138: Freight Update for 2023
This week on The Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett chats with Scotty Crisco, Nick Crisco, Bradley Simpson, Operations Managers at Oakley Trucking. During the episode, the group looks ahead at freight for 2023 and discusses some of the opportunities and outlook for the coming year. We also discuss the innovative ways Oakley keeps drivers on the road, building relationships with customers, ways Oakley is growing despite the competition, and more.
Read moreHighlights from this week’s conversation include:
- Oakley Update: Spouse Gift Card Delivery and Shoutout to an Owner-Operator (0:55)
- Beginning of the year update from the pneumatic division (4:03)
- Beginning of the year update from the end-dump division (6:30)
- Dispatchers’ role in handling the busy season (8:57)
- Opportunities for growth for Oakley in 2023 (12:55)
- Building a relationship with customers (18:10)
- Recession in 2023? (23:17)
- Final thoughts and takeaways (32:32)
Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruceoakley.com.
Transcription
Scotty Crisco 00:12
People are like, wondering what is freight gonna look like in 23 Compared to 22? Well, it’s gonna look different. But that’s I mean 22 looks different than 21 and they were both Vanner years for both the driver, and Oakley.
Jeremy Kellett 00:26
Welcome to the Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. This show is brought to you by Oakley trucking headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The purpose of this podcast is to communicate with Oakley owner operators and their families by giving them up to date information concerning Oakley trucking and the trucking industry. From business advice to safety updates to success stories, also to give an insight to outside truck drivers who might be interested in joining the Oakley family. Hi, there’s Jeremy kellett director of recruiting at Oakley trucking. I’m your host for this podcast. This is the Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. This is episode 138. And on today’s episode, I got a few the operation managers in here that we’re going to talk to Scotty Crisco, Nick Crisco and Bradley Simpson, and with the interrupts in the pneumatic division, and we’re gonna talk a little bit about what the what’s happening right now, what’s it maybe what we think’s gonna happen this year, give us a little perspective on the freight dealing with customers. Maybe, you know, maybe get off into a couple other things, you know, how we booked freight and what we look for. And just our goes as Operation managers and what they do every day to make sure that this company is doing good. And our owner operators are doing good. So that’s the plan here in just a minute, we’re fixing to get started on that. But first, let’s give you an Oakley update. So two things real quick on Oakley update. One is, so if you don’t know we, we give the spouse a gift card Ale on the owner operators anniversary. So every month we send out a batch of gift cards. Well, we are changing that. Still gonna get money. But it’s going to be either the money transfer cash at Venmo, or PayPal. So instead of sending the actual gift card to your house for the spouse, we’re going to send them a card explaining that how you got to access this money, you’re going to have to download the app, Cash App Venmo, or PayPal, one of the three. And then you email it to Vicki chastising here at Oakley, and she will transfer the money to you. So I’ll try to make it a little simpler might be a little difficult in the beginning, but we feel like it’s a whole lot more protected. To do it that way, then send in gift cards and then you don’t have to call about balances or anything like that. It’s gonna we hope it’s going to streamline things but may be a little challenging at first so but it is gonna make you download one of those apps if you want to get your money. So that’s the way that’s gonna work. Also, I want to recognize an owner operator with us. That’s been with us, Rob and Tracy Johnson from Parkfield, Missouri. And just, you know, I can’t say enough good about these people that they’ve just done a good job with this. The whole time they’ve been here they praise Oakley so much. And they, I mean, and it shows of what they’re driving. They’re driving a 2022 Western Star that that Rob and Tracy specked out for the job. They’re pulling in and dump with us and just to have been an asset to Oakley trucking and I just want to say they’re having their eight year anniversary this month in January. Just want to say thank you to them. We appreciate having you. Alright guys got rarely Sampson, Nick Crisco, Scotty Crisco, all returning guests, right. Yeah. So we don’t have to worry about, you know, getting, getting the nervousness out of the way. We’ll just get right into some of this stuff. Because I think the reason I asked you guys to come in here, you know, is because you’re in the, you’re in the trenches of what’s going on out there dealing with customers, and drivers, and dispatchers and all of it. And I mean, it is the engine that makes this thing. Go. Y’all are making it happen every day. And I mean, we came off of 2022 which was just an unbelievable year for trucking. I think everybody knows that. It was unbelievable for us as a company, but also the owner operators mean we see their numbers and how they’ve done I mean, it’s just been fantastic a year 2022 Now we’re getting, you know, getting into 2023 and everybody’s like, Oh, what’s gonna happen in 2023? You know, it could go any it could go anywhere because we don’t know but I’d like to talk a little bit about that. You know, coming out of the holiday, what things are looking like there what your customers are seeing freight wise, maybe and we’ll go from there. It was dark. Of course. This is what we got Bradley with an pneumatics so he can keep us in touch with that. And then Scotty and Nick Crisco, which are brothers, they are going to keep us in touch with the dump. So let’s start with the pneumatic first. Riley, what do you think’s going on? I mean, reflecting on through the holidays, and now that he’s crying back up, what’s going on? What are you seeing?
Bradley Simpson 05:18
I feel like it’s going pretty good. It’s held them strong from how we finished 2022 I think it’s carrying right along, you know, you always have like you said, Guess we call it a little bit of holiday hangover. You know, but lots of people, customers, and owner operators are off work. So there’s always a little bit of slowness from that coming out of the gate, but seems to be every week that we’ve been back from New Year’s, it’s continued to get busier kind of back to where we were before the holiday. So except plastics, yeah. Plastics a little bit down, swallows deals, it’s kind of if it’s hot, it’s really hot. And if it’s not, but there’s been some good signs in it, too. We’ve been doing a lot more plastic, keeping those guys busy on it. Austin, our dispatcher, he’s actually down in Houston this week with Colby Foster. They’re going to see customers every day all day, trying to drum up some more business and visit some old customers that we used to work for just to kind of see what their feel is about it. So I’m sure we’ll get a good report on it probably this Friday afternoon and Monday.
Jeremy Kellett 06:33
And just our listeners know, we have dedicated trailers for plastics. And then we also have other trailers that haul everything else. So you know, plastics when that’s not happening. Sometimes you got to grab another trailer, keep them busy. I guess if that’s the case.
Bradley Simpson 06:51
Yeah. Yeah, they can definitely. I mean, we use them to hook to our regular pneumatics all the time. And there’s a lot of the stuff that we do on the striker pneumatics that they can do with their vacuums. I know that cada it may discourage some people sometimes they’re kind of scared of it, you know, because they don’t have the vibrators on the trailer. And it’s just a little bit different moving it through there without that, but it’s something we’ve always done. And it’s good to have to fall back on because we’ve been needing help. So it helps us on the regular side. But it’s helped us pull through some of the slower times on plastic about Endo. Get Scotty Nick, what do y’all see in on on that boat for a man you
Scotty Crisco 07:30
know, lock was we’ve experienced some holiday hangover
Bradley Simpson 07:34
doesn’t seem like it’s getting longer every year. I mean, to get customers back to work.
Scotty Crisco 07:39
Yeah. And it’s, you know, even the ones in the middle of the year tend to drag on like your Easter’s, and your Thanksgivings. And your fourth of July’s customers closed down more. But
07:50
you know,
Scotty Crisco 07:52
as far as I mean, we’re still keeping guys busy, you might not have a load on your geo tab waiting for you.
08:01
When before you don’t,
Scotty Crisco 08:03
sometimes it’s taken us a minute to you know, sort things out and figure out where you need to go. But I mean, guys are still making money or saying, you know, I started getting some fertilizer orders, actually, this afternoon. I know we’re getting into spring so especially in dumps, or we have a lot of seasonal stuff. So you bounce from fertilizer season and then then the landscape and season and then you know, so but yeah,
Bradley Simpson 08:27
there’s nothing to worry about.
Nick Crisco 08:31
Yeah, like you said, I mean, the holidays used to seem like people would take customer who take a day off for a couple of days. And now they take off December 18 to the first of the year, you know, are you saying you were if it seems like you see more and more that you know, and then the first week of the year was a four day week, we’re really just kind of getting our bearings on getting back to a normal routine. Like you said, 2022 was incredible. 2021 was incredible, you know, so it’s really been, it’s been extremely busy busier than at any point that I’ve ever been here. And we’re still busy. But like you said it is transition some you can see a little bit of settling in the market as far as competition and maybe that post pandemic rush when everything came out of the pandemic and it was just insane. Like every, you know, all trucking markets probably experienced that to a degree. And it seems like that settling some we’re still, like I say we’re still busy. It just may. There may be times here and there. We might not have a load right that second. But you know, he might be waiting an hour or two, or we’re kind of piecing things together. That’s not happening a lot, but it is happening some there’s still plenty of work.
Bradley Simpson 09:51
So dispatch notifies you guys when they got a problem. Somewhere somebody needs a loan.
Scotty Crisco 09:56
We try to start the day every day late, you know lately when it gets like This, I mean, the only thing you can do is come in prepared. And one of the thing that we do is we make I mean, what’s kind of old school but we get out a long old piece of paper with state on it and pass the sheet around a dispatchers they write down, you know, this is we do this every afternoon for the ensuing day for the following day, they write down where their trucks are going to be empty, approximately what time so that we’re not just coming in here, getting blindsided every 30 minutes with empty trucks, I mean, we try to have some sort of game plan.
Bradley Simpson 10:36
Guys don’t have they don’t have a pre planned, pre planned load form. They’re telling y’all
Nick Crisco 10:41
and yeah, we make a list the afternoon product, we will this afternoon, when we come in tomorrow, a guy that’s not on a plan, you know, and we’re actively working together, the operation managers and all the fleet managers to keep the guys moving. You know, so it’s a juggling act. A lot of times with different guys needs and where they’re needing to get home, sometimes certain loads don’t fit where they’re needing to be you’re trying to get for the weekend. So you might we might have to, you know, just take a little bit more time to find the puzzle piece that fits for them. But, but yeah, as the guys are working on, or don’t have a plan for their guys, we’re actively working together to try to get a movement.
Bradley Simpson 11:25
Well, I think we just been so spoiled, you know, for the last two years, or more, all of us, you know, with having multiple loads for each truck, which where we’re gonna go to do it, and that we all know that even the truck driver knows that’s not reality. It is nice, and it’s nice while it lasts, but it’s not all. I mean, it’s not always going to be locked in. I mean, of course, but, you know, they, I mean, to me, I’m I, I still see what goes I look at the end result, and look at checks, and money made. I mean, people are making money. I mean, you guys or dig in harder, and you have to look other places, but you come up with it. I
Scotty Crisco 12:12
mean, you’re not gonna let a guy not work. Right, right. Right. How many fingers up that and Right, right? If I tell you what’s incredible, is just the, over the years that the vastness of the customer base that we’ve built here as a team, like you can go back and, you know, I was looking back the other day, I was scrolling orders for something in Tennessee, and I found some we had done like 180 loads out of Strawberry Plains, Tennessee, going to Clarksville, Tennessee, you know, you almost kind of forget about and stuff like that. So you know, I mean, people are like, wondering what is freight gonna look like in 23 Compared to 22? Well, it’s gonna look different. But that’s, I mean, 22 looks different than 21. And they were both banner years for both the driver, and Oakley. So I mean, and I think that’s probably a product of us being so versatile, both, you know, with our equipment that we haul and the equipment that we own, and the ports and whatnot, we own I mean, you know, you can just, you can run it a lot of different ways and stick your hands in a lot of different pots. So
Nick Crisco 13:17
which gives us a good base to stand on. Yeah, the end dumps are was what we deal with, day in, day out or just are so diverse. Like I say a lot of it’s seasonal. But even in the slower of times that diversity of different things you can haul. And the amount of experience of years of guys in the office has changed a lot. The last 15 years, you know, there’s a lot a lot of resources and we have different ways and ideas and just figuring out ways to keep busy.
Bradley Simpson 13:48
We’re not a you know, a lot of companies are I mean, they build their company on one customer. And if that one customer collapses, then the company collapses. Thank goodness, we’re not like that. I mean, me different products am a different customers. I mean, does pneumatics deal with my hundreds. Yeah, for sure. The house, there’s no telling how many. I was thinking when they were talking, you know it, it always looks different. It always changes, especially from year to year. But I’ll go on vacation for a week. And I’ll come back the next week. And I may see some computer and I’ll be like, What is this? What is this down? Where’s this load? Where did it come from? here because we’re always looking to for something new to do to add to what we could always do. So it’s here we will have options going on for that right there. Braley would give our listeners an idea of the competition that you guys deal with other trucking companies, brokers, that you have to compete against, to get low I mean, is that a head ache? Is that something I made? Or is there just is? I mean, in my mind, there’s so much to do out there. We haven’t even tapped into the, you know, the dropbox business.
Nick Crisco 15:12
There is yeah, there’s a lot. I mean, there’s more than we could probably wrap our head around the other way. But we still see it and feel it. I mean, you can go on some of the load boards and things like that, that are public, you know, and see all the different brokers and three PL it seems like there’s more than ever, you know, people getting in and a good thing over the weird. We have the Troubled Asset, you know, that’s a feather in our cap that somebody figured out a long time ago, was the right way to go about it. But yes, there. It’s very competitive. Thanks for your question, man. Yeah, it’s when it’s super busy, you don’t feel it as much because you’re, you know, you’re looking at your, the demand for the truck, as you get more loads and you do trucks, when it starts to shift, you know, there’s more people trying to get in that same. Ball does a
Bradley Simpson 16:11
Go ahead. Just gonna say
Scotty Crisco 16:12
I think it’s a mirror image of, you know, probably what you guys deal with in recruiting. I mean, I can’t drive from the office to my house without getting behind the van trailer and that van trailer, having a sticker on it saying, how successful you can be by just calling this number, and we’re paying this and home on week, I mean, so what I’m saying is, if you’re a truck driver, listen to this podcast, and you, you’re driving down the road, ask yourself how many times over the last 3060 days, either a company has directly reached out to you, trying to get you to come over. Or just take note, look around and see how many different trucking companies are trying to pull you in their direction? Well, that is exactly what goes on with our customers, other trucking companies are contacting them and going after them trying to get their business that we’ve worked so hard to get, and that we have to work so hard to keep. So we pride ourselves on customer service. And they know when they’re calling Oakley, that they’re probably not getting the cheapest rate. But then again, we’re not paying our drivers the cheapest pay. So they expect good service. And you know, it’s like a lot of things in this world. You we try to stand on the route of you get what you pay for. So but yes, short answer. Competition is out there. And it always will
Bradley Simpson 17:30
be. Yeah, because they’re always coming after that freight. I mean, they know the same thing that we’re going for to a lot of times, because we know over the years, we’ve taken lanes from other companies, and they’ve taken lanes from us, you know, they gets into a bidding war sometimes. And there are customers, I’m assuming that Well, I know that customer service don’t mean crap to
Nick Crisco 17:54
them. That’s a good point. I mean, ideally, and we have a number of good customers that, you know, they send us the orders, we take care of it. We know they’re gonna send us something next week. Those are the ones that are ideal. We’ve also got a number of customers exactly what you’re talking about that you can work for months. And we’ll cut you for $1 for $2. Just because it’s I mean, it’s a cutthroat business at times. I mean, they’re they’re doing the same thing. Everybody else in business is doing. And there’s more so concerned about the money than they are the service, you know, so it’s a juggling act,
Bradley Simpson 18:34
they are in the beginning, they think they are I’ve seen many times y’all seen that word that I can call it back don’t like it goes out, you know, because we may be too high. Company B come in here and cut the rate and then they figure out dang it dang Oakley,
Nick Crisco 18:51
but those times, yeah, and those times, you know, the service becomes even more important, because if you’re, if we’re consistently late or contamination, you know, the net, they’ll have another company not adorable. And so that’s where it was imperative that were
Bradley Simpson 19:07
once you guys conversation, like with a customer? In other words, you promised them something that the truck driver has to deliver. What’s that conversation like to a customer that maybe doesn’t know us? Or we’re trying to earn their business?
19:28
I don’t know about these guys, but
Scotty Crisco 19:30
I tried to. Well, I do know about these guys. I know they do the same thing. Everybody just does it does it in their own little way. You know, like when you’re dispatching you. One of the most important things is develop a strong relationship with your driver when you’re in operations lockwise for developing a strong relationship with your customer. So, you know, if you’re chasing business, you know, I think persistence trying to feel them out. You know some no It’s kind of like when you go buy a car, you don’t want somebody hounding, or at least me, I don’t know about y’all. But when I go by truck or something, I’d like to just walk around by myself for a little bit. You know, let me know what you got, you know, and then I’ll seek you out. So you have customers like that, you know, you might want to stay at arm’s length a little bit. And then you have customers that you just need to call every day, maybe more than once a day. And as far as existing customers and repeat business, I think that relationship is just, you know, know what they like to do in their off time. Know what kind of liquor they like to drink, you know, know of, you know, how many kids they got, what they’re, you know, what, and stuff like that? I mean,
Bradley Simpson 20:36
that goes a long ways. Yeah. Well, he, bro. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s good to know Him, and know what they like outside of the office, you know, that way, whether you get something good to call them about or bad, you can kinda started off with a joke or, you know, ease into with them. Because you know, what they like, you can mess with them a little bit. But there’s some that are just like, here’s what you do. Yeah, you go do it, you know, and you don’t talk much. But there’s a lot of them that I’ve talked to that say every day, almost since I’ve been here, and no one really well know what they like, and they know how operate and it just makes it work better overall, you know, whenever you have a good relationship with him, I can talk to him and tell him what’s happened, whether it’s good or bad. You know, the, to me, it’s the product we’re selling. You know, Oakley mean? I always tell recruiters, you know, how’d you like to be recruiting for a company that you know, like, worth a crap? And takes advantage of drivers? Don’t treat them? Right. How’d you like to be that recruiter? Tough? Yeah, I mean, we have, you know, it’s great to be have the product sales itself, you know, we’re just recruiting paper pushers, you know, getting it done, you guys, I feel are the same, because you got an awesome product to sale, you know, Oakley trucking reputation. And, you know, if you had a budget, if you read a company, and you had a bunch of truck drivers, it wasn’t worth a dime, she couldn’t depend on and it make it hard for you to sail that customer and go, hey, we’ll take care of you. You know, and that’s the mean, that’s the best product with us is our owner operators that we got that we know that they’re gonna get it done. And it feels good, makes it easier, you know, to me, it would be for you guys to sell the product. And, and that’s why we get to charge we charge them a little bit more because of the good customer service, so that the owner operators that we’re sending in there, the equipment that’s going in there, the way that we’re, we, we take care of them. I mean, I was telling the recruiting class last late last week of you know, how over there when I started over in a dungeon note office, I mean, you didn’t leave until every load was covered, is you did not leave, you didn’t leave the building, I wouldn’t, I was maybe five or six hours that we wouldn’t have nobody’s leaving till this load cover, and how we’re gonna get it done, you know, and it was, but it was that instilled in that customer service, you know, and me and us, you guys, and you’re doing it on down the line that really makes a difference, I think, to where, like you were saying we’ve created this product now that is with all these customers, we just got, you know, so much it’s like it. I mean, it almost moves itself, if that makes any sense. I mean, it’s just so we’ve we over the years, we’ve created so many good customers, you know, and new customers who want me in it, and good owner operators, it’s just a it’s just a great product to be able to do so. And I couldn’t imagine selling man selling a bad company, you know, to somebody i this i That wouldn’t work. I could hell and so, you know, we I think we touched a little bit on this. But the I don’t watch the news. Almost purposely. I want some local news. You know, that’s about it. But you know, people tell me that it’s all going to crap up there gonna be a recession or we’re in a recession, supposedly they say how, how are you guys gonna handle that? I mean, people say we’re in a recession, the pay attention to it, or what would you tell our owner operators that hey, if a recession hits here’s how we’re gonna handle it.
Nick Crisco 24:38
I think you’ve got to pay attention to it and have it on your radar. Just because history says that it’s going to happen again at some point. It has happened here before and Oakley has been through it more than once. The way that we operate every day is a good way didn’t make it through it. The other way we talking about keep an eye on trucks, if a guy has been sitting for so long, you know, for X amount of time, you know, then it’s all hands on deck, we’ve got to put our minds together, get this going. Same way on book and freight, you know, have conversations about stuff we’ve done in the past that maybe we’re not doing being more aggressive on booking things maybe that we haven’t been looking at what’s out there that we’re not doing, and being aggressive and try to make deals, maybe weeks to months ahead of time, to keep the guy’s busy. You know, it’s the way we’ve done it in the past. It helps it helps have some guys, you know, you guys and or melees and scouts and everybody that has been here for years with a lot of experience in the office. It kind of gives you somewhat of a safety net. I mean, we’ve been through this before we’ll get through it. We know what it looks like, when it’s great. We know what it looks like when it’s not great. And then we’ve got a lot of owner operators that have been here for the same thing. You know, so it’s not? It’s just we’ll make it through it. If it does, I don’t think it will get to that point. I do think we will get to experience some slowdown compared to last year, but I don’t think it will get to where it was like 108 and that those times shaken desk, yeah,
Scotty Crisco 26:27
kind of took the words right out of my mouth as far as being aggressive and just taking it head on. I mean, that is literally how we, even when times are good. That’s our attitude, you know, attacking problems at the moment when that you know.
26:42
So when it’s when it’s
Scotty Crisco 26:45
a little slower, or, God forbid, a recession does happen, you know, I mean, there, you can’t hang your head, you gotta I mean, it’s proven that if you just get up, put your boots on every day and go to work and come in here and continue to give good service to the customer continue to get good service to the driver. Be honest with yourself, your co workers, your customers, and your drivers. I mean, honesty goes a long ways. You know, I know if a driver calls in and we you know, we don’t have him below, we just need to tell him, hey, look, give us a minute. We’re trying to piece something together.
Bradley Simpson 27:27
You know, just I mean, honesty. There’s really no, that’s what they mean. That’s what they want to hear.
Scotty Crisco 27:36
And I want one other thing I will say truth. Yeah, the truth. And like Nick said, we were going to be booking some stuff that you probably didn’t haul in 2023. You know, if that comes to that, you know, just reverting back to what I talked about earlier. And our versatility I wrote down here on this piece of paper, I just three commodities that I can think of that we’ve hauled over the last 90 days, that would maybe blow some people’s minds in the dry bulk industry, but we’ve hauled expired beer, Turkey guts, and then this has been a while, but we did haul pumpkin pies. So
Bradley Simpson 28:16
tell me, we will keep the best. Although nobody wants to haul it,
Scotty Crisco 28:21
and pick up that low, we’re gonna dig in and find you something we can promise you.
Bradley Simpson 28:26
That’s a great example. If we go find something to do, maybe we always have failed something. And, and to me, I’d like a definition. If it ever have a slow time at Oakley and Ben, we’re hauling different products with the gravy train is not there like it normally is, you know that I go back, get you another one, they go back and get you another one type deal. That’s, you know, when it’s gravy, then you start, you know, we start digging haul in different stuff, because it’s out there as a thing about it and the stuffs after it’s just a matter of expanding our customer base, which is huge already that we can do maintenance at. And that’s why I was asking that about, you know, recession. I mean, if I was an owner operator, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else then right here. That’s because I know is what I know, the owner operator that hadn’t been here or been through a bad time. They don’t know that, you know, like, they can jump the gun real quick, you know, have a bad week, and oh my gosh, you know, panic city. And
Scotty Crisco 29:34
but, and we were fortunate enough during 2023 to be able to pass a lot of that on to the driver with the 20 cent surcharge. Yeah. And, you know, so far so good and 2023 I mean, so
Bradley Simpson 29:47
I hope we’re able to continue that until late late. So keep keep them busy. I mean, and that’s the biggest point I think guys want to get across is to to our listeners and you know, just get information from you guys. As and how you deal with customers, you know, he’s our owner operators minds, you know of any bad news or stuff that they’re taking in that are negative. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. And right here working for Oakley, because I know you guys are in the middle of it and you don’t go home till everybody’s got a load. I mean, at least a direction ahead. And yeah, that’s the way it is. Maybe we, we’ve all worked together to make it happen. What about customers? Real quick, we’ll touch on that. I know Bradley said Austin and Colby were to invest in do we, we sin guys out mean, you guys go out very often. And drum up business talk to customers. Yes, some more than others. I’ve actually already this year be in Covina, we went out and we saw a handful in one day, just kind of around Arkansas, not too far from here, but it’s good to get out and see him, you know, put the name with the face voice with the face to see who you’re talking to all the time. But we do lots of people get out, you know, of course, the COVID stuff kind of put a little bit of a slowdown on that because a lot of people were working from home, they’re not, you know, in in a ghost. So that slowed it down a little bit. But I feel like we always have pretty good plans to get out and get around and see some of the people we work for. Because it’s good to do.
Nick Crisco 31:25
Yeah, just on the site, as we were talking about earlier, getting to know them outside, work, you know, they’re no different than us, you know, be sick of eating lunch or dinner, you know, get to know talking to them outside of work, what their hobbies are kids ballgame, through what you know, it’s good to do that just to establish relationship. Because they’re just like we are anybody else on the phone or email. It’s not the same as bass, bass. L So we do that. Like you said, the COVID Dale, same bat two years was bad. I’ll put on hold. You know, I remember, we went to Chicago guess it was the end of 21. And it seemed like every other person tried to call up there. You know, so I’m sure it’s sure it’s loosened up some but yeah, it’s good. It’s invaluable to get out and, and to have face to face contact.
Bradley Simpson 32:21
Yeah, thank you get to me, we, they might not want you to come. But once you get in there in front of them, I feel so honored. Just from the few I’ve seen. And from a couple of weeks ago, it’s amazing how little they actually know about us and what we do. You know, because they pretty much see you as what you do for them. So they don’t, they may not have any idea that we have all these guys just batch and end ups or we have all the river ports and all the stuff going on here. You know, we’ve had customers come here to see us. And they’re just like, wow, look at all this stuff. Ya know, it’s crazy, that they know so little about what we actually can do. So
Nick Crisco 33:00
yeah, that’s a good point that that comes up a lot in conversations seems like when you got talking is that you will get questions interest in our barging or our ports or they had no idea that we offer you know, so it’s just like he said he they might think Oakley ya know, I
Bradley Simpson 33:20
send them my loads to do X had no idea what else? Yeah. Oakley is a company can offer. Yeah, we’ve seen that a lot over the years. In front of all they don’t realize both Oh, we know how big we are. Anything else you guys got on your list you wanted to cover? Don’t get y’all together very often and then dumps in the pneumatics and we’re discussing customers freight that kind of stuff with Bradley Sampson, Scotty Crisco, Nick Crisco. So y’all got anything else you want to add? Did we want to talk about at all this detention pay, anything like that is that something or any paperwork that we need to any common mistakes that we need to tell our owner operators, I would
Scotty Crisco 34:03
say this on the detention thing. It is number one, when when you know, if you get to a customer and you reach that two hour mark, you need to be calling your dispatcher so that we can notify the customer. Now, there are some places for instance, I wouldn’t Corning Atlanta, where it’s kind of probably understood that there’s going to be detention, the one offs you get somewhere and you’re having to wait and you hit that two hour mark, you need to be letting your dispatcher know so that we can get with the customer and not just send them a bill two weeks later without any communication. And then obviously that you know, just the ABCs of your demurred sheet. You know, your pay number, your truck number what time you arrived. Try to find some sort of detailed reason as to why you’re waiting because what you write on that sheet goes with the invoice to the customer. So we need something a little more specific as Have you waiting to load and try to find out why you’re waiting to load? Is there a railcar in the way is there you know, as the scale down is, you know, whatever get a name and a signature and if they refuse to sign it then right on there refuse to sign.
Bradley Simpson 35:12
And that’s pretty much it. That’s pretty common all pneumatics he’ll get a Yeah, same for us. It seems like recently in the past, I don’t know how long but ones that we used to get detention with they they do want to be communicated. Now, as it’s happening, you know, because I guess it’s such a big occurrence that all these places they want to knows, because they may be able to make a phone call and get something done. So always communicate it to your dispatcher, even if you know you’ve been paid at this place before. Because we want to make sure and get your money, you know, maximize the money you can get. So always communicate it even if you don’t think it’s a big deal. But same deal, just much details you can put on the sheet, you know, and put the do both DNS the loading information and unloading even if you don’t have the tension on one end that way. It’ll help the customer whoever’s looking at that invoice in the future. Understand more exactly what it is. You mean, customers just don’t pay it. When he said to him, I wish they would be all over there. They demurred. They will send you a check now. Now, they want to know a little bit more, right? Yeah, so we can help yourself there. owner operators, any need to teach it by that you run into any make sure you communicate and details because that piece of paper you’re filling out is going to the customer for them to read and pious and so we can pay you. And if they don’t? Well, I guess that’s the situation if they don’t pay us we don’t buy them is pretty much standard. So I guess that’s every situation we were at, we figure out whether we have to or not so alright guys, hey, man, good stuff. I know it. I know, it felt like a little negativity in this episode. But to me is good honesty, stuff that we’re communicating to our owner operators. You know, because we don’t know what’s going to happen. I mean, I have confidence. And I’m sure you guys do too, because we’ve been doing this a long time. And I’m confident that it’s gonna be another good year. I mean, really am weather bad does come, we’ll still make it good. I mean, it’s just a, it’s a great place to be. I want our owner operators and their families to have that confidence to like we do that. We’re with a good company, and we’re gonna make it work. And you guys are the ones that are making it work every day with the phone calls you make and the people you talk to, and the rates you’ve come up with and the low G book and I mean, it’s a it’s something that is Mike’s this whole thing, tire, and I appreciate you guys doing your job what you do, because it that’s where it’s at, that’s where the money is. You’re gonna make the money. So all right, well, hey, be sure. And check out our episode we got we had free pass. Check out that if you got questions, it was a pretty good episode pre pass. The next one coming up, we actually got a customer coming in, we’re going to talk to, I believe is Chad with Alltech recycling. So gonna get a little more information about how their process works and what they do and how they work with Oakley trucking, so it can be pretty good episode there. I think so. And we got other good episodes in the works. Coming up. So everybody, be sure and listen to the Oakley podcast, do your subscribe, and comment and hit that thumbs up button that some reason mouth tells me to do that because it helps something. So helps us get out there to everybody else. But I can’t say we’ve got a lot more subscribers than we used to. So it’s coming on up every week. And I appreciate everybody doing that. But more than I never want to forget, and I’m never going to this podcast was created to communicate with our owner operators and their families. Yes, it’s turned into a little bit more. And it’s helped in recruiting and retention. But that’s the thing that it was created for us to communicate stuff like this to our owner operator. So they’re in touch with what we’re thinking and what we’re doing in here. And and I just want to continue that every week. I know not every week it happened but sometimes I struggle with some content. But this is all good stuff. And I appreciate you doing it and appreciate everybody listening to us. Let us know if you guys suggestions on things you want to wants to talk about or anything you come up with. I mean we’ll be glad to visit with you about it. Once again. Thanks for listening. We’ll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening to this episode with Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate or review the show in the podcast platform of your choice and share it with a friend. We love hearing from our audience. So if you’ve got a question, comment or just want to say hello, head over to our website, the Oakley podcast.com and click the leave a comment button. We’ll get you a response soon and may even share some of the best ones here on the show. We’ll be back with a fresh episode very soon. Thanks for listening