What’s good out there?

Liquid Trucking?

Welcome to the Liquid Trucking Podcast episode 24 with me,

your host,

Marcus.

Thank you all so much for being here today.

I’m super excited about today’s show because we have a special guest that’s going to join us,

who’s never been on the show before.

Uh His name is Jared Flynn from Bulk loads.com and uh,

Jared has his own podcast that you can check out over at uh the bulk Loads podcast.

You can find that on all the platforms.

Definitely take a look at it.

Jared,

uh created bulk loads or at least is a,

is an operating partner in bulk loads.

And,

uh,

it’s a great website,

Liquid Trucking,

I think has a great relationship with uh bulk loads and,

uh,

we’re gonna talk to him and Nick Meyer as well as Tanner Bowman.

Coming up here in a little bit about some,

uh some,

some trends that they’ve seen things in the industry,

you know,

just good old truck drive and talk and Jared’s a great person to do that with very involved in the industry.

Has a lot of connections and is a,

a great mind for this industry as well.

Um,

but first before we get to that,

you know,

it’s been a little bit here since we’ve gotten to any industry news on the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

And I mean,

I have this button so it’s like I want to press it.

Uh,

these stories aren’t like,

uh,

you know,

world changing or earth shattering or anything like that.

It’s just some cool stories that I thought,

uh,

might be fun to talk about.

Uh,

this one coming from freight waves actually and I was not aware of this,

but more high school students are,

uh,

are getting behind the wheel of trucks as dozens of high schools across the US offer classes to help them obtain their CD L.

How cool would that have been?

I mean,

just you’re listening to this as a driver,

maybe you didn’t get into driving right out of high school.

Maybe you had another career before you jumped into driving.

But let’s just say that you wanted to get into driving right out of high school.

How cool would this be then get class credit to go and learn how to drive and back and shift and all the things I love this.

The,

the,

the article here says the driving force behind the trucking classes is the desire to band career opportunities for high schoolers and bolster the professional driving field,

the American Trucking Associations reports that the industry will need to recruit 1.2 million drivers over the next decade to meet demand though some in the industry dispute whether there is a truck driver shortage.

David Casto 21 took Patterson high school’s truck driving class,

an elective course open to seniors at the California school before going to college for one year,

Casto had the dreams of being a cardiologist,

but that plan was shattered when the financial strain of the Coronavirus pandemic left his parents without jobs causing them to be evicted from their home.

Uh He moved to Texas with his dad,

but then re uh returned to California to get his CD L building on the knowledge he learned in his high school classroom.

That decision enabled him to provide stable housing for his parents and himself.

Trucking provided a financial lifeline that would have otherwise not been available.

This is so cool and,

and look,

this is one story out of what could probably be thousands,

hundreds of thousands of similar stories that happened during COVID and guess what we all needed during COVID toilet paper on the shelves.

So it would have been real nice to have these then.

Uh maybe they did obviously kind of right around them,

but it looks like there’s about 50 schools across 15 states in the union uh that have this program.

Uh The president and co-founder of the next generation and trucking association works with high schoolers.

Uh That’s Lindsay Trent is her name.

She works with high schools across the country that want to offer CD L classes since the nonprofit Trade Association’s founding in 2021 she said the organization has met with some 300 high schools with over 50 of them adopting it really cool stuff there.

Uh,

big hats off to next generation and Trucking Association and Lindsay Trent.

I love this.

Uh,

this one is a little bit more.

Uh,

it did turn your eyebrow up at it but,

uh coming out of truckers news.com,

more than 29,000 Freightliner and Western Star trucks have been recalled to repair a steer axle problem.

Daimler trucks,

North America LLC is recalling certain 23 and 24 Freightliner 108 SD 114 SD business class M two Cascadia 2024 Western Star 57 X and 2023 Freightliner 122 SDS.

The steer axle wheel FLS on these trucks may crack and cause damage to the tires which could cause a crash according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,

uh,

remedy is currently under development owner,

notification letters are expected to be mailed June 2nd.

Uh So if you’re listening to this and you have one of those trucks that you like to drive,

look for that letter in the mail because obviously it’s a recall,

it’ll get fixed.

Uh,

but you don’t want to be cruising around out there with faulty equipment that’s not safe and we all care about safety here on the liquid trucking podcast,

you know that,

uh let’s move on to an article that I found at aftermarket news.com.

Uh This is pretty cool.

The Women in Trucking Association,

Truck Stop and Transportation Intermediaries Association have announced Sarah Ruffcorn,

President of Trinity Logistics as the winner of the 10th annual Distinguished Woman in Logistics Award.

Ruffcorn was chosen among three finalists for the award.

The other finalists include Sherry Garner Brumbaugh,

president and CEO of Garner Trucking Incorporated Ramona Hood president and Ceo Fedex Custom Critical Inc and uh the finalists and winner were recognized during the ti a 2024 capital ideas conference and exhibition.

Uh So,

you know what,

we got a lot of great women in trucking and this is just one more that gets honored and we’ll definitely throw her a shout out and a round of applause on the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

Sarah Ruffcorn again is her name,

President of Trinity Logistics.

Congratulations to you,

Sarah.

And finally,

this one coming out of the great state of Oregon.

Uh And I’m,

I’m actually getting the news article here off KTL A out of L A.

Uh because there were no news outlets in Oregon that decided to cover this one.

There are images along with this.

Yes,

forward facing camera.

If you will,

a Portland long haul truck drivers on the mend after a damn turkey went through his windshield causing the truck to crash earlier this month,

Dave Duel who normally commutes from Portland to Medford Oregon and back five days a week was heading south driving a semi truck and triple trailer combo.

When a Turkey came flying out of the grassy median,

the bird struck through the windshield shattering it and hitting duel on the left side of his face,

knocking him unconscious and left through the window behind him.

The Turkey of course duel then veered off into a field,

hit a small tree and was life flighted to the nearest hospital with severe head injuries.

His daughter,

Emily,

uh Emily Jean duel told coin news that when she visited her father in the hospital,

they both use humor as a coping mechanism.

She says,

quote.

So the first thing I said to him in the hospital room was something along the lines of so you took a turkey can into the face and then he was laughing a lot.

Uh,

end quote.

Uh Her father has no memory of the incident.

Thankfully,

he is now on the mend.

She says,

quote,

he’s doing really good.

The swelling is as far as I’m aware down insanely,

he’s able to talk clear and has sight in his right eye.

Now,

meanwhile,

Dave’s coworker created a gofundme to raise money after the crash with Emily Jean saying it’s been the family’s blessing.

Uh Right now,

Dave has been discharged from the hospital and is wearing an eye patch ahead of surgery which will happen sometime this week,

Dave,

bro,

you gotta watch out for them.

Turkey’s out there,

man.

And now I will say this.

Um,

and,

and I wanted to play this just because turkey’s eagles,

whatever you gotta watch out for birds on the road,

nothing Dave could have done in this situation,

obviously.

And not the first time I’ve heard a story about a turkey or a buzzard or something like that going through a windshield.

You know,

the thing about turkeys out here in the Pacific Northwest,

they don’t fly very high.

I’m pretty sure that’s kind of the thing for Turkeys in general.

These things get like 5 6 ft off the ground and,

and they don’t do very much more than that so perfect windshield height when you’re talking about a semi truck,

uh,

our,

our thoughts go out to Dave Duel and,

uh,

his family hoping for a full recovery there and for the rest of you watch out for the turkeys.

Let’s get to our interview next with Jared from bulk loads.

Really?

Looking forward to this one.

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

This is the Liquid Trucking podcast with your host,

Marcus Bridges.

Next up here on the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

I’ve got a full house and I’m very excited about it.

I’m joined,

uh,

by three people from Liquid Trucking today.

We’ve got Nick Meyer here in the room.

Nick,

thanks for being with us.

Yes,

it’s good to be here.

Good to have you Tanner Bowman on with me yet again,

Tanner.

Thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me and of course,

uh I even call him the co-host.

Sometimes we got Jason Eisenman in here.

Jason,

what’s up back?

Like a bad habit?

But I like it.

I like it too,

man.

Always glad to have you and our guest today here on the Liquid Trucking Podcast has his own podcast that you can listen to.

It’s called the Bulk Loads Podcast.

He is the operating partner for bulk Loads.

His name is Jared Flynn.

Jared.

We really appreciate you coming in and joining us today.

How are you?

Hey,

I’m good.

Thank you guys for having me on,

bro.

Appreciate it.

Of course.

Now,

today’s topic is to talk about trucking in general.

Of course,

bulk loads and liquid do a lot of business together.

I guess we start out maybe Nick,

I’ll go to you.

Can you talk to me a little bit about the relationship between bulk loads and liquid trucking?

How you guys get on?

It’s a love hate deal because there’s a lot of brokers on there and they have not been the easiest to deal with,

but I tell you what,

it certainly helped us with back hauls and we’ve gotten some good accounts from it as well.

So it’s hit and miss each day,

but it’s growing currently,

there’s 1224 loads on there.

Um,

and so that gives us some options when we’re desperately trying to get a truck out of somewhere.

It’s,

it’s very beneficial to us.

Jared.

Can you tell me just a little bit about how bulk loads got started?

And what exactly it is that I can find when I head over to bulk loads.com.

Yeah,

absolutely.

I want to tail off with Nixon because I,

I think he was spot on when he said it,

it’s a love hate relationship and that’s the way we portray ourselves in the industry.

I,

I don’t wanna say love hate all the time,

but we are a service that you have to use when you probably in a pinch or you,

you’re,

you need help,

but then you don’t want to use it when you don’t have to help.

Because again,

the,

the service it is typically most companies are trying to use our service,

whether it’s to find loads when they can’t find loads out there from their network of shippers or brokers.

And then on the reverse side,

shippers are out there hosting loads when they can’t find carriers in their network.

But yeah,

so some of all of boat loads,

we are a marketplace or generic word load board or the bulk trucking industry.

And when we say bulk,

all bolt loads,

we consider liquid in bulk and dry bulk.

So with all the liquid side,

it can be anything from your fuels or your food grade,

anything that’s gonna be liquid on the dry bulk side,

if it can be anything,

agriculture wise,

fertilizer wise,

even industrial wise.

So anything that’s gonna be bulk loaded into a trailer is what we come on BS and talk to me about the podcast a little bit.

What are you guys talking about on the bulk loads podcast which you can download on a lot of the same platforms that you’re listening to this podcast on right now?

Yeah.

J Marcus.

So we started the Bolt Clothes podcast back in 2018.

So I think we’re just honing in on 300 episodes.

We released one a week and I was like,

enjoy,

they like we started podcasting before everybody else started podcasting.

No,

no offense to them.

But we,

we really saw a need in and so we serve over 8000 companies today on our platform and majority of those meeting in trucking companies.

I think 6000 of those are trucking companies,

our truck companies,

we know spend a lot of time in the cab.

And what’s one thing that they have a lot of time to do is to listen or get content information.

And so that’s why we found the BSE podcast back in 2018,

was really to provide good content to be trucking companies,

business wise,

but we do everything,

family business,

anything in,

in,

in trucking and,

and business related.

I come from a whole game.

I grew up on a small family farm.

I actually drove a truck for a while and I really use a lot of my background and history and to help promote our industry.

So I think we have a saying around here it’s not nothing we really broadcast away.

Our goal is to take companies or people from poverty to prosperity.

II,

I say that can be closely but like anybody,

we’re trying to help grow their business.

So anyway,

if they are one truck operation,

they want to be in a five truck operation.

We wanna try to get them there that there are five truck.

I want to be a 20 truck,

we try to get them there.

So the vol podcast really trying to provide a good content to help people grow in the business.

It’s really good.

I took a listen in the preparation for this segment.

You guys do great and your studio is topnotch 10 out of 10.

I’m sitting there looking at it right now.

You got the back end of a semi trailer behind you as a backdrop.

Like this is the coolest trucking podcast studio I’ve ever seen hands down.

I’m just sitting here with a green screen man.

Where can I get one of those?

Yeah,

I,

I bring that up.

Actually,

we just got this in.

But friends of ours at Porn hustler porn hustle 800 trailers.

They donated this backdrop for us.

And yeah,

we got this idea last fall.

We had some of our,

some of our guys out in Utah and clients and they saw the trailer just like this in the office and uh they sent me a picture and they’re like,

man,

how about we do this for the Bolt was Podcast?

Yeah,

that’s where we got.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We’re constantly trying to improve uh our podcast.

We started uh our podcast on youtube,

I think over a year.

So before that,

it was cy audio.

Now we do video and we’ve seen tremendous growth from that.

We’re always trying to figure out what’s the next,

what’s the next kind of cool item we can add in the studio to,

to how it was B free.

That’s great,

man.

It looks really nice tanner.

I want to go to you.

Can you talk to me a little bit about how you work with,

with Jared and bulk loads?

I don’t know if you guys work together directly.

I’m sure that you both have a lot of stuff going on.

But how do you utilize bulk loads,

Tanner in,

in your day to day?

Yes,

we don’t,

I don’t deal with Jared directly to be totally honest.

But the website itself,

it’s a very good educational tool for me.

Specifically moving liquids is a pretty neat business.

Still.

There’s not a lot of people out there that can do it or can do it efficiently quite frankly.

And a lot of the,

a lot of the lanes on there,

like Nick touched on,

we look for on both loads are gonna be back holes for us.

Uh I will go in there though and I utilize the radius tool a lot to see what’s within a certain radius of our plats terminal or South Sioux City terminal to see which shippers might be trying to broker up freight,

find cheaper freight.

And it’s allowed me to reach out to those customers directly and say,

hey,

are you upset with our service?

Do we do anything wrong?

What’s going on?

And what I do find a lot of times is actually these are just customer pickups.

It’s nothing that,

that liquid trucking is doing wrong.

It’s just for whatever reason,

they didn’t want the shipper to arrange freight and it’s not always the case,

but nine times out of 10,

that’s what the case is.

But a lot of the stuff that’s closer to our terminals.

We,

I don’t wanna say have locks down,

but we’ve made a pretty strong effort in making sure that they know we’re here and they can just reach out to us directly.

So I utilize this at it’s at the core for back holes and kind of research purposes.

That’s great.

And it sounds like it works really well for that.

Jason you’re in there,

but you’ve been quiet,

man.

Is there anything you want to jump in here?

I I don’t want to leave you out of the conversation here,

but uh you also talked about maybe leaving and letting us handle this.

So I just wanna make sure you’re still hanging out with us back there.

Yeah,

absolutely.

I think you guys have done a great job.

We’ve met Jared in person.

I was on Buck Loads podcast.

Thanks again for that.

It was,

he gave us the opportunity to talk about what was going on here at li trucking that might have been a year or two back now.

But it was good to be a guest on their podcast.

In addition to that though,

I’d like to highlight Jared’s got a couple of other things going on at Bull close,

a conglomeration of opportunities.

So if you’re a driver listening or a trucking company listening or a small carry,

like you mentioned,

I know that he’s got a factoring offering and then a trucking insurance as well.

I do want to talk about that or touch on that at all,

Jared.

Yeah,

and Jason,

thank you so much.

Uh man,

I’m humbled that you bring some of those others out.

But yeah,

we really tried to expand.

So we started in 2011 and just with the,

the loan board and for us,

we just all need to help all companies but probably small business owners in,

in all facets of business.

Yeah,

2014,

we launched smart freight funding,

which is our backing arm.

It’s based up there out of Omaha.

Actually,

it’s in Waterloo,

Nebraska.

So just north of you guys and that was the first arm that we,

we opened up to service any kind of facts.

We got a company out there and then you get paid quicker or just one help on their back end.

We know a lot of motor operators,

a lot of businesses,

including myself.

I don’t like dealing with collecting bills.

So if you want to outsource that we would love to serve in that aspect.

But yeah,

insurance was another one we saw that I don’t,

I don’t think there’s anyone on this podcast that enjoys insurance,

including myself.

It’s something that we all dread,

but it’s something that we have to have.

And we just saw that insurance.

It,

it’s interesting because I guess the play,

I’ll say so boldly.

It’s not so much saving people money but helping people through the process better because insurance is insurance.

It doesn’t matter where you shop,

but you got 10 large carriers out there and there,

there’s some savings and there’s things you can do as a company to help save on premiums.

But it’s really that experience and like a lot of people really don’t like the experiences they deal with.

So one thing that we saw was the opportunity to provide more customer service,

more customer experience and just make that process a easier and probably a lot less friction.

And then there is insurance one weve you and JC probably doesn’t even know about this.

We’ve even,

we’ve jumped into permitting and that’s something that we just saw.

We get a lot of people that check out blo because they’re a company driver and they wanna potentially get it in business for themselves,

but they have no idea where to stop them there.

So we help people get their authorities a lot of the regular filings that they need to do with the IRS or with the OCOT.

And that’s another service that we offer.

So,

yeah,

I guess some of that,

we really tried to just look at these same points along the journey that uh a lot of these small business companies that had to face.

And if they don’t have the staff to hire people to do that,

man,

can we help take that burden off them and hopefully let them focus because again,

the heart of it is you guys all know the truck and a lot of these guys,

they love driving the truck,

they love freedom out there,

but it’s all those little processes that just,

that aren’t very fun.

I don’t like doing them,

but we provide those services for them.

The website looks fantastic.

Again,

it’s bulk loads.com,

it’s very easy to navigate all that stuff you just talked about has its own spot right along the top factoring insurance permitting.

Uh,

you can go over to that website if you’re listening to this and thinking to yourself,

hey,

I want to check it out.

Definitely do,

go check out the website and look at everything that bulk loads has to offer.

Uh,

I want to turn the conversation a little bit here now to the freight market.

Obviously,

we’re talking about a company in bulk loads.

That’s your load boards.

What’s going on out there in the freight market?

I’ll start actually back with Nick.

I want to talk about the trends that you guys have seen as of late.

Obviously,

we know it hasn’t been looking great out there for a while.

Things were,

everybody thought August last year,

it was gonna turn around and then we thought at the end of last year,

it was gonna turn around.

I feel like we’re chasing the carrot on the stick here a little bit,

but I want to hear from professionals in the industry,

what your take is on the freight market right now.

And Nick,

you’ve been waiting patiently,

man.

We’ll go back and start with you.

What’s what’s freight market looking like to,

to Nick Meyer right now?

It’s looking a lot better than it was two or three months ago.

We are looking at hopefully growing a little bit and getting back to the freight market we had last year.

And so it’s been positive,

but we also want to continue to grow on that.

It’s been a rough year uh with every trucking company.

Um but we have been blessed enough to have good customers that have uh kept our fleet busy.

So we haven’t had two trucks or anything like that.

Uh,

it’s just,

it’s good to be busy now.

So,

but it’s a grind.

It’s a relief,

but we’re still right in that grind area where everybody’s still picking up the pieces,

I think.

And that’s well said there from you,

Tanner.

How about you,

trends you’re seeing in your day to day right now with the market?

Any thoughts you have on that?

Yeah,

Nick.

Hit the nail on the head with,

it seems to be turning a little bit.

We’re right in the middle of the fertilizer seasons.

There’s a lot of the fertilizer ingredients that are getting moved right now.

So that’s really nice.

Uh It’d be nice if that was year round,

but obviously that’s just not going to be the case when that turns off.

It does seem like it’s almost a switch where you’re just going.

Oh,

man,

where’s,

where are,

where are those 20 loads a week that we are getting out of Texas and Mississippi and Arkansas.

And so we’re gonna hold on to that for as long as we can.

And like Nick said,

we’re just trying to grow the business.

We have slowly but surely and not bite off more than we can chew.

But it’s definitely a fine line when you’re trying to balance 100 and 70 175 guys and make sure everyone’s got a load every day and minimize your deadhead.

And that’s where bull loads comes in is trying to get those in between miles back from wherever you might be out and about just trying to pay a little bit more of your way home every step of the way.

That’s where you make the money at.

It seems to be turning slowly but surely.

And we’re just trying to chugging along.

It’s great to have something like bulk loads to utilize in that battle.

You’re constantly,

it’s like Nick mentioned it,

Tanner,

you mentioned it to the love hate relationship.

When you love it,

you really love it,

right?

That’s right.

That’s the feeling I get Jason insights from you on the freight market.

I was gonna actually just hit Jared,

but we live in our kind of compartmentalized world and we work with what we work with.

But then Jared gets a different view right from his Jerry.

He gets to work with all the liquid trucking of the world and talk to all the people.

So from your seat,

Jared and when you’re talking to like multiple companies and different facets of transportation,

what are you hearing out there?

Is there,

is everybody starving still?

Is everybody eating a little now or is everyone just feet?

And what do you hear?

Yeah.

So I’ll even make fan brought her out and,

and you all know some of these and probably some of these listeners,

but we had this so many people getting into the freight market over the past couple of years.

And I’ve said this analogy a couple times are an example.

But like down here Springfield,

I have friends of mine that are in banking and,

and medical professions,

healthcare professions that went out and bought semi trucks.

And hey,

we know that there’s a lot of opportunity we’re gonna invest in.

I want to buy a big trucks.

Like my dermatologist,

for example,

has 40 semi trucks.

This is just in my little circle down here.

But how much of that at times whatever push that much freight into the market.

And it doesn’t,

doesn’t necessarily have to be a liquid type truck,

but all those trucks and all it’s putting pressure on,

on race and then obviously,

interest rates up and all this we’re seeing,

we’re still seeing the side effects of that,

but probably I wouldn’t say the exodus,

not necessarily some of maybe some of those exact companies that I just mentioned,

but some of these small owner operators and I hate to say I want to try to help every one of these people prosper,

but there’s got to be some correction in this market to stabilize,

have very many,

so many loads and so many trucks.

And you’re gonna see that just out of pressure on the race,

it’s just a whole supply and demand.

So for us,

Jason,

we’re seeing still this kind of this slow drip of Exodus,

some of these,

these guys exiting the market,

I think we’re gonna continue to see that there’s just got to be correction.

We,

we were so over that we so so oversupply and the trust I saw it.

This was just an article today that I read.

There’s 10% less freight brokers than there were a year today in the market.

But I’m sure they operated people and all that time brokers alone.

That’s how much that market has even shrink in a year.

And I think that’s still gonna continue to go.

You’ll see consolidation.

But yeah,

if it just,

if the overall truck tonnage isn’t out there,

um,

you gotta see the structure so a lot of it,

it’s healthy to see this.

And we,

in my 20 years in the trucking,

I can really account probably for these cycles that you do and every time you get that cycle and think the world swung an end and then it corrects itself.

But yeah,

I think Nick said it earlier past couple of months,

I think we saw on our end we saw rock bottom come be March and we’ve been seeing a little bit of correction since then.

So we’re seeing uh pick up on all agriculture,

dry b grains,

fertilizers,

liquid side,

liquid fertilizer,

all that’s um improving.

But I think we still got a long road ahead.

I think we still have,

I don’t think race has got depressed so much and I think we need to see a little correction in that they come up.

I think we still have really high price fuel right now.

That’s putting a lot of pressure on trucking companies to have a positive operating margin.

So I hate,

I hate,

we’re still just,

I think we still got a little bit of a road ahead of us,

you know,

a pretty good market.

But,

but yeah,

one thing I would say this and this is something that I say all the time to,

to everybody and in the industry that we’re in,

specifically we’re dealing with.

I know that we’re trying to be agriculture and all that.

And as long as we have humans and animals walking this planet,

we’re not recession proof,

but we,

we should always have a job that’s well said there said now I,

I do want to ask a question that kind of goes off of that Jared.

Do you normally see a little bit of an uptick in things this time of year with the ag industries,

the seasons are changing,

things are starting to grow,

harvest seasons are around the corner.

Is there a typical uptick during February and March or,

and,

and that’s coinciding with kind of the whole market turning around or is this something that you don’t normally see in February and March?

So it’s an even better sign.

What are your thoughts there?

Yeah.

So you’ll see on local or specifically,

we’re always allowed in the market.

So typically people talk about slowing down the winter on our service.

We don’t see a slow down.

So usually post winter,

usually early spring.

Um and then when we see a shift in the market,

so really usually march early April when we really see it slow down and then pick back up.

But yeah,

right now,

just in the,

in,

in our space,

we have farmers that are transitioning to getting back on the field.

So those are less trucks that are road.

So that’s gonna put overall demand back up landscape rock season,

all that BT related.

So that’s gonna put added pressure,

the construction season come up.

There’s a lot of bold materials in that.

So if you put all those in the same bucket,

we’ll slowly start seeing it climb.

But yeah,

usually by end of April in the May,

June is when we really see it come out,

you get them in the summer months and then just a little bit like the wheat harvest months.

We don’t see a lot of demand until post we harvest.

So same deal late July August,

we see a lot of pressure because as when farmers are making Vin space because they’re looking at their fall crowd coming in.

So yeah,

for us,

it’s always after the fact when we see the market on our end,

good.

Well,

then that,

that seems to me like a good thing because you’re,

if you’re normally lagging behind,

then we’re ahead of the game,

this little uptick we’re seeing maybe it’s just the market turning itself around.

Maybe things are just finally,

like you said,

they ebb and flow.

We’re at the tail end of an ebb here.

It’s time to flow a little bit.

All right,

my,

my rap friends there,

we get me.

They know what the flow is that flow state you get into.

We gotta talk about one more thing before I run out of time here.

And that is over the days of April 24th through April 26th.

You guys had the bulk freight conference.

Nick was in attendance,

Jared.

You were there.

I got invited.

I didn’t make it this year,

but I’m on the short list for next year.

Uh I hope the conference went well,

man,

I saw videos from last year’s conference on the website.

It looks like you guys have a lot of fun,

man.

Yeah,

we,

we had the idea several years back and uh this was our second one that we hosted and our goal is every year our,

our first one was around 200 people.

This last one was over 400 our goal is to keep um making it larger and larger.

And our goal is really just to bring,

I would say it,

it’s a room full of uh car hearts and cowboy boots and just our space,

our people.

Um And,

and yeah,

so yeah,

I think what we try to do more than anything is bring people in our move.

They bring people together physically like magic just happens.

And I,

I love podcasts.

I love the digital age and there’s just something about when man,

when we can have a beer or break bread with someone.

Uh Man,

you realize,

hey,

we’re all human.

We’re all trying to accomplish the same thing on this earth.

We’re all trying to help each other and serve each other.

And if we can do it collectively together,

we’re all gonna benefit.

And that’s our number one goal.

It looks like a really great time.

I have to ask you though.

Did the tequila budget go up at all since Nick Meyer was in attendance this year?

Yeah,

last year was the,

the,

the bourbon was high.

But yeah,

for some reason,

the,

the,

the tequila was a little bit more.

Uh Our bartend was a little maxed out on that one.

Nick,

anything to say for yourself,

not on that subject.

It’s imperative that we meet face to face with our peers and the people that we email and talk to on the phone those days have passed and it’s really important to keep that going because that helps everyone grow.

It gives us an opportunity to maybe do some things we haven’t done or go into some different markets and to learn from other people as well.

And so I really appreciated this year’s conference and I look forward to more and,

and we’ll make sure to have that bar stocked because I’m gonna be there next year too.

So look out.

That’s all I can say.

I am a whiskey guy myself.

But if you put it in front of me,

I’ll drink it,

Jared.

I’m not picky.

It’s,

it just,

there’s life’s too short,

man.

If it’s cold I’m in.

Yeah,

we’ll have a party next year for sure.

I’m looking forward to it all already.

Jason before we run out of time.

I want to get you back in here real quick.

Is there anything else that I have failed to bring up here that you’d like to mention before we get off the air today.

Definitely not failed.

But I do want to end with all the liquid trucking drivers that listen today tomorrow next week,

whenever they get a chance to get to this podcast and,

and listen to all the minds,

talk about the volatility in the market,

the ebbs and flows all the different ways we referred to it at the end of the day.

They ultimately are the ones paying the price for all the switches and changes and go here and go there and do this and do that.

The,

the canceled load,

the last minute load.

It’s,

it’s credit to all the drivers that,

that make it happen,

move all the loads.

And maybe this episode will bring a little bit more understanding to the craziness that happens behind the scenes to keep everybody busy.

But just a big thanks to them for always making it happen,

Tanner real quick before we get you out of here and back to work.

I know you’ve been working this whole time through this interview.

We appreciate the time anything for you to say before we let you go.

No,

that was perfect.

I think Jason nailed it.

Hopefully,

everything we do just gives the drivers one more piece of insight as to what’s going on up here in the crow’s nest and,

and the madness that is our day to day lives.

Hopefully that hopefully they understand if we’re not out there trying to make their lives harder.

It’s most of the time,

not our fault.

Sometimes it is,

but most of the time we’re just going at the direction of the customers.

So,

uh you know,

just thanks for everything they do and uh keep the shiny side up.

There you go,

said there.

And finally,

I want to remind you to go over to bulk loads.com and check out the website,

check out the bulk loads podcast with our buddy Jared Flynn here,

Jared anything from you before we let you go,

my friend.

And also I want to say we really appreciate the time today.

Yeah,

first off,

thank you all for having me on.

And I wanted to just say so,

Jason and Jason’s been a good year friend of mine.

And I think when I had him on my podcast several years ago,

which I welcome you to go back and listen to you can tell through his,

his demeanor and tone how much he cares,

but even Liquid Truck and cares for their clients and specifically their carriers.

And I’ve done a lot of podcasts and that was one that I always remembered that it was you could tell in his voice,

he was so sincere about how much he,

I think he cares for the,

the industry and for the company itself.

And yeah,

I just wanna say,

hey,

I’m blessed this industry.

I,

I think III I get up every day looking forward to coming to work.

I think this is such a cool industry that we get to serve.

Number one in agriculture and then number two in trucking and uh for those truckers out there listening,

man,

you guys are appreciated,

man,

man.

We do hear you out there and man,

I man just God and bless you all.

What you guys do out there very well said from you as well,

Jared.

We appreciate the time from Nick Tanner,

Jason and Jared.

We’ll get you all back on here again,

man.

This was too much fun.

II I love these big round tables with everybody talking about what I’m gonna drink the next time.

I see.

I’m in the same room with Nick Meyer,

man.

I’m all about it.

You guys were great today.

Thank you so much.

We’ll talk to you again soon.

Thanks guys.

Great stuff there from Jared Flynn at Bulk loads.com.

You got to go check out his podcast as well.

Uh As you heard,

Jason has been a guest on that podcast before.

So go check that one out.

It is the bulk loads podcast and you can find it wherever you find your podcasts.

Ok.

I was getting ready to wrap this episode up right here,

but I forgot a little bit of breaking news,

uh,

back in my original breaking news segment and this breaking news is actually arguably more important than those other kind of interest stories that I was uh preaching about earlier.

So we’ll get back to the button.

And as you all know,

uh this is something that comes up every single year and I figure it’s very important to get way out in front of it and make sure everybody knows the dates because it will possibly affect you in your daily life.

Uh The CV S A’s International Road Check has been scheduled for May 14th through the 16th and this is a news release from CV S a.org.

The commercial Vehicle Safety Alliances International Road Check is scheduled for May 14th through the 16th,

2024.

International Road Check is a high visibility,

high volume commercial motor vehicle inspection and regulatory compliance enforcement initiative that takes place over three days across Canada,

Mexico and the US.

Uh CV S A certified law enforcement personnel will inspect commercial vehicles and drivers at WE station and inspection stations,

temporary sites and mobile patrols to verify compliance with federal state province,

provincial or territorial regulations.

Data from the 72 hours of the International road check will be collected and the results will be released over the summer.

Of course,

we know that each year CV S A is going to concentrate on a couple different areas and that’s where they’re really going to go fine tooth comb with everything.

Uh It says here this year international Road check will have two focus areas,

tractor protection systems and alcohol and controlled substance possession,

controlled substance and alcohol possession slash use remains a significant concern for motor carriers,

drivers and the general public.

The number of prohibited drivers listed in the US drug and alcohol clearing house has been increasing.

This alarming trend poses a threat to all motorists who travel on the roadways throughout North America.

We all know that.

So let me get down here to the tractor uh tractor protection systems.

It says by focusing on tractor,

tractor protection systems,

I don’t know why I can’t say that.

Uh International Road Check aims to increase awareness for drivers,

motor carriers,

technicians and enforcement personnel of these critically important vehicle components.

These components are including to assist drivers and motor carriers in the pro assessment and maintenance of these components.

CV S A has provided an inspection bulletin outlining the steps on how to properly check tractor protection systems.

Uh Over the three days of the International Road check inspectors will conduct their routine uh North American standard level one inspection which is a thorough 37 step inspection procedure consisting of the examination of vehicle components and driver documentation and requirements.

Uh I do have the inspection list,

the requirements for tractor protection systems and this will be important because they’re gonna check it every commercial motor vehicle equipped with an air brake system and used to tow a trailer with air brakes must be equipped with a trailer or tractor or towing vehicle protection system.

The test will only be performed on a vehicle that is towing a trailer trucks and buses are incapable of towing trailers and not required to have these systems.

Air brake power units converted to tow trailers equipped with air brakes from a non towing operation must have these systems properly retrofitted.

Uh And it says uh that the inspection test and procedure will consist of a few steps.

The system must be within its normal operating pressure range between compressor,

cut out and cut in.

Number two,

wheels must be chalked at all brakes and must be released.

All dash valves pushed in number three.

explain to the driver that the supply emergency.

Ok.

Holy God.

There’s nine different steps in these and they’re starting to be paragraphs instead of sentences.

Just know that you definitely need to be watching your tractor protection system and you definitely,

and why do I even need to say this?

Only because there’s bad apples in every bunch.

We don’t think we’ve got them here at Liquid,

especially when it comes to drug and alcohol compliance.

But uh you shouldn’t have any of that stuff in your possession if you get pulled in on one of these international road check inspections or any other inspection for that matter.

So,

watch out for it again.

It’s the CV SAS International Road Check and it will be coming up May 14th through the 16th.

They’ll get you at way stations.

You guys know all this.

I mean,

you’ve been through these before uh but pointing it out to you and,

and wanting to make sure that you have plenty of notice is something that uh is in important to me here on the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

I’m sure you’ll be hearing about it from your dispatchers and the like in the coming weeks for sure.

That’s gonna wrap up this episode of the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

Thank you so much for being here.

Don’t forget if you want to be a part of the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

It is very easy.

Send me an email podcast at Liquid trucking.com or you can head over to Liquid trucking.com and click the podcast man at the top of the page that will take you to a landing page where you’ll see a bunch of old episodes.

You’ll see some details on the people that we’ve had on those episodes and of course,

you’ll be able to send us a message and say,

hey,

I wanna hear about this or I want to talk about that.

I’d love to have you on the show.

I’m always looking for new drivers.

In fact,

Jason just gave me a big list of drivers to call and see if they were willing to come on the podcast.

So,

guess what,

you’re gonna be hearing from me soon if you haven’t already again.

Thanks for clicking download.

Make sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.

You guys are the reason this podcast is as awesome as it is.

I’m just here to uh hold the wheel while you guys make all the content happen.

And I am greatly appreciative for all that couldn’t do it without you.

So,

stay safe out there.

Keep the shiny side up liquid and 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.