This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett welcomes Hal Dowland, Division Sales Director at PrePass. During the episode, Hal discusses the advantages of PrePass for truckers, focusing on toll management and safety compliance. He also explains how PrePass transponders offer way station bypasses and better toll rates, PrePass’s customer service, its role in driver recruitment and retention, the nonprofit PrePass Safety Alliance, and how PrePass supports the drivers and the trucking industry. Don’t drive on by this episode but stop in and take a listen.
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- Hal’s background in transportation and work at PrePass (3:02)
- History and purpose of PrePass (5:28)
- How PrePass Works (6:05)
- The impact of PrePass on highway safety and traffic flow (7:30)
- State scoring system and bypass rates for carriers (9:23)
- PrePass reaching 1 billion successful bypasses (12:07)
- Geofencing technology in mobile bypass sites (14:33)
- Integrations with mobile apps (16:00)
- Simplicity and cost-effectiveness of PrePass (18:31)
- Advancements in toll technology (21:31)
- PrePass Safety Alliance (22:39)
- The PrePass Customer Base (25:40)
- Supporting drivers and the trucking industry (28:02)
- Catching up with PrePass at MATS (29:05)
- Final thoughts and takeaways (31:12)
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
Hal Dowland 00:12
We are continuing to grow. We’ve got over 800,000 commercial vehicles running a combination of our services be it totals only scales only or scales and totals. We are going to continue to improve our service, both from a billing standpoint and from a total validation standpoint. This is the year of the customer for PrePass. We are really going to focus on our customers and make sure we are doing things that they see beneficial that they see a return on their investment with PrePass.
Jeremy Kellett 00:41
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. There’s Jeremy kellett director recruiting here at Oakley trucking. I’m your host for this podcast. This is the Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. Once again, I appreciate everybody tuning in to the Oakley podcast every week, we try to put out some good content every Wednesday, bring in people that will help make a difference in you being successful in your business. And you know, we try real hard to do that every week, it’s not easy to find good content that we feel like is really good content for you. But we try to do it. I appreciate everybody subscribing, watching us on YouTube. You know, listen to us when you’re driving down the road giving us feedback. You know, we’ve got a great social media platform that’s going on and we get a lot of good feedback from it that it is good and it’s doing good. And we need that from you guys. We need you to know, if you want to share it with a friend, let them know, send them a link, give us a thumbs up comment on us. We love to read the comments. And we try to reply to everybody that sends us one for sure. So we enjoy it though. One thing we got going this week. I want to remind everybody about the Mid America Truck Show. Let’s march the 21st through the 23rd. We’re gonna have a great presence there. We’re going to actually be what we’ve done for the last several years. We set up the studio there in the booth we have like a 20 by 20 or 20 by 40 booth and we actually set it up and do some recording. We recorded some episodes there so we’d love for you to stop by there. You never know, put yourself there. You know Yes, sit down with me. We’ll visit March 21 to the 23rd Mid America truck show in Louisville, Kentucky. If you’ve never been there, bring your walking shoes. Because it’s a lot of walking but man is it worth it you get to see a lot of stuff there. That’s not only you know what to do with trucking but just about everything. So come check us out. Mid America Truck Show this week episode I have Howie Dolan with pre pass is sitting down with me and we’re going to discuss what’s going on with pre pass you know, the benefits of of pre pass to an owner operator and how that helps him and just some of the technology that they’ve got going on. We actually interviewed Don Reeves I believe was his name. year to go with PrePass and kind of gave us a you know, the lowdown on what was going on with it. I think it was episode 137. You go back and check it out to get some information. But this is new and updated stuff and we always like to touch base with with PrePass once in a while to see what’s going on with them and the benefits they have and how they’ll win we’ve known I’ve known that name for a long time and the pre pass world and he’s here with us to discuss it or use semi
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Jeremy Kellett 04:40
How ‘s it going, man? What are you doing? Okay. Hey, Jeremy.
Hal Dowland 04:43
Thank you. Appreciate the opportunity to talk to you drivers. Yeah, and I appreciate what they do for you guys and what they do for our economy. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 04:51
we’ll appreciate it to give us a little background on yourself.
Hal Dowland 04:55
Okay, my name is Hal Dolan. I’m a regional sales Director slash account manager for PrePass. I’ve been associated with PrePass for 24 years. In fact, I’m starting my 25th year. I live in Knoxville, Tennessee. I have three children, they’re all grown and I traveled the southeast calling on carriers like Oakley trucking and trying to sell our services to our fleets that qualify for our time saving technology.
Jeremy Kellett 05:24
You know, pre placer has been around for a while, and now
Hal Dowland 05:28
it has. I started, like I said in 2000. And I think it started around 1996 out in California as a result of the waystations just being so clogged up that the government chartered Lockheed Martin to find a way to get the good carriers out of the waystation and bring those carriers that need to go through. Just continue to go through. So yeah, it’s been around for a while. What
Jeremy Kellett 05:53
exactly, so from the outside looking in, you know, most of our listeners are truck drivers who are associated with truck driving. They understand what PrePass is, but kind of in layman’s terms tell us what PrePass does.
Hal Dowland 06:05
And when we first introduced pre-pass back in 1997-1996, it was a waystation bypassing service electronics. And today, we are the largest provider of that E clearance technology to the transportation industry. And basically what PrePass is a transponder, be it either you can have scale bypassing, or you can have scales and tolls in one transponder, depending on what the driver or the fleet wants. And it is attached to the inside of the cab. And as a driver goes down an interstate over the Andes, he approaches a waystation a mile away is a gantry that is over the highway that’s got a sensor up on top of it is that truck passes underneath that boom, arch, whatever you want to call it, it picks up the signal that device is emitting, and beams it back to the waystation and electronically checks. What’s been checked manually. Over the years, you know, the safety ratings and all that stuff. And within a blink of an eye, it gives the driver either a red light or a green light. And a green light means he just keeps going on in the main line. And a red light means he pulls in, not for an inspection, but just to go through just to keep him honest. So it’s like I tell everybody just because you have it doesn’t make you bulletproof, you’re still going to get a random percentage pull in, based on your safety scores.
Jeremy Kellett 07:29
I guess it was, like you said, prior to pre-pass, the government was popping up the scale houses everywhere. And it was mandatory. If you had a truck, right, you had to pull in there. Just kept backing up.
Hal Dowland 07:47
They just filled up and it became a danger, a hazard. And that’s our core mission statement is to make our highways safer. So, you know, when a truck goes 60 miles an hour idling down to get off the interstate, you know, the motoring public is going 7075 miles an hour, that’s a threat. And then when they approach back into the interstate, they have to build up the highway speeds. And you know, not always a smooth merge, as you will know probably from your own experience, right. So if we can keep those trucks out on the highways going at highway speeds, it just makes the flow of traffic a lot easier. It saves fuel, it saves time and aggravation.
Jeremy Kellett 08:25
Is that something I guess hell that you have to deal with? Man? Do you deal with the federal government or each state to be able to set that up and, you know, get a green light or red light? Bypass? I mean, is that something you have to get permission from the government to do Yeah, we
Hal Dowland 08:46
Just we, for instance, we let’s just take the state of Arkansas, for instance, we just can’t march into the state of Arkansas and put our gear in the ground, we have to go through the state to get approval. And then the states adopted a scoring system of which a carrier can bypass and about 98% of the states that we are in had the same scoring system, Kentucky’s a little bit more stringent. And as you can imagine, California is the most stringent based on your assets score and your inspection selection score. So I looked at your Oakleys. Based on your D O T three to five now your asset scores are 33, which is outstanding. Oh, is it? Good? What? Yeah, what that means in drivers terms or in layman’s terms, or my terms is that 95% of the time a driver is going to get a green light at a pre-pass equipped waystation there’s a random 5% Pull in right. That’s done and that’s the best you can be in through the state’s eyes is they want to look at 5% of our customers on a random basis just to keep them honest.
Jeremy Kellett 09:47
So each each state has their own criteria to that they say and yeah,
Hal Dowland 09:54
and most of the states are the same with the exception of California and Kentucky. Okay, and they, you know, it’s the state’s prerogative on what they want to do. So back when I first joined Jeremy PrePass, it was either you are in pre pass, or you are out. Now with the scoring system the way it is, the closer you are to 100, the 100 is as bad as you can be, the more percentage you’re pulling is, it goes from five to 10% to 15% 20%. And then once you get to 99, or 100, you’ve got to pull in regardless.
Jeremy Kellett 10:30
Okay, which makes a difference, which company these truck drivers go with? Absolutely makes a big difference. That’s absolutely, you know, because
Hal Dowland 10:39
probably more than anything, especially an owner operator, they know what it costs for them to stop that truck, you know, whereas a company fleet driver, and he may or may not, but that owner operator is paying for that vehicle he’s driving. So if the wheels aren’t turning, he’s not making money.
Jeremy Kellett 10:57
Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, you get with a bad company. Well, all of a sudden, you’re getting pulled in every state. And you can’t continue to drive and it affects you. I guess it affects everything like, fix it logbook, fix your hours. Yeah, fuel mileage, probably stopping and going wear and tear, I’m assuming. And then just the chances of getting CSA violations on your record, the drivers record, because they can’t care and
Hal Dowland 11:29
not to mention the bantering that truck drivers probably give each other you know, if you’re running in a pack of four, and three of them get to bypass and one has to pull in. They’re gonna give that guy a lot of crap. Yeah. Why did you get stopped? We didn’t have Yeah, you know, so there’s I’m sure there’s a lot of that going on out there. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 11:47
I’m sure this too, will save you a parking place down here. Yeah, yeah.
Hal Dowland 11:51
I can tell you since 1997, when we first started measuring all this. Today, we have provided over 1 billion we that’s where the successful bypasses in the continental United States. So that is huge.
Jeremy Kellett 12:07
That is yeah, that is huge. And I’m sure the guys probably at the, at the scales, the D O T officers, they probably love you, don’t they?
Hal Dowland 12:19
Yeah, because they’re like everybody else. There’s they’re short staffed, and they don’t have time to, you know, deal with every carrier. So let’s get the good guys out of there. And the guys that need to be coming through, then we can focus on them. You know,
Jeremy Kellett 12:32
What states? Are you not in?
Hal Dowland 12:37
Oh, well, we’re 41.
Jeremy Kellett 12:39
So he got them all back.
Hal Dowland 12:41
Back. Got them all? I don’t know. I can’t tell you. Right. I can’t rattle off the nine states that we’re not in. But I can get that for you know,
Jeremy Kellett 12:49
I knew I was saying that. And I knew one of them was Georgia. Georgia, it seemed like we talked about that the other day.
Hal Dowland 12:59
Yeah. Yeah, that’s, you know, Georgia, a couple, three years ago decided they wanted to put their own system in. And it’s not going the way they thought it was. So we’re back in conversations with him to do some pilot work at different locations there. So we are eagerly hoping that we can reestablish ourselves in the state of Georgia.
Jeremy Kellett 13:19
Yeah. I don’t know why you wouldn’t want it. I mean, I couldn’t figure that out. But some states get their own deal. And that’s probably hard for you guys, too. I mean, you know, having to deal with each state in different ways and trying to crack the code and get in there. Yeah.
Hal Dowland 13:37
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, North Carolina tried to do the same thing. And they have said, you know, private equity, private organizations are better than state governments. That’s not what we do. I think they bit off more than they could chew. So we’re back in North Carolina is an example. So we’re hoping that same luck will follow us to the state of Georgia.
Jeremy Kellett 13:59
I know, technology is coming away. He and we were talking to Tommy, I believe it was not long ago on a conference call. And he was talking about what I didn’t quite understand, but the mobile app. So and because at some places, or in some states, you don’t actually have a transponder or a thing over the highway to read your transport brick and mortar. Yeah. There’s not a brick and waterside there. Explain that to us?
Hal Dowland 14:33
Well, okay. I’ll try to make it as simple as I can. A lot of states have gone to this technology called geo fencing where they will have let’s say, the state of Texas for instance. I’ve never been down there but I’ve heard that they’ve got these white spots in the road. Okay. And enforcement will set up at different white spots throughout the month throughout the year and And when they’re set up in those areas, then they’ll geofence it. And those trucks that have the mobile app will be picked up. And once they cross into that mobile, or into that geofence, it’ll give them a signal on their tablet or their phone, wherever they’ve got the mobile app downloaded to, to bypass or pull in the mobile app, it’s just given the drivers the best of both worlds. If they’ve got a transponder in their windshield, they get the brick and mortar sites, and then they get the mobile sites as well.
Jeremy Kellett 15:28
So on those mobile sites, where those guys set up at a white spot in the road, they’re gonna pull everybody in anyway, basically, or unless you have this
Hal Dowland 15:37
app, unless you have the technology on the mobile. Okay,
Jeremy Kellett 15:41
That’s what I was wondering if that makes sense. Yeah. And okay, and let me clarify what you said while ago, you’ve never been to Texas, or
Hal Dowland 15:50
I’ve never seen the watch. Okay. I’ve never seen how they do. I’ve been to Texas, I’ve been to Texas, everything’s bigger.
Jeremy Kellett 15:57
And, like, I’m sure you’ve been to Texas, but what we are
Hal Dowland 16:01
working with your provider, the Geotab slash TransFlo. Yeah, I think y’all use that for your ELD provider, we are working with them. And we should have something hopefully by mid year, third quarter, to where we can load the mobile app, own your tablets in the cab of the driver. So what that would mean is the driver would get in the truck at the start of the day, login single sign on, it would, you know, awake, waken up that PrePass app, and it runs in the background? And when a driver approaches a geofence site, it’ll come up and give the driver a signal on his tap? Oh, really?
Jeremy Kellett 16:40
That’d be handy. Yeah, yeah, it will but it won’t. When you go through a regular brick and mortar one. It’s just gonna give it to you through the transponder,
Hal Dowland 16:48
through the trains. Okay, so that’s the best of both worlds, as long
Jeremy Kellett 16:51
as you gotta both cover and how many? I mean, how many of these are existing or happen in a month’s time? Or, you know, the mobile ones?
Hal Dowland 17:02
I think we’ve got close to about 100 sites right now mobile sites, geo fenced really? In the respective states? Yeah. Okay. I didn’t realize your head that much. So a driver can go out to pre path.com, who’s got PrePass in their truck, he can download the app for no charge.
Jeremy Kellett 17:21
I was gonna ask you what’s the best way? I mean, for a guy to sign up with a free pass? If you know, I know, we go through, you know, our guys go through us. Yep, we’re a client with a pre pass, and then we discharge it back to him. And we issue them the transponder. We call it the big white one that does everything. Yeah, that’s the only one we offer Sunday papers that Yeah. And he builds it. So that they have that and then we just charge it back to him. But what’s somebody out there listening maybe has their own authority, or, you know, as a small company are saying go out
Hal Dowland 18:00
to pre pass.com. Or they can call one 800 pre Pass, which is 1-800-773-7277. And ask for inside sales. And one of those representatives will be glad to collect the data, the application and get them set up. So I guess you gotta. We don’t charge for the initial device. So there’s no setup fees. You know, there’s no installation fees, you know, you just peel off the back, stick it in the windshield, and you’re ready to go. So a pretty simple deal. It’s a pretty static piece of equipment. And it’s just a monthly charge.
Jeremy Kellett 18:38
Yep, yep. Easy to use. If you don’t have the shirt needed, if you’re traveling very much their scale.
Hal Dowland 18:45
Yeah, for an individual owner operator, there’s no contracts. So you know, if he decides that, hey, this is not what I want to do for a living, he takes it out, sends it back. And he’s out of the program. You know, so it’s not a 12 month gotcha clause there. Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 18:57
Let’s talk about that transponder. We use that does tolls also talk about paying for tolls?
Hal Dowland 19:07
I tell you, the total world isn’t a complicated world. You know, it’s ever changing. It’s expensive. But we have tried to make it a little less complicated. That transponder, we do all of the major toll facilities, you know, be an easy pass be at Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, California, anywhere in Florida, Illinois, Ohio, that transponder will handle all of those states tolls. So you get a slightly better toll rate paying electronically than you do with cash just because there’s no administrative effort from the two people to handle that money. You know, the device is red at a toll plaza. We bill after the fact and whatever the toll was, is what we build, you know, we don’t mark totals up, you know, if the total was $20 That’s what the driver or the fleet is going to get charged, because we also handle violations. Should a device not read or maybe the toll plaza, where Raiders broke whatever, if a driver gets a violation, he or she can send that into PrePass we will dispute that violation on that driver’s behalf. And any money we recover, we credit back to the driver 100%. So we keep none of that money. Okay.
Jeremy Kellett 20:28
Well, the, you know, the two worlds lucky said it’s complicated for sure. And I can just imagine, that was a truck driver. You know, I wouldn’t want to stop at every place and pay a tow, you know, right. Just send me the bill and so on, keep moving.
Hal Dowland 20:44
And, you know, keeping up with those receipt, yeah, you know, I mean, the receipts now are electronic, once you use the pre pass, so the driver doesn’t have to turn, you know, if he turns in a trip pack, at the end of their week, or the first ever week. You know, there’s always a little Susie somewhere saying, I don’t have this receipt for this town, you know, well, that goes away, because on your bill or your receipts,
Jeremy Kellett 21:06
I notice I’ve gone to Tulsa a bunch over the last seven or eight years. And I’d always have to stop at the toll booths and pay, you know, Buck 25 to 25, whatever it was, well, this last time I went, I noticed that I didn’t have to do that. So it’s I guess they got rid of the they got rid of the stations and the people taking the money. And it just went on through. I’m expecting a bill sometime soon. Yeah, you get to be attached. But I was in a rental car. So I don’t know exactly how they’re gonna get it to me, but I can’t lie.
Hal Dowland 21:49
Find you. Yeah, the rental companies. I’ve run a lot of vehicles myself. And they’re usually about two or three weeks away, you know? Yeah. You pay when you turn your car and you think that’s it. And about three weeks later, you get a Toby? Yeah, you know, Oh, yeah. So yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 22:03
they’ll be okay. But that’s an example of a move into this, I guess. Technology and not having people that are taking the money off the east coast. Yeah, I know.
Hal Dowland 22:12
And I know in Illinois, for sure. up around the Chicago area, they’ve got these high speed lanes that you don’t have stopped, but they’ve got these raiders over the highway that picks that signal up and bills you accordingly. You know, based on your actual configuration,
Jeremy Kellett 22:26
I got something I didn’t put on your list that I sent to you on your website. And what is the PrePass safety Alliance? They got their own website?
Hal Dowland 22:39
Yeah, well, we are now part of the prepaid safety Alliance. And that is PrePass is a nonprofit organization. And we are composed of the board of directors that are 50% industry, board members and 50% government board members. So when decisions are made policies are made each you know we don’t take advantage of industry and industry doesn’t take advantage of the government. So PrePass safety alliance is the governing body I guess for lack of a better term of PrePass
Jeremy Kellett 23:11
I didn’t realize it was a nonprofit. Yeah, three,
Hal Dowland 23:15
What is it? Three PCs or three people, something like that. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 23:20
It’s interesting. I learn something every time I talk to you. Oakley Trucking is a 100% Owner Operator company. We specialize in Hopper bottom in dump and pneumatic drivers. We provide the trailer free of charge and you provide the truck. We have a large customer base that reaches the whole United States as well as parts of Canada. Our owner operators live anywhere from Texas to North Carolina to Pennsylvania to Wisconsin and everywhere in between and we get them home weekends. We take it seriously when you join Oakley trucking because we need you to be successful. Oakley offers great benefits and competitive mileage pay so you know that when your wheels are turning, you’re generating money no matter if you’re loaded or empty. We understand that you want to make a good living and that you make our living. We only take on independent contractors and to be honest with you, we are very particular on who we lease on. You must have a good driving record, good work history and a clean dependable truck. So if you’re interested in Oakley trucking or just wants more information, you can go to Oakley trucking.com. Listen to our weekly podcast, the Oakley podcast and subscribe to our YouTube channel. So what’s the future looking like? For PrePass?
Hal Dowland 24:31
Well, we are continuing to grow. We’ve got over 800,000 commercial vehicles running a combination of our services be it tolls only, scales only or scales and tolls. But we are going to continue to improve our service both from a billing standpoint and from a toe validation standpoint. You know, if a driver gets a violation, we’re going to be able to prove exactly where he was at the time of day using GPS. Some data to validate that toe invalidates that toe. Okay, so we’re going to continue to work with the different tsp providers to get an integration into their system with our mobile apps. And this is the year of the customer for pre-patch, we are really going to focus on our customers and make sure we are doing things that they see beneficial that they see a return on their investment with pre-past. Good.
Jeremy Kellett 25:29
Are most of your customers, how are they like us, you know, trucking companies? Or do you have a lot of small trucking companies?
Hal Dowland 25:40
We have a lot of small trucking, of course, we’ve got the mega carriers as well. But I would probably venture to say our average fleet size, when you take it all in consideration, is probably 20 to 25. Trucks. Really, you know, I mean, you’ve got, you know, to me, personally, the individual owner operator is just as important as that 500 truck fleet, because, you know, he’s, he needs it just like they do. And, yeah, we’ve got to think that 92 of the top 100 carriers own PrePass Oh, yeah. And we’ve got a substantial amount of owner operators, through different organizations. And, you know, a lot of nastic and those kinds of people. But, you know, this product is very configurable, both for fleet drivers and owner operators,
Jeremy Kellett 26:29
I’m assuming companies lock a lot of things they probably love y’all don’t do.
Hal Dowland 26:35
Yeah, it’s just, you know, it’s a nice recruiting bullet, you know, we’re gonna pay you well, we’re gonna give you a nice truck, we’re gonna get you home, we’re gonna give you pre PrePass. You know, it’s just another bullet to add to your recruiting efforts.
Jeremy Kellett 26:47
It does. It does help in recruiting, and moreso, probably in retention. Once you get, you know, people are used to it and you get a good safety rating. And, you know, you’re not getting pulled in. I mean, it’s just a hassle. When you get pulled in, even though I have to do some, but you can tell the difference just when, like, we’ll have a good safety rating now, but have not always had it in the past, we’ve had, you know, one category that would go over the threshold. And when it does, you can tail you know, guys start getting pulled in a little bit more. And they’ll even ask, Hey, are we over the house, our safety rating? I’m getting pulled in everywhere, you know what we’ve got, we’ve got one category that’s over the threshold, so they’re checking us out a little bit closer. So make sure you’re only in the gang. Right makes a difference.
Hal Dowland 27:39
Like I said, I’ve been here quite a while. And I’ve had a lot of stories. But one story that really stuck in my mind over the years is the driver had a pre pass in his old truck, the company bought him a new truck, but he would not move into that new truck until they put a pre pass in it. So he said, I’ll stay in my old truck until you get a device in this new one and then I’ll take possession of it and start doing it. That is how important it is. And if you don’t think it’s important, you let that device go inactive for some reason for a period of time, they’re going to be calling their fleet manager saying what’s wrong with my PrePass is not working. So, you know, that just validates that it is. It’s nice to have, but it’s also a got to have. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 28:22
once you have it. I mean, you don’t want to let it go. I mean, it’s just some.
Hal Dowland 28:27
Yeah. And I’m sure you have drivers that probably asked the questions during interviews. Do you have free time? Oh, yeah. You know, and it’s nice to say yes. Oh, it
Jeremy Kellett 28:37
is super nice. They’re all interested in pre-passing. I think it’s something yeah, I’ve done a great job of getting it out there for sure. And making it a good, positive product for trucking companies. And that’s, that’s always good. Thank
Hal Dowland 28:49
you. Thank you. We support those. We support the state of trucking associations. We’re very involved with the Arkansas Trucking Association. We’re an endorsed product for those guys, among other states. So, you know, we’ve got the support of the state trucking associations in oil.
Jeremy Kellett 29:05
Now, I talked just a minute ago about Oakley going to Matt, and come see us. What do you guys do there?
Hal Dowland 29:13
We will have a booth. We’ve been Alexa 25 years, I’ve been 25 years, less than two years. I didn’t have it because of COVID. But we will be there from Thursday to Saturday and Saturday evening. So if you have grabbers coming through, we’ll stop by your booth as well and hang out a little while if you have some drivers coming through. We’ll be glad to answer any questions.
Jeremy Kellett 29:37
Well, that’s what I was gonna ask is that, how’s that something where they can sign up there? Or they can sign up and everything? Yeah, with either? Yeah. Yeah, that’s the main reason you’re going in? Yeah.
Hal Dowland 29:50
If a driver wants to pre pass, they’ll need to bring their copy of their gift and maybe a copy of their registration card at the time. And we’ll get the application from him, process it and then we’ll ship the device to him. As you know, yeah, we’ve had good success with that. Because, you know, you’d be surprised how many drivers that are there that, you know, they walk by our booth and they say, I love that guy, and they just keep walking.
Jeremy Kellett 30:18
Gotta love the green light.
Hal Dowland 30:20
Gotta love green light. Yes. Well, what’s
Jeremy Kellett 30:22
it in the future for Harold Olin, what’s going on where you’re in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Hal Dowland 30:26
I’m in Knoxville, Tennessee. I’m a huge Ball fan. Go to the final four this year. And I’m a UT grad, a UT alum. So I’m going to continue to do what I’m doing. You know, I’m 64 years old. God willing, I got great health, and I’m going to continue to work till you know, somebody says you don’t
Jeremy Kellett 30:47
need to. We don’t need you anymore. You know? Yeah,
Hal Dowland 30:51
I enjoy what I do. I enjoy developing relationships with customers and, you know, try to treat people the way I want to be treated.
Jeremy Kellett 30:59
Well, you must be doing something, right. Because they wouldn’t let you hang around there for 25 years, if you wouldn’t do it. So I’d like to thank you. Yeah, that’s a milestone. I mean, that’s a great milestone that has hit 25 years, it’s the same covenant. Yeah.
Hal Dowland 31:12
I’ve worked in transportation for about 41 years, I was with Averitt. Express for 15 years before joining PrePass. So I’ve been on the carrier side as well. So it’s, I know, in calling people from the carrier side, they appreciate somebody that’s worked in their shoes. Yes. You know, because they have a lot of people that call on them that have no clue what they do. You know? Yeah, it
Jeremy Kellett 31:37
helps to know a little bit about the transportation world if you’re going to try to sell something, too. Yeah,
Hal Dowland 31:43
for sure. Oakley Oakley has Oakley and your drivers have been a loyal supporter of pre pass. And we certainly appreciate that. And look for many years to come with you guys. Yeah, no, I
Jeremy Kellett 31:54
appreciate that, too. How appreciate you getting on, on the Oakley podcast with me and helping educate our owner operators and their families on what’s all going on with pre-pass and just how it helps the driver. And that’s the thing we try to do here at Oakley and especially on this podcast is, you know, give them stuff that helps them. That’s what we want to do. So,
Hal Dowland 32:14
well if you’ve got a driver that’s got a question that you can’t answer, please give them my contact information. I’ll be more than happy to tell them the truth. First and foremost, I will be glad to work with them in any way we can. All
Jeremy Kellett 32:28
right. I appreciate you talking to me today. And really appreciate all your good information.
Hal Dowland 32:33
We’ll see you at Matt’s and be safe and if you need anything call a guy.
Jeremy Kellett 32:38
Hey, thanks, everybody for listening to the Oakley podcast. Really appreciate y’all tuning in every week. And if you have questions about pre-pass, just like Howell said, give me a call, send me a message, messages on social media. And I’ll get you his contact information. And we’ll get your question answered for sure. Once again, we appreciate it. We’ll talk to you next week. Thanks. 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.