Hello.

Hello.

What’s good Liquid Trucking?

Welcome in to the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

Your very own podcast.

That concerns all things Liquid Trucking.

Thank you so much for being here today.

My name is Marcus.

I am your host and uh I want to get just a tiny bit of homework out of the way here because I’ve got zero time.

Ok.

Nothing.

We have three interviews today.

They’re awesome.

We’ll get to who we’re talking to in just a moment.

Uh But I do want to remind everybody out there if you’re a driver and you’re listening to this,

you’re going,

hey,

I wanna be one of those drivers on the podcast.

It’s easy.

All you gotta do is go over to Liquid trucking.com.

Click the podcast link.

It’s right at the top of the page.

It’s got my picture on it.

You can’t miss my big dumb face.

So click on that,

uh that gets you my email that gets you uh in touch with everything you need to know about the podcast,

including all the places you can find it.

And uh you know,

information on the people that we’ve actually had join us here.

So really cool stuff there.

They’ve done a great job with the podcast portion of the website and of course,

Liquid Trucking has just a pristine website to begin with.

So,

we’re very happy here on the podcast to be a part of that now.

And if you want to be on the podcast,

that’s how you do it.

Once again,

head over to Liquid trucking.com.

Click the learn more link where you see my big dumb face.

So,

what are we talking about today?

Well,

it’s the known disconnect.

That’s what the episode is called.

And you heard the dial tone there at the beginning and probably thought it was a little ominous kind of a way to start a podcast.

But that’s kind of what we’re talking about is there is a little bit of a disconnect between drivers and dispatchers from time to time and it might not just be that,

you know,

you can’t get a hold of them on the phone or via text or an email.

It might be that things happen,

uh at the terminal,

things happen with customers,

things happen that the driver might not ever know about that.

The dispatcher might not ever know about what we’re gonna find out in this episode as we move forward is that communication is at an absolute premium when it comes to the relationship between dispatchers and drivers.

We are going to hear from General Manager Josh Schmidt and Tanner Bowman.

Uh,

together we’re also going to hear from dispatcher James Nuno and Driver Drew Hearn coming back on the show and then we’re also going to hear from dispatcher Corey Lyles and Driver Efrain Pena.

Uh,

it’s all about communication folks and we’re gonna do a lot of it today with six different liquid employees.

So I hope you enjoy what we’ve got in store for you.

Uh,

we’re gonna just run through these interviews.

We’re on one right after another.

No chili recipes for you this week,

but I might come back with something special for you in that in the next couple of weeks.

So without further ado,

here’s our first interview.

Enjoy.

Welcome to the Gold Standard of podcast for the Gold standard of Drivers.

This is the Liquid Trucking Podcast with your host Marcus Bridges.

Joining me next here on the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

I’ve got General Manager Josh Schmidt on the line.

Josh,

thank you so much for being here.

Appreciate the time.

Thanks for having me Marcus and also here with us is Load Planner,

Tanner,

Bowman Tanner.

I appreciate it,

man.

How are you doing out there?

Great.

How are you guys?

Hey,

I can’t complain.

I’m podcasting,

so I’m having a good time,

but uh I’ll let Josh speak for himself.

Yeah,

doing well.

So today we’re kind of talking about the known disconnect between drivers and dispatchers and I wanted to get into the back ground a little bit of your guys’ experience.

Of course,

Josh I know that you pretty much started,

uh,

and worked your way all the way up through the company from bottom to top.

But I do want to start with you and,

and talk a little bit about the experience that you have in dispatching and how that kind of taught you some of the things that you need to know,

uh in,

in running the whole company can,

can we start there?

Sure.

So what,

what types of things were,

uh,

were surprises for you when you first started dispatching back?

When?

Oh,

I don’t know if anything was really a huge surprise being kind of a,

a greenhorn back then.

I was,

I was just here to learn and,

uh,

believe me,

I,

I learned a lot,

our drivers have certain expectations when it comes to,

to their dispatcher and,

and that’s being able to relay all of the information that they need in a timely manner.

So I guess the biggest thing you learn is give them everything that they need to know or they even might need to know and ask that they communicate well with them in return is the biggest thing and,

uh,

try to keep an even keel,

uh,

temper.

Um,

those guys are dealing with a lot of BS out there and,

uh,

so when they call and they’re frustrated,

they,

they really need someone to help them and in a calm manner for sure.

Now,

did you ever take any lumps?

In that department while you were dispatching where,

uh,

maybe you didn’t deliver what needed to be delivered in a calm enough manner and upset a driver had him get after you at all.

Absolutely.

And,

you know,

that’s the worst mistake that you can make if,

you know,

just getting frustrated yourself and not realizing that that driver is physically dealing with a problem and a lot of the time and you’re sitting behind a desk and you have maybe more tools than they do to,

to get the problem solved.

So,

yeah,

I was,

I was a terrible dispatcher to start and I like to think that I,

I improved a little bit.

But,

uh you know,

it’s,

it’s that way for everybody that,

that first starts out and frankly dispatching,

uh on a personal level hasn’t changed for the last 2025 years since I’ve been involved.

Um,

on the admin side of this company,

it’s,

it’s always just about communication and uh and being good communicators,

that means communicators in the company should be the dispatch team.

Tanner.

You and I talked a lot about uh,

well,

not a lot.

We didn’t get a lot of time together when I was there at the terminal,

but when I was there,

we did talk about good communication among dispatchers and drivers.

How do you try to,

uh,

I guess,

train that into people that are going to be dispatching?

How do you,

how do you help them understand that the communication between driver and dispatchers of the utmost importance and that it needs to be clear,

concise and even keel like Josh said,

well,

um I think there’s only really so much you can,

you can try to prepare them for and even train them for honestly,

especially in the line of work we’re doing.

The good example would be the fact that we get upwards of 12,

1300 emails a day.

So the communication essentially never stops that communication to the dispatcher needs to be re through the through to the driver.

So,

you know,

it’s kind of a sink or swim situation.

If you’re a poor communicator,

it,

it’s going to be exposed fairly quickly because the drivers generally don’t have time to waste or time to put up with those kind of mistakes of not being a good communicator.

There’s not much you can do in the way of the training aspect.

You just kind of like I said,

it’s a sink or swim situation with the flow of communications that come through either email or phone all day.

Well,

I’m gonna just say this right now if you ever miss one of my emails again,

I refuse to accept any apology that you uh leveled because 1300 emails a day.

Are you serious?

I can’t believe I’ve ever gotten a response from you.

Thank you for being uh kind enough to actually get back to me.

That is an absurd amount of communication coming your way.

Uh,

how hard is it to,

to,

I guess,

distill all of that down into a message that you can deliver to the driver clearly and concisely.

I mean,

that’s,

that’s nuts.

I don’t,

I don’t think I’ve had 1300 emails come through in the last month.

Yeah,

it’s,

it’s,

uh,

it’s a pretty fine line to walk between,

uh,

catching everything and missing just one or two things.

And,

um,

you really gotta be on your,

a game all day,

uh,

with the phones ringing and,

and the emails coming through nonstop like that.

It’s,

it can get overwhelming at times for sure.

I can imagine.

Now,

uh,

I was chatting with Jason Eisenman a little bit and he told me that sometimes,

uh,

there’s some,

he,

he termed it as wishy washy things that go on,

uh,

with,

with getting loads and how loads can get canceled or pushed or changed.

And he said that,

uh,

you know,

there might be a situation sometimes where say 20 loads get picked up,

uh,

but then canceled after drivers are already dispatched to them.

And,

and sometimes I think that drivers might kind of see that as an error on dispatch when really it was something that was kind of spurred on by the customer.

Josh,

how do you guys deal with this type of thing when maybe the driver is a little bit upset about this,

uh,

dispatcher and really the dispatcher is not at fault for what might happen with these loads.

Uh,

I,

I know things get really hairy out there on the road and schedules change all the time,

but that’s got to be kind of a tough thing to deal with when your,

your drivers are,

are getting,

you know,

moved around all over the place.

Their schedules changing constantly.

They think it’s the dispatcher’s fault,

the dispatcher just trying to keep everything in front of them and try to make it all work for the driver.

What are some of the uh are some of the situations that you seen?

This is kind of AAA really poorly phrased question.

So I apologize for that.

But what are some of the situations that you’ve seen that kind of surround that?

Like,

you know,

loads getting changed,

canceled,

pushed drivers getting upset at dispatchers and the like,

can you talk me through that a little bit?

Sure.

Um I can,

uh Jor might be able to express this in a little greater detail,

but I’ll give it a,

an attempt here.

Uh Basically our business is kind of a just in time uh freight business.

That’s,

that’s the model that we use.

So,

you know,

we,

we’re getting a lot of communication from customers asking for loads a a week in advance.

Well as you get closer,

uh their inventory levels change and they’re saying no way,

push this.

Can you move,

you know,

they might be calling us today when we have a load for Thursday.

Hey,

can you,

uh,

get that to us here yet this afternoon or,

or,

or Wednesday?

Um,

I,

I guess it’s a Tuesday today,

but can you get that to us tomorrow or move it up or?

Hey,

we need to move this back and that screws up the plan.

So the schedule is changing every minute of the day.

We might have trucks break down,

we might have drivers get sick.

Like I said,

with the customer inventory levels,

it can be really hairy the way this is always a fluid situation.

Just having our drivers understand what our business model is,

is helpful.

And then again,

having dispatchers understand that,

hey,

this guy had made a plan for his day,

maybe his next,

his whole week.

Now you’re canceling it on them.

So understanding that they might be frustrated.

But,

um,

I guess we do,

what’s the most profitable here?

What pays the bills the best,

what allows us to pay our people the best have the best equipment and that’s the just in time freight model.

Um,

being in the middle of the Midwest,

we’re not in the port.

We just don’t have the ability to book 20 loads a day going from,

from point A to point B.

That’s just not the card.

So we’re basically dealing with something different all the time for sure.

That that is a good high level view of what,

what’s happening here.

Yeah,

absolutely.

And,

and Tanner,

I’d like you to share your thoughts too if you have any,

uh,

kind of in the same,

in the same realm there.

Yeah,

though,

Josh really nailed it there.

You know,

we don’t,

we don’t always know what a driver’s gonna be doing tomorrow.

48 hours from now,

72 hours from now.

Even,

you know,

if they get dispatched from Omaha to,

to California,

sometimes they’ll say,

hey,

this is great.

What do I have afterwards?

And,

you know,

we can look in the crystal ball but we don’t always know what’s gonna happen.

Sometimes.

We,

we might have an idea.

Uh We might know a handful of customers we can call for for last minute freight like that.

But a lot of times it’s people seeking us out to,

to haul the freight and we just,

we just don’t know what’s next.

And I think that’s one of the biggest learning curves for a new driver even,

you know,

if they come from one of the,

the mega carriers where it’s,

you know,

go from A to B then from B to C and that’s what you’re doing five days a week every year.

Um,

all year.

It’s pretty easy to go that way.

And as Josh mentioned,

we’re just,

that’s just not our business model.

There’s,

it seems there’s more money in the chaos,

managing the chaos.

So it’s always,

it’s always a unique challenge every single day to,

to make sure these,

these guys out there doing the heavy lifting side of things are,

are keeping the wheels turning and making money for sure.

Now,

uh,

when you guys come along,

uh,

a situation where maybe a customer has ordered X amount of something and then all of a sudden your driver’s halfway there and the customer calls back and says,

hey,

I,

I didn’t use all of what I thought I was gonna use.

I can’t store everything that you’re bringing me.

How do you guys go about handling that with the driver standard?

Well,

we give them a few options.

Um,

and of course,

depends where it’s coming from and where it’s going to.

If we have one of our drop lots that we utilize around the country en route or slightly out of route,

we,

we can give them the option to,

to delay it a day for,

you know,

a certain fee if they say,

oh,

just,

you know,

try to delay it four or five hours and I’ll,

I’ll figure something out and then we can do that.

Of course,

that comes with a fee,

you know,

money makes the world go around,

right.

So,

you know,

the drivers want to get paid.

We wanna make sure they’re accommodated and,

and paid well for all their time.

So,

you know,

part of my job is making sure that if they do decide to order product and,

and they misjudge things,

then they have to they,

we need to make sure that they’re gonna accommodate us for our,

our time.

And,

uh,

if that comes in the form of demerge or storage fees or even taking it all the way back to the shipper,

it is what it is.

But,

um,

you know,

it’s not like we’re unloading pallets of toilet paper and we can just throw them in a warehouse somewhere.

This is pretty specialized stuff.

So you better be on your a game if you’re gonna order products in the liquid world anyways.

Absolutely.

Uh Josh,

I’m actually not familiar.

Well,

I’m,

I’m familiar but not overly familiar with the concept of drop lots and I wasn’t aware that you guys had different drop lots that you used all over the country.

Um How do you guys utilize those?

How many of them do you have?

And uh how often do they come into play?

Well,

you know,

they’re not our drop lots.

They’re typically a,

a washout customer or a washout vendor of ours that we use.

So,

you know,

these tanks need to be washed out.

We have two wash out facilities of our own in Omaha and South Sioux City.

But you know,

we’re going all over the country.

So it might be a koala wash,

it might be in any of the other,

you know,

wash benders in the country that we use that we go to.

Often they,

they allow us to,

to park our,

our empty and loaded and clean trailers on their lots.

Um in exchange for uh giving them quite a bit of wash out business.

So that’s basically how that goes.

Sometimes it’s,

it’s a shipper uh that,

that we’re doing a lot of different work for.

So,

you know,

it’s,

it just depends,

but we,

we’ve probably got co couple dozen high traffic drop blocks around the country that we utilize for situations like you described.

Sure.

That’s great.

And,

and I’m,

I’m assuming that is a real lifesaver when it comes to your mileage and fuel consumption and everything,

being able to drop something off and leave it rather than having to drive it all the way back to where it came from.

Tanner.

I want pick your brain here a little bit and see if there’s any situations or any stories that you have uh that might fit kind of what we’re talking about here.

Obviously,

we’re,

we’re getting into the fact that communication is at a premium.

Uh Sometimes things change on,

on the,

on the drop a hat because of the business model as it sits.

Uh Do you have any stories that you might share with us about uh just a crazy situation that you guys were able to get rectified.

Uh Maybe it looked like there was no chance for this one to come out clean,

but it did anything like that.

Gosh,

talk about,

put me on the spot there,

there’s a,

there’s a lot of we,

I mean,

it seems like every,

every single day we have some sort of unique situation with the customer not being able to hold something or,

or wanting to reroute something.

Nothing really sticks out.

What I,

what I would commend though is a lot of times our customers,

if they do come to us with some sort of problem like that,

they generally already have the answer and they’re just,

they’re just gonna,

they’re just essentially trying to clear with us,

you know,

hey,

unload half the load here and,

uh,

I know it was supposed to all fit,

but we need to send it over here and essentially they’re just verifying it’s gonna work for us and nine times out of 10,

it’s gonna work for us because they’re gonna pay us to move it over there.

But every once in a while,

if we say,

hey,

this driver’s got time off,

he needs to be home or,

uh,

you know,

he li he lives over in the Chicago area and this load is getting him home.

He,

he can’t go back down to Saint Louis that.

Ok.

Well,

give us 1015 more minutes here to see what we can figure out.

And,

you know,

you’d be surprised a lot of these customers will find a home for it closer to where we need to be.

If we do give any sort of pushback,

it doesn’t happen often.

But,

um,

that’s just some of the behind the scenes stuff we go through daily with the amount of drivers we have and how they’re spread out all over the place.

And,

you know,

all the different types of customers we deal with whether it be a,

you know,

a food processing plant or a cattle rancher in western Kansas.

You know,

they all,

they all have different wants and needs so well.

And it sounds like the,

the development of good customers and good customer relations is really important for this aspect of the business because uh if they call you with an answer,

I mean,

that makes your job a little bit easier.

I know it’s not an easy job.

Uh but at least somebody else is working on solutions like that.

Good customer relations.

Always a good part of doing great business as liquid does every single day.

So,

uh gentlemen,

we’re up against the clock here a little bit.

But before I let you go,

I do want to give you a shot to uh say anything to anybody that’s from the company that’s listening drivers,

uh terminal staff or any family members or anything like that that might tune in.

Josh.

I’ll start with you.

Uh,

the floor is yours to address the company or anyone else?

Well,

uh probably the same message I always give.

Um,

we can’t do this alone.

Um We really depend on our quality,

uh team of drivers to,

to do an excellent job like they always do um our,

our dispatchers are accounting people,

our safety team,

our maintenance staff.

I it takes everybody uh to,

to uh make this work and I just want to say that we appreciate every single one of them.

You got a great group of people working for you there at Liquid.

There’s no question about it,

Tanner.

How about for you?

Yeah.

No,

I,

I’d like to uh expand just slightly on what Josh had to say there and just remind guys,

you know,

we,

we expect the dispatchers to be the,

the top communicators in the company.

Um,

and,

you know,

we just ask that that any information they have just keep passing that along to us.

And,

um,

you know,

it,

it,

things are a two way street if something’s,

if the driver’s not doing something,

right.

You know,

we’re,

we’re sure to let them know and try to show them what they can do better.

And we ask that that goes the other way if,

if a dispatcher or anybody here is not doing something right?

You know,

just pick up the phone and call someone and talk to us about it.

Don’t let it,

don’t let it build up and,

and get upset and,

and uh you know,

get frustrated with the company and putting your tweets or anything.

There’s,

there’s usually a solution every problem we run into.

So,

so don’t be scared to talk to somebody about it.

The phone lines are always open here when they’re not down,

of course,

at the,

at the office.

Um,

so,

you know,

don’t,

don’t be scared to call somebody and talk to somebody if you got something you wanna,

you wanna touch base on.

Well,

I can take you back off that as well.

Um,

you know,

our,

we’re not perfect.

Nobody’s gonna be perfect around here.

Uh,

we’re gonna make some mistakes.

Everybody’s gonna make mistakes.

Let’s give each other the chance to correct those mistakes and,

and uh make sure we communicate where we’re frustrated and uh we’ll get through it together.

Yeah,

very well said,

fellas,

I really appreciate it.

Communication is at a premium when it comes to drivers and dispatchers and uh just making sure that everybody keeps a level head seems of the utmost importance too.

I really appreciate both of you being here today and uh we’ll get you back on again in the near future.

All right,

fellas.

Sounds great.

Thanks,

Mark.

Thanks Jan.

Thanks Josh.

Next up here on the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

I’m very happy to say I’ve got a driver and a dispatcher coming on to air all their dirty laundry.

Not really,

uh but we do have a driver and a dispatcher here to help talk a little bit about this known disconnect that we are chatting about today.

Please welcome to the show for the first time.

Dispatcher James Nuno,

James.

How are you doing out there?

How you doing?

I’m doing awesome.

Thanks for being here today,

my friend.

Oh,

yeah,

no problem.

I’ve also got Driver Drew Hearn back for another,

uh,

sit in on the podcast here.

Drew.

We appreciate your time out there.

Where are you at?

And where are you headed today?

Uh,

I am in Maurice,

Louisiana right now and I am getting ready to hit up a truck stop and hang out and wait for James to let me know where I’m going.

Ok.

All right.

Well,

uh,

James,

how long you,

uh,

have,

has Drew been on your roster as a driver?

Um,

you guys obviously worked together.

How long has it been?

I think it’s been about,

uh,

2.5 years.

I started here three years ago and got my own drivers about six months after I started.

So I think I’ve had it since I basically been here.

So,

yeah,

about 2.5,

3 years and over that 2.5,

3 years that you’ve been,

uh,

you know,

having your own drivers as a dispatcher.

How do you go about building relationships with the drivers?

Then?

I know it’s really important.

I know communication is absolutely paramount.

So it,

it seems to me like you got to develop a pretty good relationship and back and forth with your drivers to make sure that things go smoothly.

How do you go about that,

James?

Uh,

you know,

just whenever we have some downtime and I have time to actually sit and talk to my drivers and I will,

if I have an extra 5 to 10 to 15 minutes during the day,

then I have no problem,

you know,

uh sitting on the phone bullshitting for 1015 minutes.

Then having to say,

hey,

I gotta go,

I gotta get,

get back to work,

you know.

Um,

I had no problem doing that and I’ve known,

I know Drew’s brother so that kind of helps out with,

uh,

mine and Drew’s relationship too.

We have that little common ground that we can connect with right there.

That’s great.

I,

I love to hear that you’re just picking up the phone to call and chat with drivers because in,

in my travels,

I get to chat with a lot of drivers and I know that,

uh,

the conversations are always fun when there’s not like something specific that we’ve got to talk about.

You get a driver chatting and,

uh,

it’s,

it could be a pretty entertaining conversation.

Drew,

talk to me about your dispatcher.

Uh,

you’ve had him now,

like James said,

2.5 years.

Uh,

what can you tell me about your dispatcher and the relationship you guys have formed?

Well,

it took me a little bit.

I got him whip,

whipped into shape pretty quick,

you know,

and I let him know how I’d like to be ran and,

you know,

the,

the less time he has to deal with me on the phone the better,

you know,

for the both of us,

you know,

it’s,

it’s one less problem for him not to worry about and then I ain’t got with him and all day or whatever.

But I mean,

it’s,

uh,

it’s pretty cool.

There’s been a couple of times where,

like,

you know,

I’ve,

um,

gotten up super early and I knew he was at the office and I was like,

dog tired and I call him and be like,

hey,

no one else is awake.

I just need someone to chit chat with for like 1015 minutes.

He talked to me or whatever until he got busy and then he let me go.

But I mean,

it,

it’s not bad.

It’s,

uh,

that is a pretty cool thing,

you know,

he knows how I run and there’s not really a whole lot of,

uh needing to tell each other how to do,

you know the job really,

because he can send me a message.

He knows how,

how I like him said,

and he just lets me do my thing.

Perfect.

Well,

it sounds like over the years you guys have really,

uh kind of fallen into a groove there.

Uh I wanna talk about kind of the other side of it because look,

I know that most of the time it’s good.

I also know that sometimes it can be bad and that,

that can be beyond both of your guys’ control.

Um I’m not gonna ask you guys to air the dirty laundry and talk about a time that you had a falling out.

But what I will ask and James,

I’ll start with you here is how hard is it to have a full roster of drivers and keep them all happy all the time with all of the changes in the landscape that you guys face from day to day.

Oh,

it’s extremely hard.

I mean,

these loads are changing,

you know,

by the minute.

So it,

it,

it’s very hard to keep my 20 drivers very happy.

But I mean,

we’re also running,

I think 100 and 60 100 and 65 drivers in the entire fleet.

So,

trying to keep every single driver happy is just not possible.

You know,

there’s,

there may be some times where Drew might have to bite the bullet and take a crappy load,

but we’ll try and pay that back to him by giving him a better load after that.

And Drew talk to me about what a crappy load is real quick.

So,

as I got to hear about,

you know,

what the difference is between a crappy load and then the load that he’s gonna kind of pay you back on.

Yeah,

we got a load going out of,

uh,

Fort Dodge,

Iowa and I hate that load with everything,

every fiber in my body,

you know,

the trailers kind of hang out up there for quite a while and they get kind of beat up and,

you know,

used up and everything.

So it’s,

I,

it’s just that,

that runs a battle all around it.

I mean,

it’s a pretty easy load to run and actually do,

but it’s just,

I,

I just don’t enjoy it at all.

So,

you know,

very of,

not very often do I have to do it.

But when I do it’s because I’m gonna be going home and that’s pretty close to my home.

But then when I come back out on the next week,

um James hooks me up with like a Louisiana run or,

you know,

or,

um,

going out west or something.

And so it,

it kind of works out,

you know,

I,

I’ll,

I’ll take it as it comes even if I don’t enjoy it.

And James,

is that true that,

that uh,

characterization that he gave right there,

I’ll take it as it comes even if I don’t enjoy it or does he like to bitch and complain a little bit about that load?

No,

he,

he,

he’ll take it.

I mean,

he’ll,

he’ll throw a little bitch shit every now and then.

But I mean,

he,

he,

he understand how he understands how it is and,

you know,

we got these loads that gotta get done and unfortunately,

you know,

he may be the only driver in the position to get that load done.

So he’s gonna unfortunately be the one that’s having to,

uh,

take that run and hopefully I can get him something better the next time around,

I’m not gonna make it easy for him either.

I’m gonna let him know.

You know,

hey,

this ain’t,

this ain’t my run guy.

You know,

you can pass off to the next guy.

But if there’s not a next guy,

then I’ll take it,

but I’m not gonna let him take it easy.

You know,

I,

I got to give him something for it.

I hear you.

I hear you.

You gotta,

you have to stand your ground,

right.

This is a,

this is something that we get taught as young kids.

Stand your ground,

stand up for yourself,

be assertive.

So,

well,

guys,

I wanna turn a little bit towards,

you know,

the,

the title of the episode is the known disconnect and that is something that,

that I talked with Jason a little bit about and he said,

you know,

drivers and dispatchers are great at keeping in communication until they’re not.

And I wonder what is when I say the words,

the known disconnect?

And I’m talking about drivers and dispatchers.

What does that mean to you?

Drew as a driver?

I don’t believe we have any dispatchers that were drivers.

We might,

I’m not for sure,

but I know James isn’t.

And so,

you know,

um,

he,

he did drive in the military but,

you know,

that’s a whole different beast on its own.

But out here,

you know,

this has a civilian running,

it’s you know,

there’s a lot of things that go on that they wouldn’t understand,

you know,

on why we do something a certain way,

even though that they think we should be doing it this way or,

you know,

if we take a different route,

you know,

they,

they might complain a little bit and be like,

hey,

you know,

you’re going,

you know,

40 miles extra than what you need to.

Well,

you know,

something could have happened and I have to,

you know,

but they really don’t complain too much about that.

But definitely,

uh,

you know,

like,

um,

what was it?

The,

the other night I started about eight o’clock in the morning or whatever,

somewhere right in there.

And I drove until I think,

close to 1011 o’clock that night.

And by the time James got in for work,

he can look and see who’s all on duty and everything and,

you know,

obviously I’m not on duty and I’m known to be,

you know,

an early riser,

so I’m sure he’s probably like,

you know,

oh,

hey,

what something must have happened or whatever,

but it was just the whole parking thing,

you know,

that,

that’s a big one because I drove around that night and I looked at so I made three different stops to look for parking and I couldn’t,

I had to run my clock almost all the way out before I actually found a place to park.

And so you know,

sometimes that,

that’s something that they might not catch on is,

you know,

because sometimes we have to run over our hours and it’s not by our doing,

it’s by,

you know,

we’re trying to find someplace to park and we can’t.

And so,

you know,

that’s,

that’s one of the big things I think.

Sure.

So it sounds like some things that you compete with just as a,

as a aspect of doing the job might be some things that sometimes the dispatchers don’t always,

uh,

understand that.

That makes total sense.

James.

I want to go to you here when I say the known disconnect and I’m talking about drivers and dispatchers.

What does it mean to you as a dispatcher?

So I never drove for the civilian side,

but I drove for the military side.

Uh,

I did plenty of,

uh,

driving throughout the state,

um,

on the interstates and all that fun stuff plus,

um,

you know,

military bases.

So I kind of get the gist of what the drivers have to deal with.

Granted,

I wasn’t,

you know,

driving a commercial vehicle over the,

over across the country,

but I do get what they have to deal with.

They do get their whole part of the situation.

So I try and understand where they’re coming from and like Drew was saying,

you know,

he had to drive super late the other night to try and find some parking,

you know,

when I come in the morning and I see something like that.

Usually I’ll shoot a text and say,

hey,

you know,

just shoot me or give me a call once you wake up,

like,

let me know what’s going on and then I’ll go from there.

Typically,

it’s,

I’ll,

I’ll assume it’s,

hey,

you probably had trouble finding some place to,

uh,

park for the night.

Well,

um,

you know,

I,

I could,

I could throw in another example too is,

um,

I did a uh load and uh where I was unloading at the customer did all the unloading process and they air off our load and typically an air off load goes pretty quick.

But for the reason of a leak that I wasn’t able to fix,

it,

took the better part of four hours to get unloaded.

And,

you know,

I called James and let him know,

hey,

I got this leak going on and there’s nothing I can do to fix it.

And as long as the tank holds pressure,

they’re gonna unload it.

Well,

it held the pressure that they needed to,

to unload it while it was still leaking.

And I had James call me um,

a couple of times,

you know,

checking in,

hey,

you know what,

what’s going on?

How are things going?

Hey,

you know,

it,

it’s going,

but it’s going slow and even after it was done,

everything James calls me,

he’s like,

hey,

you know what,

what was the exact reason that it took this long to unload.

It should have,

it shouldn’t have taken this long,

you know,

and stuff like that.

Um,

you know,

and I told him what,

what was going on and everything and sometimes,

you know,

there’s things out of our control like that that would cause,

uh,

you know,

a delivery would take too long and,

you know,

that’s something that a dispatcher sitting in the office wouldn’t know about if we didn’t call and tell them.

And even then they can’t even really,

you know,

they,

they can just take what you’re telling them and try to draw a picture in their head,

but without actually being there,

they can’t fully understand what,

what’s fully going on for sure.

No.

And,

and it’s,

once again,

it’s just another example of why the communication,

uh,

is so important.

Um,

I,

I am interested to know from both your sides of the coin here,

James.

I’ll go to you first.

What are some things that the drivers could do to help the dispatchers better,

uh,

do their job,

James.

You know,

I think whenever there’s an issue that pops up,

try and give us as much information as possible,

you know,

uh,

that way we’re not making multiple phone calls back and forth trying to gather more information,

kind of look at everything as a whole before you give us a call.

If you have to write it down on a notepad because it could be a lot of things going on at once and then give us a call,

let us know what’s going on,

give us everything that it is and then let us go to work so that way we can help the drivers out.

So it’s kind of an overshare situation where you need to know sometimes even the most nitty gritty of details to make sure that you can rectify any problems that are arising.

Correct.

Yeah.

otherwise we’re gonna be playing phone tag for maybe 2030 minutes before we come up with a solution or like,

uh or trying to get a hold of broker or whatever issue that it is.

Um,

you know,

the more information that we have off the bat,

the better anything else that the drivers can do that would help you guys along,

just communicate,

communicate,

communicate,

you know,

uh even if it feels like you’re over sharing,

you know,

just over share with us,

uh especially after hours,

I have been getting a lot of newer drivers that aren’t wanting to call after five cause we usually leave the office about 5530 and they’re not wanting to call after five to bother us.

But,

you know,

that’s kind of our job,

you know,

give us a call,

let us know what’s going on.

If you have an issue after five,

we can still handle it.

You know,

that’s what we’re here for.

We’re here for the drivers to make the drivers life easier and,

and that’s let us know what’s going on that way we can figure it out.

And that’s what being a good dispatcher is all about is,

uh,

always having that phone,

always being available,

man.

I know it’s not easy.

Uh,

having a phone in your pocket that could ring any minute of any day is always a little bit nerve wracking.

But,

uh,

hats off to you guys for,

for living that life and,

and doing such a good job,

Drew,

what are some things that the dispatchers can do better to help the drivers better get through their day?

Hm.

That’s kind of a tough question.

Only because,

you know,

James is a pretty good dispatcher for me and he knows how,

how I do things.

So I don’t really have a whole lot of complaint on his end of it.

I don’t know.

Maybe,

maybe Lee was alone a little bit more.

I don’t know.

I mean,

I would rather talk to my wife than have to talk to Jane.

I mean,

James is cool to kick the shit with,

but I mean,

the wife’s calling,

hey,

I gotta go,

bro.

You know.

Well,

and,

and I mean,

he’s sitting here trying to get you to overshare,

you know,

if you want him off the phone,

you could just start telling him about a bad rash or something that he really doesn’t want to hear about.

Maybe,

maybe he just jumps off on his own accord,

you know.

Right.

So you’ve done that before too though?

You know,

I,

I,

he’s called me while I was on the,

on the toilet and I’m like,

hey,

man,

he was in the bathroom,

bro and he’s like,

I don’t care,

I got time.

Ok.

Well it’s happening,

man.

You know what?

I got to put up with the echo.

Sorry.

That’s right.

Um,

no.

Uh so this,

this run that I just got done doing,

uh,

to Maurice,

it’s scheduled out for,

it was scheduled out to be delivered today at one o’clock and to get from where I picked it up at just south of Sioux City,

Iowa to get down here to Maurice.

It,

it’s only like,

it’s a little over a 16 hour drive.

So,

you know,

yesterday I made it down to Appaloosa,

Louisiana and it’s only about 37 miles away.

Well,

you know,

with James knowing how I run and everything and I know he doesn’t really have a whole lot to do with like the scheduling of the loads and all that.

But I mean,

he was able to get a hold of the customer and get me in sooner than one o’clock.

But,

you know,

um,

knowing how a driver runs,

you know,

because I,

I run pretty hard,

you know,

I keep that door closed and so,

you know,

maybe work on,

I could see some dispatchers,

you know,

even though it’s set up for a certain time call the driver and be like,

hey,

what time are you gonna get here?

Is that a for sure thing?

And if they don’t see any problems coming up,

then,

you know,

jump ahead of schedule and start calling the customer and be like,

hey,

my driver’s gonna be here at this time.

Blah,

blah,

blah.

Can he get in,

can we change the schedule a little bit because,

you know,

I’ve talked to the driver before where,

you know,

they,

I don’t know if there was a miscommunication or no communication from the driver,

but they just would sit and wait until,

you know,

close to that schedule time and then roll on in and just sit for the entire time that they have to however long it is that they have to wait and I don’t see no point in that,

you know,

if you’re waiting,

you’re not making enough money as far as I’m concerned.

Sure.

So that,

that,

that would definitely be something.

Yeah,

I’d,

I’d much rather see my drivers,

you know,

driving,

you know,

that’s where they make the most money.

I’d much rather see their tires rolling and,

uh,

keep them going as fast as much as possible.

Uh,

because I know that’s where they’re gonna make their money is on the drive line,

which we pay hourly.

We have different pay rates for driving for on duty if you’re offloading up,

uh,

getting loaded or getting washed out.

So,

I,

I try my best to uh,

get drivers in early and get them going on our next load.

That way they can make more money and be happy.

Sure.

And that’s the easiest way to make a driver happy is allow him to earn a little bit more cash,

man.

There’s no question about that.

Well,

gentlemen,

this has been an awesome uh,

peek behind the curtain to the relationship between driver and dispatcher.

I really appreciate you guys taking the time to come on today.

I also want to give you a chance to shout out anybody that might be listening.

Uh Any of your uh coworkers,

any of your family,

anything like that.

Uh Drew will start with you if you’ve got anything to say the floor is yours.

Yeah,

just uh thanks to James,

you know,

for,

you know,

being a good dispatcher and everything and he keeps me running,

which I like.

So,

you know,

I have uh II I sum it up as you know,

uh happy wife,

happy life and my wife loves it when I bring home a fat check.

So,

you know,

James has a big part to play in that,

you know,

keep me running so I can keep the wife happy man.

So,

but yeah,

that,

that’s about it.

Ok.

And how about you,

James?

Anything to say to anybody that might be listening,

not really besides,

you know,

communicate with us.

There’s a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that uh the drivers may not know about,

you know,

we kinda have a good idea of what’s going on,

uh what’s going on with your load,

what time you sh you should be there.

So,

you know,

we may not be communicating with you right off the bat,

but we may be working out behind the scenes trying to get you an early loading appointment or get you all loaded early.

So if you think we’re not doing anything,

I mean,

some of us are,

we’re trying to get you unloaded early trying to keep you rolling.

I got it.

And so everybody’s doing their job,

everybody’s working hard.

Uh Sometimes it doesn’t always go as planned,

but a lot of times it sounds like that’s out of your guys’ control and you’re just left to pick up the pieces which,

hey,

you do a really good job at that from what I hear.

And uh again,

I just wanna say thank you to Liquid Driver Drew Hearn and uh Liquid Dispatcher,

James Nuno.

You guys were awesome today.

We’ll definitely get you back on in the future.

All right.

All right,

thanks Marcus.

All right.

Have a good day.

Where did you make it to?

I am currently in a truck stop,

quick trip.

Uh I don’t know off of highway 80.

Oh,

somewhere out yonder.

Yeah,

I’ll give it somewhere.

Just give it a little peek behind the curtain of what a conversation between a driver and a dispatcher sounds like here on the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

Uh I am joined right now by Era Pena uh Driver for Liquid Trucking.

Thank you so much for being here,

my friend.

Thank you for having me,

of course.

And also we’ve got dispatcher,

Corey Lyles on the line,

Corey.

Appreciate the time.

Yes,

sir.

Yes,

sir.

Now,

uh you guys were just chatting a little bit there and that uh that did actually make the episode because I was already recording.

So,

uh,

just a little,

like I said,

a little peek behind the curtain of what those conversations sound like.

Uh,

I got you guys on here today because obviously we’re talking about the known disconnect,

uh,

sometimes.

So I’ve heard,

you know,

sometimes it’s tough for drivers and dispatchers to,

uh,

stay in touch constantly with all of the drivers that dispatchers are constantly working with in all the different loads.

Things can get very quickly.

And,

uh,

that’s what we got you guys on here to talk about today.

Uh,

I’ll start with you,

Ara,

how long has Corey been your dispatcher since I started about a year and a month ago?

Ok.

So he’s been the only one you’ve had the whole time.

He started with the best.

That’s all you gotta do.

Ok?

Ok.

Now he’s getting full of himself.

Ok?

Well,

then go ahead,

I’m gonna have you rate your dispatcher then from 1 to 10.

I want to hear it Oh,

you hear that?

I’m gonna have that lay it out.

Give it,

I’m gonna give him like an 8.5 because sometimes,

no,

no,

I’ll give him a 10.

I’ll give him a 10.

He gets stuff done.

What type of things does Corey do for you out there on the road that make your job a little bit easier?

I have so many.

Did you hear the sarcasm?

I did.

He’s laying it on pretty thick.

No,

he,

he helps me out with the loads,

making sure I know where I’m going for the next day.

Even though I hound him a little bit about it,

but he’s like,

give me a minute,

you know.

But yeah,

he helps me quite a bit with making sure I’m constantly moving.

That’s good.

I mean,

that’s,

that means you’re making money.

Yeah,

I would hope every good dispatcher’s got to have a little bit of that motivation behind him.

I would say,

you know,

that’s,

that’s,

that’s overall my objective.

You guys are here to drive,

man when they’re stopped and parking the,

granted,

this is trucking.

It’s gonna happen.

That’s my objective.

Keep him rolling,

keep the tires moving.

You know,

those tires are moving,

we’re making money.

He’s making money.

The company is making money.

That’s the objective.

We don’t make money parked and stop that truck stop.

Absolutely.

And,

and what’s something that,

uh,

era does on your side,

Corey that makes your day a little bit easier.

What would you,

if you could say,

take a trait from him and,

uh,

kind of copy it over to other drivers that you work with.

What would that be here?

We go.

He stays on top of it.

No.

And honestly he stays on top of the stuff,

you know,

he,

he likes to say he housed me.

You know,

I don’t know.

I have 35 or some odd drivers,

35 to 40.

I don’t know.

But so,

you know,

it’s like you said,

it does get hectic but,

you know,

he stays on top of me to make sure he knows where he’s going next.

So I generally those drivers that load plan for the next day and they’re serious about it.

They want their loads as soon as possible,

try to get those loads planned first so they know where they’re going so they can load plan so they can have an idea of what they’re doing.

You know,

e he’s a younger guy.

So,

you know,

he stays out for me all week,

but he has a family at home.

So my objective is to get him home as early on Friday as possible.

So he can have that time with his family and his newborn.

So,

you know,

he,

he loves plans.

He’s very self sufficient.

You know,

I can tell him what to do and rest assured that it’s gonna get done.

I don’t have to keep checking up on him and micromanage human anyway.

That’s great.

I mean,

that’s,

that’s gotta be a guy with 35 drivers dream is that you don’t have to worry about him.

Yeah,

make 35 drivers seem like 25.

So,

uh,

was it hard for you guys to,

to kind of formulate this relationship?

I mean,

listening to you talk,

you sound like you’ve been fast friends for a decade plus.

Uh,

how quickly did you guys start to click like this and know that you were gonna work really well together.

Uh I mean,

honestly,

I think from day one,

you can kind of tell,

you know,

I,

I’ve been,

I’ve been in this business for quite a while so you can kind of tell those people that are gonna be movers and shakers,

so to speak,

that kinda are gonna be those go getter type,

you know,

drivers.

And I think from day one,

he kind of set that tempo and that’s kind of been,

you know,

you see it off of that,

the driver shows you,

he wants to do more.

He’s not,

you know,

he’s not gonna drag his ass,

you know,

he wants to get stuff done,

you know,

you lean on those type of drivers because you know what you can get out of them.

And so,

you know,

it goes two ways,

you know,

if he,

if he needs something,

hey,

I need off early this day,

he knows he can call me and I’m gonna get it done for him.

So,

you know,

I think that that was developed and created in the very beginning.

I don’t want you to throw your shoulder out,

patting yourself on the back here.

But that was a pretty uh pretty good representation there of,

of your abilities and skills on the job.

Uh What did you think when you,

you got Corey assigned as your dispatcher?

Uh How quickly did you know that things were gonna work out really well for you.

I would say the same thing about,

you know,

I went in,

I had a good attitude,

you know,

that’s the main thing,

you know,

anywhere you go,

any new shipper customer,

whatever it is,

you know,

as long as you got a good attitude going in,

they’re gonna respect that.

They’re gonna look at that and be like,

hey,

you know,

like this guy could be a good guy and from there on,

you know,

I just,

Corey had a good vibe.

Everybody in the office did and,

ok,

I’m gonna like this now,

every working relationship takes its lumps.

Uh,

obviously you guys wouldn’t be as close if you hadn’t gone through some stuff together.

Uh,

do you have an example of a story when things kind of went off the rails?

Maybe you guys got a little bit hot into the collar with each other.

But,

uh,

well,

as a matter of fact,

I don’t even know,

you know,

hasn’t been many issues but,

uh,

uh,

you know,

you don’t see everything that goes on on the road,

obviously.

But when those things do come up,

sometimes,

you know,

you have to have those conversations with your drivers and let them know,

you know,

we can have fun,

but at the end of the day,

it’s business,

we have to be safe.

We have to get this stuff done on time tely efficiently.

Um,

and,

you know,

there was an incident recently that I had to sit down with that frame and it was an issue that he didn’t want to discuss because I think he more so wanted to forget it.

But,

you know,

you have to have those tough conversations.

So I had to sit down with him,

you know,

lay the law down so to speak on what the ex expectations were and we don’t want to have this happen again.

You know,

you’re a good driver,

let’s don’t let this one incident kinda set the precedent for the future.

So,

you know,

those are the type of incidents you don’t want to,

but you have to,

sometimes you have to have a tough conversations and it’s not me trying to be an ass.

Um you know,

but it’s what the expectations are.

And I think,

I think from my perspective,

he received it well,

you know,

start talking to the bad boy,

so to speak and we’re go about our day,

you know,

and we,

we learn from those mistakes.

But that’s pretty much the gist of it.

There’s really been no huge incident other than,

you know,

the one we’re speaking of and he knows what it is.

You know,

I do and,

you know,

when it something goes on and I take full thought,

full responsibility for something,

whatever it is,

you know,

I’m not gonna try to blame it on somebody else or any of that.

You know,

when something happens,

I want to take the responsibility.

It was me.

Well,

that’s good.

I mean,

I,

I think that everybody,

every dispatcher would like that out of a driver.

Just take responsibility for what,

uh,

what you may have,

you know,

caused whether it be on purpose or not on purpose.

Uh,

you know,

that’s,

that’s part of being an adult,

right?

I mean,

we’re all out here trying to pull our weight,

take responsibility.

Yep.

Absolutely.

You know,

I don’t want my drivers,

uh,

there’s something that goes on.

I want my drivers to feel comfortable,

comfortable and confident enough that they can call me first.

I’d rather hear it from them than somebody else.

But that’s when,

you know,

that’s when the temper flares is when I have to find out something from somebody else.

Instead of learning it from my driver.

I don’t like being blindsided.

Definitely and always follow the chain of command.

Whatever it is,

like you said in the last episode,

sometimes Corey may not be able to take all the calls because,

you know,

there’s so many people calling him at once that,

you know,

it gets overwhelming but you gotta follow the chain of command.

Give him a little bit of time,

you know,

so he could call you back.

But,

you know,

just don’t go over and beyond.

Sure.

Don’t call him when he’s sleeping in the middle of the night at like,

2 a.m. You’ve never done that,

have you?

Oh,

no,

no,

no,

no,

they know better.

Yeah,

there has been a couple of times that I wanted to but I’m like,

uh,

no,

no,

no,

no.

He waited until 4:30 a.m. to call me.

Oh,

how nice of him.

That’s,

you know,

right at the,

right at the best part of the morning for 30 AM.

Hey,

but there’s some issues,

you know,

you gotta let them know,

hey,

it’s gonna be a late start because of this or that and I can’t get through.

Where are you at?

I don’t know.

Well,

grab a coffee and a doughnut because it’s gonna be a long day.

Well,

uh,

I,

I really,

one thing that I’m curious about if Ray,

is this your first,

uh,

job as a driver?

No,

it is not.

I was actually a flatbed before this.

Ok.

So,

did you have some experience with some less than uh acceptable dispatchers in your previous career?

Oh,

yeah,

I could say I have.

What about those guys,

uh,

didn’t work out.

Like,

why did they suck?

Uh,

some of the reasons is because they would never be on top of the game.

One thing is,

you know,

at least Corey,

he gets back to me when he needs to or whatever issue I have,

uh,

the last dispatch I had was,

or dragging his feet and he wouldn’t get back to me for a couple of days roughly.

And,

yeah,

and it just would be,

I wouldn’t know where I would be going the next day or anything or I would know like last minute or things like that where they’re not on top of their game and they just don’t pay attention to the small details.

Sure.

Uh I mean,

and that’s,

it’s,

I think it comes down to some consideration for the person on the other end too because,

you know,

you can tell that you guys care about each other.

I mean,

if,

if one of you guys uh was in a stitch,

it sounds like the other one would be there to help out if needed.

If you don’t have that type of connect with the person that is,

is your dispatcher as a driver.

I imagine that the driver doesn’t have that connection or the,

excuse me,

the dispatcher doesn’t have that connection.

They don’t care about you as much as a person.

They’re less likely to put a lot of concern into how your day is gonna shape out.

That’s true,

man.

You gotta have respect and,

you know,

uh,

mutual respect goes a long way.

You know,

I’m,

I’m no stranger.

These guys get up and leave their house and leave their family and it’s not something that I would do and you have to respect that.

You know what I mean?

That the thing is they’re putting it all on the line and leaving their family for a week.

I leave my family for a day and I get pissed off sometimes,

you know,

I like I got,

I got a 20 acre farm,

I’d much rather have,

you know,

shooting something growing something whatever.

But you know,

you get up and leave your home and uh you,

you take those risks,

take those chances for the rewards and you gotta have that respect for these guys because they’re out there doing the job that a lot of people won’t do.

Absolutely very well said.

Uh actually,

you know what,

before we go any further,

I do wanna ask uh Ifra,

you I heard the the word newborn mentioned earlier.

Uh congratulations first and foremost.

How old is the little one?

The little one is a year and a half right now.

Oh,

ok.

Alright son,

he’s a little toddler,

he’s a toddler.

There you go.

Toddler’s better.

I mean,

I look at it in the in kind of from the scope of the room is newborn.

You’re comparing it to all of us.

Uh but yeah,

as far as,

as far as conventional wisdom is concerned,

we can go with toddler there.

Uh,

boy or girl.

He is a boy.

All right.

And so is it like when Corey talked about breaking out his dad voice?

I imagine if you called him at 2 a.m. is when you get peak dad voice?

Are you taking notes for when you know,

you get older and you gotta break out your dad voice of your own?

Oh God.

Oh,

yeah,

definitely.

Take a note.

I mean,

it sounds like Curry’s got a pretty good dad voice.

I,

I don’t know,

but it sounds like it.

I get a tipper sometimes I try not to let it show but certain things just piss you off.

What do you do?

You get pissed off?

That’s,

I mean,

I don’t think you have a choice there.

I mean,

I can’t hit him through a phone so sometimes you gotta yell at him.

Yeah,

you can wait behind the door in the break room though.

Sooner or later he’ll walk in.

Usually when he starts yelling,

I can just go ahead and hang up and then call him back and be like,

are you done yet?

Yeah.

And then he gets routed through the yard the next day and he knows what’s up.

Gotcha.

Gotcha.

So,

uh,

you know,

I asked,

I asked era this question,

Corey,

I’m gonna ask you too.

What types of things would you copy about if rain and,

and,

uh,

you know,

teach other drivers on how to,

how to be like him,

uh,

efficiency and punctuality.

You know,

those are two things in this business that,

uh,

uh,

to be successful,

man,

you have to be punctual.

You know,

I used to run other trucking companies at the higher up and I operated those companies off the set of core values and one of those core values was do what you say you’re gonna do.

Uh,

you know,

and that he certainly does what he tells me he’s gonna do.

You know,

I don’t have to tell him,

hey,

get your ass out of bed,

you know,

435 o’clock,

he’s up and moving,

you know,

it’s 10,

it up and that’s,

those are the things,

you know,

you get some drivers,

they want to spend 1213 hours in sleep at birth,

they drag their ass,

they’re late to a load,

you know,

and then I’m here left on this side kind of dealing with,

you know,

the company or the shipper and,

you know,

those are the type of things but efficiency and punctuality,

you know,

be a self starter,

be self motivated,

you know,

what you gotta do.

Let’s get out there and get it done.

You know what the expectations are?

That’s,

that’s anything more than that.

You can’t really ask for a lot out of a drive.

Sure.

Well,

I think you just,

uh,

you just went through a checklist on why I wouldn’t be a good driver right there because,

you know,

1213 hours in a sleeper berth.

That sounds like one hell of a nap,

man,

I’m in uh but I also understand you guys got some good TV in your trucks as well.

So it’s like I can see it being hard for a guy like me.

But I’m glad to hear uh if Ray that you’re driven and motivated and punctual,

that is one of my biggest pet peeves in the world.

Don’t tell me you’re gonna be here at five and show up at 10 after I can’t stand that.

And I imagine how tight your guys’ schedules are and all the different changing things in the landscape of,

of what you deal with during the day,

man being punctual is,

is like top notch important.

Yeah,

definitely.

And like I said,

you know,

going back to what I said,

you know,

as long as like I said,

Corey’s pretty on top of this stuff and he lets me know where I’m going the next day.

So that helps me plan,

you know,

when to shut down.

What time do I gotta be there and all that?

Like you said,

you know,

I’m usually up,

well,

there’s times where I leave at three in the morning.

So that means I wake up at 230 in the morning if I’m home or whatever it is,

you know,

get rolling,

you know,

drink my coffee,

energy,

drink,

whatever you need.

A little gym time and get going,

you know,

you’re not gonna be sitting there the whole time and then get your drop off late and that’s where issues start.

And obviously dispatchers don’t like you being late.

No.

And when I don’t answer your phone calls,

I’m dealing with somebody else.

Like just so,

you know,

this is crazy Corey.

I mean,

he,

you,

you kind of talk about him like he sounds like a model driver.

But I gotta be honest,

a Fran,

you sound like a model human.

Like you’re in the gym,

you’re up early,

you got your coffee and your caffeine.

Don’t believe that he has one of those little squishy balls.

That’s what he does.

Oh Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hey man,

workouts,

a workout.

All right,

I got a grip tester up here in the studio and I just got my workout in right before this call.

It was all of 30 seconds and my wrists feel great.

So,

uh well,

the thing is,

it doesn’t take much.

I mean,

even if the driver is at a truck stop or wherever he’s parked,

just walk around the,

a little bit,

you know,

wake yourself up and get some blood pumping.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

No,

you’re right.

And uh actually coming up around the corner here,

uh maybe an episode or two in the future,

we’re gonna have uh a few professionals on to talk about ways to help stay healthy on the road and in my,

in my past dealings with uh with doctors,

you know,

I have a physical therapist that I’ve chatted with about this type of thing.

And he had a story that he told me about that.

It’s kind of down the same lines.

Uh Fran where he said I had a driver that drank 24 regular pepsis every day of the week.

And he was of course,

really unhealthy.

But he said,

I,

the way that I started to turn this around was I said,

can you make one of them a diet?

And the guy started drinking 23 regulars in one diet a day and it’s just incremental,

man.

If it’s one lap around the truck that gets your blood pumping,

that’s good next day.

Make it too,

you know.

Yeah,

definitely.

And I don’t even want to know what 24 Pepsi’s look,

it would look like on the other end.

That’s just,

I mean,

I can’t,

how do you get anywhere?

You’re always pulled over?

Trying to,

well,

I mean,

I’ve seen those highway Gatorades,

uh,

enough to know that they’re getting it done,

man.

Bottle all the jugs and the medians and everything.

00,

yeah.

Yeah.

You guys seen it.

I mean,

I,

I can’t even imagine how many of those you see,

actually afraid.

And that’s a good question.

Are there worse stretches for,

uh,

for pea bottles on the side of the road than others out there in the US?

Gosh,

man,

I can’t tell you.

Oh,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no.

I,

I like truck stops.

I like truck stops or porta potties that I actually find.

Like,

imagine just like,

I don’t know,

imagine missing for some reason,

you know,

I,

I could not,

I think about it all the time.

That’s all I think about is missing or like,

you know,

you go to throw it out the window and the cap’s not all the way on like something like that.

Just Yeah.

No,

thank you,

man.

And I,

I need you.

Yeah,

exactly.

But I will tell you this since I asked you that question,

I challenge you to not think about that.

Now,

when you’re driving down the road and you see one,

you’re gonna be like,

man,

am I on the bad stretch right now?

You’re gonna start counting them.

So next time we have you on,

we’ll,

we’ll have our research project commence,

man.

I’m really looking forward to that.

That sounds good.

Well,

fellas,

uh we’re running up against the clock here a little bit.

I’ve really enjoyed having you on today.

This has been a really fun conversation and uh just a great peek behind the curtain of,

of the relationship that forms between drivers and dispatchers before I let you go.

I want to give you one chance to uh shout out anybody that might be listening,

whether they be working for liquid or not.

Uh The floor is yours Corey,

you can say whatever you like all of you Bardo drivers.

Thank you.

You make my life very easy.

I appreciate what you do.

Day in and day out.

Keep it going,

man.

Stay safe.

And as always I’m here.

What do you need me?

Love the shout out to Bardo.

We don’t get a lot of those on the podcast.

Always happy to keep them involved.

So thank you for that.

Uh If rain,

you’re up next,

man.

Anything you wanna say?

I just want to give a shout out to everybody in liquid trucking who helps from the maintenance shop in Plattsmouth all the way down to Bartow Maintenance.

You know,

whenever I need something,

they’re always there and I need a tow or something,

they always come out and get me.

Perfect.

All right,

fellas.

Uh That’s,

that’s uh Corey Lyles and era paying you for liquid trucking.

You guys are awesome.

Stay safe out there,

era and we will be back in touch with both of you soon,

ok?

That is Mr Din,

ok.

You get one message,

Mr the PNA.

I got it.

All right,

you guys will whip me into shape sooner or later.

I might take longer than a driver or dispatcher normally would,

but I’ll get there.

All right,

we’ll get you there.

No worries.

Thanks guys.

Time to shut her down for the night.

My clock is out of time and we are also out of time here on the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

Really appreciate y’all stopping by today and uh don’t forget to click that subscribe button that helps us out a lot.

And also once again,

just to reiterate what we talked about off the top.

If you want to be on this podcast,

you can definitely make that happen.

Head over to Liquid trucking.com.

Click the learn more link next to the picture of me and the podcast logo and that’ll take you to a landing page where you’ll get everything that you need.

I wanna say a giant thank you to all of the people that stopped by and shared their time with us today.

Starting off with Josh Schmidt GM of Liquid Trucking and load planner tanner,

Bowman,

dispatcher James Nuno,

driver Drew Hearn dispatcher,

Corey Lyles and driver era Pena.

You guys are awesome.

I really appreciate all of the insight and uh you know,

that that conversation with Corey and a friend was so great because I feel like if they were sitting there next to each other rather than on the phone,

they’d be punching each other in the arm or throwing spitballs at each other,

you know,

stuff that friends do.

And uh I love to hear those relationships kind of get featured here on air.

So big.

Thanks to all you guys hats off to everyone out there at Liquid.

You guys are doing a great job.

It’s a great company to work for and I’m having an absolute blast doing this podcast for you.

So,

tune in next week and,

uh,

you’ll see what we’ve got in store.

I’m not even sure yet.

We’ve got so many things to talk about.

We haven’t even pinned it down or maybe we haven’t,

I just don’t want to tell you yet.

You decide we’ll see you next week.

Thanks for tuning in and being the gold standard of drivers on the road.

Be sure to like and subscribe to the channel and tune in next week for another episode of the Liquid Trucking Podcast.