This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett chats with Joe Janoush, President of JANTRAN. During the episode, Joe and Jeremy discuss the company’s history, financial struggles, and eventual growth. They delve into the niche towboat industry and Joe’s journey from humble beginnings to building a successful fleet. The episode also covers the company’s partnership with Oakley, the importance of teamwork, the challenges in personnel recruitment including highlighting the dedication of long-term employees, the need to attract younger workers to the industry, and more.
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- The history of JANTRAN (2:10)
- Early career and experiences (3:23)
- Getting JANTRAN off the ground (5:35)
- Challenges and growth (10:23)
- Technical expertise and future growth (20:15)
- The niche industry of tow boats (22:14)
- Expanding the fleet (25:04)
- Selling the business (30:20)
- Transition to Oakley (31:24)
- Future plans and challenges (36:26)
- People are the pride of any good company (41:31)
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
Joe Janoush 00:12
I guess I’m most proud of them and they’re, you know, the bikes are trying to just really want to put us out videos and just foot us into bankruptcy. Would you sit there and beg him like, give us some time and we’ll pay you back but we just you know, let us work it out. And we just had to beg them to do that. We finally did it. We paid him back every damn dime and then became debt free for seven years and stayed debt free and then finally woke up to the point like, we’re gonna grow we got some new stuff.
Jeremy Kellett 00:45
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 inside to outside truck drivers that might be interested in joining the Oakley family. Hi, this is Jeremy Kellett, director recruiting at Oakley trucking. I’m your host for this podcast. This is the Oakley podcast about trucking, business and family. Welcome to 2024. As we start out this new year, I appreciate everybody letting us take a month off in December and running some repairs. It gave us a great opportunity to go get some good content. Starting out this new year, we’ve got everything from OIDA to mental health experts to knowing how to build a tow boat in depth about that to the guys at Oklahoma. We’re talking to Port 33 just got a lot of good, good content coming in. He started out this first of the year. And I appreciate of course, you know our subscribers our listeners we’re getting you know, we’re like over 24,000 subscribers on YouTube. So I appreciate everybody listening to that and commenting and subscribing and this episode starting us out this year. I tell you it was a great honor to go down to Rosedale Mississippi. What we did is we went down there and talked to all the people. JANTRAN. And what a story this is. It’s you know, we got to sit down with the founder of Jn Tran and him tell his story of how it got started from building tow boats to running a successful tow boat company now and 45 years of business and just what a great story that is that we talked to several people there that you’re gonna get to hear later on. But this first one is episode with Joe Janus, the founder of Jay and Tran and I hope you enjoy
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Jeremy Kellett 03:23
So, Mr. Joe, I started many well for hard money when I was 23 years old. And that was 29 years ago. I have been 29 years. Wow. It was crazy. I thought I really did something you know he paid me $23,000 And as the first salary job I’d ever had. And I thought I’ll come out there. I’m so happy for you doing this batch. Okay, so happy. You know, man, look at the he is crazy. Get me a salary job. I’ve never known anything but Ireland. Will Little did I know how many hours I had to buddy and so it was always been in that Benny is 74 I think are you
Joe Janoush 04:17
said to be next month?
Jeremy Kellett 04:18
I’ll be 73. He’s right around the same age. Did you know that you met him? Yeah, I
Joe Janoush 04:25
talked to him on phone revolver times and only met him face to face. Well, twice. I thought I wanted to offer this one time. Maybe just a wedding or some shit like it now. Okay. Did you know Bruce? Pretty rare. Not really well, I’d called on him a couple times trying to sell him a tow boat and he said you know that I never got to highway to first base even you know, yeah, there were some other young guys working in that barge deal there and I’m trying to remember his name. If that was going on, that I knew of, but I can’t take his name I’ve been bumped into. Got me to drop some plans and I came in and presented them to Bruce. Oh, really? Yeah. He wasn’t really excited about it at the time at all whatsoever. He made time for a mad harbor boat, right? Probably just because they had that. Maybe they did, because he knew what he was doing. I came out. Yeah, that was a long time ago.
Jeremy Kellett 05:41
So you were trying to use that? When was that probably back in. Well, when did you start this company?
Joe Janoush 05:50
My mind is one blind 70 Semi semi. So yeah. I graduated from college and saved me three Mississippi State did you and Marine Engineering and I have Arctic. What
Jeremy Kellett 06:08
made you get into that?
Joe Janoush 06:09
It’s been interesting. We grew up here playing around on a river haul lives, you know how to cabin a river appear. And so we’d go play on the river and fish and water ski. And we used to watch ski on river all time, everything and they drove me duck hunted out there too. And when it got over, it ended up at Morehead I went over to play football, but I ended up quitting. And so I just stayed there and saw a stay there for my first year of college. And they were recruiting for angle shipyard on the coast by native engineers, not a pre engineering program. And capsules got interested in you know, our luck to the river and the boats, and then transferred it back over here. They’ll study sophomore year, and I got what I earned and then moved into getting my degree over there at Mississippi State. And what Grandville, what outfit called Mississippi Marine who’s still there. The two guys that I work for are no longer there.
Jeremy Kellett 07:22
So that you went to school to engineer to build
Joe Janoush 07:25
Yeah. And they wanted out, you know, they offer jobs like Newport News, big shipyards, there are angles of down on the coast and or Avondale. Anybody would hire to own what that does. And I was in that program. And I tell my boss, I ain’t going up because we all went to interview, but just so she was like, you know, she would let off and let let let go 10,000 People I said, Man, I ain’t getting into this, you know, I’d be the first shift second shift the 8000 people in third should be five out, you know, like, now I don’t want to go there. I want to go back and go back to work and towboat land in Greenville. And I’d already been working there. My summer job is just to learn how to weld and do layout work. They offered me jobs and I’ll be back soon as a graduate. That’s where I went. But as soon as I graduated the next day I was at Michigan marine working and moved to Griebel, stayed down there and got a lot of good experience there.
Jeremy Kellett 08:38
How long were you there,
Joe Janoush 08:40
I was there until from 73 to 1978 came up here five and a half years and what was going on in this place was the solo walk low got log loader landed here and it was little this little lake here would just about drop in some time and go with duck on all three I started building digging it out Bill Bill in the pole here and I saw all that going on. And my older brother was in partnership over here in Cleveland with a real estate guy who had fairly deep pockets and I got to talk to him all Roloson that you know daydream and realize it won’t be nice come up and get in the ground fall and start a little boat building operation there. And one thing led to another. He mentioned that his partner and a couple others next thing to know that we got to. I got a group together and put an investment group together and we came up here and there’s a picture out and haul of it somewhere into the little shack it was down downhill down there. And we started building the first towboat there on special. Like it was a million dollar project and like it was a oh five Gosh logo varied from their strength to their financial statements were able to finance a deal we started building it first boat and I bet you were a little nervous well not really because I was young enough and I was insured I just go working hard enough that you really didn’t have changed to get too nervous there. Now later in 2185 We almost went broke. I got nervous last night me and Paul would stay locked up in his office and paste the floor and like shoot and just gonna make it another day like another day and you know and that’s kind of that went on for a while I think we did. We finally worked her way out of having one biker tow was it man you might get he’s gonna be dumb. You gotta be tough now just hang in there. You know, we’re nice. He could just be tough hanging in and you know, we just came within that close. That was the best experience we ever got in here. Got a group together. We’re bailing that first boat now, God Vicksburg I’ve been meaning to boat Bentley in and out. No, the guy that I met down there was his partner. They came up there and said he heard us build a boat. So very warmly at him and he looked around for a while and said we might need a couple and I sketched a little design for a boat to run on Yazoo River. And they wanted it pretty much just bare bones, you know. So before I finished the first one, I had got a signed contract to build two more for them. And that’s what really greased the wheels a little bit because we had money down progressive payments on those two boats. Okay, who was getting the first boat? Oh, nobody. There was just the Air Force. We were trying to sell it. We’d run ads and waterways journals. And had people call in, you know so much that I’m coming to see it and then he wouldn’t show up and whatever. But I ended up selling it or sold his other tool boat for them to the Yangtze River. And then prior to finishing them, I did get those other ones further along. I set it to an outfit out of Houston called coastal tow and I had built a boat, all them when I was working at missing brain and building boat farm and I established that relationship. My father talked to him in the Lambda bonnet boat. So we sold it and had a contract for another two, and then we got a contract. At
Jeremy Kellett 12:51
that point. You’re just hoping now you got some people interested?
Joe Janoush 12:54
Oh, we were going in . We had well over 100 guys working here building bugs there. By that time, I think you know, last week. It was pretty wild open grazing. And we built a boat for anger One Belt One for Old Man River at Vicksburg Ingram materials out of Nashville. And then shortly after we ran out of there we got a contract with Dixie carriers. And Bill three got a contract with three boats to build from them. And that carried us into buying 8182 ish somewhere like that. And like all we just bought halfway through the third boat. So what will it cost us to cancel that contract? So I gave him a number as well. If we get too deep into it, you know, we’ll just finish it up and tie that down. So we did Ashwin that by the time the common run off and Jimmy Carter grain embargo on Russia. You over there. Oh good time. I don’t know if that would be 79 7980. And it collapsed the tow industry. And of course it was all crunch about it, too. You couldn’t give away a tow boat or a barge for a couple of years there. I mean, that was by Edie.
Jeremy Kellett 14:19
And they were at the same time you talking about you and Paul was pacing the floor one Yeah. I took us into about you know,
Joe Janoush 14:27
maybe 80 fives when you know about that timeframe for three or four years. It was very tough, you know, just trying to keep the doors open. We built the first boat for ourselves and 81 and Mr. Tom is still on to Iran and we built a drop first drought off to go with that and built this building. And we’re just a fab shop attached to it and this idea that we had visions of grandeur of, you know, building barges of boats all coming out of this building. And unlike at lower Bill Intune, whatever budget time, everything he just stopped you. And we had, we were operating boats, but maybe five or six on one or two on Arkansas and a couple of them on the white dragon make a go of what it is the new construction just stopped. We had scrambled to become COBOL cron operators. And I really didn’t have anybody with that background. I didn’t have it when her brother John didn’t have without her already hired him to be dispatcher, you know, they were down there and dispatching boats of river talking to customers and putting, you know, looking at bars and putting on and just like the boards do downstairs right now. Neither of the three, uh, we didn’t, you know, kind of knew how to make, build and maintain boats. And they said, you know, and we’d learned a little bit about the operation of the fleet number here, never buddy, it was a learning experience. And you look back on it probably been better off to go out find me a real towboat operator like Jir you come in here now and help guide us into getting all that started.
Jeremy Kellett 16:29
That’s pretty interesting.
Joe Janoush 16:31
But we made it through it. That Goodness, no, no, they I guess I’m most proud of and they’re, you know, the bikes are trying to just they weren’t they really wanted to put us out versus and just put us into bankruptcy. And we’ll just sit there and beg them why give us some time and we’ll pay you back but we just you know, let us work it out. And we did have to beg them to do that. We finally paid him back every day I’m dying. But that was a good day. Yeah. It was and then became just debt free for several years. And we go by use towboat here there and yawn and and stay debt free and then finally woke up to the point like we’re gonna grow we got to build some new stuff you know, Paul and I talked about it and kicked it around and that’s when we decided to build the Miss Alex at first full 1000 horsepower boat. And then he asked where I sketched it up right Andrew? The last day I wrote it right down and seriously, I did most of it on the weekend. I had a girl down here to help me download a bunch of Apple tunes. I listened to everything from Rock and Roll to classical music or whatever to keep me motivated, keep going there and drinking coffee and and got it designed and and we built it down in the lower shear. So we got it built and they were trying to decide what to do from there. And then Nichols in Greenville, who had worked with Joe Nichols down there. And his older brother at Michigan ran when I was there in gray and so I called Joe and he was in between contracts and we called him just right and he built what nine mobile eight or nine animal boats for us and we let him well. They will set up far better. We had a you know where we had made a drydock crew with fire and our own stuff. Grant we used to do a lot of work outside trying to survive repairing barges, repairing other people both mainly barge work big damage barges we do a lot of steel work stuff like that but every competitive bid on it and when we’re trying to meet anything stay alive so we had one time we had a pretty decent sad drawn out crew and we finally worked our way through all that meeting we just we don’t solicit outside work now we just do or you know gotta go we got a big enough fleet of boats with all we do maintain a rat and we still have to serve a lot of it out to bring like you got both just got I just got off DOT yesterday had been down a dream could right now we’re going to water get knocked down in the water you know and we did a lot of work down there but what I get a project on here and have the doc plugged in with the farm you know I have an emergency gotta go around and change propellers to do something like that work but
Jeremy Kellett 19:40
what we are building now if you’ve been down in Uganda where we are building a boat Yeah, we drove around it all day. We’re not here. We’re going to spend a little time with him and show us that he’s done. He’s done a great job. He
Joe Janoush 19:53
has been ready to surprise me with his technical expertise. He grew up here working in the field. Leaton his dad is a fleet pilot so he knew tow boats and and he went to Dell state for a little while but I think he ended up coming back and graduating from now he went to Mississippi State and he graduated l state but he got a good head on he got He can do all the computer drafting and all that other stuff, which you see that I never learned. I just didn’t push a pencil, you know?
Jeremy Kellett 20:25
But you have to, I’m assuming you told him a lot of stuff. Oh,
Joe Janoush 20:29
yeah, yeah. And a buddy picked it up real fast. He’s always surprised me where he made it. You got it on paper and he can put it on the computer and he has used technology to tell me you know, and he doesn’t really need much guidance from me at all. He got a little bit from the beginning. And I think it always surprises me that I quickly pick stuff up. himself so that’s been a great help right there.
Jeremy Kellett 20:58
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Joe Janoush 22:17
really don’t you know that goes back as far back from the beginning when we started here general community crowd outside it live had no idea what was going on back here probably a big percentage of right now does not I haven’t yet so you don’t realize what we do and what happens here in this ad and that core support has grown a whole bunch when I came here and opened up down in it and I lived in a little shack it was down heel down air for two to three months while I was bringing in equipment and getting people started and I live there and we didn’t even have a gravel road coming in here it so the port wasn’t here Yeah, they were digging digging it out pumping it out and and several afternoons down in it will bill and down there and get the work and for the day and I’d fix me a drink and walk up on here when they were pumping this site full of saying I was you know watching them pump the site and they were digging out digging the channel out and pumping it up big all this stuff was pumped up in here and what was here to time they so they steal it up ran was kind of the anchor industry that you brought in and that was the first time and then the second time maybe it was a grain elevator Sanders came in here and then the port dog next
Jeremy Kellett 23:49
and I bet that I would think thinking back that excited you because now you’re your old brains probably thinking opportunity and you’re in the right place I mean that that’s what sticking out to me is you made a decision to get a place down here
Joe Janoush 24:04
Yeah, well you know locations and yeah, and the low and it worked out good. It worked out better than I ever thought I had. Oh god it was poor direct to hear David work who did hell job here too. He asked me said the air thank you to be a big fleet and aspect here. All the time. It was all up at the mouth of the White River and everything it was a big call wider fleet everything going and I was fleeted there and the boardwalk of Arkansas River on the White River and ran and honestly I told him I said well you know all that stuff going on up there it’s gone. You know I don’t know how quick it whatever happened down here. You might it might be a slow process is this idea. Well, next slide. I know we had to hit competition with them. You know. His vision was a little bit better my mind caught my eye. We finally got around to Little we got built at first harbor boat and built a drought off next I get led to fleeting barges here goes to grind they will own grain here and one thing and other you know and so they just couldn’t fleet continue to grow and then and then we started moving barges out here to the wide river first and then after that to the Arkansas River and we finally just put those other guys out of business and golf’s you know they’d have high water and low water problems and this idea then here we’re you know the infrastructure better here you know isn’t developed pole and so we were able to take control of it you know what niZi took over time get all that going and we had a lot of competition on our control their time we’d have oh, I’d be operation I’d wall wipe some of those guys would come down and try start a fleet up there and then we had some guys out of New Orleans and coonass country come up and run up to three boats that have been tried to run them up there and then they say the other end probably has been a good half a dozen Cirrus runs at us to try to take over what we’ve been doing and there’s couple outside boats moving up there right now. But you know I guess it’s gotten to the point that the volume was there and you know, we generally we got 10 boats up there and we generally keep those 10 Plus up there a few more sometimes gets busier and and with having this location here to fleet is just about got to come into here and go or come in here you know just as you can see like a truck and terminal Yes, you know, just get there. Sometime sometimes people are up there now they just come straight through come out of New Orleans going all the way through it and take it take it up the Arkansas the bypass any interchange but they can only move you know, eight barges or time or 10 bars at a time like, you know, so it really
Jeremy Kellett 27:24
do you ever think it would it would get this size that you’re in and I
Joe Janoush 27:30
guess it really did and I remember one I remember thinking about me and Paul looking at it man if we can do we can do you know, several 100,000 player so 100,000 a month and Tawana fleeting won’t be in haka you know but you know as a drop in the bucket to what we do right now Yes. Now I didn’t really thank you forget to
Jeremy Kellett 28:00
what’s what’s one of the things you would say that’s why I got to this point when I got to this point, what would you do
Joe Janoush 28:10
you know, it took more than me Hobbs. I gotta give Paul a tremendous amount of credit from the financial standpoint. And brother John has passed away he was even down in dispatch and he was really our frontline salesman you know face and boss of JANTRAN for the whole time he’s here you know, talking talking to the bars on me and him we started doing is me and him we go to St. Louis and stay up there for a week and make the rounds and go see Molly’s barge lines and tell them what we’re getting right start down and you know what we got to do to get some new business and this idea there and that was interesting for a while and I got to be work at you know, we go up there’s a lot of work and a lot of play involved too and that was a lot of fun. But But guess what, me and John go can make those rounds in their body and go out to eat and drink whiskey and go to the ball games, the hockey games and whatever you know, whatever it took, you know, wine and dine Yeah, but if they just go and play in their softball tournaments and they always respond what back in those days to a certain degree. But
Jeremy Kellett 29:39
you don’t have to do much of that anymore. I don’t guess because now
Joe Janoush 29:42
we don’t and we probably should do more of it. But I you know and definitely I don’t mean fall down though Hunter has. We’ve had him on the road a couple of times and down Barksdale river different ports, and he and Barry both have been Up to someone’s functions on the site in St. Louis, and it’s from time to time. You know, they probably like to get out more, but so we don’t have to have to as much.
Jeremy Kellett 30:13
Back in 2011. You got to decide to go on sale?
Joe Janoush 30:20
Yeah, we’ve been thinking about it for, you know, we’d had offers had people sniffing around. And is there any other? And I mean, at that point,
Jeremy Kellett 30:31
I guess you’d been in business for? Since 78. Yeah. 2011. So 30? Yes. You know, yeah.
Joe Janoush 30:40
I think we’ve been here four to five years. I don’t know how to do the math again, I guess. Yeah, lazily said that, like 40. But you’re just so brave. In a way that started I guess it really came to a head is that talking to a buddy of mine, who had just sold his business. And he had stumbled on to Venture Capital Group, an investment banker group that could help you put today’s togetherness the other week, got to talk to them and said, Hey, let’s try, let’s see what kind of interest rate we get. And like, you’re just gonna retire. Now at, you know, with oil, we were told that from the beginning, which takes three years, and that’s turned in what 11 or 12 miles? And the answer to that is that oppa is such good people and so easy to work with that wanna, you know, once I got involved with monitors as well as I’ll actually I’ll stay until it takes my couch away from me over there. I’ve told Dennis that he called him one time and I’m laying over on the couch and it hooked us up with its new intercom system over here and it would just kind of come home like God was in the room. And it wouldn’t didn’t bow or some it’s kind of funny. And then I leaned over to kind of halfway nose and he said, hello. Come through that phone. Hello. You know? Who is it? Is this Dennis? I said, Wait. Let me get up and hold a couch. You know, he’s, he’s Oh, at least you’re honest. I’m struggling god, oh, vigor. I’m gonna talk to you. No. But now, the key ingredient to this is that Oakley has been good. If we had sold anybody else, this place would have been downsized. To have what it is. Yeah. And people like me and Paul and a few more John would have been gone real Robin real quick, maybe because it is, you know, this would probably just a couple of little satellite fleet operations as opposed to you know, still doing repairs doing a new construction and we’ve been able to grow the business locally so support and investment in everything and you boats and hold it alone.
Jeremy Kellett 33:25
I’m still going yeah,
Joe Janoush 33:27
I’m still going, you know, is it? No, I hope they’re in and but now I think real quick I decided that while we’re talking about you know, giant, you know, armored cars now Yankee Stadium you gotta cover my eyes so hey, we’ll get more red tape from the financial side at the time. I’ll ask him to bullshit with Dennis once a week. Tell him what’s going on and what and how we’re doing in this ideal good now it’s Oakley has been just like, like just a factory made for the parent company that we needed. And it bro John was worn out a little bit more because he had spent more. He had a good wake up, wake up calls at night from all the rowboats and all the crazy shit and stuff like that. He’s ready to take a little more time off. But unfortunately then the cancer got him but you still come in every day? Yeah. am I buying out duck hunting or if I’m I got a farm in Nebraska. I’m overdue to go play eyeball. Duck on and Goosen. Really Yeah, it’s up on North Platte River right outside of scotch. Love Nashville knows, you know, and it’s been fun man bought me an airplane. So we, I was driving up there to buy in for a while and now got to King Air. So we run back and forth and
Jeremy Kellett 35:16
so that makes life a little. Yeah,
Joe Janoush 35:19
we’ve been a bit twice this year already. I’m overdue right now but I’m just gonna schedule. It has kind of messed up a little bit. Let my pilot chart out for two or three years, get back from the Bahamas and, and, and then my wife’s getting ready to leave to go to New York. So I got babysitters and dogs until she gets back next week. And so then maybe I can make my head back out to Nebraska. Now, one thing I get up here, here every day, if I’m in town, I come in here. And I’ll you know, this is more like home to me than home, he is quite honest, I’m more comfortable here than I am at home. Because I’ve been told that I’m not needed around there on a full time basis. So now , after 45 years, this is home. You know, I guess there’s a into at some point. I kind of say now my goal is 75 As long as I’m feeling good, working, feeling good and whatever. And so
Jeremy Kellett 36:26
I made another couple of years so they don’t seem black. I mean, you’ve made it, you’ve made it through the hard stuff. Yeah, you know, and now it probably feels good to come sit here and enjoy some of it. Yeah. You know,
Joe Janoush 36:40
not to say that it’s still not challenging, we still run into your challenges. And I think you probably see it from the trucking side. The challenges are personnel. You know, everybody around here is getting older. You know, the next you know, Jeff is fighting every day trying to keep people on towboats. You know, that just that lifestyle, it’s just hard to keep people out there these younger generations out. I found it harder to keep people in his office than needed but I guess I worked it out. That’s the same as anybody you know, I saw you hear nowadays it just is hard to find people that want to work, you know? Yeah, that’s part of the main talking to lazily. JF here. I mean, that was what they were a little more excited about getting something together to help recruit some younger people into this business and that’s what me and Annabelle trying well you help them with and when you made a comment at a national How y’all use it over there on a truck? And I said, you know, so I’ve just been kind of ignorant so you know, see how you’ve been doing it. So it’s, you know, it makes you know, Mike slant, so you gotta have you know, we got you gotta have tabs, I guess. Yeah. Great store, what’s going on? Yeah. Yeah, and, you know, conditions are better than they ever have been out there. And just doing the work around here is better, whatever, then.
Jeremy Kellett 38:23
Well, I’ll tell you that we were, you know, we really, me and Jeff and lazy kinda in the same situation. Like I’m in trucking, trying to find truck drivers and stuff. But the best thing, we got the product, we got the company. It’s mean, it’s not like we’re trying to sell somebody a bad laugh. You know, we’re selling a good thing. You know, I’m selling a part of this trucking company, because I know you can succeed. Your selling company bought a jam train, because, you know, they can succeed if it’s here. Yeah. It’d be bad if it was. It wouldn’t be terrible if it was. Yeah, yeah. If it
Joe Janoush 39:08
was a bad code all know what we’re trying to get you to do. We know we’ve done it, we watched it happen. And you know, nothing to replace it. You know, it’s gonna be here for x amount of time. I don’t know what. You know, but
Jeremy Kellett 39:28
I’ll tell you, it’s impressive. And we’ve talked about the other impressive people you have here and how long they’ve been here. Your employees. Well,
Joe Janoush 39:37
That’s what I was alluding to here a while ago and didn’t really work my way down the ladder far enough. I mentioned about two brothers but yeah, you know, we’ve we’ve pretty much raised Leslie she came here straight out of college just like when I want that, you know, and you know, we all kind of envision her being running this whole show on his belly as you know she pretty much knows that checkered I asked her what’s going on here there and some of these details but now we are we’ve been lucky. And that’s what I was alluding to earlier. We’re getting ready to lose. lose a few you know, Jerry being one very being another probably. Oh boy was a drydock that retired last year. He’s the same age as me. That was where Hayden is coming in, of course, Bill. Gower. Have you met him as a Support Engineer? Tremendous guy is hard working and his brother works. As one of the assistant board engineers, you’d call them to do all the boat maintenance and mechanics. You know, I think Bill’s retiring in about a year.
Jeremy Kellett 41:03
Gotta have people to replace. Yeah.
Joe Janoush 41:07
I said you’re gonna have to stay on call the consulting. So Natalie. Thank you for buying him a camper and moving around a little bit actually to country mode when that’s understandable. Yeah. Hey, you got a good group? Yeah. And that’s what it takes it you know, you gotta you know, just from every, every angle of it. But
Jeremy Kellett 41:31
you got a great story here. The great company, you got to be proud of me really just Just what little I’ve known about Jan train and course port Oakley, but mainly this. You guys are impressive. very biased.
Joe Janoush 41:45
You do and you do a good job. What’s your delay, I
Jeremy Kellett 41:49
I appreciate that. And you sit down with me and go over some of this. You know, it’s something that, you know, it’s, you know, it’s something we can use you can use, you know, for just helping people in no one history but to train so I mean, I appreciate, ya know, appreciate you doing, we gotta you hear anything else you want to know.
Joe Janoush 42:13
Thank you. I’ve rambled enough.
Jeremy Kellett 42:16
for listening to the Oakley podcast. I really appreciate it. And I really appreciate everybody. Down at JANTRAN. Thank y’all for taking time to let us in your building. Let us up in your business and record some stuff and the story of Jane Tran. The hospitality he gave us down there was second to none and we really appreciate you letting us do that. So once again, thanks, everybody for listening to the Oakley podcast. We’ll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Oakley podcast: trucking, business, and family. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate or review the show on 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, theoakleypodcast.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.