given. I have to get glasses. It's horrible.

Darin:
I can't operate without my readers anymore. I just, I can't. I mean, I can't, I can't sign a, an invo. I can't do any, I can't do anything without 'em. I have to have 'em. It's horrible.

Beach:
Now tell me about your, I guess, tell me about now, David, did you, did you if you had to, did you pick a horse for the Derby?

David Pike:
No, not at all. I was watching the Formula One on Saturday and Sunday.

Beach:
It was in Miami, right?

David Pike:
It was in Miami this year. So I'm not a huge horse fan. I did flip it on a couple times to see if I could actually catch the, the Derby, but no, I I'm more of a race fan and enjoy the open wheel racing of Indy car and Formula One, especially that series on Netflix. If you guys haven't watched it, it's been awesome.

Beach:
Now, are you going to have you, did you visit the, did you see the, or did you come to Nashville for that, for that race?

David Pike:
No, it didn't come to Nashville for the inaugural. I generally hit up the Indianapolis 500, which will be coming up end of this month. And I've already got tickets again for that. Turn one, like always this be my 13th, 14th race that I've been to in the past 20 years, 25 years.

Beach:
Was it us talking or was it someone that the ring in Vegas has also been the Formula One?

David Pike:
Yes. Vegas is coming,ufor Formula One next year. So we'll have three Formula One races. The only problem with Formula One is check out the price of the tickets. We all need a raise to afford those things.

Beach:
What they have, what's the going rate? I mean like NASCAR to me, NASCAR right now is, is, is affordable for the most part.

Darin:
Yeah. it is very affordable. Yeah. F1 tickets have a comma in them mean they're expensive.

David Pike:
Yeah. They, they have a comma.

Darin:
So here's the deal. Is it all because of that Netflix thing?

David Pike:
I don't know if it's all because of that. I just think it's because of the overall money paid out in that and the money that goes in behind it, you take a look at the Indianapolis 500, Matt to your point, like NASCAR, you can get, turn one great seats for $110 a ticket, $40 to park in the infield. So for two people to go, you were out for $250, $260. That's not bad.

Beach:
No.

David Pike:
You know, and then you get an entire day's worth of excitement for that. It was literally $1,200 for me to get a ticket at the Coda, which is the circuits of the America down in San or Austin for Formula One last year. And I opted not to go. I could have sat on the grassy knoll for $700, but no, thank you.

Beach:
So question NASCAR fans, Formula One fans, are they really different, big time, more of a, if you had to compare

David Pike:
<Laugh> I, I would say so. Yeah. Listen, NASCAR has got its loyalty and it's got its roots in the south. And you know, the days of running moonshine and, and, and you pick your team and you're loyal to that to the death. There are folks in both Indy car and in the Formula One circuit that are loyal to their brands. You know, the Ferrari teams, the McLaren teams, Mercedes teams all do that as well. Same with the Penskes and stuff in Indy car. But I think the difference is the majority of folks in open wheel racing, ie. Indy car and Formula One are there to see a damn good race. They wanna see the competition. They wanna see the skill versus, you know, I've been to several NASCAR races. If, if your person you hate the most in the, in the NASCAR has a crash. Half the damn fans are cheering out there for him. You know, you just don't typically see that in open world racing. I think that's the biggest difference.

Darin:
I think it's like anything else the best part is before the race ever starts, no matter what it's, I mean, it's just the party before and during. And the whole F1 thing really fascinates me because I was never a fan. I've watched all, was it three seasons they've had of that thing.

David Pike:
Four now,

Darin:
Is it four? Okay. I've watched 'em all, whatever it is. And I'm fascinated by the, the storylines. It's awesome. I just, I love the show, but I still can't get into watching the race on Sunday. If there's a NASCAR race on, I'm still gonna watch the NASCAR race as opposed to Formula One. So yeah, Netflix do a NASCAR show. Cause it's NASCAR's numbers are just going the exact opposite wave of F1.

David Pike:
Yeah.

Darin:
For whatever reason, I dunno.

David Pike:
And I'll tell you something about the Indianapolis 500. I always very proud of that. It should be on everybody's bucket list, but they actually have a full fledged concert right in the middle of the race in the infield, they'll have 70 plus thousand people during the race.

Darin:
Something to kill time?

David Pike:
Yeah. You pay to get into the race and you pay another 60 bucks or 70 to go watch the concert and you sit there for the entire day and watch nothing but a concert. It's more for the younger generation typically.

Darin:
Just look up at the leader pole every once in a while to see what's happening

David Pike:
Drink your beer and sit there and listen to music all day and party

Beach:
I'm in.

David Pike:
You're in. Yeah. I know.

Darin:
I went to the Brickyard race one year at Indianapolis and not knowing any better picked a seat on the front stretch. So I basically watched TV all day on a big screen, which is exactly what I did at the Kentucky Derby, which is what 200,000 people do at the Kentucky Derby. You look the horse as they go in front of you and then you watch the screen for another mile.

Beach:
Your outfit looked great.

Darin:
Not a lot of guys can pull off that much pink.

Beach:
Oh, you was,

David Pike:
You wear a hat though with it though, Darin,

Darin:
I, did you

Beach:
Look like an Easter? Absolutely. Like a colorful Easter egg.

Darin:
Absolutely. Like a big Easter egg. One day it was pink, obviously for the Oaks, the Kentucky Oaks pink for the the fillys and the breast cancer awareness. And then

Beach:
Look, good

Darin:
Derby Day was blue. I had nothing to do with either my wife. I have a salmon colored seersucker suit, which try to say that, was not the same shade as my wife's dress. So I had to go get a different colored pink to match that. And it looked great. And it would've looked bad if I was in the, but yeah. You know what? It was a lot of fun. Probably a once in a lifetime deal. I don't know. I, we're not gonna do the same exact thing again, but once you go once, then you kinda get the lay of the land. You can figure it out a little bit more and yeah. Do it on the cheap or, you know, but it was fun. One thing to do and no gasoline fumes. So there's always that true. It's like horses leading. None of them did anything.

Beach:
Yeah. The Bristol race is phenomenal. NASCAR's my favorite race. I've been to several at Bristol by far, but it's one of those where you do not now I I've set close and you just come out. You're just, eyes are just filled with

Darin:
<Laugh> full of rubber.

Beach:
<Laugh>

Darin:
So see, and that that's a good example. 10 years ago, there was a waiting list. You had to have a family ticket or something to get to Bristol.

Beach:
Well then you had,

Darin:
Now its not full it's bizarre.

Beach:
And for the longest, the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech wanted to play a football game there for the longest. And that was just one of those you know, wise to, oh, it'll never, you know, yeah. One day, one day it'll happen, kids, you know, and you've just been talking it for years and years and they finally did it. Well, the problem was the the scoreboard was a tower. And so they had to remove that and find a way to have that scoreboard pulled with wires for that one mile track <laugh>

Darin:
Yeah. Which is, which is ginormous, which is the size of the town I live in. It's huge suspended by wires in the middle of the track

Darin:
They figure, so they figured it out. And that, I mean, that, that was the last time that stadium was completely sold out. Was that foot college football game.

Darin:
Yeah. What they do with Bristol. So they have dirt races there. They just had dirt there.

Beach:
Yeah. They had to come up with something creative kinda like what's they was talking about Formula One. I mean, they're on it. The, the ratings are great. NASCAR's going down, but they had to do something different. And that is a fantastic race to watch.

David Pike:
But Matt and Darin, I guess I got a strange question. This ties to our industry and near every type of business. Is the money just, it has to be coming from sponsorships.

Beach:
Mm-Hmm <affirmative>

David Pike:
It has to be. And that's question whether it's, you know, Verizon, whether it's, you know, pick any other, you know tie to whoever, in our industry, does it even make sense to be putting money into stuff like that? I, I, I just don't see the value in it and you get a name out there, but I don't see the return on investment for any of that stuff.

Darin:
Well, it's so hard to quantify brand awareness, right. I mean,

David Pike:
Yeah,

Darin:
It's tough. It's tough. It's tough. But I mean, I don't know, I guess who who's. Yeah. You know what, I wouldn't know a NASCAR sponsor if you told me a driver, honestly, I don't think I could say, oh yeah, they're sponsored by so and so now 20 years ago, maybe, but I think, well, I don't think you have the companies, the corporations aren't ponying up 40 million a year anymore. They're doing 8 million and getting five races and.

David Pike:
Yeah.

Darin:
You know, doing things, partnerships like that, but man, either way, that's crazy stuff.

David Pike:
Yeah. It's crazy money. And I, I, I, I just think as a marketing side of things, which all of us have to rely on to funnel our businesses. It's just crazy the amount of money we're having to spend out here even to generate, you know, interest in our companies. And no matter whether it's NFI or pick anybody for that matter, it's, it's just a crazy, the amount of money we're having to spend out here to brand ourselves and generate the interest in, in what we do. And we wish we had a magic bullet out there, but there is no magic bullet.

Darin:
Yeah. And oddly enough, I, I don't think people are spending enough. That's my deal on it. So I don't know. <Laugh>

David Pike:
Well, Darin I think that

Darin:
I have a different view. I have a different view.

Beach:
Interesting.

David Pike:
I think you're right. I think Darin, from something that you and Matt would understand being on this side of it, and several, the folks that have listened to this will, that the art of recruiting has really become a science. It's all about the data. And that's one of the evolutions that has really transformed this industry in the 28 years I've been doing this stuff is when you get down to the granular piece of it, you are right, Darin. There's not enough companies truly spending the need that they have to generate the interest in the drivers. They don't understand cost per leads based on markets, based on conversion rates of their teams, based on what their openings are. All those have a, a true tie in to what your budget needs and must be if you really wanna grow your companies.

Beach:
Yeah. I think I heard someone say this the other day, it's it.The conversations now need to be all right. Let's be real. Yeah. Real let's let's have real talk as to what's going on. What do you have right now? What are you selling? What are you offering to drivers? And you might hear that your baby's ugly and you've got to be okay with that. And then because it's, I mean, conversation today was, well, we've got this big, massive billboard right over where we work. That's okay. How how's that working? We don't know.

David Pike:
Yeah.

Darin:
Yeah.

Beach:
But we gotta have it.

Darin:
Getting the drivers who work for you to see it.

Beach:
Yeah.. And so..

David Pike:
It reminds 'em where to turn, to come to work is what it does, Darin.

Beach:
Yeah. I think, I think think to that, to that that individual who said that you have to have it's it's time to have real talks.

David Pike:
Yeah.

Darin:
Yeah.

David Pike:
And I think it's, you know, from a lot of the folks that I know friends of mine that work for smaller companies, the, the data just doesn't exist. They, they wing it and, and that's the scary part of it is they just spend money for the sake of spending it and hope to God, they get a return on their investment. And, and that's not the way that you should be doing business out here.

Beach:
Yep. True dat.

David Pike:
How do we get from Indy car and NASCAR racing to that? No, no, you're welcome. I guess. Right Matt?

Beach:
My slipper.

David Pike:
Your slipper?

Beach:
This is my new slipper. Look at this. Now my toenails probably look just like that, but still <laugh> <laugh> oh, I'm burning up now with those things on. What are you doing, Darin? He can't even hear us. I guarantee you right now. He's lost.

David Pike:
It looks like he's froze. Yeah. He dropped.

Beach:
Oh he lost us.

David Pike:
He's not blinking an eye.

Beach:
Noooo, he's gone

David Pike:
Now I am the host.

Beach:
So it says, now you're the host. Please give us a completely different intro. <Laugh>

David Pike:
All right. We need to change the topic before he gets back. What should we talk about?

Beach:
Oh, it's gotta be it's. It's it's gotta be, that's gotta be, what would, what would the topic be that would just completely stir Darin up? What does it need to be?

David Pike:
Oh, I've got stories, but I, you know..

Beach:
Then let's go with those, that perfect. <Laugh> and just, if he gets back on, I don't know, you, you ought to go and there's, and I can tell you, and just like some quick sentence, and Darin told me to do that and I did it and it was just awful and just leave it to that. <Laugh>

David Pike:
Absolutely will absolutely will. Well, you know, I'll tell you something though, you know, you and I have met on occasions and I have talked many times before, and I'll tell you, this is an awesome thing that you guys are putting together. We need to do more of it. And I would love for us as an industry to really have more sessions like this, of calling in and, and getting drivers to, to educate 'em. Cause as much as we talk about our businesses, Matt, and what we do and trying to recruit and retain drivers, I think the biggest thing that we as an industry collectively do not do is provide enough information for these drivers that bust their ass for us on these roads and just don't have the best of deals at their current company and want to come look, we don't really educate them.

David Pike:
We don't teach them what to really look for and how to interpret what is being said. And I've long used this analogy and, and follow me here. We'll take months to look and buy a house. We'll go for several weeks and shop a car dealership for, you know, multiple test drives crap, man, we'll go to Best Buy and Walmart and Target for three weekends and shop big screen TVs and a driver, a professional driver in his profession, or her profession will hop on a phone and change a job in five minutes with a recruiter.

Beach:
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

David Pike:
And it makes no sense to me whatsoever. And, and, and that piece, I think we have got to address for the long term stability of our industry. I just think it's key that as drivers become educated on the right things to ask carriers, the right things to look for in the jobs, and it doesn't matter whether it's a blue truck or whether it's a white truck or a red truck or a yellow truck, they need to know what to look for. I, I sincerely believe that the vast majority of recruiters are selling exactly what they believe in, but all too often, I think we go without answering all the questions that the driver really needs to hear. I'm kinda curious what your thoughts are on that.

Beach:
No, I agree. I, I, I lean more on where do, where do you start that conversation? And to me, that that goes all the way to the, to the truck driving schools.

David Pike:
Yeah.

Darin:
Um you know, I mean right now, and again, I've mentioned this on a couple podcasts. If you said, Beach, where are the, where the drivers at? Well, I can tell you one spot, one, one fishing hole and that's in truck driving schools.

David Pike:
Yeah, absolutely.

Beach:
I'm fixing the hit, the commercial vehicle training association, CVTA conference this week and which I am a huge, huge advocate for the schools.

David Pike:
So you're there.

Beach:
And, you know, I, I, I mean, to me, that's one of those where I would love, and I wish that every trucking carrier had a training program for a entry level driver.

David Pike:
Yeah.

Beach:
But they don't, and I'm glad a lot of them don't because they would fail and you know, of their mentality. And then going back to your point, you don't wanna hurt that side of the, you really don't wanna hurt that side of the industry. Right? You bring 'em in, then immediately, they're like, I'm done with this I'm out.

David Pike:
Uh yeah.

Beach:
This is not what I was thought it was supposed to be because you just put me through a haze fest.

David Pike:
Yeah.

Beach:
And so yeah, but to your point, I really think that that's a, that's a big proponent of where the industry needs to needs to start that communication of here it is, you know, it was, I, I, you know, the carrier I worked for hiring, I mean, gosh, we were hiring 3000 drivers, if that a year for its students, students. And, you know, I always got the, well, Matt, you know, the, these students, they're just, there's, they're not good drivers. I'm like, they're students.

David Pike:
Yeah. They're not gonna be good drivers yet.

Beach:
They're Stu they're the job of the truck driver. The vast part of what they're supposed to do is help them get their Class A that's it, you do this, you do this, you get in a truck, you learn this, you back up, you do this on the course, and then you get your go test and get your Class A, and you're done in three or four weeks or depending eight weeks. After that, guess what carrier, it is your job to train them on being a truck driver, a true truck driver.

David Pike:
Yeah. When that was up in DC last week we were meeting with the Chamber of Commerce and Department of Labor and Patrick Murphy, who's the appointee of trying to figure out how to solve the supply chain issue. And of course they're looking at all the apprentices, which I think is a great move, but one of the things I chimed in on and you know, is, is two things really is number one, I, I think that the general public has a misperception of our industry.

Beach:
Mm-hmm, <affirmative>

David Pike:
Uh they look at us as the old BJ and the Bear and Smokey the Bandits and that needs to change. And I think the federal government can certainly do better at that. But number two is how do we bring those drivers back that had that bad first taste after three weeks or three months that just didn't know the right questions and didn't know the right answers and felt that carrier A, that they decided on was indicative of the entire industry. And that's the tough question that we get to have. And so when you do that and, and start having to look for cars around Dallas, Texas, all the time, and you know, having to take people around at three o'clock in the afternoon, and they're missing flights, man, it's a tough job to do when you have to take care of somebody that's lost a car in Dallas, man

Beach:
Yeah. Oh, the

Darin:
Holy Crap. Wait a minute. I got zoomed out and I come back and you're talking about a lost car in Dallas.

Beach:
Oh no, no, no.

Darin:
That can only be one person.

Beach:
Well, number one, hold on. Dave, Dave's now the host, he's hosting.

Darin:
Okay but.

Beach:
We're not done anymore. And so we've already talked about one story about you from the, from 20, what was it? 21 years ago.

David Pike:
That was at the Dallas truck show.

Beach:
Yeah.

Darin:
Lost one in Dallas. <Laugh> I get back on just in time to hear lost car in Dallas. And I'm like, holy hell, what went, this is why I need to moderate these things.

David Pike:
<Laugh> Matt, I think we did that pretty well. What do you think?

Beach:
I think we did. We did, you know, but if you think about it recruiting departments and recruiters are nothing, but top class travel agents.

Darin:
I didn't, I didn't lose the car by the way.

Beach:
Yeah. Yeah. But really, I mean, we're travel agencies in a sense of,

David Pike:
We are.

Beach:
You got to get 'em here. You have to get 'em here. You have to do this, this, and then you have, you know, they're then depending on the carrier you're smacked with now, you gotta keep 'em here.

David Pike:
Yeah.

Beach:
Now you have to help 'em keep on site. It it's a lot for a recruiting department. But going back to your, to your point, I think the next is it The Next Generation of Truckers. I think that's a great program for, to be able to start that communication right. To what you're looking to

David Pike:
Yes. Absolutely.

Beach:
Changing the view and being in high schools and promoting it and talking about what it's like to me. Cause you would, I did that a few years back it was called Tomorrow's Truckers and I hit what I, I hit nine high schools I think it was, maybe a little more here in in the Chattanooga area. And you would be surprised how many of them had a family member that was a truck driver.

David Pike:
Oh yeah.

Beach:
In every, in every upper, you know, but no, I think that's a great excellent point. Excellent points. I mean, I, I agree with you. I agree with you.

David Pike:
And I hope that, and, and I guess the reason I bring all that up and, and Darin, we were only just, we were talking something completely different, but we just had to pick on you since you dropped. So we just slid that in, at the perfect timing, but it, it is really about how we attract new drivers to our industry and really how we retain them. And, and I think my bigger issue is how do we go back and get those drivers that have left after three weeks or three months that just had a bad taste at a, and you know, at a company that is primarily all student based because they thought trucking was something truly different than it is because we all know that there are a plethora of organizations that have jobs that these folks may want. They just don't know how to look for 'em.

David Pike:
They haven't been educated, haven't been taught, they don't know what to do. They just look in there for the first person, that's going to provide them a free CDL and they think that's trucking and it's a completely different world out there. So I hope that we can begin to stir that pot, Matt and Darin, and, and, and begin to get that awareness up for our industry and, and get it out for these students and begin to host and develop educational content, training podcasts like this specifically related to those types of items. Cuz I, I agree with you, Matt. I think these driving schools that are awesome at what they do they've had a lot of regulations jammed down their throat with the ELDT mandate two years for their instructors. So they're facing their own challenges. And to see those folks leave the industry, after all the hard work that their teams have done, those instructors have done, our teams and orientation have done, their trainers have done to watch those drivers leave because they didn't know that they had to take a shower at a truck stop. It is just sad on our industry that we don't teach that.

Beach:
But, and even that, you know, I'm going down another rabbit hole, you it's even those who want to get into the industry, it's a pain bad. I mean, it's absolutely an absolute nightmare. I mean,

David Pike:
It is.

Beach:
You've got you still have you still have people who are waiting in a, in a line first thing in the morning, as soon as the, the the facility opens to get your license, the DMV, like they're waiting around for, you know, Formula One tickets to go on sale.

Darin:
I gotta tell you I've been doing this,I've been doing this for 30 years. Right? Been in the industry for 30 hell, maybe more, probably more. But I was amazed to find out, to learn from talking to people through this that there's, that it's so difficult and Beach is a guy that kind of brought it to my attention that it's so difficult to get a CDL. I thought it was the easiest thing in the world.

David Pike:
No

Darin:
Um it's not even close. I, I had, I honest to God had no idea. I really didn't. So if, I don't know, I mean, you know, I mean, holy moly, I should know. I didn't realize there was such a shortage of trainers of, of everything. I, no, I just didn't

Beach:
Now listen, not, it's not, not across there are, I mean, Tennessee, I mean, you can get your CDL A pretty easily, but it's hard to get into school now because they're so backlogged cuz they don't have enough trainers or instructors to try to think. And then, but you've got some states I would say it's probably 13, 14 where it's just absolutely ridiculous to try to get a, get a class A of all the hoops you gotta jump through. And even that they don't have third party testing. Gosh, third party testing is, is, is it's key right now.

David Pike:
It is.

Beach:
Try to get these drivers in and out and, and, and into a, into a carrier. But anyway, it's, there's a backlog and it's just, it's tough. It's a challenge.

David Pike:
Well, the good thing is, is that regardless of the administration and, and not to even remotely touch on the political side of things, we know how toxic that can be. It is good to see that at least this administration is taking an active approach to try to solve this problem and being a part of that table when we were at the Chamber of Commerce last week, when we were up in DC you know, last month with being able to talk about the apprentice, driving more people in we've at least got a seat at that table now, Matt, and it is good to see that myself, some other major carriers, all the right players in the industry from Indeed and others that are out there are taking a seat at that table to help solve this problem. And we've got the government's Department of Labor's, Department of Transportation's ear on this.

David Pike:
So we're bringing these issues of trainers to, to concern. And you know, one of the major school chains was in that meeting last week, Matt, and you know, when we brought up the issue that yes, you could send us 80,000 drivers to the industry tomorrow to solve the shortage. We don't have 80,000 trainers available. And then the school, and it's a very large organization chimed in and said, yes. And with the two year mandate of experience to make me have an instructor at a school, we can't find instructors. And then secondarily with driver wages, having increased so much over the two years, which we calculated. I mean, it just, within our own company, we've taken almost a 25 plus percent or better increase across the board nationwide. Just because of the customers having to pay more for this stuff. Now instructors are willing to go back over the road because they can make more money than being an instructor at a school.

Beach:
Exactly. So exactly.

David Pike:
So Darin to your point, it it's the whole economic side of it is just a massive issue. Let alone getting an individual who knows nothing about this industry through the wickets that they've gotta go through to get a CDL. It's it's crazy.

Darin:
Yeah. And there's no there's no immediate solution.

David Pike:
No,

Darin:
But as you said, there are people that are starting to plan. So I mean, that's, it's a start, like I said, the last time I saw a picture of you, you were with the administration.

David Pike:
Yeah. And again, last week we were, we were actually at U.S. Chamber of Commerce last week with with those folks again on the task force and sitting down for a round table session for about an hour, hour and a half with all the key players from DC and the industry as well. So really what the federal government's trying to do in, in general terms and how we all play a part of that. As our side of the industry is really coming up with a good, you know, public-private partnership of helping solve this supply chain issue. Not, and, and I like the, the answer that Patrick Murphy gave and it wasn't solving it for the immediate future for the next one to three years, but how we solve it for the next 20? And, and that's the real answer. And I, and I think we have to, as an industry step up and do more for that, we really do, which is kind of one of the reasons why you had just, you know, stepped off for whatever reasons. Matt and I were talking, I wish we could engage more educational content for the industry. Talk to the drivers, let them vent and figure out what the right questions are to ask. And you know how to navigate the complexities of A, getting a CDL and B, getting the right job that makes you happy.

Darin:
<Affirmative>. Yeah. That's and again, I I apologize. It's nice that you say I stepped off. I live in Mayberry. I'm assuming a squirrel chewed through a wire or something. <Laugh> <laugh> so, yeah, I was gone for a little bit but Hey, it's we, we it's it's last call. We're getting booted outta here. So David, thank you very much for joining us today. Everybody else from me and old Chubby LC, Be safe and Keeping on Trucking <laugh>

David Pike:
Chubby LC and Darin love you guys appreciate you having me on today. Thanks a bunch, everybody

Beach:
Appreciate you, David.

David Pike:
You guys be good. See you next week.