Caroline: [00:00:00] Welcome to This Week in Trucking, the podcast that tells you what you need to know about the trucking market for the week. My name is Caroline. In a recent episode, we’ve talked to Adam from DIY Semi. I’ll link that episode below.

And we talked about what it looks like in 2024 to run a trucking business and what the future holds for the industry, particularly for small carriers. And at the end of the conversation, I asked him who else. Do we need to get on this show to help owner-operators and small fleet managers? run their businesses better in this environment.

And he said you gotta talk to Paul. So that’s what we’re doing today. We’re talking to Paul Kangethe. He is the CEO of Freight Connect, a platform that helps carriers connect with shippers and all around a trucking and sales enthusiast. And we’re going to talk about how to support small carriers and owner operators in this environment.

Thank you so much for being here, 

Paul: Thank you for inviting me. I appreciate that. 

Caroline: So can you tell us a little bit about how you got into the trucking industry? 

Paul: Sure. And the, and to the trucking [00:01:00] industry it was due to a layoff there are these big companies, these tech companies communication companies one is of course, AT& T, and then back in the day, there was a MCI and there was Sprint.

And I worked for Sprint. At that time back in the 90s, I think it was 90 or no, 2000, yeah. All the way up to 2001 or 2002, 2001. and so I got laid off. It was a sales manager there for inside sales. And It happens, and that was a challenging time during that time period. And then a friend of mine who still worked at Sprint had recommended, maybe I try this company.

I’ll say it was FreightQuote.com. I did apply. I wasn’t for sure what it was all about. But it had to do with sales and I said, all right, and I got the job. So I ended up being a freight broker and that’s how I got into the transportation industry. 

Caroline: Interesting. All right. So from sales to freight broke brokering, what are some of the things that you knew coming in, you were going to be able to use and what are some of the things that you had to learn on the job?

Paul: [00:02:00] I knew zero. I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t, I just know, knew I had got, gotten hired. And and it was a different industry. So it was like, okay, let’s take on this challenge because being laid off which was the first time that had ever happened to me. It was like, okay, what do I do from here?

Yeah. So let’s try to take on something new. And different but taking on the role as a freight broker or freight broker agent. I come to realize it was sales and I’ve been in sales for forever. Ever since I was a kid I remember. There was a time where we had our electricity went out and it was due to a snowstorm.

And so we went up to up north to my cousins. We stayed there for a couple of days until the electricity came came up down south. Said, let’s go out and shovel snow and it’s like shovel snow and they lived in an apartment and he was like, yeah, people will pay us for it. And I was like, they’re going to pay us to shovel their snow.

And he said, yeah. And so I was very intrigued. And when we went out, I don’t know how old we were, maybe 11, 10, something like that. [00:03:00] So we go out and shovel the snow. I’m just sitting back watching and watching him approach the people and I saw some say yes, some say no. But what really intrigued me was the fact that I could go out.

And really do whatever I wanted to do, it wasn’t something that had to be defined in the sense that, okay you go to school today, you get off, you do your homework, you watch TV, you take a shower, go to sleep and, just that regimented thing, but I could go out and say, okay, here’s an opportunity.

And let me do this thing and people will pay me to do it. So I guess it’s something they don’t want to do. So I’ll do it, and and that really intrigued me. And so over time when you get on a job and you get paid hourly. That was very demotivating for me, so the fact that one can go out and do something Outside of that, you know even make up a role And get paid set your pay do as much as you want make more money You know set my you know, not have a ceiling so that was really what [00:04:00] intrigued me 

Caroline: That’s so interesting because I think that’s part of why some are drawn to owning their own trucking business, right?

Because like you said, some. Ways of getting compensated can be demotivating. Oh, I just get paid for every mile that I drive. And it like, doesn’t really matter what I do. I can’t make, I can only drive so many miles in a day, but if I open my own business, then I can maybe specialize. Maybe I can figure out ways to make a higher rate per mile.

I can do things that are going to impact directly my take home pay. Whereas if I’m just driving. Up to 11 hours in a day, there are only so many miles that I can drive. So can you talk a little bit about what is different about selling in the trucking industry as opposed to other industries?

Paul: What’s different? Yeah at least in my experience, there’s been where I’ve I was with a company that did second mortgages, right? And personal loans. And also I was in the music industry and there’s selling, anything, any [00:05:00] business that you’re in, there’s an element of sales, right?

And at every level, if you’re a CEO, you’re selling all the time. That’s one of your, you’re teaching, you’re selling, right? That’s a big big thing that, it’s going to be on every CEO’s plate to do. So when we talk about transportation, it’s just a different vehicle, right?

In terms of using your skills and selling. So have let’s say at the freight broker level. You are dealing with compared to, let’s say, the telecommunications industry, right? I was with Sprint and we did long distance. That’s weird to say.

Caroline: I don’t even know how many people listening to this are going to know what that means.

Now, if I take the average age of a of a trucker, I think that most people are going to know what you mean when you talk about long distance. But I was pretty young when that was the case. So I think I’m at the edge of the audience maybe that understands where that is. So I think you’re good. 

Paul: All right. So do you remember before cell phones? Okay. All right, let’s move on anyway. So as far as as the long distance goes, we so long distance. And then [00:06:00] prior to that, when I was younger you make a long distance call and the connection was horrible, if you’re, especially if you’re talking about overseas and you want it to keep it limited, it’s like, all right, that’s enough talking, because it was very expensive to do that.

And then you come along and you have cell phones, and at one point. Back in the 90s, when that became popular, there were blocks that you could purchase in regards to, number of minutes and that continued, whether it was 35 cents a minute, 10 cents a minute, whatever the program was, but now they have what they call it.

Paul: It’s unlimited, right? Yeah. Things advance. They always advance. So where I was going with that is that in terms of the difference between trucking you had a product there in the telecommunications industry that you sold. Everybody understood it. You got it and, you could display it and all that good stuff here.

We’re talking about, service related. It’s a lot service related. And plus you have a lot of carriers. They’re all independent, right? So there’s so many people that get into this industry and for as a freight broker when you are reaching out to a shipper [00:07:00] you are Marketing you can market that in various ways, right?

You can market in that I have connections with a thousand shippers or carriers I’m, sorry a thousand carriers or ten thousand or whatever the case might be But can you really stand on that? You Supply, that you have, because it’s not always, you’re not always going to be able to cover a load, right?

You’re not always going to be able to guarantee the service, in terms of service level, whereas with telecommunications, you could tell them, hey, we guarantee you whatever, uptime or whatever the case might be a number of minutes, but you can have a truck that falls off, right?

And then all of a sudden, You’ve got to scramble to find another truck, or there’s something that happens that was out of your control. There’s just so many different factors, right? So that is a difference. When you’re talking about trucking, selling transportation, and it’s very, interesting and challenging, which I do because it gives me somewhere to go. You know what I mean? In terms of trying to get [00:08:00] better at what I do. So freight brokering that was for me, it became the challenge was always getting better, at it. Whereas with trans the telecommunications, it was it was.

Only so far I could go with that in regards to selling, maybe sell more, but there was, I wanted more of a challenge beyond just that. Does that make sense? 

Caroline: Yeah, I think you found it in trucking for sure. There’s nothing more challenging, I don’t think than doing this. It occurs to me that part of selling yourself as a carrier, it includes everything else that you have to do for your business because it’s about safety. It’s about compliance. It’s about getting in on time. It’s about having good drivers. It’s about all of those other things that make up your business is part of the case that you’re using to sell, that’s a little different than a product that, you’ve got the package and here’s the details and there you go.

Because on the, on that end, a consumer product or a, a cell phone plan or something like that, the consumer, the [00:09:00] person that’s paying for that, they don’t really care. What’s behind it, right? They care about the price they care about, does it work? But a shipper or a broker might care about, what exactly, what is the kind of equipment you have, what year is it?

What kind of insurance do you have? There’s so many things around that that they care about. 

Can you talk a little bit about what you’ve seen from small carriers, owner operators, people running small businesses? Between let’s say 1 and 10 trucks, maybe even up to 20, smaller carriers, what are some of the biggest mistakes that those folks make when they’re trying to sell themselves as a business?

Paul: That’s a great question. A mistake I think that In general the idea just from the standpoint of when someone gets into the business, say a carrier gets into the business, the idea is that I’m going to find me a broker or I’m going to find loads, right? I’m going to establish my company or I’m not established, but get it set up.

I’m going to have a truck, I’m going to get insurance. Now I’m legal and I can start rolling. But then you have to find [00:10:00] a business, right? And that’s the part that a lot of people don’t think about, right? And and so we go to a broker. Based upon things that we’ve been told, and we plan to believe that we’re going to get a load.

We’re going to get loads and everything’s going to be fine, and I’m going to make a lot of money and we’ll move forward from there. But that is not what happens once you get the truck. There’s a lot of other things to consider. And with that, I think that in terms of the mistake is not doing the research and not really understanding.

What they’re getting into. I can’t say that for everyone, of course, but and then a lot of people, they just learn on the job. But I think that if there’s more education that is sought. To learn about what they’re getting into, then I think that they will have have a different, take on a different discipline within what they’re trying to do.

You know what I mean? I think that’s the thing is that there’s not enough research that’s done prior to coming in. 

Caroline: Yeah. I would agree with that. I think in the first [00:11:00] episode I saw of your podcast, you said, That nine out of 10 trucking businesses fail in the first year. We just had a carrier who started his business, bought a truck, got insurance, everything ready to go.

He signed up with us to factor at Bobtail. He hadn’t submitted an invoice yet though. And so our team was trying to figure out, okay. He signed up for factoring, but he hasn’t sent any invoices yet. What’s going on? What can we do to help him? What can we do to support? 

A couple of weeks go by, we’re trying to get in touch with him.

And finally he calls us back and he says, I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t find any loads. And we tried to help him out with some resources about. First loads, what kind of brokers might work with a carrier that’s brand new. But it’s tough. It’s a really tough market out there right now for new carriers.

And I think by the time we actually could get back into a conversation with him, it was probably too late and he was just resistant and just said, you know what? I’m just going to sell my truck, cut my losses and got to do something else. Yeah. 

Are you hearing some similar stories and what is it that we could learn from in those kinds of situations?

Paul: Yeah, I think that that situation is common in the sense that it’s not anything new, right? And it just depends on, of course, individuals. But I would then just turn a bunch of questions back. To you or to him in the sense of where, how did you come to trucking?

What was your journey? How did you come here? Where were your driver before? What did you do before? And all those types of questions. And I ask a lot of questions. That’s just, I’m just very inquisitive, right? I would want to find out too what were his expectations? Why did he get into this industry?

What yeah, what was his experience before? Had he been in the trucking industry before? Had he ran a business before? Those type of things. And it gives me an understanding as to what he is up to. where he’s at in this journey, right? Even before he, moves a load, right? 

And then at that point, hopefully we can have a really good conversation and talk about [00:13:00] the industry, right?

And talk about proper expectations. Because you can survive in this industry, right? That 90% is a general, number just in business in general, right? But in our industry, it’s even worse than that. It’s beyond 90%, if you look up statistics and so a lot of people come into this, I think on educated is the thing with, not the right expectation.

So if someone was to come to me and talk to me about prior to getting into the industry and just wanted some information, just wanted to find out, do they’re doing their homework. There’s many things that we could talk about before they actually, financially, how much money do they have to get started and to back them up for, do you have enough for the next, do you even know what your costs are?

Have you done that? Have you determined all the expenses, or did an uncle tell you this is a great industry to get into and you should [00:14:00] do it. So there’s so many things to look at. And a lot of people, unfortunately, don’t do that. 

Caroline: Yeah. One of the things that we’ve been trying to talk about here on this show is profitability and how that can be so different from carrier to carrier, depending on what their financial situation is.

So for someone who has a paid off truck, who has a great safety record and is paying 7, 000 a year for insurance. That person is gonna be, have a really easy time being profitable. Absolutely. In trucking. They’d have to really screw it up. Yeah. To, to They’d really have to fumble. To make that go under. On the other hand, if you bought a truck last year when you’re, interest rates were the highest that they’d ever been or in a long time. And maybe you’re in your first year, maybe you had an accident last year in your insurance skyrocketed. I’ve seen people get insurance quotes for their renewal, 50, 100 percent increases on their insurance in the last year.

That can just put you out of business straight up [00:15:00] because if your truck payment, you can’t cover your truck payment and your insurance with 2 a mile, which might even be generous in some cases. There’s just not a whole lot of pathways forward for you. So even just understanding that before you come in, one of the things that we also recommend always, when people are starting out, before you get your authority, before you buy a truck quote insurance, 

Cause what they’re going to look at is your driver driving record. And then they’ll look at the type of equipment that you’re looking to buy. You have to estimate that out first because. If you can’t afford insurance, you can’t afford to have a trucking business. 

Paul: You gotta have it. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, the expenses and they can fluctuate, whether it is based upon how you handle your business, you’re expenses can fluctuate. And then, of course, in regards to the economy there’s many different things. Going back to 2022 around February issue.

There was fuel prices. They started to go up, and there are reasons for [00:16:00] that. And, knowing the different. Factors that are involved, they can impact fuel, right? They can impact consumer demand and those type of things. They make a difference, and they can determine whether you should it’s a good time to enter. Interest rates as well, or whether maybe you should wait to enter. And if you’re in the market, if you’re in the industry trying to determine what steps you should make, decisions you should make, you need to be aware of some of these these different things that do impact the industry.

Caroline: Yeah, so actually, that’s a great segue. So what I was going to ask you next, which is that you talk a lot about economic indicators that can help business owners and our industry plan for the future, right? Should I buy that 2nd truck? Should I hold off until next year? What do you think are some of the most important metrics to track? And what do they say about the trucking? 

Paul: Yeah, that’s great. When we’re talking here’s what I revert back to is An unfortunate thing which is something that we’ve all [00:17:00] experienced. And that is the coronavirus, when it hit it really impacted everyone around the world.

So that’s something that’s a recent event that really had an impact on economies. And, our industry is based upon the economy. When the economy is doing well, trucking is doing well, and when it’s not, we’re not doing so well. And the one thing is that when we are doing well, there’s a lot of entry, right?

A lot of new people, a lot of new carriers enter into the market and they might have experience and they might not, and so it, it plays a part, but when there’s a lot of big demand then it’s easier to operate, but when that demand tightens up or goes away and you have a lot of trucks in the market, then are a lot of carriers in the market, then it becomes a struggle, right? And rates go down. 

So in talking about indicators, these different indicators, you really want to look at the economy pay attention. When you hear stuff on the news, pay attention to it, [00:18:00] like interest rates. So interest rates would definitely be an economic indicator, something to look at.

We know that the Fed, they’re involved with, they’re the ones that decide the interest rate, but they’re looking at a lot of information as well to decide whether that rate is going to go up or they’re going to take that rate down. And so we want to watch that because that’s going to determine, how we, The money that we take on, how expensive is it going to be for us to borrow money to go buy that truck? 

And as well, there is consumers. Are they going to make purchases? Buy homes, are they going to, use borrowed money to make different purchases? If that interest rate is high.

Okay. Probably not right. And when the purchase, when the interest rate is lower, then there’s probably going to be a stimulation of purchases of consumption. When we know how some of these things work, some of these economic indicators work, then we can look out at the market and say, okay, it looks like this is the direction that we’re headed as an economy, or as a country, or whatever the case is. And [00:19:00] then we can start looking at some other things to see. On a local level, right on a more of a micro level and see what’s going on. The LMI is a great indicator. Which is a list just 6 managers indicator or index. And that tells us about warehousing, transportation and oh, what’s the 3rd 1?

 I can’t believe it. Just skip my mind, but warehousing transportation and, oh, inventory. So it tells us, about the levels of of those three. And we’re able then to determine, hey what is the health of the logistics? Industry, and there’s a lot of trucks that can come in at a certain time period.

And when that happens then we have an over, we can have an over capacity, just tons of trucks available to move product. But when that demand is pulled back, when consumers are not spending money, then all of a sudden we have an abundance and overabundance of trucks. And so then therefore it’s I can’t find loads.

This must be the reason why the rates are down. It’s [00:20:00] not necessarily the broker’s fault, right? It’s because of the way the economy is. And then I have to make decisions in terms of what am I going to do now? Do I need to tighten up? Do I need to become more efficient? Do I need to, have to make those type of decisions, but looking at some of those type of indicators will help you to hopefully be ahead of the curve.

And when money is good, what do you what do you think you should do with that money? Maybe I should save it, invest it properly, maybe invest it in training, learn how to get more customers, and retain them. Those type of things can be of benefit.

So I believe that at any point in time. Whether the economy is good or bad, right? You can take advantage of that situation, right? You can definitely do that. And if, these economic indicators and how they play, especially in the transportation industry. I think you could make smarter moves and be ahead of the curve.

Caroline: So direct shipper relationships sometimes are seen as the holy [00:21:00] grail in the trading industry. It’s hitting gold now, right now when rates are down, Ooh, I really want a contractor. I really want a direct shipper. I want to get around brokers because I need to make more money for my business.

Can you explain what a carrier can do? Particularly a small carrier. So think 20 or fewer trucks. What can a carrier like that do to set themselves up to get a direct shipper? 

Paul: One of them is connect with us and we’ll definitely help you in that area. You get into this industry. A lot of people get into this industry and they don’t know.

You have to understand business because it doesn’t matter if you’re opening a Walmart, a trucking company. Convenience store. Got to have someone that is interested in what you’re doing. 

Caroline: Yeah. 

Paul: And have the revenue coming in and in order to keep the doors open. Become profitable, make money, have make a living and all that good stuff.

So you’ve got to have something to some that people want, and people have to know about you. So if you take that same idea and apply it to a trucking company, right? You even having [00:22:00] 1 truck, how am I going to get clients? How many customers? Where is that going to come from? Am I going to get them from brokers? Am I going to go out, knock on door, door to door. Am I going to hire someone that can help support me in that effort? I might not be. The best, like in my business, there may be a part of my business that I’m not good at. 

Caroline: Sure. And what is it that a small carrier, let’s say they’ve got six months or a year on their authority.

What is something that they can do to get those direct shippers? Is it local? Is that the best way to go local door to door, pass out business cards or is there something more that they should be looking to? 

Paul: You want to be able to I’ll just say here in house, we will, to communicate with you. We have you fill out a questionnaire and we’ll find out about you and your business.

And with that, we want to find out what works for you, what would probably be the best shippers. For you the best clients for you. 

Caroline: This is the freight connect [00:23:00] system, right? This is something that any carrier can go on and fill out this survey. 

Paul: Yeah. Yeah, it’s it’s our yes freight connect.

This is how we operate and we have a new platform is called Elevate and so with that we do have you fill out a questionnaire so we get to know you we want to get to know you. We’re supporting you and your efforts to develop your your client base. And there’s different programs that we offer, but in answering your question you want to, I think, know your company.

You want to know your business. You want to know what you’re about. You want to know your niche, right? You want to know what it is that you want to go after. When you’re talking about six months into the business, seven months into the business. At that point in time, that’s probably about the time where, more brokers are willing to work with you, and the way the climate is today.

It could be 12 months down the road before a broker will work with you. But during this time period, let’s say. Prior to even establishing yourself as a carrier [00:24:00] this should be a part of your plan, your business plan in terms of how am I going to acquire opportunities? 

We can be your sales team basically. 

Caroline: So can you talk a little bit about that? How does Freight Connect work? If is it open to any carriers, box trucks hotshots, semis? If I’m a carrier interested in creating some of these direct shipper relationships through Freight Connect. What do I need to know?

Paul: Yeah. Good question. Yeah, it’s more of us having that conversation, reaching out, connecting with us. And then we talk about what is it of interest to you? We want to find out about you. And with that, in terms of sales we find the leads. We find out about you, then we find the appropriate leads, the targeted leads.

And we do have a program where we will reach out to them on your behalf. We’ll create the marketing material and all that good stuff. And we will reach out to them. We have a whole system where we keep track of all that, that you have access to. So you can see how we operate, see the calls that we’ve made and all that good stuff.

And eventually we want to make it, get it to the point where they want to have a [00:25:00] conversation with you. The shippers. And at that point we do transfer them over to you, but we can either have a conversation with you about it. Or we can even make those calls with you just to do that intro.

Paul: Oh it’s very cool because two things happen. There’s two things about that. One, we have a program where we can train you in regards to how to have those conversations, right? Because it’s completely different than talking to a broker, right? So when you talk to a broker versus a direct shipper the norm when we’re talking to a broker is, it’s going from point a to point B, what’s the way, how much is it going to pay, and some other specifics.

Whereas with a shipper, you’re talking about building a relationship. And that’s totally different because if we’re talking about matching you up with a company, not a load. We’re talking about matching up with a company. And so we want you to be able to build a relationship with them because you’re not just looking for that one load, just to get you out of this one location, we’re talking about developing [00:26:00] again, that, more that solid foundation, not that quicksand, where, it’s just gonna, you take the load and hopefully it comes through.

You can get to your next destination and do it all over again, but we want to be able to call back to this shipper that we’ve been working to develop a relationship with and get some consistent opportunity and go from there. At that point in the initial steps, it might be that you get a load here and there over time, you get more loads and the next thing, you’re talking about that contract.

So we want to initiate for you help you to do that. 

Caroline: Yeah, that sounds really flexible for carriers. I know from experience when I’m trying to get a service or a program off the ground at Bobtail, sometimes I just need to outsource it just get it off my plate, have somebody else do it for me.

But a lot of the time, what I want to do is learn how to do that well, and then take it from there. Because if it’s a really important part of my business, I don’t want to be outsourcing that. I think a [00:27:00] lot of people do. I think a lot of people, they’re looking for a dispatcher because they just want, okay, I just want a dispatching service because I don’t want to have to deal With any of that, but sometimes what you don’t realize is that’s literally the thing that’s running your business.

This is how you’re going to get your money is to book these loads. So what do you think about that? How do you feel about dispatching services? What have you seen? What do you usually recommend to new carriers? 

Paul: For us, even as far as dispatching service we, yeah. We cater to carriers, brokers, shippers, dispatchers, and then those that are interested in getting into the industry.

They can sign up and, there’s educational part of it where they can, get good solid information versus just hearing it. The word of mouth in terms of what goes on and, saying, Hey, you need to get into the business. Great. So as far as, like dispatching goes, I think that everything has there’s training that’s needed. And in all phases, right? Good, [00:28:00] solid training. So whether you’re a dispatcher, whether you’re a carrier, a broker I think, shippers can get some education as well, but on this side of things on the supply side, I think that education is is huge.

So I’m all good for it as long as it’s all so to speak, above board, if as long as, as long as it’s, Is that way? It’s easy to say just to put it in this way. Fraud comes in all forms. It comes it’s everywhere. And so at that point, when you’re talking about fraud, nobody wants to deal with that, and a lot of people become jaded, because of it all. But when we’re talking about dealing with good people, people who really want to do the right thing and what have you, then we’re talking about a whole different. Ball game, right? Yeah. So yeah, so as long as we have those type of people that we’re working with and building relationships, right?

That’s what we’re talking about building relationships. I think then I’m good with it all. 

Caroline: Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I think [00:29:00] there are different ways of operating a trucking business. I think a lot of them are really, some people wanted to pay for dispatching. Some people don’t want to give away that eight to 12 percent that a dispatcher will charge, but some people think it’s worth it.

I know, particularly for box trucks and cargo vans that a lot of people say you can’t really start in this business without a good dispatcher. 

Paul: Is that right? 

Caroline: That’s just what I’ve heard. Everybody does it differently. And I think that there are people running profitable operations doing either one, right?

We always recommend, learn how to dispatch your own loads, make relationships with your customers, because at the end of the day, you have your best interests at heart. Someone just totally offshoring your dispatching, probably not a great idea because you don’t know what’s going on. Really what their intentions are.

They might just be trying to cover you with a load. Any load will do. And you really know your business and you want to create those relationships, right? 

Paul: Yeah. I think that too, with the way you brought that up again, this is a [00:30:00] business. Yeah, you can get into it and do whatever you want, run it however you want.

So no one can tell you how to do that. But the idea is I would think okay, so when we had coronavirus, right? The coronavirus, when it was big there were a lot of people that got into it and, they could call their, whatever they wanted to get paid, they got it right.

They made a ton of money and new people came in and that was the objective, right? Now, is the objective though to stay in this industry, long term, is that what we’re thinking? Are we talking about all the way to the point of retirement? Are we talking about, being able to sell it or your company as you build and grow it?

Or are we talking about passing it on within the family? We have a guide that we have put together that we provide that talks about that from the start. As a carrier or driver, even, and then progressing all the way to the point of retiring. Philanthropic work and stuff like that, but in the sense that it can be very rewarding. It can be very rewarding. But the thing is what is [00:31:00] it that I want out of? What do I want to get out of this? And so you have to decide that. And then once you’ve decided that, then you have to. Build this company to achieve that. So does that mean that maybe in the beginnings it’s about outsourcing?

Does it mean that you just have to, just slow down, but learn these things, get into it, take a year and really, be on the road and learn every aspect of it, before you bring someone else on, is it that you need to take a course in different operations, like you said, people can operate their business in different ways. But, you do have to sit back and be thoughtful about it, either way you go about it and understand there’s going to be some bumps. And as you go along ups and downs, but it can definitely be rewarding if you take the time and I think be thoughtful about it.

Caroline: Yeah. And let’s talk about those future plans, maybe getting into retirement. In 2015, the CDC did a health [00:32:00] survey of over 1, 600. Long haul truck drivers in the U S almost 70 percent were considered obese and over half were smokers. And these conditions alone can increase chances of all kinds of chronic illnesses, right?

Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and stroke. If you want to enjoy your retirement, you really want to avoid some of these chronic conditions and a lot of truck drivers and owner operators already have these conditions. I’ve seen a little bit here and there on your channel about health and fitness, and how this works in to what you talk about in the tracking.

Can you talk a little bit about what got you interested in truck driver health and why you incorporate that into some of your content? 

Paul: Yeah the, with health that’s always been or fitness has always been a thing for me. When I was. And that’s just a personal thing, right?

As I got older and I would You [00:33:00] know, have friends that had health problems, had health issues.

 It concerned me and as this at the same time, I had encountered my own health issues and I couldn’t figure out what it was until I went on this fast, the church that went on a fast and I after 3 days of just drinking water. I felt better, and I felt like I felt it was like it took 25 years off me.

As far as trucking goes, I don’t have my CDL. I’ve been in a truck, but I’ve not gone over the road. But just the idea of that’s someone’s job, I can imagine that it can be challenging to work that in, the eating right and the working out.

But, I’ll go to Planet Fitness, and there are people that I’ll meet all the time, new people, and a lot of them Sure. Will tell me that they’re they drive trucks. And I’m like, Oh, okay. So this is cool. I guess there’s a lot of planet fitness all over the place. And therefore it’s a place where you can go [00:34:00] and, whether it’s take a shower and work out and all that good stuff.

And I said, that’s a, that’s really cool. There are those that obviously go out there and they drive and they get their workout in. But I think it would be really cool if you drivers were able to do that, take advantage of that and be able to enjoy a retirement at some point without those chronic things that, that evolved from, Not taking care of themselves, so I think that was a long, that’s all right.

Caroline: I think that’s a great place to end. It’s so important to take care of yourself and if you have to choose between, two things, taking care of yourself should be number one, because without that, without taking care of yourself, you can’t be a good business owner. You can’t be a good partner.

You can’t be a good parent. You can’t be a good friend. And you can’t be a good truck driver. So without. Having that you really don’t have anything at all. And we’ll leave some links to some of the content about truck driver fitness and how you might work that in. We have a blog [00:35:00] on it on our website as well.

Thank you so much, Paul, for joining me today in this conversation. Had a great time talking with you and for everybody listening. I really hope that you like and subscribe this video. Leave us comments below with questions for Paul. If you have any questions at all, we will send them to him and get responses to you in the comments.

That’s how we work around here. Again. Thank you so much, Paul, for being on and we hope everybody drives safe