During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Lewie Pugh, Executive Vice President of Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) live from the Mid-America Truck Show in Louisville, Kentucky. In this conversation, Lewie gives a powerful critique of the trucking industry, highlighting critical challenges in driver training, retention, and technological adaptation. Discussing legislative insights and practical advice, Lewie emphasizes the need to invest in drivers, find specialized niches, and prioritize quality over quantity. The conversation also exposes the industry’s systemic issues while offering hope through advocacy, continuous learning, and supporting organizations like OOIDA that fight for truckers’ rights. Listeners will gain valuable insights into the complex world of trucking, understanding that success comes from returning to basics, valuing experienced drivers, actively engaging in industry improvements, and more.
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- Previewing Upcoming Episode with MATS (1:31)
- Podcast Growth and Future Plans (3:34)
- Mid-America Truck Show Introduction (8:47)
- Lewie Pugh Joins the Podcast (9:13)
- Challenges in Finding Qualified Drivers (11:44)
- Industry Turnover Rates (12:54)
- Raising Standards in Trucking (14:00)
- Changing Demographics in Trucking (17:31)
- Back to Basics in Trucking (19:46)
- The Importance of Basic Skills (21:55)
- Upcoming Legislation and Highway Bills (24:13)
- Equipment Reliability Issues (26:05)
- Positive Developments in Trucking Legislation (30:26)
- Discussion on Highway Bill (36:41)
- Engaging with Lawmakers (37:23)
- Membership Discounts (38:43)
- Appreciation for Truckers and Final Thoughts (40:02)
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
Jeremy Kellett 00:12
Thanks for tuning in to the Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. My name is Jeremy Kellett, and I’m your host for this podcast, which is brought to you by Oakley trucking, located in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Our goal is to inspire, educate and provide resources for our owner operators as well as outside truck drivers that may be interested in becoming a part of the Oakley family. So sit back, relax and keep your eyes on the road as we start this week’s brand new episode. Welcome to the Oakley podcast, trucking business and family. My name is Jeremy Kellett, Director of recruiting here at Oakley trucking. I’m your host for this podcast, and Ms Megan Cummins is sitting in with me on this little intro that we’re doing, giving you some reports from the truck show a little bit. We’ve got a lot of episodes we recorded at the truck show, so that’s what you’re going to see the next few weeks. We got some really good ones. The first one coming up is a return guest, Louis Pugh from OOIDA, and he’s fantastic. I’m telling you that man represents the truck driver. Have you ever listened to him? You ever heard him
Megan Cummings 01:15
before we did his Yeah, last year? Oh, yeah. He
Jeremy Kellett 01:19
is just so down to earth. And just loves the truck driver, especially the independent contractor. And he represents us so well up there in Washington, DC. I mean, he gets into all that, very knowledgeable, too, yeah, in this episode. I mean, he holds nothing back. He lets it fly. I think he was in the mood there at the truck show, so he let it go. And then we did, I don’t know what order these are going to be, but we did. Bruce Mallison, yeah, naturally, he remembers Bruce with Pittsburgh power. That was a really good episode. And he is just the same old Bruce. He’s actually, he added a few things to his episode, talking about the stuff he’s still doing. Oh good. Oh yeah, it was good too. I had a good time with him. I actually went and had some lunch with him. Well, I say we had some lunch. He said, Let’s go get something to eat. So we’ve taken everybody over to get something to eat. We order and I never see him again, really? Yeah, he got his food, and he was gone. I don’t know what happened to him. So we were trying to make it back to the booth sub, but he was great. And then we did Reese across America. That was interesting. That was actually a tear jerk. Really. Did you squeeze out a couple? No, but I had to give her tissue. Really. She’s passionate about that stuff, I’m telling you. Yeah, she told some good stories. It’s really good to understand what that is because I didn’t know what that was exactly. It was a really good episode. And then I did one with Lone Mountain Truck Leasing, yeah, I’m the owner of that Joe Hoover stall, and that was really good. We do a lot of work with them. Yeah, we do have good episodes coming up. So it’s going to be the next, next few coming out, and we’ve got some really good ones in a cooking ahead. That’s good. I’m not going to tell who we got. I’m gonna let it simmer a little bit. But we got a really good one yesterday. So really, I didn’t even
Megan Cummings 03:03
Tell you, No, when did you do that? Can’t let it out. You couldn’t we did it set in
Jeremy Kellett 03:07
on it. Well, it was a zoom type deal. So I was using a laptop, you
03:15
know? Was it someone famous? Yes,
Jeremy Kellett 03:16
really, yes. Really famous amongst truck drivers.
Megan Cummings 03:22
Okay, I was about to say it wasn’t too famous because animal
Jeremy Kellett 03:26
didn’t be like She better not let the cat back. She did a good job Annabelle got it. She coordinated. Really got it done. Yeah, that one, and actually, he’s working on a second one that’s really big with truck drivers, so you’re not messing with your Itsy, Bitsy, little tiny podcast here. Yeah, we’re in the big leagues. Yeah, we’re bumping 60,000 subscribers.
Megan Cummings 03:49
Really, I’m telling you, congratulations. That’s great. Congratulations to us. I mean, yes, it’s
Jeremy Kellett 03:54
good. That’s good. Well, hopefully I don’t have to get you back in the rotation here. Yeah, I know you’ve been covered up with stuff, but gotta get you back into rotation. It’s been
Megan Cummings 04:03
a little hairy out there, which is good. That’s what we want. A lot of new hires, a lot of truck trades. You
Jeremy Kellett 04:10
Now, stay busy. Yes, I just want to say something about our sponsors real quick. One Keith with Aero truck sales, he actually goes to these truck shows with us and works the booth. I can’t shout out to Keith. Man, you’re awesome. You help me. Stays to the end. He helps pack things up. He, I mean, he does whatever needs to be done. Yeah, he wanted to buy dinner, and we wouldn’t let him. We said he’s a huge help at the show. That’s right. It’s nice when you get a recruit you’re talking to and you can, hey, if you want to buy a truck, guess who’s here? Right here? Yeah,
04:41
Keith, go ahead and get your credit app started. Get it
Jeremy Kellett 04:43
done. He’ll do it right there. And then I got back, and I went to lunch with the Central Arkansas truck and trailer, David and Nathan Dunn over there, and they’re great people. They took me to lunch downtown over here. We had a good talk. They were really happy with the business that the podcast is producing for. One of them. They love our owner operators, you know, because they’re top tier, yeah, I should say, but it’s working out good that too. And you know, if you’re looking for a truck, check out Keith at Arrow, if you’re looking to get one repaired, check out David Nathan, Central Arkansas truck and trailer. So I think they’re
Megan Cummings 05:16
making a yard call today. Yeah, I mean, and I saw that email, and I saw that email, and I was like, wow, I didn’t know that they’re
Jeremy Kellett 05:23
on top of it. Now, great guys, yeah, yeah, all good. So, anything
Megan Cummings 05:27
else, yeah, yeah, what? Yeah, I’m good. You good anniversary.
Jeremy Kellett 05:31
Yes, I forgot about that. Oh, you had, well,
Megan Cummings 05:36
I reminded you. Well, true, yesterday. You’ve been here
Jeremy Kellett 05:39
four years. Four years have come. A long ways, ain’t
Megan Cummings 05:41
you? Yeah, well, have I Yes. Okay, thanks. Next time, we can try it again without hesitation, but I appreciate it without it. I mean, yeah, Monday was my four year anniversary. How does that feel? It felt, I don’t know. I feel like I’ve been here for like, 25 years, but at the same time, I felt like I started last week, yeah, it truly depends on the day. We should do a podcast about me. Really, yes, we just did, yeah, and what you thought about me when I first started, versus now, not
Jeremy Kellett 06:13
putting me on the spot. Yeah,
Megan Cummings 06:14
You can interview me next week. Next week. We can feel
Jeremy Kellett 06:18
like we have one every time we get her on. Oh my gosh, no,
Megan Cummings 06:21
we don’t. Anyways, yes, thank you for the Happy anniversary. Happy
Jeremy Kellett 06:24
anniversary. Thank you. Thank you. I got you the same thing this year as I did last year. Oh,
Megan Cummings 06:28
thank goodness, just my size, nothing.
Jeremy Kellett 06:32
Oh, good. Well, hey, I appreciate you. I’ll say this every week, but I appreciate our listeners so much. I mean, you guys are faithful. You continue to support us. You hit that like button, you hit that subscribe button, you comment. That means a whole lot and share it with some people out there too. Our TikTok, Hebrew, I even said that TikTok, we’re doing TikTok, I know it, and it’s great though. Facebook, yeah, that’s right, all the social media, YouTube, all over it. Apple podcast, who would have thought trucking would be all over social media? Big timing, okay, we drugged Central. Well, long enough. Sorry. Y’all enjoy these next episodes from the truck show Central Arkansas. Truck and trailer strives to take care of our owner operators as quickly and accurately as possible as a family owned and operated company, they understand and value the importance of relationships, just like we do. That is why Oakley owner operator Joe Williams continues to return to their shop for service on his truck. I’ve
Joe Williams 07:31
I have been with Oakley trucking for two years this April, 1 time. Owner operator, it was a shock the maintenance and the repairs on it, because I’ve never done anything like this before. I told my wife, I said, we’ll try that Central Arkansas truck and trailer, you know, because they’re so convenient right there off the interstate, right down the road from Oakley trucking. And I talked to Nathan, and being an owner operator, he tries to get the owner operators in and out as quickly as possible, because he knows if we’re not rolling, we’re not making money. If it’s, they tell me they can get my truck in at a certain time. They get it in at a certain time. If they tell me, well, it’ll be ready at this time. It’s ready at that time. So I can really count on they’re competitive with anybody around, probably better than most.
Jeremy Kellett 08:20
Next time your truck needs service, give Central Arkansas truck and trailer a call at 501-568-2185. And let them know you heard it here on the Oakley podcast. All right, good. Hey, look at us. Mid America truck show, wow. 2025, here we are again, you know, we last year, we always come to this truck show, and we get to meet some really good people. We get to talk to a lot of people. We record a lot of episodes for the Opie podcast, and there are some, you know, some people that we don’t get to see all the time, or we can’t get them in the studio. And we’ve got some really good shows coming up. And today, my first guest, you know? I mean, it doesn’t get any better. I should have him as the show stopper at the end, probably. But Louie Pugh is with me, and we’re going to talk a little bit of what’s happening at O Adam, Louie, how are you, brother?
Lewie Pugh 09:13
I’m good, and I appreciate that great intro. Show stopper, maybe, I guess I’m a stopper. I don’t know if you want me at the end or not, but I can stop some things. Well,
Jeremy Kellett 09:22
you don’t stop things, you keep things going. And man, being as a owner operator company like Oakley is we are glad to have somebody like you representing truck drivers up there in DC, give our listeners the latest going on, man, that you’re dealing with, yeah,
Lewie Pugh 09:38
and I appreciate it. And I want to say that we appreciate a carrier like Oakley, because, like I’ve told you many times, I know quite a few people, it’s worked for you or still works for you. Never in our complaints. They always are. They got a happy home here. So, you know, if you’re a trucker looking for a place to take your truck, I think it’s a good place. And you know you said, business has still been good. Yeah, there’s not a lot. The carrier is saying that business has been good right now. So that’s something to think about if you want to get in that bulk business. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 10:06
yeah. And that’s a little specialized, you know, with the bulk business, and it may attract some really good owner operators, because you got to be you got to pay attention, you got to have some good common sense and really care about the bulk business, to be in it. I mean, we attract a different kind of person,
Lewie Pugh 10:21
exactly. And, you know, I always, and I never get all sudden, yeah, as the first place. But I mean, when we’re talking about it, I mean, I’ve always told people to be successful in this business, find a niche. Find something not everybody can do, and not everybody can do, what your guys do and what your truckers do, because it is, and I understand that. I come from an area well, a lot of cold trucks and dump trucks, and it’s just you gotta have a special knack for that. And those things fall over if you’re not paying attention. And, yeah, so, you know, if you want to, if you want something different, lots and lots of people out there pulling freight boxes and stuff like that. But, you know, you get a niche market, like, what you guys would I’m, you know, you probably get home a little more, you know, you know how to run coast to coast and all that crazy stuff. So, so, yeah, I mean to me, if you want to be successful, something like that, Oakley, and you know, I remind people, getting your authority doesn’t always mean you’re going to be successful. Sometimes the key to success is just finding a good carrier with good rates that you can lease to let them handle some of the back office. Or you go out there and truck and you handle your business. So it’s always something to think about, yeah, and
Jeremy Kellett 11:25
kind of stay on that subject a little bit. Louis, I was talking to you a while ago. It’s getting hard for me, for a company like our US being so particular on who we lease on, it’s getting harder and harder for me to find that candidate, what do you think is happening, and why is that happening? Well,
Lewie Pugh 11:44
I think there’s multiple things, but the short of it comes down to, in my personal opinion, is that, you know, unfortunately, for so long, we’ve carried this driver shortage narrative, which we know isn’t true, because there’s our 90% turnover rate. There’s four to 500,000 CDLs out there every year. That’s renewed every year, four to 500,000 new CDLs. So what happens is, these folks aren’t staying and it’s sad because we’ve created an industry almost a race to the bottom. Effect, you know, we don’t pay people right. We’re not training people correctly. We’re just trying to get warm bodies behind the seats. They come in, they don’t really know what they’re doing. They’re not making really good money. They go out and fumble around. They figure out real quick they’re not, they either aren’t comfortable or just aren’t for them, and they leave, and we’re not investing in drivers. You know it’s sad, because trucking moves this whole country, trucking, law enforcement, military, all these kinds of people keep this country going, and they’re so crucial. And we invest in all these other industries and other things, we need to start investing in truckers and investing in drivers. So when they come in, they learn the industry. They learn how to be good, they learn how to be successful. They learn how to be courteous on the road, they learn how to pay attention to detail. And then, as they mature and learn these things, they decide to buy their own truck, and then they’re ready to come to work for somebody like you. They’ve gotten their feet on them and again. And you know, I saw the time, and I hear a lot of times guys, well, you’re wrong here. So we can’t find anybody. There’s a shortage. And I always say, Are you hiring experienced people? Are you hiring new people? Because if you’re inexperienced people, I agree, there’s a huge shortage of that. Yeah, safe, you know, safe, efficient, hard working people that have learned the ropes. There’s just a real shortage of that, because they just don’t stay Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 13:42
and that’s the guys, that’s the people we’re looking for, and it’s getting harder to find. Are we making it? Is the trucking industry making it too easy for gap people to get in the trucking industry? And then it’s and then I think it’s
Lewie Pugh 13:55
too easy to become a truck driver, and it’s too easy to become a motor carrier. We need to raise that, you know, again, it says race for the bottom. How many people? You know, we’re seeing these movements with the foreign non-domicile CDLs to try to get more people in. We see them trying to lower the age limit of truckers. And, you know, I understand you want to get these people out of high school, and you don’t want to give them three or four. I understand what we’re worried about, but I think there’s better ways to go about it. You know, I think just putting this kid in a program and turning him loose to go all over with a trainer that you hope knows what they’re doing, and then, you know, for a few hours, and then he’s on his own, but he has some extra safety things. I don’t think that’s quite the best way, what we’d like to see is, let’s change the whole under 21 instead of Interstate, interstate. Because, you know, it doesn’t make sense that a kid in Kansas City can drive to St Louis, you know, 200 and some, but he can’t drive to Topeka. That’s 50 miles. Yeah. It makes no or even Kansas City, Kansas. Yeah, it makes no sense. Makes no sense. But what about an air mile radius, just like we do in short haul, just like we do in agriculture, if you’re 18 to 20, you know, 21 you can run 150 mile air radius. You can get local jobs in local dump truck jobs, concrete jobs, local package delivery jobs, and get some experience, you know, before we start taking a kid from South Florida and sending him to Colorado in January, across the Rocky Mountain, yeah, not a good it was setting ourselves up for disaster. And you know, you were a young guy once when I was a young guy, once you’re a young guy, you do a lot of dumb things. Yes, you know. And we know younger people wreck corn, so I agree we need to get them in. But let’s do some common sense, and let’s not set them up for failure, because, again, I feel like we’re just continuing the same cycle of setting people up for failure. I also find it troubling that, you know, we talk about mandatory How is a server or behind the wheel time for an 18 to 20 year old. And I’m all for that, but why not a 45 year old? Because you don’t know that guy could, I mean, he could have been an offender when he could have been an accountant and drove a Prius his whole life. Litra, you know, truckers of today aren’t truckers. When I got in the industry, I’m sure when you got in the industry, you came from the family, from dad was a trucker, military that was a massive you
Jeremy Kellett 16:29
were proud to be a truck. Yeah, it was exactly up here. I want
Lewie Pugh 16:33
to be since I was this tall, you know, I see smoking abandoned from there. And I was like, damn, I want to do that stuff, you know, I want to be this young man, so cool. But let me tell you what. They left a lot of stuff out of that documentary. I think so.
16:48
It’s a good one, no way,
Lewie Pugh 16:51
but when I buy again, we need to have these mandatory hours to train these people. Because, like I said, you don’t know people’s backgrounds, and I get members and other drivers. I was at a conference a couple weeks ago in Missouri, and the guys like why they get an 18 year old farm kid probably way better than most of these are people driving trucks. I said, I agree with you. Problem we have is, 30 years ago, there’s a lot of 18 year old farm kids. Today, we ain’t got a lot of eight there. A lot of farms. Farms have become massive. The family farms are gone. Yeah? You know, they’re done. I mean, I got a small farm, and you know what? I work a full time job to pay for it, to subsidize,
Jeremy Kellett 17:31
yeah. I mean, there’s not a lot of people growing up that want to be a truck driver anymore, exactly.
Lewie Pugh 17:37
Not like, when I grew up, it was, like, a cool thing, yeah, right. And we’ve lost our coolness. And, you know, it’s, and, I mean, I’ll be honest, it’s some of our own faults and our that’s
Jeremy Kellett 17:48
what I’ve done to ourselves. That’s what I was gonna say. If you start letting anybody and everybody into your company and drive a truck with little experience, you’re setting yourself up for failure. It’s just like Oakley trucking. We are very particular about who we lease to. We’re going to make it hard for you to get over here. It’s not going to be easy to get to Oakley trucking, but in turn, by us being strict on some of our standards. Louis, then my turnover rate is, you know, less than 30% so we’re, we’re doing the hard work on the front end, and that way we keep people and that’s what I think other trucking companies need,
Lewie Pugh 18:27
and I think that’s what I think that’s a great business plan, and it’s a business plan you should stick to. I mean, as a motor is having my own truck and being leased to carry my entire career. The last guy I was leased to, I was there for 14 years, and they treated me great. I have nothing bad to say about them, but I do feel like they changed their hiring standards because it took a lot to get on when I got there, and I don’t, I don’t know, because I was done with orientation and never reapplied. But it seemed like, as time went on, we started getting guys, and I’m not being mean with the guy with the red truck and the white hood and stuff like this, and I feel like it was, and we still got a lot of good guys, but we were getting people in there that weren’t as good, and I think it affected, I mean, I had a great gig there, and we can, I would go back there tomorrow. But with that being said, I think it hurt the company in some ways as well. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 19:24
yeah. I think you’re right. Well, that was a good little segment there. I like, get awful, no, but that’s that important stuff, and it gets me excited, fired up about it too. But
Lewie Pugh 19:38
I think, no, you know, I think what we’re talking about is really important too, but some of this basic stuff doesn’t get talked about enough. Yeah, and we go to conferences. I mean, I’m sure you do. We go to all these conferences. We watch all these numbers, we see accents, we see this, we see that. But nobody wants to talk about how cool it is. Issues? Yeah, we want to talk about putting this fancy gadget on the truck, or this freaking gadget, or that we’re pushing this. And what it really comes down to is we need to get back to basics. Yeah, the person in the seat, we need to get back to the dad or the grandpa or the uncle or the trainer who’s setting a passenger seat. And every time you miss a gear to hit you with a stick, but, you know, you hear them store and stuff like that. The guy that gave you a map taught you how to read a map, not a stupid Jeep and yeah, I mean, we got states now in this country who are wanting to make GPS and trucks mandatory because they believe that’s what’s going to keep from having bridge strikes and all this other stuff. I say that’s why you have them, because people pay too much, rely too much on that technology. Don’t read the maps and pay attention to the roadside. Yeah, that’s exactly right. That’s it. Back to Basics. All this other and GPS is only as good as the data they receive from the states to put in there, on updates on routes, that’s it. And they tell you the best way to get there, and that ain’t always the way you can go in a
Jeremy Kellett 21:07
truck. No, I had it just as an example yesterday, coming over here from Arkansas. I had it punched in there, and as I was going down the road, I was actually on the phone with one of our owner operators, and it told me to get off at this exit. I’m on the parkway, you know, going down there, and I’m like, I’m pretty sure I stay on the parkway all the way and it’s got me getting off of this exit. And I was on the phone with him. I said, Wait a minute. It’s got me getting off here at this exit. And then I stopped, looked, I thought this thing was fixing to take me off of the parkway and go around another route. And that’s the wrong way to go. So, right, you know,
Lewie Pugh 21:42
and unfortunately, that’s what happens. And you know, if you don’t understand how to read a map and you’re not taught these basic things, or, you know, unfortunately, you can’t speak English or understand our language very well, you’re setting people up for failure. And that’s, it’s just a real shame. We got to get back to base. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 22:00
you’re right. Then that’s if we could get more. The trucking companies, I think, don’t realize how much power they have, you know, when they’re hiring these truck drivers and owner operators, and what they can do to help that cause of getting back to the basics and helping us. It’s not a quick fix. It’s going to take a long time. It’s going
Lewie Pugh 22:17
to take a long time, and it’s going to cost some money, but we’ll be a better industry in the end, when we quit putting profits in front of people, there you go.
Jeremy Kellett 22:25
Well said, at
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Jeremy Kellett 23:24
What’s happening on the DC site? Hey,
Lewie Pugh 23:27
funny you should ask. I spent the first time this week in DC. I had to fly to DC Monday morning. Then little baby shaking and hand kissing or something like that, whatever they say on Capitol Hill for Monday and Tuesday and then Wednesday morning. Wednesday morning, we had a hearing house, T and I on Highway bills, getting a kick off. And it was about American Trucking and American highways, moving America and some fancy titles like that. Isn’t exactly how it is. But anyway, what it came down to there was me, a gentleman from the truckload carriers, a gentleman from the Teamsters, a gentleman representing shippers, and then a gentleman representing Farm Bureau. So we were there talking about, because of the new highway bill, we’re gonna have a highway bill. That’s Congress. You know, that’s our Super Bowl for trucking. It rolls around in about five years. That’s where trucking legislation lives, and didn’t die. So it was pretty much, what do we all want to see in a new highway bill? So we all got to talk about what we wanted to see. We agree on some things, we disagree on some things. We got some real smart and good lawmakers to pay attention. Listen. We got some other lawmakers that we need to do some more educating on. Yeah, you know, we’re learning, as my grandpa said, That’s right, give some more learning.
Jeremy Kellett 24:49
Yeah, is there? I mean, I know the answer to this, but this is the truck technology, the def system, the sensors, the. Everything automated. That’s not going away, is it? Well,
Lewie Pugh 25:02
it looks like the Trump administration, and that wouldn’t have been a part of this hearing, because that’s a different okay, but I’m glad you brought it. Did get brought up a couple times just mentioned, but a lot of that stuff’s getting rolled back the new like the 2027, semester, yeah, of course. What’s probably gonna happen? There’s gonna be some lawsuits and why, to see how it all shakes out. But, you know, we’re a bipartisan organization. One, one administration is better on one thing, administration better another, this administration is going to be much more friendly on environmental stuff for truckers, yeah, than what the last I mean, that’s just the facts. Yeah. You know, the scary thing, you know, and some of the other stuff for this administration may not be so good for us on we’ll just have to, well,
Jeremy Kellett 25:47
it’s if anybody asks you up there in DC how it’s affecting truck trucking companies, you tell them that it’s affecting Oakley big time, because we are losing some good owner operators that are getting half, they’re having to get out of the business because of these truck these trucks won’t stay running. I mean, they’re constantly broken down. Warranty doesn’t cover half the stuff that they thought it did. And it’s very frustrating, because these guys try to keep it going, but they’re down for so long that it’s not generating any money income because the trucks are down. It takes a long time to fix it. And I can’t tell you how many truck drivers and good ones we’ve lost because of equipment. Can’t buy a new one. I’m not talking about new stuff. Buddy.
Lewie Pugh 26:36
I used to remember it was fun to come down here to see all the new trucks. Are you all excited to see him and want one? And I had a few new trucks, and it was great. And I come down here now, and it’s no offense to any of the manufacturers, because they can’t help but they have to manufacture. They’re forced to it. I wouldn’t want one of these trucks one way. Yeah. I mean, my last truck was a 2020, 2012 international with a max force. I know what they’re going through, yeah, and it was rough. I had a lot of problems with that thing, but I will say, my dealer and international, they stood behind it and they made it right, you know. But even if, when he does cover, what we forget is, you’re still down, you still ain’t generating revenue. And when you take, you know, when you take a truck that maybe you got put in a shop once a year, now you’re putting it in the shop every other month, yes, and you’re not reliable, and you never know when it’s going to go down, you know. And you try to keep your customers happy, but you’re running these, you know, this truck just dies on you, and then it goes into these limp modes, and you’re only can go 25 it’s
Jeremy Kellett 27:43
just crazy. It’s crazy. It’s taking a toll on independent contractors,
Lewie Pugh 27:46
right? And I understand why guys want to keep old trucks, yeah, yeah, and run old trucks, and then we get into this whole predicament. And I don’t know where Oakley stands, but you know, a lot of carriers, if your truck’s more than five or 10 years old, they don’t want, they don’t want, they don’t want to sign on because they’re afraid of reliability and safety issues. But I think, and again, I don’t know where your policy is. I think people should be rethinking that policy. We
Jeremy Kellett 28:10
are. We just had this discussion last week to where we’re going to have to start looking at some older trucks that are dependable. You know, look at the look a little bit more at the whole package of the guy you’re getting, the owner operator you’re getting, and the truck that he’s got, because we’re seeing that, we’re getting a lot of phone calls with guys, hey, man, I’ve got this 13 model that, but I’ve had it since it’s new. And I’ve got, I know exactly what’s going on with this truck, you know, and that we’re gonna have to look at. We are gonna have to look at those guys. Yeah.
Lewie Pugh 28:39
I mean, we gotta. I mean, I got a lot of members. They’re running trucks, you know, 2000 and older. You know, how many cab overs did we see get pulled out of the weeds, the last few and, of course, part of that emissions, part of that, ClD, and I understand that as well. I mean, it’s a little bit of both. But again, it all rolls back to the same thing, we continually put more regulation pressure on small business guys, and you can only eat that for so long. And I mean, I get why a guy that won ELD, especially if you’re a small business, because we got FMCSA over there to make this rule. They were ordered to do it by Congress, and I understand that, but now you are self certified. There’s been hundreds of ELD companies coming in and going out on this self certification because they’re not doing, I mean, I’ve got members, they’ve spent, they’re on their fourth or fifth ELD. And that’s a huge investment for a small guy. Yeah, it is, you know, and then what happens to so many smaller guys, especially in down marketplaces like this. And that’s why I say, like you guys and some other operator companies need to really think they’ve had their own authority now market market gets tight, so what they decide to do is park their authority and lease on. Well, if they’re running a 99 or 2000 or an older glider or whatever, then they have a hard time finding Yeah. They can find places, but they can’t find the elite place. That’s
Jeremy Kellett 30:03
right, that’s right. Well, because we do have that rule. I mean, but five years newer and with some warranty, preferably. So it’s for what it’s worth, you know, but we’re having it. We’re gonna have to start looking at that. I mean, there’s no doubt about it. What are some good, positive things you’ve seen in the past, I don’t know, year that’s making progress to help the truck driver or trucking company. Well, I
Lewie Pugh 30:26
like to think that we’re seeing some positivity, you know, with the EPA stuff being rolled back, you already talked about, yeah, I like to think we’re seeing some positivity on all this fraud and all that’s going on, both on care and broker side, because what was, I was at a hearing three weeks ago on the Senate side, on that the government’s finally realized this is becoming a huge issue and a problem, and probably a national security problem, to a point. So it’s good that they’re finally figuring it out. Because, I mean, I’ve had a lot of members, they’ve gotten wiped out because of that fraud stuff. I’d like to think that parking and this whole parking problem has finally bubbled to the top to where we’re getting some movement. We got our bill back in Congress this year. I was just at that hearing. The one thing I will say to all five panelists that were on the hearing Wednesday, we all agreed that the government needs to go off their butts and do something. But what I really like, and I think where this rubber really meets the road, states are realizing too. I’ve been to a lot of state do T meetings over the last year and a half where they will talk about parking, more parking, adding parking. I’ve had state do T folks reach out to me like, Hey, we’re thinking about doing this with this land covering what do you think would your guys like this? What do they want? Guys? Whatever. Oh, good. It’s getting down. I mean, I was told by a rep Ohio D O T guy, the governor in Ohio has reached out to them and told him, We want parking, and we want parking now. I want you. I want six. I want parking in six months, not six years or 60 years. Because he realizes, if the state of Ohio wants to remain a good state for shipping and receiving and manufacturing, you gotta have a place to put the trucks. Yeah, you know, you gotta have a place, and
Jeremy Kellett 32:22
this is going to get, you know, hopefully with Trump coming, bringing stuff back to the states, that’s positive for truck drivers in it. Louis,
Lewie Pugh 32:30
Yeah, I mean, the state is where it’s at, and that’s why the bill we have in Congress is so important. So that’s a good thing that we’re seeing out there. Okay? I mean, we’re happy the FMCSA, it looks like they’re going to kill this speed limiter deal. Oh, good. I mean, I don’t have it officially yet, but, I mean, we know under the last trump administration, it got killed, and we think it killed this time, so that’ll be good. Yeah, the broker transparency petition that we had , they just closed the comments on that. So we’ll wait and see what happens on that one. FMCSA, they just reintroduced a bathroom bill. We’re going to reintroduce a bathroom bill next week so these shippers and receivers won’t let truckers use the bathroom. Why have we come to I know what was that we got to get back to the basics. People in front of the province, treat people like you want to be treated. I mean, really, yeah. So we got that. We got our overtime bill back in for employee drivers, you know, to get that removed from the Fair Labor Standards Act. We got that back in there. So I think there’s some good things on the horizon. You know, there’s always the bad things that we could be looking at, size and weights. That was one thing that was brought up
Jeremy Kellett 33:48
increasing the size and the weight you can haul on that highway, interstate, 20
Lewie Pugh 33:54
like twin, 33 foot trailers, you know, going to twin. 30 threes going up to 91,000, pound, you know, for add an axle, and then go 91,000
Jeremy Kellett 34:05
Who’s pushing for that? Shippers,
Lewie Pugh 34:07
big shippers and big in agriculture, okay, that was a big thing in our hearing. I didn’t . I felt like, when we left the hearing, they didn’t do a very good job of presenting it. I feel like, because myself, the guy from truckload cares and the gentleman from Teamsters, we all were against it. The two congressmen, Congressman Boss from Illinois and Congressman Mike Collins from Georgia, both come from trucking families and trucking backgrounds. Their family is still trucking. They’re against it. So the way I kind of look at it is everyone in that room knows something about trucking or done trucking or against it. Hopefully lawmakers will have enough brains to think, you know, yeah, maybe listen, you know, we surveyed our members a couple years ago about this 60. 8% of our membership believes that heavier or longer will make their job harder, yeah, which is a no brainer. And 85% of them said it would make our highways less safe, yeah? And that’s the last thing we need right now.
Jeremy Kellett 35:13
Yeah, it’s already hard enough to stop a 80,000 pound Yeah.
Lewie Pugh 35:20
It was kind of funny, because the one guy kept saying, we’re not wanting bigger trucks. We’re just asking for a heavier truck. We’re not making me bigger. My staff, one of my lobbyists, said, after the meeting, or after the hearing, he should have said, If you had told your wife that she didn’t look bigger. She’s just heavier. You think she could tell the difference?
Jeremy Kellett 35:46
That would be a good one, right? You know, oh, man, I’d like to, we need to somehow tune in to some of this. I’d like to see you in action up there in DC. Well,
Lewie Pugh 35:54
you can watch it. Can you do it online? Yeah, you can. I can send you a link. We’ll get you a link. You can watch the hearings. Yeah, all of them, yeah, it was a good hearing. And there was some stuff. The guy that was testifying on another hover bulk, he was talking about his dump trailers, okay, you know, they’re only half full, but they’re grossed out, yeah? And, of course, I said, Well, I’ll put up a flat bed. I was almost always grossed out before cubing out. Yeah, that’s just been sure,
Jeremy Kellett 36:20
yeah, the Yeah, the product, yeah, yeah.
Lewie Pugh 36:26
You all saw dust. Well, what more than the trailer chicken feathers, the way you can see lead wrong, full,
Jeremy Kellett 36:32
but it ain’t no wait to Oh, man, I tell you, that’s all good information, though. Louie, I tell you, we always get good info when I sit down with you,
Lewie Pugh 36:41
you know, the other thing you know, highway bill. We haven’t heard much yet, but I’m sure the old raising insurance minimums will come back. You know, as we know, trial attorneys are, oh man, we really need to work. That’s
Jeremy Kellett 36:54
a whole nother episode. I mean,
Lewie Pugh 36:57
we really need to work on Tory form, yeah. But, you know, I can’t stress enough for drivers just to be careful, pay attention to dash cams. Look forward, not point at you. Have a dash cam. I can save your button cord. It has
Jeremy Kellett 37:15
it has us, that’s for sure. And what you have to protect yourself these days, because it’s out there, you know, 100%
Lewie Pugh 37:23
and you know another thing, we’re going into this new, you know, new highway bill. So it’s as important as ever to reach out to your lawmaker. You know, get to know your lawmaker. Talk to your lawmaker professionally about how bills help you or hurt you and give them real world stories. You’re the expert. You know way more about trucking than anybody on Capitol Hill, so don’t be afraid to reach out. We make that real easy at o Ida, you go to fight for truckers.com. It’s a website. It tells you all the stuff that’s going on right now in trucking, there’s a place you can find your lawmaker. You can shoot a message to your lawmaker. From there,
Jeremy Kellett 38:04
It’s really easy. Oh, yeah, yeah, that’s good to know. That’s on your website, yeah?
Lewie Pugh 38:08
Fighting for truckers.com Okay? Or you can get to it from Oh, i da.com but it’s its own little website. Fighting
Jeremy Kellett 38:15
for y’all signing a bunch of people up here to show, yeah, we’re
Lewie Pugh 38:18
having a good show. We got a brand new location. We moved. We used to be way back on party row, yeah? Now we’re up here in the front of the heat of the action. Yeah, you know. So we are too, yeah, you guys are in a great location too. We’re not too far from you, but we got a new booth space doing a lot of new things. So yeah, I got the Truck Simulator up.
Jeremy Kellett 38:38
Oh, yeah, truck, yeah, I might have tried that. So
Lewie Pugh 38:42
got a lot of free junk to hand out, and got a discount going for members, $35 while you’re to show a year instead of $45 but if you can’t make it to the show and you’re watching this CO Ida ask for a membership. Tell him you saw me and him. Yeah, have a little bullshit session. We’ll get you $35 Okay, discount for that too.
Jeremy Kellett 39:06
Hey, that’s good. That’s good to know, man. I appreciate you sitting down, getting us all caught up on everything that’s happening in your world, I mean, and I can’t, I can’t stress enough about being thankful to have somebody like you that’s done this for a long time now, and you are supporting the truck driver and the trucking company means a lot that we got somebody like you to help us in all these situations.
Lewie Pugh 39:27
That means a lot to me, and I appreciate that. I’m humbled by that statement. Trucking was good to me, like I said, I wanted to drive a truck since I was this tall. I love our industry, I love our business, and most of all, I love the people in our industry. We got the greatest people in trucking, you know, salt of the earth. And I, you got a thankless job. And, you know, that’s another thing we’re doing here in Oh, Ida. We’re really taken an extra step. We got a big thank you, trucker wall, you can write a message. And I, you know, I told my staff before we came. So let’s really be thanking the drivers, you know, let’s go out of our way to thank them for what they do. I thank everybody. Anytime I’m on a show for what you do, but let’s show them, because show them, you know, show me. So you’re so under appreciated as a trucker, and I apologize I’m losing my voice, but thank you to all you truckers out there. It is a tough job, and we appreciate it and I’m honored to be on your show. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 40:22
I appreciate it, Lou, thank you for doing it, man. I appreciate you. Thanks everybody. Listening to the Oakley podcast is always a good episode. When we bring Louis Pugh of kids with you, if you haven’t signed up, you need to sign up. Go to o, y, D, A, get you a membership and join us with the fight. Thank you. 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.