157: Serving the Owner-Operator with Jared Flinn of BulkLoads.com

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett chats with Jared Flinn, Co-Founder of BulkLoads.com. During the episode, Jeremy and Jared discuss all parts of the bulk industry. Topics include the importance of trust in the business/customer relationship, how to best care for your customer and employees, focus on helping with the pain points of owner-operators, services BulkLoads provides, and more.

Key topics in today’s conversation include:

  • Jared’s background and journey in founding BulkLoads (1:51)
  • The importance of trust in business (7:12)
  • Caring for your customer and your employee (9:18)
  • Services that BulkLoads offers in the full cycle of trucking and freight (12:08)
  • Taking away the pain points of owner-operators and customers (16:33)
  • What’s the future look like for BulkLoads? (22:07)
  • The BulkLoads podcast and other ways to connect (28:00)

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

Jared Flinn  00:12

The world we live in, but the business we live in, people have to trust you. They have to know that what you say is what you’re gonna do, that they can trust you and do business with you. And I think that’s something you can’t just advertise. And you can’t just tell people that like, you can’t say, Hey, we’re trustworthy. You have to prove that and people have to know over the years that hey, this guy is gonna do what he’s gonna say.

Jeremy Kellett  00:33

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. We are here at Mid America truck show 2023 in Louisville, Kentucky. And I’ll tell you what, it is just a fantastic show and I always love being here. And, and you know, you just get to see all kinds of new things and new products and new people. And then you also get to see some old friends too, that you’ve acquaintances you’ve had over the time over the years in the boat business. And today I got Mr. Jared fleeing from bulk loads here to visit with me a little bit and what’s going on Jared.

Jared Flinn  01:27

Hey, glad to be here.

Jeremy Kellett  01:28

Thanks for bringing me in , it’s a great man to get to the Mid America truck show and see all these people and get fired up about what’s going on and push out the dry bulk industry.

Jared Flinn  01:41

Yeah, absolutely. And I think as soon as I get out of the car and walk in the doors, a smile comes on my face. It’s just like, I don’t know, it’s just like a comforting feeling. Being

Jeremy Kellett  01:52

here, in our world, in our world, in our surrounded by our people,

Jared Flinn  01:56

our tribe. Yeah. But what’s even cool though, like, you and I get to even support a smaller niche, this industry that we call bulk. And most listeners probably know this, like we represent maybe 10%, eight to 10% of the trucking industry, you know, and that’s what I think special, like, we can come here, and we can promote how well and just how enjoyable it is. We love each other. Money. And you know,

Jeremy Kellett  02:25

all these years being in this, it’s you have to constantly explain it to people because they know like, what do you do? What’s that now? I thought that was local stuff for you? No, no, I don’t know. I mean, you got it. It’s been a career of explaining what we do

Jared Flinn  02:41

what an end dump is actually versus a drive and versus a hopper bottom. Yeah, versus a refrigerated trailer.

Jeremy Kellett  02:48

It takes a box truck. Yeah. Hey, let’s talk a little bit about bulk loads, talking about explaining it to everybody. I think this is a good opportunity to explain bulk loads to people and what it is and what it does, but first, you know, introduce yourself to our listeners. We love our listeners. You know, I feel like I’m always talking to Oakley owner operators and their families and always like to educate them on different things in the boat business. So give us a little introduction of yourself. And then we’ll go into how bulk load gets started.

Jared Flinn  03:20

Yeah, well, I’m a good old farm kid, raised in eastern Missouri, and grew up on a 240 acre farm. Believe it or not, we had a sawmill pallet mill. And that’s kind of how I got my feet wet. You know, growing up in that industry, hard manual labor every day, but loved agriculture, studied agriculture in college, after college went moved to Kansas City and worked for probably top 10 And probably top five grain Trading Company Bartlett grain and that’s where I really fell in love with the trucking aspect. Everybody knows this. But in the grain industry, especially. Everything revolves around freight, you know, whether it’s truck freight, rail, freight, barge, freight, and vessel freight. And I just found that there was a need to expand on that. And I’ll say this like, or the company when I was working for they were laser focused on rail, freight, and even bar freight, but they kind of kicked truck freight down the curb a little. They weren’t focused on it. They were like, Hey, can you find me a truck or we’ll just let somebody else manage that piece of the business. And I saw man, there’s an opportunity here. I mean, people know, we’re all commodity products. But it all starts with a truck. It’s gotta get moved by a truck. And so I just saw that there was this need to really learn how to enhance that technology or enhance that industry with technology. And that’s kind of how Bobo brainstormed. And that was back, you know, bulk loads. We’re now in year 12, almost 13 years in business. And that was the beginning of apps and all that but I saw that there was this need that we could use mobile technology and apps to help connect shipping companies, trucking companies and even freight brokers all on one platform to create a kind of neutral marketplace with full transparency. And that’s basically your website. Yep. That’s bulk loads.com. Yep. And that that’s where they can everybody can communicate and see what’s out there in the bulk world.

Jeremy Kellett  05:20

I’m sure you got a lot. I mean, members do you have?

Jared Flinn  05:23

Yeah, so we proudly serve over 7000 members today. And we are I mean, it’s humbling, like yesterday, even coming to this counter mats. And these guys and members coming by and introducing themselves, like, I get a little emotional about it. I really do. Like, man, this started in a basement 12 years ago, and now we have, you know, across all entities, 48 employees, and we’re just proud of the people that we get to serve. Well, I mean, I’m so it’s so humbling that people believed in us over

Jeremy Kellett  05:53

the years from eastern Missouri. Yep. Worked in Kansas City. Now your home is in Springfield, Springfield.

Jared Flinn  05:59

Yep. My wife is from that area. And when we met, we started going down there. And I love Kansas City, but I’m an old country boy. And I told her I go honey, I want to live where I can see, I want to be able to drive home and see cow pasture. And trees and not stop lights and buildings. Yeah. So she loved me and led the way. And man we love it down there in southwest Missouri alone. You’ve been married. We are going on 16 years, kids, three kids. I have a 13 year old daughter, a 10 year old boy and an eight year old boy. So we have a handful. Yeah, a little hobby farm. We raised some cows and actually got hogs, chicken, and a little bit of everything. Not big. But yeah, I always wanted my kids to experience what I experienced as a kid. And just those good old rural farm values. Yeah. And so I’m so thankful that we can instill that into my kids.

Jeremy Kellett  06:52

You know, that goes a long way with kids. It is at some point it comes back to him. Yeah, like it has ease. Yeah, you know, what you learned growing up, that makes a big difference, that you don’t realize how big a difference it makes in your future. Yeah, you know, what you’re doing in the future,

Jared Flinn  07:09

you can start looking back and reflecting now, you know, I’m 43 years old, but like, these moments, and like how that led to where I am today, in some of those. I kept working in the sawmill and on the farm, how much I just despised and like that hard work, and just not wanting to get up in the morning. I look back and what a blessing. It was. Yeah, to get me where I am today.

Jeremy Kellett  07:28

Yeah, it’s amazing how we look back on some of the stuff that we did when we were kids. And it really took hold of us. Yeah, you know, you didn’t realize it till you got a little bit older. But you kind of gravitate back to some of that stuff of what you learned, like when my grandpa and taught me a lot of things, you know, growing up and stuff and it just kind of hangs with you, you appreciate it for sure

Jared Flinn  07:46

What I’ve been adding here, really, I’ve had a reflection of like even mentors that I’ve had along the way, whether it was an FFA teacher, it wasn’t a boss that really believed in me. And I think we all have to have that. And, Jeremy, I’m now in that seat where like, Hey, I have a responsibility to mentor those below me. And I don’t take that lightly at all like that. We now have to train and educate and mentor the next generation that’s coming out in this industry. Is that important

Jeremy Kellett  08:13

in your business in bulk loads. You seem to really take that to heart of making sure this is a reputable company that people respect.

Jared Flinn  08:23

Yeah, I think it all revolves around trust in the world we live in, but the business we live in, people have to trust you, they have to know that what you say is what you’re going to do. That they can trust, you have business with you. They know that you gotta be honest and sharp. And I think that’s something you can’t just advertise. And you can’t just tell people that like, you can’t say, Hey, we’re trustworthy. You have to prove that and people have to know over the years that hey, this guy is gonna say what he’s gonna do your do what he’s gonna say. Yeah. So yeah, it’s super important to me. You met some of our team members here. And we have a probably a younger group of guys, but I think I’m excited to to mentor these men and women that we have working for us, and just instill the values that I learned,

Jeremy Kellett  09:11

you know, because you’ll turn around, Jared, and next thing, you know, you got somebody working for you, that could be your son. That’s

Jared Flinn  09:20

why do you actually want to

Jeremy Kellett  09:23

you know, did happen quick, you know, but that’s, that’s, I was actually telling. I was on the phone with one of the guys back at the office this morning, and I was talking to him about you and I said, you know, I said I just Jared he’s got that mentality similar to wheat. To Oakley. Yeah. You know, we’re you can tell you’re authentic about wanting to take care of the bulk business and promote it and it’s your you know, what your life like it is ours at Oakley. I mean, we have a lot of similarities now tell him that about how you are about that and that goes a long way when it because we’re in the Phase like you are I think of passing that down to. Yep. You know, the people that are really working for us always say, when we hire somebody, we need somebody smarter than me. Yeah, you know, definitely hire somebody smarter than me, because that’s what’s gonna carry this company like bulk loads on to the next level, I think

Jared Flinn  10:19

What I’ll say to you brought up a key point. I mean, there’s good businesses out there, and there’s great businesses out there. And, you know, you can walk around this conference, and there’s businesses, you come up to him, and they talk about their valuation. And they talk about how much money they’re making, and all that and like, that doesn’t press me like, like, what are you doing to take care of the customer? What are you doing to really change their lives, and if you change the life of a customer, and if you can improve their well being and their life, you’re going to have a customer for life or a client for life. And I think that’s where, you know, we got to talk in the industry is a little bit of a slump. And we knew this, and we know, it’s just a matter of time. But I take that really seriously to how we can improve that, you know, we have a forum on our load board, where we have, you know, a lot of guys comment on there. And some of it can get pretty heated, and pretty negative. But as painful as it is to read some of that, we have to read that we have to be listening to our customers, what they’re saying the pains are going through, and I feel those pains for that. I feel like, hey, when they’re not making payroll when they can’t afford fuel, you know, we’re, you know, hey, I may be in business, you know, the next Monday, all hese four and we do absolutely your sign to them. 

Jeremy Kellett  11:31

We do.

Jared Flinn  11:34

Yeah, we’d ended there’s some that we try to respond publicly, and then some that we respond just directly to these people. But I think that’s like, that’s, it’s a good business. So I’m like, you have to respond to customers. And sometimes it’s not what they want to hear, right, but you’re truthful with them. And you’re gonna say, hey, it’s tough right now. I know, rates are down right now. But it’s gonna get better. And we’re going to help you and we’re going to do everything we can. And, you know, we’ve had to shift even what we’re doing on the bulk load side a little bit, you know, it’s been more of a carrier market the past couple of years, she didn’t have freight coming, every which direction? Well, now it’s a little bit more of a shippers market, you know, the carrier, he can’t just go on. And blind up loads that easy. Like, he’s got to do a little more hunting, he’s got to kind of decipher through what loads are more profitable. So we’re proactively working with those guys, either physically, or creating technology tools to make them sharper. On the load board, and I think that’s where it said, You gotta just you gotta kind of keep working both ways. Yeah. Because like, it’s never ending, like, that’s it. You know, whenever you feel like, you’re up here, like, just watching, get ready, you’re ready, you’re gonna get shot back.

Jeremy Kellett  12:47

It’s gonna change. I mean, that’s the way it’s been in this boat business up and down. So I’m sure bulk loads make that a little steadier for people that, you know, if you remember a bulk load, and you’re specifically a carrier, yep. Then you know, that probably. I mean, as big as y’all are getting the constantly got loads on there. They just got to piece them together a little bit. And that’s it. So is that, I guess, let’s go into some of the services you offer, you know, carriers and shippers, and you know, how exactly does that work?

Jared Flinn  13:19

Yeah, so we cater to three different buckets. So we have all of our shippers which are companies that own the product, and they’re paying to get them shipped. So they get on there and they’ll freely post these loads there. And these, we cover all the United States, 48 states in Canada, we don’t do it in Mexico. So we have a shipper in for bulk loads. We’re all bulk commodities, probably and it goes back and forth. Probably a little more on the agribusiness side. So again, grain feed, fertilizer, food ingredients, feed ingredients. But so we have the shippers, we have the trucking companies, and those are the companies owner operators fleets that are looking for those hauls. And then we have the freight brokers and in the middle and freight brokers they can represent both sides so they can be representing the shipper side or the carrier side they can be posting loads or searching for loads. So we bring all these companies together into one neutral platform. And we have I mean I won’t go into the details of it but we allow carriers to quickly search for loads and find loads booked for them and really over the years we’ve evolved to we call it catering to the full load lifecycle. So we do everything from finding the load all the way to paying the driver if they want and these are all ones that they can use. We aren’t forcing them yet. So if they want to book the load through us and run it through us we can if they want us to get involved with the payment we can do that they can build directly so yeah, we’re just trying to take away all those little pain points. And especially some of these owner operators face when hauling freight.

Jeremy Kellett  14:54

Yeah, that that makes a lot of sense to you know, have them all in one place where you can just see Because loads are or shippers can see trucks, you know, by double trucks in their area,

Jared Flinn  15:05

I’ll say this to, you know, talking to a lot of trucks, truckers that came by the booth that are members there. You know, one thing they say is like, Jared, I don’t use your board all the time. But man, I need the only there’s times I just need it. And again, I we love that, like, Hey, if you need this just when in a pinch, because again, we’re hoping and some people don’t like there’s been a while but like, we’re hoping that we help these companies find steady long contracts, whether it’s a freight broker or shipper because and people ask, well, then they’re not going to need you. It’s like, well, that’s great. That’s great. Like, we’ve performed our job, we’ve done our job work. We’ve worked on some of the jobs. What we found out though, even though we found these companies that made those long lasting connections, they still stay on us or stay on our board, because they use it as a metric to kind of gauge the industry they can get on there, they can see, hey, what are freight rates doing and where are hotspots? And again, there’s me, if you’ve been in the trucking industry, nothing ever happens as planned. Loads fall through things. So you have that tool, literally in your pocket at any time.

Jeremy Kellett  16:09

Yeah, it’s kind of I think that’s a good point. You know, it’s kind of a base. You can get on there and see what’s happening. I mean, I think we even use it, you know, at Oakley. Yep. You know

Jared Flinn  16:20

has been members with us since the beginning.

Jeremy Kellett  16:22

Yeah, that means That’s uh that’s it it’s just a good I don’t know confidence thing to have reliability to have owners you know what’s going on? And you can kind of see what all the loads are and that men get loads from there. You know, and I know typically you know, as far as Oakley owner operators I mean, they can’t go in there and book any law right? But Oakley trucking can and of course Oakley freight solutions now. Yep. Can and do some business that way. So, it helps a lot. You know, you never know when we’re gonna need it. So it’s a good product. Arrow Truck Sales has been in business for over 60 years and a longtime partner of Oakley trucking and the Oakley podcast, Dre visor and Keith Wilson do a great job at putting you in the right truck to fit your needs and our needs here at Oakley. They carry all makes and models to choose from with on site financing through transport funding. So whether you’re a seasoned owner operator or a first time buyer, be sure to contact Keith Wilson of Arrow Truck Sales at 573-216-6047. And tell him you heard it on the Oakley podcast. What on the other side do I mean, interrupt you?

Jared Flinn  17:39

Here? What kind of wood maybe what you’re gonna ask what other services but like, what’s cool about what you guys are doing. And you guys are providing the same service just in a different fashion than we are like taking away those pain points that owner operators have. Because what I’ve realized over the years, and I’m not lumping them all into one bucket, but most guys, they want to be their boss, they want to own the truck. They are, I mean, amazing at running that piece of equipment down the road. I mean, safety wise, they’re safe. They know that they’re from a mechanic saying, well, most of these guys know they know that truck inside and out now. Well, we found out a lot of them, not all of them, they need help in that back office. I tell you what, Jerry, I don’t like back office work. Like I like a lot of the functionalities, the counting stuff we do for bulk loads a lot of the back, like, I don’t do it, I subcontract that out. So we’re doing the same thing for bulk loads, those guys that don’t want to deal with the paperwork, they don’t want to deal with, like all that backend stuff they don’t want to deal with, we have insurance. And I’ll talk about some of these others. But we provide all those back office solutions. So the guy can really focus on what he loves to do. And you know, some guys might say, and we’ve had, like, well, we don’t want to use your factoring company, because I don’t want to give away 2% I’m like, Yeah, but understand this, like the time you’re spending on that back, like you’re actually probably losing money by not focusing on growing the business and running the truck. Yeah, and I mean that. Not all, but if you can find people let them do what they’re good at. And you focus on what you really love and what you’re good at. You’re gonna grow so much more than being in the weeds with all of

Jeremy Kellett  19:11

it. Oh, yeah. Because you get down in the weeds. Yep. Quick. Yeah. And it’s a battle because it’s intimidating to become your own owner operator. You know, whether it’s coming to Oakland and we supply everything or whether you get your own authority and have your own truck trailer insurance and all that now that is intimidating and it’s a lot of paperwork and is a lot of stuff to keep up with. I run into a lot of guys that somehow they of course their wife into doing a lot of this because when we have some guys lease on to us, and they were running their own authority, Jared, they’ll come over and they’re like, I’ll talk to him a month later and like, Man, my wife loves this place. I’m so less stressed about doing this. You know, now I can do what I love and drive and take care of customers. Yeah.

Jared Flinn  19:57

Happy wife is happy . It makes a big difference about some of the other services that we have. So like, again, we’re now in year 12, almost 13 years in business. And again, listening to the customers, we’ve realized these other pain points. So 2014, we started a factoring company called Smart freight funding, it’s based up in Omaha. So we handle all the payments for the truck, trucking companies that want to participate in again, we don’t make it mandatory, they can if they want to build customers directly, totally fine. But if they need our services, we’re there to help them out. But again, we’ve realized we’ve created this, it’s not necessary, payment, quick payments, good. But it’s all that back office support. So now the driver, through our app, can take pictures of the documents, goes right to our department, and they get him paid invoice off, again, easy. Over this past year, we also got insurance and again, listening to our customers, we realized that was another big pain point. Some of these guys were struggling to find good, affordable coverage. So we launched a bulk Insurance Group back in 2022. And I don’t want to jinx myself. I mean, it’s just crazy how much it’s taken off. But you just don’t realize that some of these industries just aren’t being served. Like, we think they deserve to be served. And that’s what we’re participating in.

Jeremy Kellett  21:10

And there’s a need for that. And if you can get a one stop shop, and I can get I mean, not that anybody’s gonna do that. I’m going to do that if I need something. I mean, I’d really get it all here, you know, rather than have to go to five different places and get things done at a one stop shop. I mean, I like that. It’s like

Jared Flinn  21:27

going to walmart or amazon, if I can take care of the pharmacy and

Jeremy Kellett  21:31

get your milk and I went into Walmart last time.

Jared Flinn  21:35

So we have one right up the road. I mean, we’re so we’re there pretty frequently. I haven’t

Jeremy Kellett  21:38

been there. And along very much.

Jared Flinn  21:42

I hate to say anywhere online Qlik is open door type.

Jeremy Kellett  21:46

So my wife Yeah, we typically go pick up Walmart older after church on Sunday, Sunday if church swings by pick up a Walmart or bring it out to you know, yes. Well, the other day, I went into Walmart, and I was like a kid there. I was like, holy cow. I didn’t realize all the stuff that they have in there. You know, I just walk around, I’m buying things right and left. You know, I’m like, This is awesome. I’ve been looking for something you didn’t know they made something like I felt so sheltered. You know,

Jared Flinn  22:18

they’ve had a sharper game. Yeah, you know, these other competitors out there.

LubeZone Commercial  22:24

LubeZone has opened a new location in Statesville, North Carolina. It’s located north of Statesville on highway 77. Just west of x 59 lives on services, both single trucks and truck fleets. So whether you’re driving through or you have a trucking company nearby lube zone are the experts to turn to lives on specialty is full service oil changes that take approximately 30 to 40 minutes. They also offer tractor trailer grease, gearbox service generator service, reverse service in DOD inspections, they also go the extra mile when it comes to quality control. What does that mean? That means your semi truck is checked not just once, but twice to ensure all service and parts are good to go. The Lube zone does this so you can rest easy knowing that your truck is in top condition. No other service center, no semi trucks better than leaves out, check out lubes on.com For all their locations. And when you go in there, tell him you heard it on the Oakley podcast?

Jeremy Kellett  23:10

What’s the future look like for bulk loads? Sounds like you’re always progressing?

Jared Flinn  23:15

Yeah, man? That’s a great question. I think for us right now trying to strengthen our brand. You know, they always say it takes 10 years to build a brand. So we’re in that stretch now. And then kind of how we utilize that. And again, we’ve used our brand to reach out to these other segments like insurance and factoring. For us, it’s really drilling down and trying to figure out, really these pain points with the drivers. And you know, if there’s more stuff we can do on the back end with paperwork. If there’s things we can do more from a credit standpoint, financing standpoint, on equipment or trucks, that’s something we’re looking at, again, we haven’t really got laser focused on that. But I think that’s kind of where we’re looking, you know, technology right now. It’s scary and exciting at the same time, like the past, like, I mean, here just recently talking about this AI and I don’t think a lot of people understand that, and I’m not gonna go down a rabbit hole. But like, we’re, you know, there’s some companies here that, like, they have these processes now that, like, it’s all done by AI, like, like they can, you can put an invoice in and it spits you out. Like it no human intervention whatsoever, which are tickets like, but like,

Jeremy Kellett  24:26

AI is artificial intelligence. Yeah, just listeners know, it took me a little while to figure that

Jared Flinn  24:31

out. Yeah. But it’s almost like there’s the and this is my view of it. But it’s like, it’s learning that you’ve created a system that’s actually learning itself, almost. Like there’s a little there’s a little bit of scariness and I just saw that. Yeah, that there’s been some warnings about like, we may need to be slowing down on that. I think it’s cool technology. But then, like, what’s kind of what the landscape looks like ? So that’s where, you know, we’re gonna we’re a tech analogy company when it’s really said and done. But how do we, like just from when we were day one starting this business? How do we use technology to benefit our industry?

Jeremy Kellett  25:11

Do you also cater to the old school drivers? You know, we

Jared Flinn  25:14

do. Yeah.

Jeremy Kellett  25:15

How do you cater to them? Oh, I mean, there’s only one way to get calm and get Yeah,

Jared Flinn  25:21

You know, the first thing you hear we it’s funny when you say that, but like, the first thing you hear when you talk to the old school guys, it’s like, I’m not very tech savvy. Yeah. Your reply back, though. Like, we’re not either. Yeah, we’re gonna learn this together. And I mean, that’s where we’ve also focused, like, we have a lot of in-house support people by design. Because we know that we have to be coaches, to a lot of these guys to teach them how to use our software and technology. And again, it’s not hard to use, we don’t think it is. But to a lot of these older guys, these old school guys, it’s very intimidating to it. I always tell them to always say there’s kind of this process with these old school guys and technology. It’s like, first they’re frustrated, then they’re pissed. And then they just give up. Yeah, and you got to catch up before that happens. Because it’s like, hey, but if you catch him before that a lot of times you’re here, it’s like, Man, this is a lot easier than I thought it’d be like, hey, doing this doc, you’re scanning these documents this way and getting them sent. This is a lot easier than spending 1820 bucks and overnighting it, you know, times, how many days a year like there’s some incredible savings along the way. So, again, I have a lot of respect and empathy to help these gentlemen and women out in the industry.

Jeremy Kellett  26:32

Yeah, we have to, I mean, that’s what we do. I mean, it’s a battle. It is a challenge. But, you know, we brought along so many of them that they, you know, changed. Nobody, not many people like change. But once you show them once or twice, yeah, you know, and I like, that’s all there is to it. That’s all there is to it. I think to

Jared Flinn  26:53

me, we underestimate how somebody might say they’re not tech savvy, but like, you’re a lot more tech savvy than like, we, we underestimate how tech savvy, some of the older population is. And I say, Oh,

Jeremy Kellett  27:08

my God, these guys, they know how to do all I tell her on social media. They’re all over the place. I got a great example yesterday. So I was standing here to show and a couple guys, older guys came up, you know, I’d say 70s and was talking about the podcast I like, I don’t know what that is. So well. What kind of phone did you get? Well, one of them. You know, they both got iPhones or, you know, smartphones. And so we got this little button right here that says podcast, he pulls out says yeah, so we touch that. And then he searched for the Oakley podcast. And you know, I said, then you can listen to it. He said, Oh, I’ve got Bluetooth hearing aids. I said, Okay, you’re not, you know, because that’s the first thing. He says, Oh, we don’t know that technology. And I’m like, you don’t know you got Bluetooth here. And I wasn’t sure you know what’s going on? So it was funny anyway, to do that. So you’re right, that they’re a little smarter than we give them credit for a lot of times because we see it happen in the office all the time. There’s they’re sharp and we are Yeah, you know, definitely on these phones and stuff. I mean, because they live but you just there’s not near as many now that don’t want to embrace that. It seems like there’s a whole lot more that want to embrace the technology and doing things better so

Jared Flinn  28:28

you guys know that they’re gonna have to jump on board?

Jeremy Kellett  28:31

Oh yeah, you’re obsolete lease on with Oakley trucking America’s drabble call our owner operators are the top paid in the country and we will prove it to you. We offer steady year round freight as well as a yearly annual bonus and increase each year your lease to us. Oakley has multiple divisions in dumps Hopper bottoms and pneumatics so we are sure to have something that works for your schedule, and hometown. Check us out on YouTube as well as our weekly podcast or give us a call today and see why Oakley trucking was everything you had been looking for.

Jared Flinn  29:04

Your DOMA podcast, I just want to kind of selfishly give a plug we have oh yeah, we have our own podcast, the bulk loads podcast, really enjoy our would be really encouraged to check that out. Again, really similar to the Oakley podcast, we do everything in bulk freight trucking. So we bring on a lot of different guests. Whether it’s other technologies out there, we have insurance experts, legal experts, so we really try to encompass anything that may be of interest or challenge to that driver down the road. But you can go to any podcast medium that you’re in, listen to Spotify, Apple, Google, just search the bulk loads of podcasts downloaded by the band. We’d love for you to listen to that good stuff.

Jeremy Kellett  29:44

We’ve been doing it for years, too.

Jared Flinn  29:45

Yeah, we’re in year six also. So yeah. And we you know, when we first started, I had a guy that was coaching us and he told us he said the one thing you have to be consistent. You have to push one out every week and he goes. It’s going to be better painful times to do that, because, um, you know, this year like, it’s sometimes like, you know, we, we kind of get together and brainstorm ideas. And sometimes it organically comes and you find people but like, like, sometimes you’re like, Hey, what’s going to be because again, we don’t. You don’t want to push something out just to push something out. You’re thinking like, if, hey, if I’m gonna listen to this, what would I enjoy listening to? So that’s what we really are not. But yeah,

Jeremy Kellett  30:21

it does take a little bit of not to get off on the podcast, but it takes a little bit of thinking, what does what would be interesting to your listeners? Yeah, you know, and I walk around the show thinking it would be interesting to them, and I could talk to somebody here about that would be good instead of just trying to push something out. That’s neat. I gotta have one out this week. I don’t have one done yet. It’s Friday. It’s coming out Wednesday. And you know, and you try to hurry up and do it. And that’s what I don’t want to do. So

Jared Flinn  30:48

well. Yeah. We had several guys stop by yesterday. And they said, Man, we listen to your podcast religiously every week, and they’re not even bulk close members. Like they’re not even the bulk industry. And I was like, Man, that is really cool. Like you’re making an impact that way. So

Jeremy Kellett  31:04

Yeah, that’s good. It’s a great podcast, you do a great job on that. I always have. I’ve listened to several of them. And it’s, it’s good stuff. Appreciate that.

Jared Flinn  31:11

We’re thinking we’re gonna go, you know, that we can listen to on YouTube as well. We haven’t made a video yet. But like, it just seemed like the next step. So you have a YouTube channel, we have a YouTube channel, bulk loads, you can go on there and we do all of our videos, and we post our podcasts on there, but we don’t do video recordings of the podcasts. Are you doing

Jeremy Kellett  31:30

that? Jeremy? Yeah, okay. Yeah, you’re gonna be on YouTube.

Jared Flinn  31:32

Okay, there we go. Yeah, we like the first

Jeremy Kellett  31:37

game. The first time you were on Oakley podcast, it was no video. I think we just yeah, he was early. Yes, yeah, with no video on it. So we’ve come around a little bit. Well, I’ve

Jared Flinn  31:47

heard like people, I myself too, you’re gonna retain so much more watching and listening at the same time. So it’s, it’s that much more powerful, you know, for the listener, but also for the podcaster as well, the content that you’re putting out?

Jeremy Kellett  32:01

Yep. Appreciate you being with me, Jared. Yeah, good information. Man, I always enjoy visiting with you and saying you kind of on the same page, when it comes to this bulk business, I really enjoy it. You know, if anybody has any questions, I’ll tell them to send them to me or they’ll go to your website, bulk lowes.com and probably got a place there, they can come in or talk to somebody I’ll say

Jared Flinn  32:22

this to like, so we were a subscription base, but anybody can go on there and sign up for free. And we do give a lot of content out for free. So even if you’re just thinking about the industry, wanting to learn what we do, go on there and sign up. We’re not going to pressure you into paying us or anything like that. We want to just show you kind of what we’re about. We’ve had a lot of guys that they’ve signed up with that didn’t have a truck yet, but then they kind of coached them and learned and then they eventually got set up and started pulling freight off there. But yeah, go to bulk lowes.com. Again, search our podcast too. You can find the podcast on our website as well.

Jeremy Kellett  32:53

Good deal, man. Good video. Yeah,

Jared Flinn  32:54

thank you very much love what you guys are doing a little bit y’all to see God bless.

Jeremy Kellett  32:59

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.