What’s good Liquid Trucking and welcome into the Liquid Trucking podcast. It’s episode nine, believe it or not, we’re off and running on this thing and it feels very real. And, uh, I gotta thank all of you that have come on this podcast so far and helped out with that last week on the driver hotline episode. We had such an awesome time talking to Mike and Matt and Drew and Tony that we wanted to bring that format back. And this week on the show, we’re talking about something that everybody deals with, not just professional drivers, four wheelers alike, people going to and from work, hauling kids to and from school. And that is inclement weather. We’re in the dead of winter right now. Uh It’s been a little bit of a milder winter across the lower 48 than what we may have expected. But in my experience that just means that the real stuff is coming. It just hasn’t gotten here yet. And today we’re going to talk to some drivers and very experienced staff members about exactly how to navigate these crazy mountain passes stories that they might have of when things got a little bit too hairy for him. Uh, close calls and also a couple of stories about some people who jumped in and helped out in ways that can only happen to a Liquid Driver because of that prime customer service that we offer. So without further ado because I used up a ton of my extra time here just having these conversations today. I want to get to it. Here is my conversation with Liquid Driver Drew Hearn and uh front office staff member, Bo Hankey, driver training and development leader from the Plattsmouth terminal. Let’s get to it. 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 Driver Drew Hearn joining me again this week, Drew. Thanks for stopping by two weeks in a row, man. Yeah, no problem. Got nothing better to do. I like to hear that. Also joining me uh from vacation time is driver training and development leader, Bo Hanky Bo. Really appreciate you being here, man. Not a problem. My pleasure. Well, I, I mean, is it though, you got the feet kicked up at home? So I know there might be something better for you to be doing here. Uh I mean, yeah, maybe but I’m all right with this. Ok, cool. Uh Look guys, we’re gonna talk about some winter driving today and uh one of the reasons that I brought you on, uh, bow. Excuse me is because I know you’ve got some pretty extensive experience when it comes to, uh, hairy driving conditions. Can you talk me through a little bit what you were, uh, into before you, uh, got your current position with liquid? Yeah, definitely. I started, uh, kind of in Alaska running the passes and, and things like that in a truck and I, I didn’t really, I was working on the slope which is called the oil fields. Uh, if you’re not familiar in Alaska, I did a little bit of driving up there. Uh, I was driving snow tracks and all kinds of different crazy things. Eight wheel drive thunder machines and all kinds of different stuff up there. And then, uh, the oil market was falling through and, uh, decided I needed to do something different and come back down to the lower 48 which I did. I, uh, got into reefer did that for, I wanna say just about a year. Uh, reefer was not my, not my jam. Then I got out of reefer. I went and flatbed at first. Well, I, I intended on flat betting and then, uh, they wanted me for their heavy haul division which was strictly Oregon, California and Washington driving, run I five and mining roads and logging roads, all kinds of different crap. So then, uh, I didn’t like the heavy haul. So then they put me OTR on their flatbed. Uh, and that was, I was working for Cotc at that time and then, uh, I worked for Liquid or actually my brother found them. Sorry, my brother found Liquid. Started working for them. I, I probably worked there eight months and, uh, I don’t know, another job came up. Something that I always wanted to do. It was called piggybacking. I don’t know if you guys are familiar with piggybacking. I’m not. But uh that’s where you haul uh brand new trucks from the dealer to dealer. Basically. Uh I used to fly in, in and out of Vaughn Ory Texas down by San Antonio and Mile Holly, North Carolina. So I was flying 2 to 3 times a week. I was breaking down trucks and delivering them and I, I had a travel agent. It was, it was pretty crazy, but I never called the house and I wanted to start a family. So I actually reconnected with uh a girl. I used to date in high school. Uh Now we’re together, we’ve been together five years and uh I came back to Liquid. I’ve been there ever since. Well, congratulations on uh deciding to start the family and, and settling down and everything like that. I know that that can’t be an easy decision to make when you’ve been running as hard as you were running for all those years. But I, I’m, I’m really interested man and this being the cold weather driving episode you know, I’m gonna ask you about, uh, that work you did up there in Alaska? Um, how hairy did it get up there, man? I imagine. Um, you know, we all see all of the ice road truckers and everything like that. Was it anything like that that you were dealing with where it’s kind of life and death every single day. If you make the wrong move, things can go real wrong real fast. Oh, yeah, absolutely. That’s, that’s, that’s real up there. I remember one time uh uh a blizzard came in or a white out. They call it and uh we had to hide in a, in basically a welding shop for almost a day and a half with without, you know, a bed or anything. And uh they were, they were trying to get food to us. It was, it was quite the deal. Yeah, we were, we were in lockdown mode. I used to have videos of it. I don’t know if I still do. Maybe I’ll post them someday. Yeah, I almost wanna forget those videos, man. I mean, that’s, you have to go back and relive that experience. That sounds crazy. You know, I, I always wonder about that. Like getting stranded. That’s the one thing with cold weather and, and you know, mountain pass driving that always does concern me. I see guys uh parked along the side of the road putting their chains on and everything like that and I think, man, what happens if something goes wrong and you’re just stuck there, at least, uh, in your liquid truck, you’re gonna have the sleeper. Right? Drew. So, you know, you’ve got a little bit of reprieve there. But, but Drew, I do want to go to you. Um, do you have any experience in really inclement weather? Heavy snows, ice mountain passes, that type of thing. Yeah, a little bit. The company I used to work for before I worked for liquid. It was down out of Missouri and they were really used to more ice than snow. And I had to do a run up into Nebraska and it was blizzard conditions up there and they pretty much shut everyone down, but they threw me a load and they’re like, hey, you’re from Nebraska, you’re, you’re used to, you know, heavy snow and wet snow and mixture of all of it. So, go for it. And I was still a new driver and I’m like, ok. Yeah. Sure. And it was not the best conditions for a new driver at all. But, I mean, I made it, it’s all about, you know, just taking your time and, you know, being smart about what you’re doing and always remembering you got a pretty big load on the back of you. So mountain passes. Not really. I usually kind of look at the weather ahead of me and if it’s too bad I’ll just stop and wait for it to pass or something. I don’t trust other drivers enough to put my life at risk. So I’ll just kind of hang back and, you know, that’s the cool thing about liquid is they’re like, if you don’t, if you don’t feel comfortable, go ahead and stop, you know, just let us know. And so that’s usually what I end up doing because, you know, I got family at home that I gotta get back to and going over a mountain passes ain’t worth it to me when it’s a blizzard out. Sure. And, and be that brings me to my next question for you. How important is that aspect when you guys are training drivers at liquid as far as you know, letting them know, hey, you don’t have to push your limits here if you’re not feeling up to it, if you don’t think you can make it safely, uh, shut it down and wait. Yeah, we’ve always said that, uh, you know, we’re not a chain and Bill company as they say. So, you know, if you’re putting your jeans on, you’re putting your chains on to get out of the situation that you may have, maybe you’re stuck in a parking lot, maybe, uh, went somewhere. You probably shouldn’t have get those chains on, get out of that situation, get somewhere safe. And he tell me this, uh for you, Drew and, and, uh, well, actually Drew before I get there, have you ever had to put the chains on Drew. Yes, I have. Um, two times. One time was the, um, interstate up in Washington had their chain law in effect and I stopped with the chains on just to get to a weigh station just so I could stop somewhere. And that was it. And then I stopped and waited till the next day when the storm was passed and the roads were cleared. And then another time was as I was out in Panhandle, Nebraska. And yeah, I had a little bit of misinformation about the time that I was able to go down this heat up old gravel road and it was that snowed prior, but the next day was warming up. So it turned into a muddy mess and I ended up getting stuck and had the, have the farmer come out, uh, with his tractor and pull me up out of this mud hole. And I was out there in the mud, throwing chains on my tires just to help get it, get it going. And I slept on top of the hill on a dirt road all night, about a quarter mile away from where I had to deliver to because the roads were so bad. So, I mean, usually if it’s a chain thing going on, I don’t want to throw those things on tires. So if I don’t have to, I won’t. But if I do, it’s just to get somewhere to get them right off because it’s a real bitch to throw them. I, I imagine if it’s 70 degrees and sunny outside, I can’t imagine what it must be like to throw them on when you’re in blizzard conditions or in a super muddy area like that. It’s got to be just a headache. Oh, yeah, definitely. And you’re never clear clean afterwards. And most of the time you’re nowhere near to take a shower. So you’re just covered in mud and snow and you’re frozen and hey, you just got to deal with it sometimes. Just gotta deal with it sometimes. But I imagine that’s something that comes up in training every now and then too is letting the drivers know, hey, whatever it is you just got to deal with it sometimes. Yeah, that’s trucking. Yeah. Yeah. What are some of the things, uh, be that you’ve had to deal with in your, uh, in your driving history that might, uh, ring true to what we’re talking about right now. Uh, I, five, my most hated highway in the country. Are you, are you just saying that because I could throw a rock and hit I five right now or are you just trying to get my? No, I’m not. I’m not, I’ve, I’ve chained on that road more than any other highway on the planet and it was, I hated going there in the winter time, but I knew I was gonna have to chain because my last company was chain and go so it was, it was painful, you know. O on I five and, and kind of in Oregon in general. At least I’m not sure about Washington cause I don’t care about Washington or California. But, uh, I’ll say that sometimes we have this, this statement in Oregon whereas if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it’ll change. Um, did you get that feeling going up and down I Five where it’s like chains on? Ok. Chains off. All right. Get them back on. Was it kind of back and forth like that? It was back and forth the whole way? I was like, all right, take them off and then you go, you go down the hill and then it’s like, oh, gotta put them back on. That was a total nightmare. I think I changed six or seven times. One day. Maybe more. Yeah, maybe more. And how long does it take each time? I mean, you get pretty good at it. It just kind of depend on the surface you’re on too, you know, that can be a total nightmare. And do chains come in much when you’re driving up in that crazy weather up in Alaska? Or you guys just always chains on or do you have different tires to change it? Change? Yeah, I usually always change. Wow. I just, I keep thinking about, like sinking into an icy lake, like driving across ice and having it break below me. I don’t know why. That’s a nightmare. I’ve never been anywhere close to even thinking about that being a possibility in my life. But I have this recurring nightmare where I’m driving a semi for some reason and I’m on a frozen lake and it is sinking. Um, anything like that happen to you while you were up there. Did you see anything like that be? No. So, the, it shows we’re dealing with, we’re, we’re all manmade. So they just bring in millions of gallons of water and dump it out of the tunder and you can drive on it. My favorite thing though, I was in Canada one time. There was a little like menu board type thing and their, their joke in there was t guy from Texas comes in and says, hey, we all do with the ice roads in the summertime. I thought that was pretty funny. Uh It’s great. Uh Drew, I wanted to talk to you a little bit. Um, you’ve got some, some driving experience too. You were saying that they sent you, uh, up and over because you had cold weather experience. At your last job. I wanted to ask about the difference between uh hauling liquid and hauling like a dry van or flatbed in these types of conditions. Uh What types of things go through your mind and what types of things do you have to be mindful of? Well, when you’ve got liquid on the back rather than something dry first thing that comes to mind is definitely movement of product. It played a big part in it because, you know, you could potentially be stopping on some ice or some black ice. And even though you’re slowing down, you could be completely stopped. And once that load shifts, Gordon hits the bulkhead of the trailer, you can still slide forward from it because it is a lot of product moving, that really plays a big part in it. For me. I try to make sure I can kind of judge when traffic is starting to slow down or if there, if I’m in a city or a town and, you know, it’s been a green light for a little bit. I kinda of anticipate that a red light’s coming. So I’ll slow down, you know, so that way they’re, I’m not forcing the product to, you know, the truck comes to a stop but the products still rapidly moving, try to sync it up. So it’s really just a smooth stop because, you know, I don’t wanna come to a stop and then have all the product hit the bulkhead and push me out into the middle of the intersection where there’s tons of ice and traffic, you know, that this is a big cause for problems that you just don’t want to deal with. Sure. Sure. And I mean, I have to imagine that if that liquid comes forward with any speed whatsoever and hits the bulkhead, that’s probably got enough power to push you quite a ways, especially on some ice. Oh, yeah, it can definitely. I mean, just on dry pavement we, we haul some heavy products and I tell a lot of people it’s like getting hit with, with a brick house sometimes. I mean, it, it’ll, it’ll shake you and if some of them, if you’re not in your seat belt, it’ll throw you right out of the seat to hit. Well, so, you know, it’s, it’s just something to be mindful of, especially during winter because it can, it can happen pretty quick. I mean, I’m not recommending this to anybody, but that sounds better than the best cup of coffee if you’re sleepy is to have that thing slam into you like that, wake you up a little bit. Oh, yeah, you’ll wake definitely. You know, you always get beat up on the day. You don’t want to get beat up. Yeah. So it’s always like that. Now, uh, Drew, I know that you’re kind of big and on a driver etiquette. Um, and I wanted to ask you, is there anything that us four wheelers can do out there with these inclement weather roads and these mountain passes to help out, make it easier and maybe make it safer on a driver like yourself because I see people in four wheelers all the time just driving with their life in their hand, hanging out the window. Um, I can’t believe how fast. Sometimes I see four wheelers go four wheel drive or not, studded tires are not, they’re flying to get where they want to go. Uh, what’s some advice you would have to other drivers that you share the road with about cold weather roads and, and how to, uh, make everybody a little safer out there. Drew. Yeah. So, uh, one thing I noticed that’s a really big thing is, uh, people sitting right in the middle of the trailer or right next to the truck in our blind spots. I always believe if you’re gonna pass someone, pass them, do it with some sort of, you know, effort to get up there, you know, and then like when four wheelers are coming over and everything and I do this in my own personal vehicle. Look in your rearview mirror. If you can see both headlights in your rearview mirror of our trucks, that’s a pretty good safe distance ahead of us that we get over to where we don’t have to, you know, slow down or, you know, if you or someone cutting us off and have to jam on the brakes because, you know, even though it’s, it could possibly be a sunny day out, but it’s really cold, the snow could be melting a little bit, but it could also be freezing on the roads, especially on bridges. So, you know, you might hit some ice just by someone cutting you off and then you’re in a whole another mess of problem. Um, so that’s like one of my big things I really hate is people just sitting right in that blind spot and coming over to too soon. So, you know, if that’s something that people would just, you know, learn how to do, which is, you know, courteous driver etiquette, then a lot of problems would be avoided. Sure. And it seems pretty rudimentary as far as driver etiquette is concerned. Like, maybe something they should teach us all when we’re 16 and trying to get a hold of that license. And that goes back to like, uh, what we were talking about last week, part of, uh, driver training and everything for these young kids, throw them in the semi with us, you know, have someone that’s doing their class or whatever, go out in a semi with them for an hour or two and it’ll really open up their eyes of what, you know, as big big truck drivers have to deal with. B, do you think that would help, uh, young kids getting their driver’s license going on a ride along with a guy like Drew for a couple of hours? See if you can scare him straight. Yeah. Scared straight for semi. That’s hilarious. Uh, uh, yeah, I was actually just thinking that in my mind while you guys were talking, I’m like, yeah, there needs to be some sort of driving course called Scared Straight. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Going out there. Uh, the, the biggest thing though is like, what most people don’t understand. Our trucks are governed and they’re slow. I mean, they’re not jumping up to 65 and, you know, two seconds or anything. It takes us a long time to get out of the way and, you know, people are just really impatient and we live in an impatient world, I guess. Yeah, that’s very true. I, you know, it’s funny that you guys bring up scared straight, uh, for, for truck drivers or, or for truck driving and I got a ticket when I was 17 years old for following too closely. Um, which I think was just an excuse to pull me over to see if I had any drugs or alcohol in the car, to be honest, but I got the ticket and to not pay it, I had to go to this class called Trauma Talks Tough. And it was basically a police officer sitting there showing you just heinous car accidents where people were maimed or killed. And it was a three hour long class and it was just a slideshow of this guy was going too fast in an intersection and this, and I’m not joking you guys here. This is the whole thing is kind of funny, but this is the part where it got really serious. They showed us a picture of a car accident from a student that we all went to school with that had died that summer in a terrible rollover car accident and they showed us pictures of it, like, right there, just like, here, here’s your friend and here’s the, so that type of stuff. I mean, listen, I don’t know if I kept anything with me from that class other than seeing that accident and knowing that somebody I knew had passed away there and it really did jar me into, ok, you gotta be careful on the soft shoulders around these rural areas. You have to be, uh, you know, mindful of wildlife, things like that. So I think in my experience there is a little bit to that, you know, I also think that maybe sitting in the, in the shotgun seat of a big rig while a, an experienced truck driver drives around might give these younger students the idea of, of maybe like common courtesy for your other driver because it’s something I feel like truck drivers have in spades, but four wheelers really don’t. What do you guys think? Yeah. Great. Yeah, I mean, sometimes you need that realization of, you know, real life occurrences to, uh, he hit home and be, what do you think about maybe taking up a little bit of a driver’s ed teacher career in your, in your off time, man. You got any time for that touching these high school kids. What the hell to do out there? No, unfortunately, no, I’m pretty, I’m pretty sewed up, man because I thought we had a pilot program going right here. I thought it was gonna be Bow and Drew and you guys are gonna teach him, man finally. Well, uh, what, uh, what else can you offer me, uh, be in the way of advice with your experience and, and some of the crazy stuff you’ve been involved in, up in Alaska, the, uh, the headaches that you’ve had on I five. what can you offer to maybe a prospective driver out there or, or what do you tell these drivers as they’re getting prepared to begin their career with? Liquid? Um, as far as, you know, what, this is, what you’re gonna deal with. I know you can’t tell them everything and that’s why I’m asking, how do you prepare them for the unprepared for if that makes sense? I mean, a lot of times you don’t, I mean, life, life occurrences teach these guys a lot, you know. Uh, our, uh, my job is, is part, is in safety. So, you know, the biggest thing I can tell them is, you know, slow down, it’s not worth it, you know, you do the, you do the, ok. What do you think this car is gonna cost you? Oh, they’re gonna cost me a minute. Ok. Well, if a car costs you a minute, what is that? A year? How much did you really lose? Slow down? Take your time? It pay attention, read the signs, you know, that’s, that’s a big one too. I mean, that could happen in construction. Where are your outs at? You know, you’re in, you’re in a construction zone, you got no outs. If the roads are bad where your out it’s in front of you keep a huge distance. I mean, you’re in a construction zone anyway. What’s the matter? Right? You’re gonna leave there at the same speed you went in. That’s interesting. Drew. Uh, do you find that you’ve learned a lot of what, you know, as far as truck driving is concerned just through experience? Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, when I first got on I was, you know, scared pretty much shitless, you know, shaking in my boots and especially, you know, the first time I went through a mountain pass was with liquid and I was out in Colorado and I was nervous as could be. But, you know, it’s, it’s like Bo said, you know, take your time, slow down. Everything will be all right. You know, it’s a and also keeping, you know, in mind where you’re out is like he was saying, you know, you gotta know if something does happen, where are you gonna be able to get out of that situation? So, you know, it’s, it’s like with anything else, you’re gonna, you’re gonna make mistakes, but that’s where you learn from. It’s from making mistakes because you try not to make them too big a mistake, you know. So I I’ve gained a lot of experience, you know, knowledge of how to do stuff just from experience driving. And there’s a lot of stuff I didn’t know. And I was like, man, I wish i, it’s almost like you want a copilot with you at all times that has way more experience to tell you how to do stuff because when you get put in a situation where you don’t know what to do, you freak out. But, I mean, in the end, as long as you have some common sense you can and anyone can figure it out. Sure. Well, you gotta, if you can’t have a copilot with you all the time, you just have to develop a second personality that you can either listen to or tell to shut the hell up. Um, you know, when, when times are good or bad. But, you know, you, you said be ok with making a mistake, just don’t make it too big. Drew. You, you set me up too well for this one and I’m gonna ask you to be so be thinking, but what’s the biggest mistake that you’ve ever made out there? Drew? And, and how did you learn from it? And, and, you know, teach yourself a lesson for next time. Well, I made, um, I already talked about it, uh, when I was out in the Panhandle in Nebraska in the winter and I got stuck on that dirt road and it was, it was a pretty, pretty, you know, it wasn’t a horrible situation but it was a bad enough situation where I was like, man, what am I gonna do? Because I was really close to a ditch. I was almost jackknifed into it. You know, I’m sinking in mud. Can’t get anywhere. And iii I really didn’t just know what to do at all. But, you know, um, luckily the guy had a tractor, he was able to come down and help me and everything. So, what I got from that really was is now pretty much every customer I go to, I give them a call. Hey, here’s a heads up, I’m coming. Is there anything you got to worry about? Is, you know, how do I get into your facility? Is there, you know, road construction, is there low bridges, you know, weight restricted bridges, everything I go over it all with them, you know, just to try to get a game, help me get a game plan on how I’m gonna get in there and be able to get in there safe and get, get out of there. So, you know, it, that was probably like the worst thing I’ve done. I was pretty nervous about that when I had to call my despatch and tell him I was like, man, please don’t say well pack your bags. That’s it. You, you, you got her stuck and you know, so, but it, it all worked out pretty good, good. And now beau this is gonna be a two parter for you for biggest mistake you’ve made and what you learned for it from it. But then now that you’re in the front office, you hear about a lot of the mistakes out there and we can keep it anonymous. But you gotta tell me about one that you were involved in and also one that you heard about. All right. Uh, so I’m gonna show my cards here. So, uh, one spring day I was headed out to a farmer that I’ve been to probably 1015 times. Well, I decided that, you know, it was a Saturday. I was loaded. I, I’m going to deliver and I’m in a hurry, you know, cause I can leave super early. I know I can deliver there early. I know I can get back early. That’s all part of this plan here. So anyway, I know there’s a road that can get me across. He, he, he lives in an area where a lot of TB roads connect the two roads and instead you have to go down to this town cut over and then come back perpendicular with the road that I’m on. Well, I know there’s a road that gets me across to the other side, but I don’t know which road that is. Well, I’m coming down the gravel road and I, I see there’s a house on the hill. I’m like, oh, that’s gotta be it. There’s a house on it. So I take my corner. Well, I missed the sign wasn’t paying attention and that sign said no, through traffic class B uh, oh, so I get up to the top of the hill. I’m, you know, home cruising, go pat off the house and I just crossed the hill and I see a huge, uh, impassable snow bank. Oh, no. And I, I, uh, I got buried in there. Well, that’s not the worst of it. So I get buried in there and I’m thinking, what am I gonna do? How am I gonna get out of this? There’s no way I’m digging myself out. Well, it’s warming up. So it’s a spring day. I probably, I probably hit the snow bank. It was 32 degrees. By the time 10 o’clock rolled around it’s probably 55 degrees. So the road’s falling apart on me. Oh, no. Yeah, it was, uh, it was not good. Uh, by the time the, well, I called the, it was kind of funny. I called the, the tow dr guy. He’s like, well, I’m gonna, I’m gonna eat breakfast here and then I’ll be out there. I’m like, no, man, you don’t understand the road’s falling apart. It’s getting slimy. I gotta get out of here. Well, he brings about half the town and, uh, two wreckers, they have to tie on to me, tie on to the trail or, and, and then another wrecker ties off the other recorder and they pull us all out. It was a total nightmare. You gotta love rural, you gotta love rural communities for that. Right. Because everybody will drop their toast and come help. Oh, yeah. Uh, yeah, I was like, oh, well, you know, I’m gonna finish breakfast here and then I’ll be out. I’m like, no, no, you should come right now. And, uh, one that you’ve heard about maybe while, uh, working there in the front office and training drivers, I just, just getting stuck on those roads. I mean, the biggest thing that I see with the newer guys doing is like, yeah, we go to a lot of customers that are remote. I mean, Andrew can probably speak to this. Some of these customers you go to, you’re like, jeez, where the hell am I? I mean, you can hear the banjos playing, you know. Well, anyway, uh, use your Google Earth. That’s like a huge key to this whole thing. I always Google Earth, everything like, ok, where are these roads at? Do they have tanks there? Well, they got tanks there. It looks like that’s probably where I’m going. You know, if that road tails off into a field somewhere that’s probably not the road you want to go down. You know, those are usually the ones that, that cost us the most because they’re so far out in the middle of nowhere. How many records are out there? Not very many. If they are out there. They’re eating breakfast right now. They’re not ready to come and they’re gonna charge you for it. Yeah, that Saturday breakfast rate’s not a cheap rate when it comes to a record out here. I mean, I’ve seen $1000 tow bills for 3 ft. All good reason to take this all under advisement and just try not to get yourself in this situation. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, I mean, just crazy. I mean, we’ve had drivers, uh, uh, I know he doesn’t work here anymore but anyway, we’ll keep it anonymous. Uh, there was a semi truck currently stuck in a parking lot with the record trying to get him out and he decided to drive in there. What do you think happened? Uh, he got two also. That guy got a two for, because you gotta pay to get that record unstuck too. I assume they’re not, they’re not, not charging you for that. No, they charge you for everything. I’ve seen, I’ve seen walkie talkies get charged and all kinds of weird crazy things. Wow. Wow. So, so just, uh, know before you go, I think is the best way to put it right. Use that Google Earth, put that to work for you, make sure that you’re not headed up to, uh, an impassable road with the snow bank or, uh, you’re gonna get jackknifed up there like Drew did and, and start slipping off. That’s, that just sounds like, I mean, I love having these conversations with you guys. But thanks for the recurring nightmares that I’m now going to have about things I didn’t already have them about because I had to be of service to you. Yeah, the biggest thing is trip plan, trip plan, trip plan. There’s not a driver out there that hasn’t had an oh, shit moment. I, I can guarantee you that for sure, for sure. Well, uh, who was it last week? Uh, actually it was a different podcast I was doing but somebody told me that, uh, what was it if you hadn’t almost shit your pants while driving, uh, you were, you were a liar or you were lucky one of the two. So I think that that’s, you know, there’s these, there’s these truths that come through for all drivers in all times. So I’m glad that, uh, we got to talk about a couple of those today guys. We’re up against the clock here. I, I wanna thank you both for your time. This has been great and very insightful. Uh, be before I let you go. Anything you wanna say to, uh, the drivers that might be listening, any of the front office staff or, uh, anybody beyond that that could be listening to your appearance today. The floor is yours, my friend. Yeah. Uh, thanks Andrew for, uh, requesting me on. I had a lot of fun. Uh, you do a great job, man and, uh, hopefully you continue to do a great job for us for a long time. Other than that, like I said, just a little bit ago, trip plan, trip plan, trip plan. You can never plan too much driving out there in the snow and the ice and everything. Uh, you know, is there a whole lot of preparedness you can do. Not a whole lot if you think it’s too much. Stay off the road. Thank you, Bo Hanky. How about you, Drew? Anything to say before we let you go? Yeah, just um um you know, all the drivers out there just take your time, you know, and like be said, if it, if you don’t think it’s safe, just, you know, don’t even attempt it because in the end, all you’re gonna do is probably end up costing the bill and no one wants to fork out money for someone trying to be super trucker out there. So, you know, uh yeah, pretty much, you know, keep the rubber side down and yeah, Bo uh no problem for, you know, asking to come on here and talk with me and I’ll be here for probably a while cause you guys treat me pretty good so I can’t complain too much. Awesome. Drew Hearn and Bo Hankey from Liquid Trucking. Thank you guys both for your time. We’ll get you back here very soon. All right. All right. All right, thanks. Thank you. Great stuff there from Drew Hearn and Bo Hanky. Love those guys. They got a great relationship behind the scenes and a little peek behind the curtain there for you as I don’t know if you heard it, but Bo was calling Drew and Drew and uh that’s somebody, you know, I was introduced to Drew by Drew and he called himself Drew, which means that probably got to have a pretty good relationship with the guy to call him and Drew and I love it when drivers and office staff members alike come on the podcast and share those relationships a little bit with us. That was an awesome conversation. A lot of good insight from Drew and be there. And I’ve got another one right now for you. My conversation here with Brian Polar Bear, Elmquist and Tony Brown, both Liquid Trucking drivers. Now, we got a couple of drivers making return appearances here to the Liquid Trucking Podcast and we’re very grateful for their time. I’ve got Tony Brown on the line with me. How are you doing out there, Tony? I’m doing pretty good. Thanks for being here today. My friend and the driver you all know as polar bear, but his mom did name him Brian Elmquist. I’m gonna throw that in there just for one time. Uh But we’re calling him Polar Bear for the rest of this chad here. Polar Bear. Thanks for joining us today. Yes, sir. I enjoyed the first time. So that’s why I’m back again. And yeah, I like the polar bear name. I think I’ve earned it, especially since it’s, well, this morning it was 18 degrees in, uh, west of Lincoln, Nebraska. Any ice out there on the road or snow or anything that seems a little cold for snow yesterday. They, I got my, uh, full load of sailboat fuel coming back from California over the holiday. So I spent the weekend in CM carry. And then Monday, when I drove, I went through about how hard to judge 7080 miles of freezing fog. And that’s just, that’s just one of my, I just, I just can’t stand like heavy snow fog, especially freezing. Oh, yeah. It’s, uh, treacherous out there when the fog freezes. Now, what types of, uh, changes do you make for your, you know, your driving routine when you’re driving in weather like that polar bear? I definitely slow down. But once again, like we discussed the first time I was on, that’s one nice thing about these trucks is the monitor on front. Won’t, won’t really let you run anybody over. I had been following a big truck for about, oh, probably 2530 miles until either, either he sped way up and lost me or I slowed way down and lost him or, but I mean, every once in a while you could see for half a mile, maybe a little more. And then next thing you know, is like, oh, wow, it’s right there, you know, you can barely see the front and then when it’s there, I, a lot of times I’ll like, I probably ran 5055 when I couldn’t see and then pick her back up to 65 when I could see. Sure. Uh, how about you, Tony? How’s the weather where you’re at right now? Uh, right now the weather where I’m at about 45 degrees, uh, a little bit of a freeze and just overcast and it’s dry. That’s good. Have you, have you run into, uh, any inclement weather during the season out here so far? Um, I had a little bit a few weeks ago. Really. Nothing substantial yet. I ran and had some out in Western Wyoming on I 80 out by Laramie, like I said a few weeks ago. But that’s really all I’ve hit so far. Hang on bad weather on I 80 outside of Laramie Wyoming. I’ve never heard of such a thing. I know it sound right. It’s rare. That’s so rare. You did the background check first, right? Mar? Oh, yeah. Ok. I wanna make sure that’s funny. Yeah. Now, that’s actually something that brings me to a great question. How do you guys prepare when you’re worried about inclement weather? Are you jumping on your weather apps? Are you getting on the CB and calling ahead? What’s, uh, what types of, uh, of, I guess preparation do you put behind it? If you’re worried about weather, Tony, we’ll start with you, um, when it comes to weather like that. Yeah, I’m definitely checking the weather app looking at forecasts. I’ll check five or six different ones. Never stick with just one meteorologist or like, uh, politicians. You never know, you know what they’re gonna change. And then, uh, and then I, I also, I do use my TV radio quite a bit once the weather starts, does start to turn downhill. Um, I’m constantly grabbing on my radio, seeing if I get somebody to check in that’s headed the opposite direction just to see what it was like, you know, 10 miles further up, 20 miles up, just, just, just so you have a good idea of what’s going on before you get there. That way you can start readjusting your plan if need be. Now, do you find that uh other drivers on the radio are helpful this day and age Tony because I know that the uh CB culture has kind of been on a downturn over the last 10 years or so. And it’s not something that’s as popular as what it used to be. How much hope do you get from guys when you’re, when you’re calling uh opposite, uh traveling drivers to see how things are this day and age. I, I hate to say it this way but I have to look for certain types of trucks before I’ll even consider grabbing my mic. A lot of these Tupperware torpedoes like we drive a lot of these drivers, they don’t want to spend the money themselves to buy their own radio. And if the, so if the company doesn’t provide it, they’re not going to spend the money on it so that the radio culture is way downhill. So it’s, it’s hit and miss on, you know, trying to get a good report on what’s going on further up the road. Sure. Sure. No, that was kind of what I was worried about is, uh, not as many guys out there on the horn. Uh, not as many reports about what’s going on polar bear, uh, in, in with you, if you’re getting in the truck, you know, you’ve got inclement weather up ahead. How are you preparing? Uh, what, what changes about your routine? Like I have, uh the, instead of the 511, I got it on my phone, you know, you can call the, you can call the 511 number and I usually do entire route of 80. That’s how, when I went out to California, that’s how I decided to go down to 40 across because, uh, I did entire route and the first four words out of their mouth is winter storm warning. I’m like, well, I ain’t going that way and then I kind of, you know, did the, uh, the radar map and Denver was all blue and, you know, it’s just, just going across I 70 Utah is, I just unless you’re forced to go that way. I don’t understand why you just cannot make any time. So, yeah, I mean, I’m, I do the 511 on my phone mostly for Wyoming and then just like you said, play it by ear and then to add on to what Tony said about the, uh, the drivers. Yeah. You see an older feet or a grain bug or, especially a B rack or? Yeah. Do you see AC RSD or, or a Swift or somebody like that? Yeah, you just as well not, not hit the button and talk to yourself because you’re gonna get the same answer dead silent. And for us older schoolers, you know, we used to throw a joke out there, you know, hey, anybody hear me. Yeah. Which way are you going? Same way as you, I’m listening. God, I gotta get a median jumper in this again. It will not go over the median, you know, you get a new school or he’s not gonna know what that means. That just means they’re not listening, man because I got it. Uh, that’s, that’s funny, man. So, uh, I wanna ask you guys about maybe, uh, a story that you have about, uh, inclement weather, whether it be yours or, or one that you’ve, uh, come across. Um, Tony, we’ll start with you here. Is there any times where, uh, things have gotten too hairy or, or you’ve made a mistake out there and and, uh, gotten yourself in too deep when it comes to bad weather. I, I haven’t gotten myself in too deep but, uh, when I first started working for this company, I was only about a month, month and a half in and I started in January and I was headed out to, uh, Saint Louis and I was headed down 70 from Kansas City out towards Saint Louis and I noticed it started to freeze and rain. It was starting to get a little dark. I had my wife chirping in my ear. I had my headset on and I was like, hey, I think I’m gonna go ahead and shut it down for the night. I still got a couple of hours I can run, but it’s already getting dark and the weather’s starting to turn, I’m gonna shut it down for the night. She goes, yeah, play it safe, shut down. So I shut down. I woke up the next morning and there was snow halfway up the side of my tires and we sat there, they shut the interstate down that night and we sat there, uh, me and there was actually another liquid driver there as well. And he, he came over to my truck. He’s like he goes, I don’t know about you, but he goes, I already called this back. I’m not going nowhere. I’m set right here. So then it opens up and that’s, that’s got to be the right idea. Right. Don’t push it too hard. Exactly. Don’t, that’s what I love about liquid trucking is they give us that option where if we don’t feel comfortable, don’t risk it shut it down. We can always inform the customer that it’s gonna be a little bit late. Like the delivery. I had the customer wound up being shut down too, so they wound up. Yeah, they wound up shutting down. So it, it pushed the whole delivery back anyway. So it worked out to be a blessing regardless because I, I got down, finally got down there on a Thursday and they weren’t going to open back up until Friday. Sure. Now, uh, Polar Bear, you said at the right off the top that you’ve earned your nickname. And I know for a fact that you have, but I also know you’re gonna have some stories about inclement weather for me, uh, over your experience. Uh, go ahead and tell us one that’s on your mind right now. So one, and this is kind of how I was still kind of learning hankering. And, uh, I used to go out to within about the first year a little more. I used to go out to Rhode Island every week and back then, we used to bounce back all the time. So this time I had happened to have a load on the way back and you get out there in Pennsylvania from like, oh, the 78 maybe the 90 all the way to the 120. Yeah, probably. Yeah, because the 120 is Clearfield, you go down a, a sweeping curve, you go down a sweeping curve and go back up the same sweeping curve and it’s so slick through there. So I was probably coming back west and hitting, I was probably doing 5055 and every time I touch the brake I would slide, you know, I’d see the trailer slide. I’m a tractor. Well, then, so I, I kind of, I kind of just stab, breaked it and I noticed the inertia just slowed me down. Well, that’s cool. Well, then I popped up over a hill probably at about the 105108 right in there. And it was just not a big Noll, but a little bit of a nole downhill. So that’s exactly every time I touch the brake I’d slide. So I just kinda stab, break the stab, break it real quick and slowed me down, but I wasn’t slowing down. So, so right about the last second, I thought Roger would probably rather pull me out of the ditch than fix the truck. So I hit the shoulder that was enough to slow me down and I was side by side with a flatbed. He always on the radio and he goes, thank her. I sure am glad you got that under control. I was worried about it and he’s like anything I can do how about you back up so I can get in front of you. They were giving tickets to everybody that was on the shoulder in the ditch. So I was kind of actuated a little bit. And yeah, I’m standing out there in my attire and, uh, this lady come by with the, uh, she was an EMT and she come by and she’s like there was, I don’t know, we’ll say five of us standing there talking, you know, telling true stories. And she goes, is everybody ok. And, yeah, and she looks at me and she goes, are you? Ok. And I’m like, yeah, why you see something? I don’t see him. She goes wearing shorts. Yeah, that’s how I drive. That’s my life and no stock and had, I think I did put on my work shirt shorts and, yeah, it’s just so anybody that’s listening and you got a tanker, that’s just a piece of advice. I got you get that liquid move and the inertia will help you. Yeah, for sure. It sounds like it might also leave a skid mark in your seats in certain, uh, certain scenarios. That was one of my, you know, that was like my really first, real good winter too. And, yeah, I had a decent one last winter. I was empty and I was headed to load and it was that freezing fog and then wake up the next morning a little bit, a little bit of ice on the ground. I’ve headed through Iowa. At any time I would try to touch my throttle. Not even the brake. I would touch the, uh, throttle try to accelerate a little bit. And the truck was trying to turn sideways because the wind was kick hitting. I was headed north and the wind was blowing out of the northwest. And so every time I touch the throttle, the tires break loose the, and it was trying. So I was trying to push the trailer in the back of the truck over onto the shoulder as a two lane road. So it’s trying to point me into oncoming. Yeah, I left a ro I had a road cone in my seat because my butt was p sure, man. So in your guys’ opinion, because I, you know, obviously when we think about, you know, mountain pass driving, I’m always singing about packed snow and ice. Uh, you can’t see the road you’re just driving on, on a white surface there. But it kind of sounds like maybe that is rivaled by some of this freezing fog and freezing rain as far as severity is concerned. Uh, polar bear, in your opinion. What’s the hardest weather to drive in? The one you can’t see the heavy fog, the heavy snow, the, you know, even just fog on a nice day, you know, you just like, um, this was last year, I think I was going up Sherman. So I was coming out of Cheyenne going up to the top of the mountain to come down into Laramie and nice and calm and Nebraska to come into Cheyenne start up the mountain. You know, if you can see it up there and then all of a sudden boom, you couldn’t see. So once again, thanks for the little monitor on front. Every time I would hit the gas, I’m like, you just could not see it. So then that’s what I just, we got, uh, like feet monitoring in front. So it’ll let you know how far you’re away from him. So I just got tired of foot painting it. So I just set the crews and sure enough it would, you know, just kind of kind of take off a little bit up and then they must took off a little bit so you could feel the power going to it. And I, and I kind of kept an eye on that, you know, the speed of the one ahead of me and how far they were ahead. And that’s what got me up and over the mountain and you got up and over and started down towards Laramie and about halfway down there. And it was so icy too. That’s the first time that I had literally babied the truck all the way down because I’m wanting to use the jake brake and not the brakes. But you, I mean, we were probably doing 12 to 15 mile an hour all the way down and then you get down towards the bottom, it does an s curve and then you’re all pretty much on the flat coming into Laramie and about three quarters of the way down the mountain. It just, just does it come in, coming up the mountain, it just went away, going there and then nice and dry and life was good, you know, but I was worried about overheating my brakes going down or, you know, because I don’t use my brakes that much. So that was, that was a new thing there too. That’s always something I get worried about. Uh I, I drive on and you’ll hear me talk about it on this podcast. I drive on Cabbage Hill over here on uh interstate 84 in Oregon pretty frequently. And one thing that I always notice on either side of that pass, whether I’m going or coming is start to smell breaks, uh especially headed down into Pendleton and it always worries me for the drivers. I mean, I know there’s runaway ramps coming down that backside there. But man, I start to smell brakes and I get really worried for people. Uh Tony, would you agree with polar bear in that, uh, the toughest uh, conditions that you face are when visibility is really bad. Oh, absolutely. 100% that and then compounded with black ice or even pack ice. It just, it, it, it can send you through a mind warm um, you know, if you ever watch Star Wars and you see when they’re going into warp speed and see the stars and everything, you know, I was blown by you. Well, that’s what that snow was like as well. And at night it’s even worse. So it, it, it can blind and just create a wide out effect. Even if it’s just light smoke, it can create a whiteout effect, uh, with your headlights at night. But, yeah, fog is probably, and fog will actually. So there was a study done a while back with people, they just used simulators to do it and they had people setting, you know, the steering wheel of pedals and they were driving a vehicle on a clear day and they averaged what people’s speed was going down this well, and then change the computer system to where it was foggy. And when they transferred all the data, people were driving an average of 10 to 15 miles an hour faster in the fog because you, they didn’t have a speedometer and you couldn’t see how fast you were going. They, that’s how they did this study. They didn’t want. That’s interesting. Yeah. And they didn’t want, they didn’t want people to see how fast they were going. So they just had to play, you know, judge how fast you’re going. And people on average in the fog were doing anywhere from 5 to 15 miles an hour faster than people that, when it was clear, right shiny side. That’s crazy. I can’t imagine. And that’s just upping your, uh, up in the likelihood that you’re gonna run into something at full speed there because you can’t see anything. And, you know, it’s interesting to me, you brought up kind of the snow blind effect where you’re, you’re, uh, in, in the dark, if you’ve got snow coming down, especially big flakes, you turn on your lights, those snowflakes almost glow. And I have, at one time in my life as a four Wheler, uh, been snow blinded while I was on a highway. I was actually up on Tollgate pass, uh, on Oregon, uh, highway 204 and II, I lost it. I, I couldn’t see the reflectors. I couldn’t see the lanes. I could not see anything but snow. And so I pulled to what I thought was the shoulder to make it kind of a slow controlled stop just gonna let the snow die down a little bit so that I can see. And I’m not kidding you guys. I was, I was across both lanes. I was sideways in the highway when I finally could see around and could orient myself. I had no idea where I was and how long I was parked right across the middle of both lanes is beyond me. But terrifying stuff out there. Have you guys? I, I mean, I’m, I’m assuming you guys have been snow blinded like that before. Oh, I was gonna say that’s what I feel just the opposite. So we’re going down the road and we snow blind a Four Wheler and we’re doing nothing wrong. We’re just going down the road. But, you know, with all of the snow, all, you know, all of the suction from the road when we’re going over it, uh, you know, bring it up in the air. But, yeah, last year I was going out to, uh, um, Jerome Idaho and I seen clear up in the distance, I just thought it was snowing, but there was a, a snowplow bringing it all the way to the, uh, be the north side of the interstate and as he’s coming up, you can just see that it’s blowing towards me. So it is a complete white out for, looks like quarter to a half a mile. So when I, uh, you know, I come up there and I, I probably was doing, there was nobody really around me but I was probably doing 5055 and I just white knuckled it all the way through. And, you know, it’s kind of the, that’s how I was taught if somebody, if somebody blinds you with your lights and you know, you don’t look into them, you look down, you watch the zipper, you watch the white line. That’s exactly what I did. I, I could still see the zipper a little bit so I just, I just focused on that and you know, and it probably was 10 seconds at the most, you know, seem like a minute. It reminds me of the movie Days of Thunder. Pick a line and drive through. See. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Again, I just wanted to say, you know, I’m sorry, but I remember this was a few years ago, my sister took off from home and, and, you know, she made it 10 miles and she goes, oh, it’s too bad. I can’t go. And how many times I wish, man, I wish I had that, you know, and like Tony said, we gotta try, you gotta try and it’s amazing what you can accomplish when you try. You might get, you might get four hours down the road. You might, you know, you might make it 20 minutes, half hour and you gonna come out of it, it might just be a small you went through. Yep. Well, you know, that kind of brings me to, to another question here. Um, Tony, has there ever been a time where you’ve, you’ve decided to just try and you’ve tried too hard and gotten yourself into a situation that, uh, you, you didn’t want to be in anymore, you had to shut her down. Um, no, I can’t, I can’t say that I’ve done that. Um, where I had to go ahead and shut it down. I’m pretty stubborn and if I decide I’m gonna go ahead and try it. Well, I’m either gonna try or I’m gonna fail 100%. And so far I’ve been 100% successful. So, it’s good. Yeah. Once undetermined and I’m gonna put this truck in gear and I’m gonna get it rolling. I’m not stopping until I have to stop. Got you. And how about you? Polar bear? You got any cautionary tales where maybe you tried a little too hard or, uh, if, if no, any advice for those of, uh, these drivers that are thinking about maybe pushing it a little too hard. Yeah. Well, like I said on my previous one, I, seven times alone last year in Wyoming, I got shut down. But they kept hearing, I come up and over the sisters and, and, uh, we kept hearing that once you get past, uh, because there’s, there’s two different, there’s three different spots really that you’ve got the sisters and then I don’t really consider Elk Fountain, but then you’ve got Laramie and then you’ve got, coming down into Cheyenne, there’s really three different spots. But they kept Karen. If you get past the Rock Springs, it, you know, it evens up a little and I thought, well, you know what, maybe I can make Laramie. So I pushed on and there they said that the, uh, Rock Springs is the 10, what 104107107. I think they said that the 1, 11, it shut down. I’m like, well, I’ll just go to Rock Springs. So Y and J was full. Other truck stop was full. They found out I was parked there. You’re gonna get towed. They said they had a uh fairgrounds outside of town. I don’t holy the good Lord, help me get there. I don’t know how I made it there, made it there. And uh, there had to have been 500 trucks out there. Just I, I’m like, I’m not getting stuck here. So I went back and wrapped around the Jay again. I ended up going all the way back to uh Green River, which is what, 40 miles because that’s the 85 so 2020 25 miles and I was parked right where the, you know, you swing around, go around all the park trucks and then the fuel islands there, I was parked right where they dumped the fuel and no Morton got parked and the lady come out and she goes, is this your truck? And I just blew it. I just said, where in the bad word am I supposed to go? I can’t go anywhere. I’ve been driving around for the last two hours and she goes, no, calm down, calm down. She goes, we’re all gonna park you right up here and I bet we got 40 trucks and that where everybody was sideways, they parked us, you know, back in and there was at least 30 trucks there. I could not believe it. And I apologized to her later. I said, I’m sorry, I said it’s just, it’s just, this has my nerves. Wyoming has my nerves and, you know, she, you know, it was no big deal to her. And then that’s, that’s one of the days I stayed four days there. Wow. They, they just never would, that wind out of the north just would not stop. Sure. Sure. And, you know, it didn’t make sense to me that she, the woman that you dealt with has probably dealt with a few drivers that are on it. Uh, if that’s what she’s out there doing because, you know, anytime the roads are shut down, I imagine you’re gonna have a few drivers that are a little testy about it trying to get where they want to go and, and actually, I’m gonna turn the corner on this interview just a little bit here while we still got a little bit of time left because, uh, Tony, you had brought up something, um, before, while we were talking kind of setting this up and, uh, you mentioned it in a driver survey that you took about being on this podcast that you kind of like to talk a little bit about customer satisfaction. And I want to kind of tie these two things in together here, Tony. How hard is it to keep the customer happy when you’re dealing with the roads that you’re dealing with and knowing that at any given point, the road might shut down and you might not get there on time. Uh How do you navigate those waters? The thing is, uh, you know, I love movies. I, I love movie red references. So for me, it goes back to like Madagascar and the penguin just smile and wave. So I keep, I keep a smile on my face. I wave at the customer. I talk friendly to them, you know, you know, in the business we, we deal with some nasty customers. I mean, it, it happened but a lot of times I’ve, I’ve been in some customers that have had some bad attitudes, but I just kept killing them with the kindness. And by the time I left, they’re apologizing to me for their attitude. Want asking me how I’m able to, you know, how I stayed so cool, stayed so polite and I tell them, sir or ma’am, it’s my job. My job is to make sure you’re happy. I know you weren’t happy what I got here. But if you’re not happy and I start getting an attitude with you, that’s just gonna make it worse. And, and so coming back to the weather portion of it, you know, and most of them understand, they know we deal with this bad weather and they know if we got to slow down to get the product to them, most of our customers a little late did not receive it at all. That makes sense. And so they, it’s it’s just how you talk to people, talk to your customers. And so most of the time, you know, hey, you were supposed to have been here at this time. Well, there’s a reason I called to let you know, I was going to be late because of the weather. Everything was good and they get it because a lot of them, they don’t understand, they don’t understand what we deal with out on the road. We drive their four wheelers to and from work, they don’t know what it’s like out on the interstate and the back highways for us. But you start explaining, hey, the weather was too inclement for me to safely get here and you throw out that word safely and that usually changes the demeanor a lot. Sure. Sure. Kind of, uh, rip them back into reality a little bit because obviously they don’t know what those can be. Conditions are out there. But I would think they’ve dealt with enough drivers at this point to know that sometimes there’s, it’s out of your control. There’s nothing you can do about it. Polar bear. How about you? How do you deal with customer satisfaction trying to, uh, keep that customer service face on even in the face of some really tough driving conditions? No. Exactly. And I’m gonna talk off of what Tony just said, but I go just the opposite. Hey, I’m over here in Missouri and I’m coming down to Illinois or over in Illinois. You know, it’s really snowing here. What’s your weather like there? Oh, you know, it’s clear, it’s cold but it’s clear. Ok. Well, I’m just letting you know that and, and I think a lot I’ve had it before to where I leave it up to them 100% up to them. Hey, I can try to make it, or we’ll do it tomorrow and, and I’ve had it once I went to a farm delivery and he actually told me he’s like, man, if you can make it here, I’ve got a tractor to pull you out. If you get stuck, if you get on my road, you know, I will keep in contact with you. So, you know, I’ll go the extra distance to try to get there that night to get her kicked off because overnight is when Mother nature usually is the beast comes out of her, you know, the, the wind picks up and the, you know, the snow starts blowing and, and back in the day, we used to do a lot of farm drops. And I remember once, uh, one of our customers that called, it was kind of right around. I 70 somewhere. They said, no, don’t come. Well, I was given the load, I didn’t know. So on the way I call him, it was a Friday night I remember and he’s like, you’re kidding me. And I said, no, what do you mean? He goes, I’m on my way out. I canceled that load. Wow. I said I’m like an hour out. Well, I’ll, I’ll cancel my plans. I’m sorry, I don’t, I knew nothing about it. So luckily he had a nurse trailer which is just a tank on like a six or 10. Wheler. Luckily he had that loaded with fertilizer because that’s the only way I got out. It was so icy. Just his area, just his park, his driveway, the roads were, the roads were good but just him and there’s another case right there where the customer canceled it. I took it and the customer, he was upset that no foul words were said. He just said, ok, I’ll cancel my plans. He ended up going back out. He told me he’s like, he’s like, man, he goes, I’m gonna go back out. My answer was, you know, you’re gonna go out, you’re gonna go out drinking and kicking up your heels. Are you sure that’s what you should do on this night? But that was my inside voice. He was nice enough to let me, he was nice enough to let me unload. I’m not gonna give him my piece of advice. Does he need to be out there? Probably not. But maybe he had ad d, you know, I don’t know. Yeah. Well, you never know. You never know when you’re out there in those rural areas. Uh, who’s riding a horse home or who’s got a, uh, a sled dog that might drag him back home. I’ve seen, I’ve seen, I’ve seen cowboys get home in any manner of ways in my experience. So hopefully we made it back safe. But, uh, guys, we’re up against the clock here. So, uh, before I let you go, I want to give you one more chance. Tony Brown will start with you. Thank you so much. First of all, for being here again this week, I really appreciate you taking the time. Yeah. Is there anything you want to say to any drivers or anybody that might be listening out there? Yeah. Um especially right now, you know the drivers out there that are listening to this one, you know, watch your speed, watch your distance if you have to double your distance. Don’t worry about what, you know what the truck’s telling you how far they are in front of you. If the weather’s bad, use your, use your head. That’s what God put that brain in there for back it off. Keep some extra distance because you know that road might look clear but it could be covered in nothing but black ice and there ain’t nothing but a Lord’s prayer gonna stop you from hitting the back of the truck in front of you. So slow your speed and double your distance. Sage advice there. Tony. Thank you so much for that. Uh Brian polar bear Elmquist. Anything you’d like to say before I let you go, my friend. Yeah, just real quick. I got a friend of mine on here that’s been driving since 06, but he’s been pulling a box trailer since then. He’s starting to tanker anchoring and I just, I cannot express it enough. You cannot force a tanker to do what you want to do. The tanker is gonna tell you. So once again, you know, if you slow down four truck links that just allows them 54 wheelers. Oh, you’re giving me the right away. Once again, you know, we get paid by the hour we get paid to deliver these loads. So just slow down and white knuckle or not, just get her there and shut down when you feel that you need to absolutely sage advice there as well from polar bear, Tony polar bear. You guys stay safe out there and we’ll get you back on soon. All right. Yep. Thank you. Great time. Well, there you have it liquid trucking. We did it again, another podcast episode in the books. That’ll do it for episode nine here on the program. I want to thank everybody who tuned in today, uh, for checking out the podcast, clicking that download button. Uh Make sure to click the subscribe button on whatever platform you’re listening on because that will guarantee that every time we drop a new episode you’ll know about it. Now, the exciting part about this particular episode is it is a two parter and I didn’t want to tell you that before. Uh because I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to fit everything into this episode. But indeed, we are not. I’ve got two more interviews to share with you next week. On episode 10, we’ll talk to more drivers and uh very excited about the conversations that I have with them coming around the corner. So make sure that you stay tuned to the Liquid Trucking Podcast every Wednesday morning at 5 a.m. central for a new episode. Click that subscribe button, share this with all your friends. If you’re in the front office there, or maybe you’re out in Bartow talking to Chris Baltus. Quiz them, see if they’re listening to the show. If they say no, take it up on yourself to put it in their ear holes. All right, I’m your host, Marcus. I want to thank Drew be Tony and Polar Bear for coming on today’s episode. We’ll see you with part two 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.