Are We Ready for Autonomous Trucks? + More with @DIYSEMI | Ep 27

Caroline: Welcome to this week in trucking, the podcast that tells you what you need to know about the trucking market for the week.

Caroline: My name is Caroline. When I went to the mid America truck show this spring, I was sitting at the pro talks and I overheard someone behind me who sounded so familiar. I was like, Where do I know this guy from? And it was one of those moments where you just can’t figure out how that voice, but you’ve heard it before.

And I turned around and I asked him, I’m sorry, do I know you? And he smiled and said, I don’t know, do you? it took me a minute to realize I was sitting in front of Adam of DIY Semi, the first ever YouTube channel I watched when I started working at Bobtail to learn about the trucking industry.

And learn about the experiences of owner, operators, and small fleet managers, who are the customers Bobtail serves. I needed to know them because I was about to run marketing for this company. I’m excited to have him on the show today. Adam [00:01:00] is a truck owner and entrepreneur on a mission, and I’m quoting here, to build a community that can unite and change the industry by making each of us too smart to fail.

Thanks for being here, Adam. 

Adam: Thanks for having me. You heard that strong Midwestern accent and said, I got to see who this guy is. 

Caroline: I’m from Michigan and lived abroad for a long time in Ecuador for my whole twenties, I had developed a more neutral accent there, because when I would speak to people in English, when you’re speaking to people whose first language isn’t English, you’re going to use a clearer, more direct language, right? Can’t use like idioms and stuff like that. And just your pronunciation has to neutralize out so that people can understand you. But every time I would get on the phone with my mom, my coworkers would laugh at me because my accent, my Midwestern accent would come right back in. So talking to people like you brings me back to my roots.

You’re from Wisconsin, right? That’s where you’re based? 

Adam: Wisconsin. Born and raised and will be forever. 

Caroline: Can you tell us how you got started in this [00:02:00] industry? 

Adam: It was back in the late nineties. I had my midlife crisis in my early twenties and had to make a decision.

What in the heck am I going to do with my life? I tried going to college. High school wasn’t for me. And I’ll be darned if I was going to pay somebody to sit there in their classroom. I started looking for different things to do. this trucking thing might be a possibility.

Yeah. When you’re a kid, you see trucks get them to honk but it never occurred to me that I could do that. I started asking around, everybody’s, yeah, that’s a pretty good living. You can do that. And I came from a farm background, so operating equipment was pretty natural to me.

I took off to driving school and did pretty well, got out, passed all my stuff the first time and went trucking. Fell in love with it. hit the road and never looked back. I didn’t come home a lot. I never made great money in my life before. So that was exciting and just got in my blood and I’ve been stuck with it ever since. No regrets. 

Caroline: I’ve been toying with the idea of at least getting my feet wet, going to a CDL school and trying to get some training around it. The closest I’ve had is a box truck that we rented to [00:03:00] move, which I did not drive. My husband drove it, and it freaked me out because people are idiots around trucks.

As soon as you get into the cab of anything bigger than SUV, you realize how bad people are at driving around trucks, walking around trucks. What is up with that? What is your biggest pet peeve on the road? 

Adam: My biggest pet peeve is when people pass you and they can’t stay in there laying long enough to get past you and they swerve and almost hit you 

Other than that, I’m a patient guy. I don’t complain about traffic. I don’t complain about cars. I don’t, it’s not going to make me mad what this guy just did. I have someone talking to somebody on the phone and they start that. I’m like, I got to go. I’m not the guy to listen to all your traffic problems, but it’s a microcosm of the world in general.

People not paying attention spans are short and you put it behind the wheel. It just becomes noticeable. I think in day to day life, people are distracted. By gadgets and trinkets and they don’t give it up when they’re behind the wheel. So it’s just it’s everything in life. It’s not just bad driving and a lack of personal responsibility to think if everybody around you on [00:04:00] the road is an idiot. You might be the idiot and that’s what I realized.

Caroline: that’s what I realized in the cab of this truck: how many dumb things have I done? Around these trucks I never noticed this kind of driving before. So I probably didn’t notice it in myself. 

Adam: We all do because I’m sure at some point or another, we just all need a little bit of forgiveness. We’re all going to screw up I make mistakes.

Every, everybody else makes mistakes. It’s just owning them and make it right and move on. 

Caroline: I’m glad I had that experience and I’m still toying with the idea and should probably just do it. Any experience like that just always gives you so much more empathy for another, for somebody else who’s doing that job every single day.

Thinking about someone driving a small 16 foot truck, it makes me think, how can I make someone who does this every day? How can I make their life a little bit easier? And it’s probably not swerving in front of them or walking across the street in front of them. Those trucks take a lot to slow down. And so it’s not like a regular car. 

Adam: You’re in the trucking industry. You talk to truckers every day and different aspects of the business part, but it [00:05:00] make you a very well rounded and valuable person to have that other skill of the other side of the industry.

A different understanding of things. It’s always good resume builder. 

Caroline: Yeah, definitely. So what was the first truck that you, did you get a CDL? And you drove semi trucks right away. What was the first job that you had in trucking? 

Adam: I was dry van, 48 States nationwide, all over.

Drove for a private fleet for good bit. That was a great job. They went out of business. Let’s get back to the road. Getting a job in a private fleet is a good deal. 

Caroline: Would you ever do that again? 

Adam: I’ve been building a trucking company for the last four years.

I’ve had my own authority for 20, 19 years. Sorry. And several years ago, just decided I’ve always thought about it’s time to just do it was time to do it with rates being the way they were. If I’m ever going to do it, now’s the time .

So I gave it a try. started bringing on people buying equipment and a lot of education the biggest part has been relationship building. that’s what’s kept us in [00:06:00] business and made us successful the most important thing is relationship building.

And that’s with everybody. Customers, your customers. Equipment guy, your tire guy, your banker, your everything. It is all about relationships. That’s probably the most valuable thing I’ve learned along the way and surrounding myself with the right people have built some relationships with people that have taught me that give a lot of credit to them as well.

Caroline: Who was the first, do you remember what the first broker, what the first load was that you hauled when you had your own authority? 

Adam: I got set up with a guy pulling reefer freight from Wisconsin to California and back. that was almost 20 years ago. I think it was about a buck 40 going out and probably a buck 60 coming back. it’s probably not much different now, If I look in the load board, we’re close. Unless you have a connection, the equipment has pretty much doubled.

Everything else has doubled and rates are similar. 

Caroline: Yeah. So talk to me about that. That’s a big, difference about starting a trucking company today versus 19 years ago. Is the cost of doing business [00:07:00] and the rates haven’t gone up much.

They’ve gone up and down. But what other aspects of starting your own authority are different now than back then? 

Adam: But you can get into it in different ways. It’s very different than if you’re building an authority and going to add drivers and stuff like that.

You do a whole different set of challenges of learning along the way. The basics would be back when I started, CSA wasn’t a thing. A bad inspection, hurt your score, but there was no CSA points. The penalties are much stiffer for non compliance and not maintaining your equipment and things right now.

The barrier to entry is very low. Just about anybody can start whether they’re ready or not. Unfortunately, a lot of people get in over their head end up failing and losing a lot the good old days are gone, right?

The good old days of being a cowboy and an outlaw or, and whatever they’re over and they’re not coming back. So that’s the biggest thing is that you have to learn to be compliant and what’s Not hard, it’s just a big adjustment period over the years have gotten pretty good at it. We run a safe compliant carrier.

There’s no logbook [00:08:00] resets. equipment has changed a lot. The trucks are phenomenal. The technology is exceptional. In some ways, it’s a glorified motorhome. This job is a lot easier than it used to be.

You have powerful trucks with great driver amenities, cell phone technologies, GPS technologies. I didn’t get my first cell phone until I had probably already been driving like four years. And everybody, how did you do your job before that? You had a pay phone, you stop a couple of times a day to use the pay phone.

You had maps, an overhead compartment full of maps. You pull your maps out and look, see where you’re going. You had to learn to get around. I think that’s probably one of the biggest things missing nowadays is people are too reliant on technology for their own good. Nobody carries an Atlas anymore.

I carry one. I use it all the time. Call people for directions. It just blindly follows a GPS. It gets a lot of people in trouble. Automated transmissions have made a lot of complacency in a lot of ways. They’ve been good to increase fuel mileage and less driver abuse from having to learn to shift, but I’ve experienced both.

And it does make you a little bit complacent. If we’re [00:09:00] being honest that coming in and out of a parking lot at 30 miles an hour, you’re not controlling that truck the same way you are in a manual transmission. It’s brought a lot of people into the industry that probably could not have done it. Had they had to have been in a manual transmission.

Technology changes industry massively and it’s not done yet. 

Caroline: Yeah. sometimes people think of the good old days and good. And then I think are the good old days really all that good? There were challenges back then too.

You’re hitting on changes to technology or business to make it more efficient, let’s say, but maybe efficient is not always on a net better or safer. So you’re talking about the difference between automated versus manual transmissions. Do you think then the manual transmissions on the whole are probably safer?

Just because the people who drive them are more in tune with the vehicle and more knowledgeable.

Adam: A lot of people in the industry a long time would say, yes. I’m on the fence. If a driver chooses to be safe, he’s going to be safe.

If he chooses to be reckless he’s going to [00:10:00] be careless. No matter what he’s driving. I think manual transmission kind of forces you to pay attention. It’ll teach you to drive that truck, whereas you have forgiveness the other way. ultimately, it’s up to the driver. I own both.

My personal truck is a manual. I prefer it that way. I just like something to do. But I slide into that automatic, transmission real easy. You get used to it real quick. It is a nice luxury item. 

Caroline: I have a brother in law who thinks the same way about personal vehicles, automatic transmissions, you don’t have to think about the car anymore. And so people don’t think about the car anymore, and they’re not as good at driving 

Adam: Yeah, some things I find with automated transmissions is you’ll get caught not paying attention.

You’ll come into a turn or parking lot too fast. You tend to do things faster, which in trucking is not good because besides what you’re doing with the truck, you got to remember about all that cargo and your trailer and you don’t want to be slamming on the brakes and all that kind of stuff.

So it’s definitely upsides and downsides. 

Caroline: Do you think Autonomous trucking technology might fix some problems or make it worse? 

Adam: It’s going to be both. It’s not going to come without challenges. Where it’s so [00:11:00] new.

There’s a lot of different camps. Oh, it’s never going to happen. To an extent it’s already happening. It’s just the level to which it’s going to happen and how quickly they choose for it to happen. I’m not in favor of autonomous trucks. I think it’s a bad idea.

Where are you going to place the liability? Who’s going to pay when something happens, right? And it’s jobs. Trucking is the number one paying job for high school educated men in this country, and there’s a lot of them.

Okay, then what happens to those people? It’s a big issue. I don’t think the world is ready for it, it’s one of those things where they don’t really care what anybody thinks. It’s the agenda and they’re going to push it. Ready or not, here they come, right? Maybe in fair weather states it’s already being done.

They put out some kind of announcement. Somebody had turned 50, 000 lane turns with an autonomous truck. Congratulations on that. The economy is not ready for it. You put all those people on the unemployment line, and then what? The infrastructure is certainly not ready for it.

That’s the biggest thing. There’s been no changes significantly to the infrastructure to accommodate for this. And then if you make [00:12:00] those autonomous trucks electric, we don’t have the infrastructure for that. They need to pump the brakes on it a little bit and slow down and think these things through.

It’s going to be a whole bunch of unintended consequences. We haven’t thought of the problems. Most of them it’s going to create. Sure, we all know about safety and blah, blah, blah, unemployment. But there’s some problems here we haven’t even thought about yet. And we won’t until they happen.

Caroline: I think it’s similar to that. There’s a big drop of technology and AI, but that the incorporation of that technology into trucking, I think it’s going to happen slower than people are imagining. I also think about that in movies, come out these dystopian futures where everything is AI.

And I don’t think it goes from zero to a hundred in one year.

Adam: No, it doesn’t. But if you come up with some kind of crisis situation, then what happens? 

Caroline: But I think you’re right it’s already happening. Autonomous technology is already integrated. I have autonomous technology in my personal vehicle, right?

I’ve got [00:13:00] it. I do cruise control on the expressway and it’s helping me keep a good distance between me and the car in front of me autonomously. I’ve got some lane correcting technology and that’s a relatively inexpensive car, right? And that’s that kind of stuff with mirrors now, I know have some autonomous technology with in trucks.

So those kinds of things, I do think that there are, obviously there are some fully autonomous vehicles, but I don’t think it’s going to go from, 0 percent autonomy to 100 percent autonomy. I think it’s, it, there’s going to be a progression.

Adam: And there is places for it. If you go to a dollar general distribution center they can have all the spotter trucks be autonomous. there’s probably a place for an electric. Okay. They’re never leaving the property. They can have their own charging stations. That’s logical. That’s logical. But to be outhauling irregular route freight throughout the United States, that’s a bigger leap. 

Caroline: Yeah, absolutely. So I want to talk a little bit about the content that you’ve been putting out. Other YouTubers I find in trekking focus a lot on [00:14:00] either the freight market or their lifestyle of what it’s like to be a trekker out on the road.

What made you focus on maintenance and parts? What is it? Is it just a fascination with the technology of trucks or is it something else that made you want to create content about that? 

Adam: Treason I don’t do lifestyle is it’s just not something I’m into.

There’s plenty of people to do that. the industry needs more, something more valuable. Which is yeah, more substantive money, right? Compliance. So we do a lot of videos about the freight market and stuff. I have different people on about that and talk a lot about that direct shipper freight, all those kinds of things.

So when I started the channel, it was a lot more maintenance type stuff and repairs because like shop rates are there’s shops 300 an hour. Now this maintenance thing will eat you alive, put you out of business. Do I think everybody needs to do their own maintenance? No. There’s a lot of little things in between.

Even if you don’t know, you don’t come from any kind of mechanical background. Hey, there’s little things you can do for confidence builders. [00:15:00] Start small, start by changing an airbag or something. It’s those, these things are simple. That wasn’t so bad. Maybe I can do other things.

You don’t have to call a service truck or put this thing in the dealer. Every time something little comes up, if you do, it’s just going to, it’s going to eat you alive. And having come from that kind of background a tinkering, grew up messing with farm equipment and stuff.

And do I know everything? Absolutely not. These trucks are sophisticated. Some things never change. Years ago, I was at a TA truck stop this guy brought his truck in to get a headlight changed I’m like, that’s not really that bad.

The mechanic only had one hand, cut off at the wrist, just a little stump there. And I’m like, man, I feel bad. I’d feel probably not very smart if I couldn’t change a headlight. This dude with one hand gets it done in five minutes. I’m going to learn how to do these things.

And then I think other people need to learn them. If you’re going to own your truck, be about it, learn about your equipment. how things work. even if you don’t want to fix it, really big fan of learning how things work, because. You’re going to need to know to keep nothing else to keep somebody from ripping you off, right?

[00:16:00] Like people all the time. Oh, I went in my for the car. They try to get females all the time, right? Oh, you need a whole new engine. No, you just need an oil change. Places will do that be your own best advocate I’d like to educate on everything. I would do a lot of videos about different compliance issues and a lot about freight.

I started doing this because I saw a need and felt like I could, It’s been great. Met a lot of interesting people along the way, built some really good relationships and this has been a great journey on YouTube doing that. 

Caroline: Yeah, it’s fun. I started doing videos for Bobtail because there was a gap in knowledge I focus on paperwork compliance and getting started every article I read about it was, seemed like AI written, and it didn’t really make sense to me, and the words that it was using, the vocabulary that it was using, I didn’t understand, And I think of myself as pretty smart and I couldn’t figure it out, so I had to research what you need to get started.

What makes the most sense? And in what order? No one tells you the [00:17:00] order it’s supposed to go in. I had to switch the order a million times because people kept having to correct me. No, you’re supposed to get this first and then this. Move it around, before you even think about buying a truck, you actually need to be thinking about your insurance because that’s going to be just as expensive, if not more.

Adam: You’ve seen my video on starting your authority. 

Caroline: Talk to me about that. If you were starting a trucking company in 2024, would you do it? Starting your own authority, not buying a bunch of trucks, but would you start your own authority in 2024?

How would you go about it? 

Adam: If my goal was to build a trucking company I would say do that. If I was just going to buy one truck, get my own authority, and stick to the load board, I probably wouldn’t.

There’s so many things. Working against you a lot of brokers won’t use a new authority, the fraud is just rampant. It is going to make it so hard for you to do business as a new authority. if you don’t have connections ahead of time and have a deal worked out with somebody, just maybe rethink that you could get buried before you even get started.

And then you get started with payments and debt [00:18:00] and can’t book loads because nobody will give you one that’s the environment we’re in. Right now, if you’ve got some freight worked out and can try to stay off the load boards That’s different. Your intent is different.

How do you do it? Stock up on information first. Get talk to somebody about insurance. Definitely before you buy your equipment. Go talk to somebody about insurance because you could get blindsided by an insurance rate that would just blow your mind. I know one guy, he used to work for me. He was going to get his own authority.

They wanted $71,000 his first year for one truck and trailer. He had a couple dings on his record. They’re doing that to discourage him. They don’t want to insure him may come in as good as 12 to 14, 000, which is manageable, but you got to know that number ahead of time because that could be the deciding factor.

If it’s even going to work for you, now’s a good time to buy equipment. Trucks are cheap. I just picked up another one a couple of days ago. Two years ago, the same truck I just bought would have been 110, 000. I just bought one for 39, 000, that same truck trailers are reasonable.

There’s all these new technologies now that [00:19:00] brokers are using to vet carriers that are making it very difficult. So how you set up, how you set things up in the beginning, you are stuck with for years. So make sure you have your, set your company up at the address you wanted at. No other business names would be really helpful.

If you’re thinking about starting a brokerage, make it totally separate from your trucking company. You get that thing at a different address, different phone number, different email. If you can put it in a different name, that would be helpful. Great detail on how you set it up because you’re going to be stuck with that.

And there’s the information to have now will follow you for years. 

Caroline: And have a real address. Yeah. No PO box.

Adam: no PO box, no VOIP. Don’t be logging in from Moldova. Be legit. Go out of your way to prove you’re legit. It’ll help your chances the level of scamming in this industry is, phenomenal. even as a legitimate carrier, it can be hard I’ll go out of my way here’s my registrations, right?

Here’s whatever picture of the truck. And sometimes it just isn’t even enough. 

Caroline: Really? Have you ever gotten denied a [00:20:00] load because of anything? And that’s how you learned about this? Or did you just hear about it from other people? 

Adam: No, we’ve been denied for various reasons.

Once you get your FMCSA information set up, don’t change your phone number, don’t change your email, don’t change your mailing address. All these things are red flags. Some brokerages, if they see that you changed your phone number or changed your email address on file with your MCS 150, They’ll start you all over as a brand new company and won’t give you a load for 90 days or nine months.

Caroline: I did not know that. 

Adam: They see it as fraud. Yeah, you don’t want to be making any changes right now to anything. 

Caroline: Do you recommend people get their own domain for email and a website. Do you think that helps?

Adam: I think it does. I prefer it. If I’m emailing a broker and they’re using Gmail, no way I’m booking a load. If they’re using iCloud, better have your company domain. 

Caroline: you look out for the same things when booking with a broker. 

Adam: Yeah, with trucking companies, it’s different. I don’t expect every trucking, one truck driver to have his own website or whatever. But with Gmail, it’s cost peanuts, a couple of bucks a month to have your own domain.

And then something I’m working on right now [00:21:00] is to set all my drivers up with an email at my domain. So when they email a broker, it looks more legit. It’s crazy right now. 

Caroline: I even recommend to people, if they’re setting up a one truck operation, I say, get a website, get your own domain. It doesn’t cost much at all. It depends on the domain that you get, but you can get domains for 10 a year. Gmail costs you, I don’t know, $7 a month for a per user for a domain info at whatever domain you chose.com. And it just makes you look so much more professional. One page website on Squarespace, it’s 15 a month, maybe, it’s really pennies.

Adam: At minimum, like a Facebook page company, a lot of people do that. It’s free, easy, and looks good too. 

Caroline: And you can get free websites too. You can do WordPress. you might not have. your domain but at least it has your trucking company’s information.

I say this all the time. I’m a digital marketer, I make websites and do digital marketing for a living. It’s not that [00:22:00] hard. It’s not as complicated as driving a truck. If you can drive 40, 000 pounds down the road at 60 miles an hour, you could figure out how to create a one page website.

Speaking of trucks you’ve been sharing about your rebuild project of a 1999 Freightliner Classic. Is this your first project, or have you done them in the past and why do you do them? 

Adam: It’s the first one. It’s not going so well.

I have a hard time every time I’ve walked out there. going to pull the thing in the shop and then the phone starts ringing and something blows up and I got to walk away or and I have another truck break down it. So it’s. This is going to take a while.

I like to do it. It’s a little bit of content and gives me the opportunity to show how to fix things. That’s an old truck. A lot of things on that thing need to be fixed or repaired. And then that gives the people opportunity to see and learn from that. And and it’s a lot of fun.

Takes my mind off other things, I’ll never, will that truck see the road for hauling freight? Probably I won’t sell it. It’ll just be my truck. like some people have a [00:23:00] Harley or a Corvette. That’ll be my thing.

It’s just, it doesn’t cost much. Nice to look at. Fun. 

Caroline: I always admire people who have a hobby that’s pretty much the same thing, That they do in their day to day life or of, or a part of it. I’ll be asking my mom what she’s doing and she’s an expert in business and organizational communication. And she’s still reading books about that.

Like she’s in her free time. She’ll just be pulling out an article or sharing stuff with me and like you spend Aaready, your full time job, thinking about that and working on that, and on top of that, you still want it. You can’t, you just can’t get enough. 

Adam: My hobby is antique farm tractors.

Caroline: Does that help you in the trucking space? 

Adam: No. 

It’s going to become a lost art because the equipment and parts don’t exist anymore. Nothing runs on a magneto anymore, and nobody knows how to rebuild a carburetor here in probably the next 20 years.

Maybe someday [00:24:00] it might, but it’s just fun. you might have a lot of fun in your Maserati and a Corvette, but when I get on my Minneapolis Moline ZTS, I’m grinning just as big probably bigger, at four miles an hour down the road or across the field. It’s fun for me.

Reminds me of my childhood. 

Caroline: The Amish are passing you 

Adam: Yeah, pretty much. 

Caroline: Yeah, that’s awesome. We met at the Mid America Truck Show. I’ve been a fan and subscriber of DIY Semi. what did you think of the Mid America Truck Show? how does it compare to other events you’ve been to?

Adam: I love this. I met you this year my second year. The first year was hard to take it all in. it took Two and a half days to cover everything. I learned some things and had a strategy for this year. you got trucks trailers equipment then you got two seminar areas in the South wing. I think it is where they have the stage. Those seminars don’t. Quite seem to be as serious as the ones in the auditoriums. So this year I wanted to go sit in the auditoriums and listen to some of the big boys [00:25:00] talk. I never made it there.

We met friends and hung out a lot this year, it was a great time. I needed it, everybody else needed it, and we just had a lot of fun we’ll probably do it again next year, but the truck show, it’s full of opportunity. You might find, if you’re looking for that one thing, or meet that one person that can help you take your business to the next level, you’re probably going to meet them there, or find it there.

Everything you need to see, or learn. I recommend everybody go, at least once. And, have a good time. Check everything out. a friend of mine, is speaking next year. we’ll try to get more seminars in I’ll probably see you there.

Caroline: I agree. The content in those talks was rich. I actually thought that there was quite a bit of really useful content in the space, in the showroom where we met. There were a couple of initiatives and people doing different things blew my mind. Truckers Against Human Trafficking did a presentation it was the last presentation of the day. And most people had already gone. There weren’t a lot of people around there, but man, that is a powerful organization doing some really cool work. So shout out to them. I’ll link [00:26:00] their information in the description.

Super cool work. I met a couple of people Victor Newton from YouTube and from over dims, which is a really cool platform that she’s created to get all your permits for hauling oversized freight. I thought that was a really innovative thing.

One thing I was surprised about, first of all, I was surprised that there was a, I don’t know if you went to the seminar on autonomous trucking, it was heated and uncomfortable, but I give the guy credit for going up there and speaking because man, that’s not a friendly crowd And he took it. I give those people a lot of credit for showing up You might disagree with everything they say, but they’re there and they’re, and they’ve got some kind of motivation, some kind of power. And they don’t necessarily have to listen to or answer your questions.

They could avoid that space altogether. They don’t, they actually jump into the fire. One thing that I was surprised at though, is the, was the lack of any electric technology. I think I [00:27:00] saw there was a one stand with a electric reefer trailer. So that one was, that was one was interesting, but I was surprised that there were, Any, there’s no talk, about electric trucks.

Now, I know they’re not real popular with folks but neither is autonomous trucking. And there were people talking about autonomous trucking. So that was interesting to me. Do you think that’s a reflection of the fact that most people there are OTR and really there’s not electric technology for that now?

Adam: The main target for electric truck manufacturers is bigger fleets or government, right at the moment. I think their price point would make it unattainable to the average person at this point. I went to a Clean Energy, something or other. It was like the truck show, but on a smaller scale.

Yeah. It was all green energy and electric garbage trucks, dump trucks, street sweepers, cars, motorcycles, it was interesting.

It’s just not there yet. 

Caroline: For OTR, it just doesn’t exist. 

Adam: Okay. You’re in Wisconsin. it’s cold in winter. You’re getting less battery life, it’s just not practical yet. It’s got more innovation to do they’ll [00:28:00] get there.

I’m not for or against them there’s a place for everything They just got to find that right application not just like the hours of service for trucking They do not fit it nor does all this different kinds of equipment and energy Some people Oh oil is the only way to go solar is the only way they should all we should be doing all of them Probably solve a lot of our problems just like with trucking.

There’s hydrogen Electric, hybrid, diesel. There’s a place for all of it. We just gotta find that place. They can have charging stations. Those electric trucks would never leave. It’s perfect for electric vehicles. Some municipalities where garbage trucks don’t go more than five to ten miles from their home terminal.

This is a good place for it. But it’s just not practical. 

Caroline: I think school buses is a huge one. School buses. Just. of particulate matter that you get inside those buses. So all the windows rolled down and kids are breathing that in that’s a perfect application for electric too. 

Adam: And then there’s a lot of sides of it. We haven’t even explored yet. You got 75 human lives on board and if somebody hits that school bus, those batteries are going to go up in flames. Do we want that application [00:29:00] in a place where we’re hauling the most expensive cargo in the world, right? 72 kids. So there’s a whole lot of things we haven’t talked about yet. And then who was that liability on? It’s a very complicated issues. 

Caroline: No, that’s a good point. Safety issue of batteries. I was wondering someone, we did a interview with somebody from carb who is the you is the entity in California regulating electric trucks I heard all of this talk about, I would ask people about electric, cause I really wanted to have that conversation there. Cause that’s something I’m interested in. And people were saying, Oh, my truck is going to be in a legal in California in 10 years. And I looked at the regulation and it’s.

It’s just not true. It literally is not on the books at all. It might be that they’re just projecting that into the future. What they think is going to be the regulation in the future, but the current regulation, because they do have emissions regulations, but it’s not that all internal combustion engines are going to be outlawed in California in the next five years.

Adam: I thought by 2035, any car sold in California had to be electric, 

Caroline: I haven’t looked into personal vehicles. There are emissions [00:30:00] regulations for heavy trucks, right? There is all over just California.

This is much more strict. So there are vehicles that can’t go into California due to emissions regulations, the electric vehicle regulation is phasing in electric vehicles. Over time for fleets, over 50 trucks, If you own one truck, unless it’s a drayage truck, they’re not expecting you to go electric anytime soon.

I think you’re right. people think it’s black and white. Oh, everything is going to go electric. No, everything can’t go electric. And anyone who suggests that, especially you can’t do it overnight. Like you can’t even do it in a year. You’ve got to build infrastructure.

Think about things. You got to think through what are the implications of how much electricity cost is going to go up. So you have to think through all of these things. And I think that makes sense. What is the recipe of all these technologies coming together? How much of one, how much of the other, how does it change over time?

You just can’t think of it in black and white terms. 

Adam: No, [00:31:00] and they can all compliment each other and they all have their place. 

Caroline: our goal in this show is to expose the reality of the trucking industry so people can enter and succeed with the right information. We’ve gotten a lot of wisdom from you today.

Who do you recommend we talk to next? 

Adam: Oh boy. Okay. The one guy I want you to talk to is Paul.

He has a company called Freight connect.com FR to connect.com. Yeah, Paul is a dear friend of mine and he’s been a mentor we talk all the time Paul cold called me, five years ago. he helps small carriers build relationships and get direct shipper freight without a broker.

I told him, no, I’m not ready. A year later, I blindsided him with yeah, let’s do this. In addition to that, you and I are going to do some YouTube shows together and talk to people about getting direct ship or freight because some people are dead set against this.

Believe me, you need it. It will help you survive. It’s the best thing you can do for your business. And after a certain period of time, you’ll see, you’ll be you wish you had done it sooner. [00:32:00] Most think it’s not possible, but Paul can help get you there. So I’d suggest you talk to him. And then a couple of fellows I met recently, Nate and Jared from e carriercheck.

We’ll set you up to talk to them. They are building a platform to be a competitor for, it’s going to do a whole bunch of different things and I use it, it’s great. It’s to vet brokers, to vet carriers, to be a competitor to Carrier 411. They help you, there’s some resources within there to help complement what Paul does to find direct shippers, direct, and they do a lot of sales training.

One thing with going back to Paul is if you can’t sell your business. That’s what a broker is, he’s your salesman. Whether you like it or not, he’s just your outside salesman. learn to sell your own freight, sell yourself. You can do that yourself. And if you can’t do it yourself, then you need to hire somebody that can.

That’s where Paul can come in as an outside salesperson and help you on limited basis to whatever you need to get your own freight. Sales is one thing that most people lack. Myself included. And I’ve really worked on that over the years. I’ve taken sales training and I couldn’t imagine having not done it.

It’s the missing key piece in most [00:33:00] people’s trucking company. And it is one of the most important things. 

Caroline: Do you think when learning about sales, is it general knowledge for any salesperson or are there specific things a salesperson in the freight industry should know?

Adam: You need to know about trucking. You need to know about what you’re selling. There’s a reason freight people or salespeople are the most highly paid people in this world, because it’s a tough job might sound easy. Oh, you just pick up the phone and get shippers. No, it’s not that easy. You can work on one for a year before you get freight.

I say everybody needs to do it, but I’m not saying it’s easy. It’s tough. But if you don’t try, you’ll never, if you don’t try your chances are zero, you will never, get it. But. And if you can’t do it, hire somebody who can.

Caroline: Awesome. Adam, thank you so much. I used to say that these episodes would take 30 minutes or less. And that’s just, it’s just not true. It’s just not realistic. Not with someone like Adam from DL. [00:34:00] So thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it. hope everyone listening gets home drive safe and let us know what questions you have in the comments.

And we’ll get them answered in the next episode. 

Adam: Take care, everybody.