What’s good out there?

Liquid Trucking?

Welcome into the Liquid Trucking podcast episode 25.

And we are on a gravy train with biscuit wheels for this one.

My friends,

I’m very excited about it.

This is a special episode uh that we have been talking about for a while.

And finally,

we’re able to pull all the strings we needed to and get it put together our episode today centers around immigration in trucking.

It’s a little bit of a hot button for some I know that,

uh but it’s less of a hot button for Liquid trucking because Liquid Trucking does uh a little bit of work with a company called Experienced Associate and we’re going to talk to uh the president of experienced associates,

Chad Hendrix a little bit later on.

In this episode,

experienced Associates helps Liquid get qualified truck drivers from South Africa and place them in trucks.

And when I say qualified,

that’s probably underselling it a little bit.

All right,

um Chad is gonna talk about some of the requirements for these drivers to actually come over to the United States with a full on visa and get ready to work and uh it’s a really involved process.

The amount of experience they have to have is extensive.

As I said,

it’s a really cool conversation and it gives us a peek behind the curtain of how we get some of the most qualified truck drivers for multiple companies across the landscape from experienced associates and Chad Hendrix and all the great things that they do over there.

So that’s gonna be a really cool conversation.

But,

uh,

and,

and not to,

not to place them here anything.

I’m not gonna say one’s better than the other.

We’ll go one a and one,

a one with our two conversations today because we’ve got the President of Liquid Trucking Roger Schmidt coming on the show to tell us his family’s story.

His family immigrated uh from Germany way back in the early 19 hundreds and he has a dial on all of the history and it’s something that I think is so cool that we don’t see a lot of anymore.

And that’s a person that can recite their family’s history going back more than 100 years.

And Roger does a phenomenal job of painting the picture for us and talking about how that influenced uh liquid trucking,

working to get immigrant truckers that are well qualified and really good at their jobs on board to drive for Liquid Trucking,

really cool stuff.

And before we get into that,

I do want to tell you,

you wouldn’t think that we are an international podcast here on the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

Save for a few things.

I mean,

we’ve had our buddy Alex Shevchuk on this show quite a bit.

He’s a,

he’s a Ukrainian gentleman.

He’s told his story.

We weren’t able to get him for this episode.

He had some,

uh,

some conflicts there that we weren’t able to actually schedule him for,

but we’ll get him on again.

He’s a fantastic person and he’s just one example of,

of an immigrant that comes out and absolutely slammed,

kills it for liquid trucking.

But when I call this an international podcast,

it’s not just because of some of the guests we’ve had on that.

Don’t hail from the United States of America.

It’s because I’m sitting here looking at my report on our podcast platform that we release all these episodes on.

It’s,

it’s a distribution platform and it gives me an overview of exactly where the audience comes from for sure.

Most of the audience,

it’s,

it’s a very,

very heavy skew to the United States of America.

But let me mention some of the other countries.

In fact,

I’m gonna let mention all of the other countries that we have guaranteed listenership in.

I know that these people have downloaded this very podcast from these following countries in order the most Germany,

Canada,

Ireland,

Switzerland,

the Philippines,

Belize,

Russia,

Mexico,

India,

Ukraine,

Brazil,

South Africa,

the United Arab,

Emirates,

the United Kingdom,

Pakistan,

and Puerto Rico.

That’s right.

We are International here on the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

And that’s why I’m so excited about this episode.

America is a fantastic country.

We are a melting pot of all the cultures of the world because people see a better opportunity here than what they have at home.

So they go through the right channels,

they get here,

they learn the language,

they learn the culture and they jump in and they make up a staggering amount of truckers across the landscape.

You’re not gonna believe this either.

I got this one from transport topics.

But according to the,

according to the Bureau of Labor,

statistics,

18.6% of employed truck drivers uh in 2020 were immigrants.

And that’s crazy.

That’s almost 20%.

That’s higher than the average overall in the US labor,

which is like right around 17%.

And that number doubled from 2000.

Uh the year 2000,

we had 315,000,

981 immigrant drivers.

And in 2021 we had over 720,000.

Now,

at that rate,

I gotta feel like in 2024 once we see some updated numbers,

that number’s probably going to creep into the 1 million territory.

It’s a really cool thing that we’ve got going on here.

And as long as people go through the correct avenues and do this legally,

uh this is,

this is great for truck driving.

It’s great for everybody involved.

And I know a lot of you out there,

I’ve talked to some drivers who say,

you know,

some of the foreign born drivers are the ones that get under my skin more than anything because it’s a communication gap and that is something that we can help with.

Let’s talk about it.

Let’s figure about what some of the qualifications and some of the uh,

credentials that are needed to come over here and operate in our transportation industry.

Uh Actually call for and that’s why I’m so happy to have Chad Hendrix coming on later because he’s gonna explain some of that to us.

This is a great episode.

Liquid Trucking,

get ready for it.

Strap in.

We’re talking immigration and Trucking.

Welcome to the Gold Standard of Podcast for the Gold Standard of Drivers.

This is the Liquid Trucking podcast with your host,

Marcus Bridges.

Very excited to have President of Liquid Trucking Roger Schmidt on the line right now.

Uh for this episode,

Roger,

we’re talking about immigration and trucking and uh Jason told me that you have a very cool story to tell about your family and how uh everything kind of got started with Liquid Trucking there and how you guys got over here.

So,

uh first of all,

thank you very much Roger for being here with us and taking the time today.

We really appreciate that.

You’re welcome.

And uh yeah,

why don’t you go ahead and tell us your story?

How did the family come over to the States.

Well,

my grandfather came over here in like 1905 and,

you know,

immigration was already happening in the United States,

of course.

But uh there was a kind of an onslaught of uh German immigrants that started really coming here from 1880 on until,

uh,

you know,

World War Two.

They kept coming and they would send for each other.

Basically,

they’d know another family member.

And uh there was a big farming community.

And so uh my granddad,

when he came over here,

he was only 15 years old and he went to work for his uncle uh that lived on another farm here near Plattsmouth.

And so then he basically got married when he was 25 and he bought the original farmstead that we still have to this day.

Well,

then in about 19 30 he needed some help on the farm.

So he basically wrote his brother back in Kingsburg,

Germany.

And so if you have anybody that wants to come to the United States and,

and work and his brother’s wife,

she was a stepper and she said,

yeah,

uh my nephew and so he came over here on my granddad’s sponsorship.

Basically,

they paid for their way over and then they had to work for him for so long for their passage.

And so he’d worked at,

at uh my granddad’s farm three days a week.

And then he went to work at the Ford plant,

which was on 16th Street in Omaha.

Sand and wet sand and model lakes.

Really?

For the week?

That’s so cool.

That’s awesome.

What a fun little,

uh,

little Snicket there in the story.

Yeah.

So,

but he walked from,

so our farm was like five miles from highway 75 which is a major thoroughfare to get to Omaha.

And there’s a set of railroad tracks that run along the flat river there.

So he’d walk that four and five miles every day when he worked at the Ford plant.

Then he’d get on 75 to Hitchhike into Omaha.

And that’s how he got back and forth.

And uh you know,

it was,

those guys came from a lot of hard times,

Lynn as the story goes on.

So he’s working and he pays for his passage and,

and my mother,

and she was born here in the United States uh in about 1917.

And uh she went to high school and,

and she was a pretty smart lady and she got to go to college and she went down to Tarkio College in Missouri and got,

got a teaching certificate.

They only had to uh go to school for two years and then they become school teachers.

So that’s what she did.

She became a school teacher and a country school teacher.

And uh she taught my dad how to read and write it in English in about four years.

And so he took a citizenship test and,

and got a citizenship,

ended up marrying the farmer’s daughter.

So I’m the product of those two people,

the school teacher and the German immigrants that came over here in 1930.

Yeah.

And so they,

they had four kids.

Me,

my brother Alan,

another brother,

Carol,

my sister Mary and there was,

there was two sets of Children.

They had two older kids and then they didn’t have any kids for almost 15 years and they had two more kids.

And,

and so it was actually almost,

the split was almost like 22 different families.

But now my mom’s teaching school in a country school,

one room school district 30 which was a mile from our farm.

Cancel my brother all night.

And it was an eight grade,

all eight grades in one school.

Wow.

And so she taught my brother al and I all the way through the eighth grade in country school before we went to town school.

And,

uh,

yes,

it was quite an experience.

But all those people out west of our shop here in Plattsmouth,

there’s an enclave of,

of old German immigrants and they all just kind of set for one another as they needed help throughout about a 50 year period.

They all worked on the farm and then the second wave started coming over here right after World war two.

And so we’ve had a lot of people that were refugees basically that fled from east Germany to West Germany when the Russians took over because they,

that’s what,

you know,

we,

we basically gave Russia Easterly after the war.

And so a lot of those people fled and then they came to the United States to work because they left all their belongings behind.

And,

and so they all came and then they would look for people like my dad and granddad,

they fed cattle and farmed and,

and they knew that they could speak both languages.

And so they came and,

and they’d work and learn the language.

And then,

you know,

most of them went on to get better jobs to become really productive citizens in the United States.

You know,

and those people all had their,

their story to tell.

They,

they were the ones that built the nation.

They were the ones that,

you know,

built the highways.

And,

you know,

the story is that the old German immigrant,

he said,

oh,

they tell me that the United States got streets,

streets are paved in gold.

He said they’re not only not paved,

they want me,

they’re not only not paved and not gold,

they want me to pave them.

Uh,

it’s great.

So,

uh,

yeah,

it’s a,

it’s a great story that,

uh,

a lot of people are kind of fearful today.

It’s kind of been a forgotten story and it really should be brought to the fore truck.

I,

I hear a lot of people have some negative things to say about immigration and immigrants.

You know,

I think it’s,

as long as it gets done legally,

it has a place here in the United States and probably always will have the,

you know,

the problem.

Another problem is,

is like my kids or my great grandparents and,

and everybody that came here from Germany at that time when it was a big army country,

everybody had a lot of kids,

they had eight kids,

nine kids,

10 kids,

you know,

12 kids.

That was commonplace and they needed all those hands to run the farm.

Right.

Yeah.

And you know,

then a spoiled brats grew up.

Oh,

we,

no,

we had two kids.

I’m talking about my generation now,

the baby boomers,

we had two kids,

one kid,

no kids because,

you know,

we,

we want to spend our time freely and we didn’t,

you know that we didn’t wanna be bound down by a bunch of kids.

And so now there’s no,

there’s no,

there’s not a new crop out here to do all this work,

right?

That’s why we say,

well,

whose fault is it?

It’s ours.

We did,

we didn’t repopulate the United States.

Yeah.

It’s,

it’s interesting how the family dynamic has changed over.

Uh you know,

I guess you could look back and say the last 100 years.

Uh It,

it was nothing commonplace for 5678 kids,

like you were saying,

and those types of families are,

are definitely the exception and not the rule these days you don’t see too many of them,

uh,

running around and it’s funny how they’re concentrated in certain areas,

you know.

Um,

I know out in,

out in Utah,

in the Mormon communities a lot of times they’ll have,

uh,

families with,

with many Children.

Um,

but it’s few and far between anymore.

And,

uh,

II,

I won’t hold you at fault.

Roger.

I mean,

you,

I think you did your part there.

You,

you did your repopulation.

I think you got your uh your name on the board.

Yeah.

Well,

at least I,

I put two of them up there to replace the two that are gonna go away.

Exactly.

You know,

I,

I wanted to ask you how,

how this experience with your family and,

and knowing the history and first I,

I do want to say this as well.

It’s so cool that,

you know,

the history of your family.

It’s,

it’s very uh uncommon anymore to be able to ask somebody,

hey,

what was your family doing in the 19 hundreds?

What’s your story and have them know it as well as what you do and be able to tell it with dates and timelines and,

and uh those details.

But how is that experience and knowing that history translated into uh Liquid Trucking’s idea of uh uh uh ideas towards immigration,

I guess I should say you guys,

you work with experienced associates.

We’re gonna talk to Chad Hendrix later on in the podcast about your relationship with them.

But that’s a company that works with immigrants to get them,

you know,

posted up in a good job and,

and they work with the trucking industry a lot.

How did your family’s experience shape liquid trucking into a company that’s,

that’s very willing and open to work with immigrants.

Well,

so my dad spoke English but it was very broken.

And,

uh,

and then when after world war two,

another family came here,

their names were Bonder sisters.

He was a Czechoslovakian.

And uh so from the time I was,

he came over in 52 and I was born in 55 and he lived on our farm for 20 years in the,

in the hired man’s house,

so to speak.

He and he had a family of five Children.

And so we all grew up together and had that experience of the baking and the glottis and the broken English.

And we’d go to school and they wanna order parts or had to get something and we’d have to translate to the parks people what they were talking about.

And so we,

we have an understanding of their,

of their struggle and their sacrifice and what they went through to become productive,

us citizens.

And then,

you know,

like the v neighbor was he,

he worked on that farm his whole life basically.

But he also got another,

his job uh that paid him a lot more money.

He became a lineman for OPPD.

So those guys,

they,

Omaha Public Power District is what that stands for.

But anyway,

you know,

they educate themselves,

they worked hard,

they were,

you know,

family people.

And,

uh,

so what has shaped me is I’m not anti immigration.

You know,

I think immigration is a good thing.

And,

uh,

liquid trucking has,

I have a lot of Hispanic people that work for me at the wash bay.

You know,

they’re all the same way.

That’s what I look at.

I see those guys,

they’re loyal,

they’re hard working.

They just want,

they just want a chance,

you know,

and they know they don’t have any chance back home.

So they,

they come here,

they’re willing to put in the time,

educate themselves and they’re all family people and,

you know,

it’s great to see that.

It’s great to see them rise up and,

and uh become citizens and own houses and cars and go out to eat,

start a Mexican restaurant,

you know,

whatever they do,

you know,

it’s all great.

It is.

And they bring,

they bring all that culture here,

you know.

So one of my good friends is uh Juan Laco.

He came here and maybe,

oh,

let’s see,

94 somewhere there.

Anyway.

He’s uh he’s worked for me since 1997 and he’s kind of like my right hand.

He,

if I say we need to get this done,

he can do it I mean,

it doesn’t matter whether you are lay black or run the tractor or go someplace or snake tacos or,

you know,

so he brings all that culture here,

you know,

he gets the,

the guys,

you know,

on Sunday mornings you’ll see him here a lot of times,

you know,

feeding everybody breakfast if we’re running a Sunday shift.

Just a,

oh,

you know,

just a well rounded guy.

Well,

you know,

I think about Roger sometimes that the,

uh,

the things we wouldn’t have in this country if it wasn’t for immigration.

I sometimes think about what our food would look like because I,

I feel like you can,

you can get any type of food anywhere in the United States.

You want Thai go down and get it,

you want uh you want German food bangers and mash around the corner.

We have all of that,

those things and that’s just a,

that’s scratching the surface of all of the culture that has been added to the United States by its,

its uh crop of immigrants.

And,

and I think that that type of thing is invaluable.

We wouldn’t be the country we are if we weren’t this great melting pot of all of these cultures.

Yeah.

You know,

when you look at history and you actually,

I wish more people would study history a little bit more because there’s a lot of stuff that has happened with the immigration world and,

you know,

in New York and they had the,

you know,

the Italians came and the Irish can,

you know,

I said,

what was the saying about that?

God made whiskey.

Otherwise the Irish would have took over the world that it’s great.

But,

uh,

yeah,

I mean,

Chinese built the railroads.

It’s not a new thing,

you know,

it’s really not.

Well,

and we’ve got companies like liquid trucking to thank for that.

And I happen to know just from speaking to some of your,

uh you know,

one driver that’s joined us a lot on this podcast is Alex Shevchuk,

Ukrainian fellow.

And the way that he talks about liquid trucking and,

and what opportunities liquid Trucking has opened up for him.

Um Is it,

it’s almost,

it pulls at your heartstrings.

Roger.

It really does because he truly does believe that without liquid trucking,

he would not have the life that he and his family have.

And uh listening to those stories is enough to change somebody’s mind if they’re anti immigration,

I think you hit the nail on the head earlier and said,

if you go through the right channels and you do it the right way.

Um This country is a great place to be and it will often give you a much better chance than you might have had uh wherever you came from.

And knowing that Liquid Trucking is,

is helping to lead that charge to provide good jobs,

good employment for good people.

Um I it just,

I,

I tell you,

it makes me super happy to be involved with you guys.

I,

I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to be the podcast host for this podcast because it’s a phenomenal com,

uh,

company Roger and,

and you can tell that blood sweat and tears,

but also a lot of heart has gone into building it from the word.

Go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know,

it does kind of choke you up,

which is good.

I think,

you know,

if,

if we’re getting,

uh,

if we get a little bit emotional about it and it’s emotion in a good way.

Uh,

I,

I think we’re on the right track here.

Roger and I can’t thank you enough for,

for coming in here today and,

and telling the story and,

uh,

I,

I know I’ve,

I’ve kept you here for almost our entire scheduled amount of time.

So before I let you go real quick,

is there anything else that you’d like to offer us on this topic before,

uh,

we send you on your way?

Yeah,

I would like to say that when we get back to doing the,

the immigration thing the right way.

I,

I wish that,

uh,

our,

I mean,

not to get political,

but these guys have been kicking this can down the road for 40 years,

almost 50 years and haven’t really changed immigration policy and I don’t know why they don’t,

it would seem to me like it would be an easy fix to not,

you know,

just have a way to come here legally.

You know,

you get a,

you get a green card or you get whatever you learn how to speak English and you,

you take the citizenship test and,

you know,

it’s,

it,

it should be a lot easier to do than it is,

is what I’m saying,

these guys when they want to come over here,

especially if they’re Hispanic.

What happens over there is,

most of those people have been midwifed,

you know,

and they might be Juan or Cobo can Sanchez or whatever and they don’t have a birth certificate so they could be anybody.

Well,

when they cross the border,

that’s all we really know about it.

And so if they want to come here,

it takes them like $10,000.04 years worth of legal wrangling just to get their documentation to be able to come here.

Well,

if they had $10,000 they probably stay there.

Yeah,

it probably wouldn’t be as big of an issue if they had that kind of money floating around.

Right.

So,

it’s just,

it’s our policies that need to change on immigration to really make it kind of a straightforward,

here’s what you gotta do.

Follow these 15 or 20 steps and file this paperwork and if you got a sponsor over there and you got a job,

go see Schmidt Truck and he’s got 10 jobs waiting for 10 guys come on over,

you know,

work,

pay taxes and everybody thinks good.

Right.

Yeah.

And because that’s what it’s all about.

Right.

Everybody,

uh,

everybody contributes a little bit and,

uh,

that,

that goes for the greater good and,

you know,

it’s hard not to get political.

I think you did a great job there kind of,

uh,

dancing around that because especially as we sit here during an election year.

Roger,

it’s never easy to keep things apolis think that you have a very,

in my opinion,

a very good stance on this is you’re looking for good people that are looking for a chance and uh you’re gonna give them a good job if they make their way to Liquid Trucking and uh they pull their weight,

you’ll pull yours.

Uh That’s been,

that’s been done in spades over the years and proven through and through at Liquid Trucking.

So,

uh I,

I greatly appreciate the time,

Roger.

It’s so cool,

like I said already to hear your family story and just listen to somebody that knows the history that well,

talk about all the great things that came out of uh you know,

your,

your ancestors uh trip across the pond if you will and,

and it’s just been a great time talking to you today.

Thank you so much for coming on the podcast with us here.

You Marcus.

Thank you for having me.

No problem.

Alright.

Thanks Roger.

Next up here on the Liquid trucking podcast.

Joining us for our immigration and trucking episode.

Uh We’ve got a real authority on the line with us right now.

His name is Chad Hendrix.

He’s the president of experienced associates.

You can find their website over at Experience Dash associates.com chad.

Thank you so much for being here with us today.

Glad to be on a call with Liquid Man.

Uh We have a lot of fun on this podcast and it’s because we get to talk to people like you uh that don’t necessarily work for Liquid,

but work with Liquid and do all these cool things.

Um It’s always fun to bring somebody from outside the company in uh that has experience with Liquid and it sounds like maybe uh you like your relationship with Liquid right off the top here.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah,

it’s great.

I,

you know,

I got to meet Jason and really,

I don’t even remember what year it was,

but it was at some trade show,

met Jason,

got to talk about what he was doing,

talked about the company.

He told me a lot of great stories and at the time,

we were doing a lot with recruiting and retention consulting for companies.

And so I’m always fishing for what are the good companies doing?

What are the differences?

And he just had so many good,

good stories that I was like,

oh,

this looks like a good company.

And so I don’t know,

we never really worked together on that specific side of it.

But also like a few years later,

I reached out to him again and say,

hey,

you know,

we’re talking about immigration and this is a possibility.

What do you think?

And also then started going.

And the only reason I called Liquid is because of the type of company they are,

we only work with what I,

what we consider low turnover carriers.

We don’t work with high turnover carriers.

I don’t want to bring people into those environments.

I’d like to bring people into really good environments.

So Liquid made the cut.

That’s awesome.

And,

and for good reason too.

I mean,

this podcast is,

has profiled it time and again,

uh the drivers love driving for Liquid.

The staff members love working for Liquid.

They take really good care of their employees and you know,

we’ve had uh president of,

of Liquid Trucking on this very episode as well.

Roger Schmidt to tell his family’s immigration story.

And I think it’s really cool after talking to Roger,

what you get is you understand why liquid values uh some,

some uh immigrants that have come over to work for their company and why they’re linked up with experienced associates to,

to make that happen.

Um Can you tell me a little bit?

Well,

you know what,

first before we jump real deep into this,

you sound really good.

You sound really well spoken.

You’re clearly not nervous.

You’ve podcasted before.

Haven’t you chat.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I had a podcast in trucking called Recruit and Retain and Trucking edition.

And it was essentially talking to companies about their recruiting and retention process and what they were doing and the best case scenario and did that for,

I don’t know,

it was a lot of years.

Um,

I think we got to 350 episodes.

You know,

it was a weekly,

weekly podcast.

So it was,

it was a great time.

You met so many people and there’s so many connections and it led to so many amazing conversations and like you said,

sometimes you take people outside of the industry and you can take that knowledge,

use it inside the industry and it makes everything better.

So it was,

it was a fun time,

that’s for sure.

Well,

very cool.

And,

and the name of it,

uh Recruit and retain is that the name of the podcast?

It is Recruit and Retain Trucking edition is what we added on there just to try to specify it.

All right.

Well,

go check that out uh 350 episodes.

That’s no slim library of content.

So,

uh I’m sure there’s plenty of good stuff in there.

Uh Go check out that podcast if you get a chance and when you jump back into it again,

if you ever get the chance to,

I know you said you had to kind of put the brakes on it because you were so busy.

That’s a good thing.

Right?

That means that we’re,

we’ve got lots of business happening.

But if you ever get back into it,

we want to bring you on uh,

this podcast to make sure that we let everybody know,

hey,

you’re back to podcasting because,

uh,

you know,

I gotta protect my own here.

Chad,

that’s my whole thing.

It’s like I can’t believe I get paid to do this.

So II,

I try to make sure that uh anybody else that’s in this with me is,

uh,

is well taken care of in,

in any fashion that I can,

you know?

Absolutely.

So great.

So,

uh,

talk to me a little bit.

I understand you guys bring drivers over from South Africa um to work at American companies.

Can you talk to me a little bit about that process and,

and talk to me about like the,

the type of driver you’re looking for?

Is there,

are there qualifications,

are there credentials that they need?

How does the whole process work?

Hm.

Yeah.

So let’s talk a little bit of history.

How this even got started was who I partnered with.

His name is Rob.

He’s in South Africa.

He actually did a,

a pilot program with Snyder National.

So he brought over 200 drivers over to Schneider.

This was when it was on a temporary visa.

It wasn’t on a permanent visa like we’re doing now with a full green card,

but I’m in green Bay Wis and Schneider’s corporate headquarters is in Green Bay Wisconsin.

So I just walked over there and said,

hey,

who worked with this Rob guy?

And was this legit?

What was the experience with these drivers?

And what ended up happening is everything was positive.

I talked to their driver managers,

they worked with the maintenance guys,

their safety guy.

Um and then the guy that was running the whole program and every,

the thing was great.

So they talked about the stats because they’re a large company.

So they,

they would do the analysis.

And the big one that stuck out was the drivers that came over did 20 million miles more in freight during the pilot program,

they were safer.

They had less accidents,

less incidences.

And the only thing that actually was below was their fuel compliance,

like where they were fueling up and it was like,

very minor thing there.

Right.

Yeah,

I was like,

well,

that’s not a problem.

And so the experience was,

was great.

They had all these drivers.

Now,

the,

the difference is,

is we’re not going out and just finding some random person who wants to come to the United States and then become a truck driver.

What we’re looking for is drivers who have at least 10 years of experience.

Most of them have quite a bit more than that because we get,

we still get,

you know,

a lot of drivers that are in their fifties.

So they’ve been driving for 2530 years,

all that kind of stuff.

Um,

so,

and we’re also in liquids case,

we’re looking for people that have already that are currently driving tanker.

So it’s not like we’re trying to take somebody and put them in a situation where they just won’t be successful.

So,

and they have to follow,

we had,

we get their criminal background checks and they’re driving records and everything to prove that they aren’t,

you know,

accident prone,

they haven’t been in accidents,

they haven’t been unemployed for a long time.

We look at employment history.

So if they have a bunch of jobs and look like a job hopper,

they’re not coming over.

So we’re really a hard,

you know,

maybe it’s bad for South Africa,

but we’re taking the best of the best and bringing them over to the States.

And so,

you know,

and for the drivers that are already in the States that are going to work with these guys,

even as coworkers,

you,

you know,

they know what they’re doing already now,

even though they are very experienced,

we still bring them over and they still end up going to a CD L school for five weeks to go through everything and get their US CD L.

But what’s interesting about that is when you talk to the drivers that have been through it,

they actually really appreciated the five weeks at the school and they even still felt,

even if they had 20 years of experience.

They still felt like they learned things,

which I thought was amazing that they had that kind of a response versus like,

oh,

this is a waste of my time.

And,

you know,

I don’t know if it’s perfect,

but we do try to recruit for personality.

We had,

we’ve had drivers that we’ve denied simply because of how they talk to or treated our team that’s trying to help them out.

How fast do they reply to things?

How often do they get their paperwork that we need in time and in a timely fashion,

how much do we have to follow up with them if they don’t do that?

Really?

Well,

they get out of the program,

you know?

And so it doesn’t,

yeah,

it doesn’t mean that we’re bringing over anyone.

There really is some strict guidelines on this,

which I think is important for everyone to know.

Yeah,

I mean,

it really sounds like it and,

and I love that you’re sending them to a CD L school once they’re back here or once they’re here in the States because,

you know,

America is a big country.

There’s no question about that.

Just land mass.

It’s huge.

But we also have these little things called states where they each try to govern themselves individually which leads to a lot of red tape,

a lot of different laws and,

and,

uh,

you know,

uh,

I guess I would say operating procedures things like that,

that you have to know about that.

I just,

even with 1020 30 years of trucking in a different country,

it’s still got to be a whole different pool that you’re jumping into when you come over here.

And especially with this heavily regulated as it is.

So,

I,

I can see why they would really like that five week kind of,

um,

you know,

it’s like they’re,

they’re getting,

I guess in the river and just kind of feeling the current and understanding how trucking works over here rather than over there.

And I guess maybe I’ll ask you about that,

how different is trucking in South Africa than it is in the United States?

Obviously,

the experience translates the safety translates what,

what are the differences and similarities there?

Chad I think the biggest difference is that you would hear if you talk to the drivers is not safety from,

uh,

how do well do I drive?

But a safety in general,

there are plenty of stories of drivers in South Africa getting robbed their trucks getting firebombed.

Um,

you know,

people talking to the United States about racism or anything like that,

if you’re from a different group getting pulled out of your truck and extorted and that kind of stuff happens over there.

So road quality,

the road quality does not compare to the US either.

So they’re dealing with uh worse roads which then a lot of these drivers are,

you know,

also turning wrenches,

you know,

they’re fixing their own trucks on the side of the road.

You know,

we,

we also bring it over some diesel mechanics and it’s,

it’s just interesting,

like they like,

yeah,

we had to change out a transmission on the side of the side of the road.

They didn’t get it into a shop.

They didn’t,

they dropped the tranny on the road.

Replace,

you know,

that’s,

you know,

but when you’re in that type of environment,

you don’t always have all the resources that we,

we have here.

So,

Rob likes to talk about,

these guys are old school diesel in the blood type truck drivers and they,

they really are.

And,

you know,

from the guys that are already here in the States,

you know,

I talk to them fairly often and they’re usually some of the top drivers.

I’m trying to actually think of all the guys that I talked to on a regular basis.

Yeah,

they’re pro,

yeah,

they’re all in like the 10% top 10% of drivers as far as how much freight they’re hauling and everything that,

you know,

and some of them are in different situations.

They,

they’re over here,

they’re waiting for their family to come over.

All they want to do is drive,

they’re not worried about home time right now and that,

that will always change right.

Once family gets here and once you get assimilated into the American culture,

I’m sure there’ll,

there’ll be differences in what they’re desiring,

but right now they’re just looking to come over here,

make money,

get their family over here,

improve their family’s future.

Really is the big thing of it.

We talk about it.

This isn’t really for them.

Just a job.

This is a major life change.

Moving countries is a huge thing.

And that’s a good thing about the CD L school too.

They get to come over to the States.

They get five weeks to just settle.

You know,

they’re put up in the housing there,

they just get to settle and then they get to get their bank accounts open and social security cards and phones and all that stuff settled and then,

then they really have about another five months before we suggest their families come over,

um,

six months later so they can get into the groove.

Yeah,

it makes sense and,

and I’m sure that,

that,

you know,

that first week is probably just such a shock.

I,

I can’t imagine it would be the same way if you were to take an experienced driver from the United States and send him to South Africa,

it’s gonna be different.

I love that.

You guys give them that,

that time to just settle in,

get their wits about them,

understand what they’re here for and what a great OTR guy,

a guy who doesn’t bring his family over,

they’re gonna come over but not for,

you know,

a year or so,

man,

put that guy,

get him a nice big sleeper and put him out there on the road because he’s gonna,

he’s gonna grind and,

and it sounds like that’s what you’re seeing when you guys look at your analytics.

Even when they do have their family over here,

there’s still a different culture,

you know,

in,

in the US.

It seems as though if you’re a father,

you’re expected to be more of a parent and more involved in kids’ lives than say,

when back in the sixties over there,

they still have a lot of people that the,

the dad will go out and he’ll go long distance and he’ll be gone for a month or months.

You know,

like they still kind of have that mentality where the,

the man of the house is purely the provider.

Now,

that doesn’t mean that they don’t have other things like going on,

but they are in that mindset,

still not as much as in the US we see in the US,

you know,

especially the younger drivers,

you know,

they,

they want to be part of their family more often and that just changes things.

Um And I think we’ll continue to see that.

Sure.

How do you guys prepare them for the differences culturally that they’re going to face when they come over here to start their journey as a,

as an American immigrant?

That’s,

that’s jumping into the workforce.

Yeah,

there’s a lot of things going on right now to do that.

We do a lot of video content,

finding other video content from other immigrants.

You know,

we’ve,

we’ve had our team read a few books.

There’s some really good books.

I’m trying to think the immigrant books where it talks about their experience of just coming over to the United States.

What did,

what was different,

what did they learn?

There’s a really good one.

Streets of Gold,

which I think is on immigration in general.

And the reason I like that book is it really talks about actually all the benefits of immigration to the US specifically.

And when you really look at the data,

the immigration in Ellis Island days,

you know,

and they came over to New York and got registered on the island,

we all think of that kind of nostalgic like,

oh look at all.

They came over here and they really grinded.

Um And it’s different now most immigration is coming from,

you know,

Central and South America.

But what the data shows is that the results actually are really no different.

When you look at the financial success of immigrants coming over.

It’s the same when you look at the multiple generations afterwards,

how much they increase their education and financial.

It actually is very high.

The net benefit of immigration is actually really high.

And I just like this immigration because they’re coming in with a job,

a good job,

good company.

Talk about setting up somebody up for success.

I mean,

that is such a good position to be in.

Absolutely.

And,

you know,

a lot of people that,

that uh try to rally against him in some way,

shape or form.

Uh It seems to me,

at least with the people I’ve talked to and,

and,

you know,

Roger mentioned this,

Roger Schmidt when we talked to him earlier,

he said,

you know,

if you’re gonna come over the right way,

come like this is the best part about being an American is we’ve got this big melting pot where we’re a mix of cultures.

I actually brought up to him.

God,

could you imagine our food?

If we had fully closed borders here in the United States,

it would be terrible.

I mean,

you can get any type of food you want because we’re such,

we’ve,

we’ve welcome people in and,

and develop such a rich culture of our own here.

That’s a mix of all these others.

And this is what you’re talking about here with experienced associates.

This is the very definition of doing it the right way.

They’re getting everything taken care of,

all that paperwork,

all that crazy uh stuff that just comes at you like you’re drinking out of a fire hose and you guys are there to help them,

not only with that and the cultural stuff,

but also get them placed with a good company uh so that they can go off and have a fantastic career with a company like Liquid and I,

I just,

I can’t say enough good things about what you’ve got going on here.

Chad,

uh,

how,

how many drivers have you placed?

I know because you’ve already said you’ve been working with a company like Schneider.

I don’t even want to guess how many trucks that company has because of how many of them.

I see when I’m out on the road but,

you know,

liquid’s a bit smaller,

low turnover,

like you said,

how many drivers have you placed through this program?

Yeah.

So actually just to clarify.

So Schneider did the pilot program and this is back in 2012,

2013.

Now,

since then,

they were family owned still at that point.

Now,

they are not family owned,

they actually aren’t even using the program.

Well,

what they basically said was,

look,

the number of drivers you can bring to us in a year is like a drop in the bucket for their full recruiting efforts.

But what’s interesting is that we are still working with some really large companies like the very largest on Clean Harbors.

I mean,

I think they have like 12,000 trucks,

right?

They’re not a,

they’re not a,

you know,

four hire carrier,

but they obviously need it.

And so as large as them,

we got some carriers that are,

you know,

1200 trucks,

other tanker companies,

um,

some that are in the 300 range.

So the size of the company is kind of all over the place.

We have really big all the way down.

A really large,

small and right now I think we are close to,

there’s an additional 450 immigrants that are in the process right now.

So,

I mean,

it’s,

it’s starting to be hundreds of hundreds of people a year.

Which the interesting part with that is,

it’s hundreds of drivers a year,

but then it’s hundreds of families a year.

And that part to me is fascinating because you think about any city that we’re going to send drivers to you in some places like we have some people that are,

they,

they desire 100 drivers a year.

Other places,

it’s 24 drivers a year.

So it really depends on the size of the company.

But,

you know,

adding 2430 drive families a year into a town that’ll be noticeable,

small towns especially go 10 years down the road and look at how,

uh,

noticeable it’ll be,

you’ll have other generations working their way in and everything.

That’s awesome.

Uh,

and,

and I mean,

just knowing that you are,

are basically touching the lives of so many people,

uh,

whether it be the,

the immigrants that you’re bringing over or the,

the people that they will eventually have a positive impact on down the road.

Um,

do you get to stay in touch with any of these guys?

Are you in contact with any of them to kind of,

you know,

get a,

a report a few years down the road,

see how things are working out.

Yeah.

And that is the nice thing about this for the company.

So once the driver comes over here,

there’s,

there’s really in place a three year payback contract with those drivers.

So it’s nice because they’re,

they’re meant to stay at the company,

you know,

from a retention standpoint,

which means that we’re staying in touch with them from a seor.

So if they ever have like a real issue where they think there’s going to be a problem where they want to leave the company,

we’re there to try to resolve that,

make sure that they stay as much as possible.

Otherwise let them stay in our network and go to another client if we really,

really need that.

But we want to stay in touch with them and then the hope which this is not fully in place yet is to give after support,

meaning when their families get here and all that,

you know,

figuring out their housing with them,

figuring out any other needs that they have.

And we really do want to look at financial planning,

we want to look at their retirement,

what are they planning for?

Because,

you know,

you think about,

you bring somebody over here and let’s say they’re 52 years old and they’re from South Africa and we don’t want them driving till they’re 80.

Right.

I mean,

we don’t want them driving that long.

You don’t,

you don’t.

Nobody did.

Yeah.

And they,

and they’re coming from a country where the,

the South African,

the rand,

the Dollar over in South Africa doesn’t really translate to a whole lot of wealth in the US.

So they’re not starting off high.

So we,

we really need them to start planning for retirement so that they don’t,

don’t become,

I’ll say a waste on the system,

right.

So we,

we want to add to the system,

not take away and drain resources from it too.

So we’ll see what kind of support that gets into.

But our,

our goal though is to continue to support them.

I mean,

there might even be things,

you know,

because of the 10 tension of moving to a new country.

What is that like for their marriages?

What is it like for their relationship with their kids?

There’s a whole lot of ideas that are out there of what the sport looks like.

Uh So we’ll see what actually it actually happens.

I’m sure it’s case by case too,

you’re not gonna have the same problems or the same issues that arise with every person,

they’re gonna be unique to their situation,

which is means you’ve got,

uh if there are problems out there to solve,

you’ve got uh a little bit of work out there in front of you,

but you,

you seem like a real creative guy and seem really good at solving these problems and,

and just as we’ve said,

I’ve said it so many times already.

Setting them up for success.

I mean,

it,

it sounds like I,

I would equate it to the difference between a kid who grew up with his parents.

Kinda,

you know,

let’s get you a bank account.

Let’s get you a cell phone with just a few numbers in it at a young age.

So you can learn responsibility.

Let’s get you.

I mean,

my,

my first uh loan that I took out,

I co-signed a loan with my dad for a car when I was 14.

I thought I was just getting a car.

My dad looked at it and went,

no,

you’re getting a credit score so that when you’re 40 you can buy other things that you don’t have the cash laying around for.

I,

I feel like that’s how you’re setting them up kind of with,

you know,

just a good foundation,

uh,

rather than just dropping them into a city and going.

All right,

here’s the keys,

have fun,

you know,

stay safe out there,

keep the shiny side up.

Um And,

and so that just makes it just such a fantastic product.

I just again,

I can’t say enough good things about this chad.

Um,

and I do want to real quick before we let you go because I’m getting close to running out of time here.

But uh I want to give you an opportunity to talk a little bit about brand outcomes as well if you want to.

Um Jason had mentioned that to me and you know,

you’re taking some time out of your day to come talk to us here on the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

I want to give anything that we can give to you as far as a plug is concerned.

So talk to us about uh brand outcomes.

That’s how everything really started.

So brand outcomes was a marketing company that my,

my wife actually started and then I joined her a few years later and it just happened to be that some of her first clients were trucking companies.

So it wasn’t on purpose,

it was just how it worked out.

And so she was handling the recruitment marketing for these trucking companies and doing well.

And then I came in and when I first came in,

I was handling the retention consulting piece of this and it just happened that some of the companies were owned by parent companies that own multiple trucking companies,

then it just kind of expanded in that network and we just kept growing that piece.

Hence then when the podcast for recruiting and retention came out because of that.

And so the whole point was how do we do unique things on the recruiting side as well as the retention side?

Well,

I’ll tell you what uh recruiting immigrants was,

is pretty unique in the industry.

So,

yeah,

and,

and just a history on that,

even if you look prior to 2016,

there were either zero,

I think one year had finally 30 like drivers total in the country that were brought over on a green card.

Now,

now in this entire country,

we’re looking at about 1000 1200 like in that range.

So it’s still a very unique offering um in that piece.

So,

and that’s all from the brand outcomes piece of it,

you know,

really understanding what did trucking need,

how do we set this up in a way that makes sense.

And when,

when you think about it from a company side,

the retentions there because you have these contracts with these guys and you’re putting them into good carriers that pay well,

that treat drivers well.

So the retention is there,

which is huge bonus.

And then on a company side,

you know,

people might wonder like,

oh,

you know,

what’s really the investment in this?

Well,

the nice thing is what we did as a company.

Hey,

look,

we’re going to cover all the upfront costs,

all the immigration,

the legal costs,

the government fees,

we cover all of that and then we get paid back over time once they arrive.

So what that,

what that really means is you can’t really get a better situation than that as a company because you’re not paying for anything upfront and you’re only paying a fee once those drivers are bringing in revenue,

which means that you’re never in the,

the red with the company.

It’s,

it’s,

that’s,

that’s the best scenario that’s possible.

Now,

why don’t more people do it because it’s immigration and dealing with the US government is a pain,

just a pain.

It’s,

you’ve got the patience of a saint man.

That’s all I can say.

Like you don’t even have to explain it to me just knowing what you just said,

defined it perfectly at the glacial pace that they move in our government.

And uh the way that so many things get prioritized over others,

man,

hats off to you for even jumping into that pool.

Yeah,

it’s been uh a beautiful frustration.

We’ll put it well put,

well put.

Uh where can I find out more about uh brand outcomes?

You got a website.

Yeah,

brand outcomes.com,

you know,

very easy on that side.

And like you mentioned earlier,

the experience Dash associates.com.

Uh if anybody really wants to reach out linkedin is a good place to get contact information and just send a message to that.

Um But the websites are always available as well.

Very cool.

Well,

Chad Hendrix,

it’s been an absolute pleasure to get to learn a lot about uh experienced associates and some about brand outcomes as well.

We greatly appreciate your time here on the Liquid Trucking Podcast and uh if I have anything to do with it,

we’ll be getting you back on here again in the future.

All right,

we talk about plenty of things.

There’s lots of topics we could talk about with drivers and retention and what people like or don’t like.

But you know what’s funny is like,

I know liquids turnover,

right.

Don’t have a problem.

No,

they don’t.

And,

and we’re trying to make it.

Yeah.

Well,

I mean,

we’re trying to make it even better with this podcast.

So I think that we’re all on the same page here.

We’re all working towards the same goal.

So,

uh let’s work together,

right?

It’s fantastic.

All right,

Chad.

Well,

thanks again.

Have a fantastic day and we’ll be in touch with you.

All right,

great.

And hello to all the drivers out there.

Stay safe.

What a fantastic episode.

Episode 25 of the Liquid Trucking podcast is in the books.

And I gotta tell you,

I just a huge thank you going out to uh Roger Schmidt,

President of Liquid Ofc Schmidt Bartow.

Uh What a great interview it was with him here in that family history knowing that,

that uh without his ancestors coming over and literally building a life from scratch here.

Liquid Trucking might not be uh but it is.

And it’s a fantastic company to work for and one that prides itself on bringing over qualified immigrants to join the staff,

add some diversity,

add some culture,

man.

You think about it.

Uh One of the guys that I’ve talked to a lot and we mentioned him off the top here.

I talked to Alex Shevchuk from Ukraine.

We get all sorts of recipes.

Alex is always sending me pictures of stuff he’s getting into on the road meals.

He’s making,

uh,

stories from his family and everything like that.

I gotta think he’s pretty happy over here in the US.

And I also got to think that there is a grip of immigrant truck drivers that have been helped out by experienced associates and Chad Hendrix himself that are also making a much better life for them themselves here in the United States than they would back in South Africa or whatever country they may have come from.

I love knowing that these guys got to have 10 years of driving over in South Africa before they’re qualified to come over here.

And then after that,

they get another five weeks of schooling in Iowa before it’s time to actually jump behind the wheel.

That right there spells out some of the most experienced drivers out there on the road.

And I thought it was really cool what Chad was touching on.

You know,

these guys don’t have the resources that we have in trucking here.

Uh You know,

liquid’s got a great shop.

We’ve talked to the guys at the shop before we just had be whipple on a couple of weeks ago talking about the 500 year flood.

That guy was able to keep the shop running at a fever pitch during a historic flood.

All right,

they don’t have dudes like Bo Whipple and his team in South Africa.

Those guys break down,

they pull over on the side of the road and they start turning wrenches.

That means they have that knowledge.

They know how to fix some things on the fly that can really help out working over here,

even with the fantastic uh mechanic resources that a company like Liquid has and maybe not even being able to fix it with their own hands.

That might not be the important part but helping diagnose some of these problems being able to tell the shop before you get there.

Hey,

this is what’s happening and this is my thought on it.

I think we might need to look at Xy and Z Man.

I bet the shop loves being able to uh be well informed and know what’s going on before they dive in and start uh start loosening bolts and nuts.

So,

uh just again,

I wanna thank Roger Schmidt.

I want to thank Chad Hendrix from the bottom of my heart.

Fantastic episode.

We were able to put together for you here all based on what those guys came in and talked to us about immigration and trucking is a big topic.

It’s a hot button topic for a lot of drivers and that’s what we like to do here on the Liquid Trucking Podcast is talk about the things that you want to hear about.

If there’s ever anything that you want to hear about on the Liquid Trucking Podcast,

it’s very easy for you to get in touch with me and tell me,

first of all,

I’m hanging out in the Liquid Drivers Lounge that,

uh,

Facebook page,

Mike Stanfield Driver for Liquid invited me into that and I see all the posts that you guys make,

uh,

if you want to interact with me in there,

hit tag me,

Marcus Bridges on Facebook,

tag me and we can chat about some things.

I’d love to hear your ideas and I’m always looking for drivers to come on this show.

So if you’re a listener and I know you’re out there listening,

I see the numbers,

you guys bring it when it comes to supporting this podcast,

you want to support even more and jump on for an interview.

I’d love to have you head on over to Liquid trucking.com and click the uh banner at the top of the page there,

the home page that’ll take you to our podcast landing page where you can find episodes,

information on who we’ve had on the show and much more.

Plus you can get in touch with me if you just want to send an email without going through all the rigmarole.

That’s fine too,

podcast at Liquid trucking.com.

We will definitely see it.

We’d love to hear your feedback,

love to hear what you want to hear about and love to have you jump on the show with us.

That’s gonna wrap it up,

Liquid Trucking.

Thank you so much again for being here.

Don’t forget to click like and subscribe on the platform that you prefer.

And also as I run out of breath here,

uh don’t forget you can rate us on some of these podcast platforms.

I got a burp coming on.

That’s what’s going on.

Hang on.

All right.

That’s why we have a cough button in this industry.

Uh You can rate us,

you can review us on a lot of the podcast platforms that you might be listening on Apple,

Spotify.

All these.

If you leave us a review or you leave us a rating,

we really appreciate it.

Good,

bad or indifferent.

It,

it helps us.

Uh OK,

it helps us make this podcast better.

It helps us understand what it is that you want to hear and what we can be doing better here on the Liquid Trucking podcast.

So thank you for subscribing.

Thank you for listening and downloading.

And now if I could ask you for one more favor,

leave us a rating or a review on your platform of choice.

It means the world to me and the world to us as a team.

And don’t forget,

I’m not the only guy here you only hear from me on this side,

but I got a whole team of people behind me and without them,

we could not make this podcast what it is.

So hats off to my team.

Hats off to my editor Mike,

the ninja,

you guys,

he is a ninja.

You don’t see him.

He lurks in the shadows and he makes me sound way better than I do in real life.

Uh We got a whole team of people working on this podcast and we appreciate them.

Always.

We also appreciate you liquid trucking.

Keep the shiny side up.

Stay safe out there 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.