Jared Flinn:
You're listening to the bulk loads podcast. Your number one resource for everything bold freight trucking.
Jared Flinn:
Hey, guys. Jared Flynn with the Bulk Lou's podcast. Got Tyler
Jared Flinn:
with me.
Tyler Allison:
What's going on?
Jared Flinn:
Before we start recording, we had this great debate, and we were talking about hot dogs. Yep. It considered or considered a sandwich?
Tyler Allison:
I don't think that this debate isn't new, but
Jared Flinn:
A hot dog's a hot dog. I I a burger.
Tyler Allison:
I think if you if you're posing the question, is a hot dog a sandwich? I believe you can classify it as a sandwich. It's 2 pieces of bread with beef
Kirk Erickson:
in the
Jared Flinn:
middle of my life ever.
Tyler Allison:
I think it can be a sandwich. I think it falls into the sandwich category.
Jared Flinn:
Well, if you I wanna hear what you believe. Down below in the comments, mark add it. Is it is it a hot dog considered a hot dog, or is a hot dog considered a sandwich?
Tyler Allison:
And if you say if you say it's not a hot dog, I wanna know what classifies a sandwich as a sandwich.
Jared Flinn:
But you can have, like, a lettuce sandwich. There's no meat in the middle. You have a tomato sandwich, a banana sandwich, peanut butter sandwich.
Tyler Allison:
I feel like I'm a guy that has to have meat with every meal, so that's not even a meal.
Jared Flinn:
And to me Comment below. Does it does a hot dog is it cons is a hot dog considered in the sandwich I'm
Tyler Allison:
I'm pro sandwich on that.
Jared Flinn:
Alright. Well, we'll see what the, what the people say Yeah. What the voters, sink in. So, highlight of the day, I'll let you kick it
Kirk Erickson:
off.
Tyler Allison:
Yep. We have Jim Goecki out of, Arbonne, Iowa, JK Farms. He's been a member since 2022. This is actually Austin Holt. He works, on our TMS team. This is his father-in-law. Oh, very cool. Yeah.
Tyler Allison:
And and we've met Jim before, and he's a really good guy. But it's cool pictures. I always love the pictures with the they got the, the grain bins in the background. I'm a flattop truck. My, I like the flattops myself, but, that is a good looking truck, I think.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Good looking. Simple. I like the scene. Yeah. There's nothing complex about it. Just a really good old fashioned iconic farm
Tyler Allison:
image. Yeah. And it's cool that it's tied to one of our, guys in here. So, Jim, thank you so much for submitting this picture. I know we posted it on, social media as well. As always, guys, if you want to highlight your rig, we'd love to, put it on the podcast or social media. You can simply send it in to
[email protected] or just, message 1 of our social channels, and and we'll get it
Jared Flinn:
on that way. Absolutely. Cool. Well, today's podcast, I'm gonna bring in 2 local guys, Kirk Erickson and Rick Johnson. They both actually run separate companies, but together, they actually offer lease purchase programs for trucks. And before you get angry and get all fired up about this, man, I I I want you to listen to this podcast. Yes. Because, again, at Bulkloads, we wanna get good solid content out there, but really give you every opportunity there is to be in the trucking industry.
Jared Flinn:
And we know not everyone can go out and buy a semi truck and trailer, and there are actually really good leach lease purchase options out there.
Tyler Allison:
Yeah. I think, I think I even came to you after you told me that you recorded this one and I was like, I don't know Jared. I don't know
Jared Flinn:
if you want to add. Yeah. We're going to unsubscribe.
Tyler Allison:
But I think Kurt and, and, is it Paul on there? They are Rick Kirk and Rick. Yeah. They both do a really good job explaining how they're different. Like, Prime is the big one, but they really expand on what makes them different, than, like, the Prime model. And they explain, like, carrier leasing, like, lease purchase programs, and the difference that they have. So I think it's really good. There's gonna be some really hot takes there in this episode.
Jared Flinn:
And I guess one thing I was more fascinated with, there's actually more trucking companies have lease purchase programs than I thought. I guess for in my mind and what I figured a lot of companies, a lot of their drivers were company drivers or company owners, and that's really not the case. And I think financially and, you know, assets and liabilities from a balancing standpoint, it's actually better for the company and a lot of times even for the driver to be set up in a lease purchase program. There's more tax advantages for that. Not every program works that way, so I'm not promoting that. But, again, this is just another strategy. This has been a really a wake up call to me to understand how it works more in the industry when you're dealing with owner operators and lease purchase programs.
Tyler Allison:
Yeah. Like you said, it's not gonna work for everybody out there, but I think they have a model to where, like they said, they they if the owner operator isn't successful, then they're not successful. So they really promote those guys. They wanna see them succeed in the business. So Cool.
Jared Flinn:
Well, definitely listen to this one. You will be fascinated. Along with this company they currently run, though, they have a wealth of knowledge in the trucking industry. So there are gonna be some highlights and some takeaways that you can apply to your business. So with that said, here's my conversation with Kirk Erickson and Rick Johnson. Kirk and Rick, thanks for coming on the podcast. I really appreciate this.
Kirk Erickson:
You're welcome. You're welcome.
Jared Flinn:
So I, I feel very honored to have you men here, especially the the wisdom that you have over the years in trucking.
Rick Johnson:
And I'm sorry. Did you say wisdom? Wisdom. Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
But, yeah, just to share with our audience, man, I just, was super thankful for that. But, let's just start off the the history in trucking where you guys get started. And, Kirk, we'll start with you. Sure. But, yeah, talk about how you got into it.
Kirk Erickson:
Well, actually, I was born into the business a little bit. I, my family had a bulk tanker business in Springfield, Missouri. Started out in Coon Valley, Wisconsin, actually, Ericsson Transport, and I worked for them for 17 years. And I got an opportunity with, Prime Trucking here in Springfield to, start their bulk tanker division. So Robert Lowe and I started that division in 1999, and I ran that until 2010. And, since I've had a couple sales jobs and actually, learned the lease purchase program through Prime largely and then, met Rick Johnson. After that. And, we have gotten together and actually started a lease purchase program that we've had to be very, very, effective for the drivers.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. That's awesome. But you really you started the tanker division at prime. Right?
Rick Johnson:
I did. And that was and
Jared Flinn:
you grew that to when you left was how many?
Kirk Erickson:
A 150 when I left. Wow. So I think they're running about 400 now. 450. So, yeah, it was pretty successful. And, we you know, that's that was my first go at, lease purchase program. The first time I'd really run into that and learned that from Robert. And I think they're still modeling similar, if not the same as they did then.
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. It was very, very, very good program. And, the drivers made good money and modeled some of the things I learned there, with what I do now and then some some of the takeaways I didn't. Yeah. So, Rick,
Rick Johnson:
what about you? I moved to Springfield in 1967. 2 days before my 19th birthday, I went to work in the trucking business. Wow. I've been in ever since. So I don't know how many years that is. If it was a cake, it'd look like a forest fire. But we've, the family and I have stayed together, 3 sons, wife. We've started and bought 10 different companies in the last 10 years, and 3 of those were trucking companies.
Rick Johnson:
We, the last one we sold was a tanker company in 2020. When we started this whole sideline business in 2018 with 1 truck and an idea that we would grow primarily because owner operators today can't get financing. And it's getting worse. Insurance and financing are the big two things. So we decided that we would we saw an opportunity in the market, a little niche, so we put one truck in it, a flatbed truck. And that was in the spring of 2018. We have 152 now. We're buying brand new.
Rick Johnson:
Every year, Kirk and I get together. We'll place a bulk order because that's the only way you can get a huge discount is the more trucks you buy. So and I've been buying trucks from these guys for 20 years. So we buy them, we pay for them, and then we find people that need that kind of truck. Not the traditional heavy iron, you know, bad fuel economy or maintenance, high insurance. We buy, fleet trucks, which are specialized for owner operators. They all have APUs. They're non idle trucks.
Rick Johnson:
5 year, 500,000 mile warranty, mostly Freightliner Cascadias and Peterbilt 5 seventy nines. Wow. Cummins powered, on the Peterbilts, Detroit powered, all 15 liter motors, you can order a 13 manual or a 12 speed automatic. So, a lot of ours are first time buyers, or second. They're a little nervous. So they'll start out with a used truck. And then typically within 18 months, they'll trade it in, get on the list, and order a brand new truck. So that's kind of how we ended up here.
Rick Johnson:
Kinda got out of hand.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Yeah. I wanna kinda peel back a little bit, talking about the lease purchase program. I guess, in in your thoughts I mean, how long has this been around, and why has that seemed to be a better solution? I mean, you talked about how a lot a lot of these people, they can't get financing, so that comes in. But really talk about how it's really been a win win for both the driver, the the the purchaser, the lease purchaser, but even the company that they're running for.
Rick Johnson:
Well, lease purchase got started originally by the large carriers. Now why was that? Because they control the freight and the truck, and it's just a different way to get the guy as a as a, 1099 instead of a w 2. And they put him in a used fleet truck and tell him he's an owner operator, but they control the freight and the truck. So he's really an indentured servant. He has no control. If he loses his job, he loses his truck. If he loses his truck, he loses his job. We don't have any freight.
Rick Johnson:
We have nothing whatsoever to do with where they run, how they run, what they do. We're like a combination bank and truck owner. The only difference in is between us and traditional financing is, 1, we buy the trucks in bulk so they don't have to go to a dealer and pay full retail. 2, we try to put them in a truck without a down payment. And then 3, they have the option. They can pay the truck off and get the title. They can trade it back into us or at any time during the agreement, they can sell it. And if it's, you know, if if they've got equity in it, they can sell it and keep the equity.
Rick Johnson:
And the fact that we don't control the freight and they're allowed to move the truck. We have 28 different customers right now. Well, we have 28 different carriers where drivers have chosen to take their trucks. And we add 1 or 2 practically all the time. Matter of fact, we added another one today. So we don't control the freight. We don't wanna hear about where they go, how they run it. That's none of our business.
Rick Johnson:
It's no different than if you were financing the truck with a bank. You wouldn't call the bank and say, you won't believe the crappy load I got yesterday. We have nothing to do with that.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah.
Rick Johnson:
So they like that, and they like the fact that they don't have to cough up, you know, brand new truck 20% down for owner operators in excess of 40 grand. Yep. So most of them, if they had 40 grand in today's environment, you better keep it.
Jared Flinn:
The other thing and I wanna kick this over to you, Kirk. Like, we had this discussion before. Like, your goal is to make that owner operator successful. Hopefully, that he's successful in the the the package you put in. Some of these lease programs aren't set up that way. Right?
Kirk Erickson:
Well, you're exactly right. It's of no value to Rick or I, either one. If, if the driver's not successful, we're not. If he, if he can't make it up money to make his payments, he's gotta move on or give the truck back. Obviously, we don't want that. So we we look for, we vet other carriers or wherever the driver's gonna go and make sure that the freight that they've got will hold up to make other payments and the driver be very profitable. So, yes, I have seen that, over the years, especially the market has changed considerably to where the needs have gone up quite a bit to make that threshold, you know, whatever the number may be, 5, 6, $7,000 a week in gross revenue. It used to be quite a bit less, but, you know, as we've learned, it's just become a a whole situation of really having a good quality partner with the carrier that you're gonna be going to.
Kirk Erickson:
And as Rick said, we've got a number of them now. We're trying new ones every day. After we go through the program and vet the carrier, then the driver's welcome to try to lease on there with our approval. And we like to try new new companies and new opportunities all the time because that's, really the name of the game, but we want the drivers to be successful. And what they've done in the past is all your larger carriers have taken their old older trucks that they know would probably turn back. And they now they called an owner operator truck, and the driver's pretty much gonna be doomed from the from the get go because he's gonna take off. The truck is gonna break down no matter what. But at some point pretty soon, and, you know, he's gonna be stuck on the side of the road.
Kirk Erickson:
He hadn't made any money yet, and now all of a sudden, he can't make his payment,
Rick Johnson:
and
Kirk Erickson:
he's gonna turn the truck back in. And so the company is getting the truck back. The driver's out in the cold. He's got a bad taste in his mouth.
Jared Flinn:
I don't know if speculating, but that company almost knows that ahead of time.
Kirk Erickson:
Sure they do. Oh, yeah.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. That's part of the deal.
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. That's part of the deal.
Rick Johnson:
Never gonna own that truck.
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. They know that.
Rick Johnson:
I want the trucks paid off gone by the time they're 5 years old.
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. But I just had to pay off the other day. First, I haven't done it for a long time, as long as Rick, but I had to pay off the other day, and I I was glad to see it. That's part of the deal. We know it's gonna happen. It won't happen with everyone, but, you know, percentage wise, I'd say, Rick and I probably see a larger percentage of payoffs than any place. Mhmm. It's a fair deal.
Kirk Erickson:
It's a straight lease. They make all their payments. They'll own that truck.
Jared Flinn:
Hey, guys. Jared Flynn here. Thank you for listening to the Bulkloads podcast. We know that a lot of you subscribe and are members of Bulkloads, but if you are not and if you haven't created an account, click down in the link below and we wanna get you signed up on Bulkloads. We have thousands of loads posted every day, a lot of content to help you improve your business. So if you get a chance, go right below bulkloads.com, click on the link to sign up, and we will get you all taken care of. Thank you, and God bless. Rick, you were talking when you want these carriers placed, a lot of times, you want them to be least on, to a carrier that's got a safety department and all that.
Rick Johnson:
Can you
Jared Flinn:
expand that versus k. Like, you all won't typically lease to an owner operator that's gonna get their own authority and be out there.
Rick Johnson:
That's the biggest risk. An owner operator with our own authority. There's no barrier between us and his insurance. Typical situation is you have a driver, has an accident. Forget whether or not he's at fault. Mhmm. The lawyer swarm like bees.
Tyler Allison:
Mhmm.
Rick Johnson:
They they're coming after this guy and the company he runs for. Even though he didn't have any he wasn't at fault. So the typical deal is the driver first, then they go after the safety department. You know, that's that's their checklist. Did you watch this guy? And then beyond that is the insurance company.
Kirk Erickson:
The deepest pockets.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. And then there's us. We're 4th in line. With the same owner operator, there is no safety department. So He is the safety department.
Kirk Erickson:
He is. He he is.
Rick Johnson:
It's like hiring a drunk to run a tavern. Yeah. You have the driver, and he's responsible for his own actions. So who watches him? So then it goes immediately to the insurance company, and most of them have the minimum 750,000. Well, in today's environment, that's nothing. So then they turn around and come after us.
Kirk Erickson:
Mhmm.
Rick Johnson:
And we're not willing to take that risk, and that's because our name stays on the tide. I mean, we're essentially almost like a bank because the payments are principal and interest. Each week, it applies first to principal then to interest, just like banking software. So accept that our name stays on the title, and that's why they can come after us. We just we can't afford that risk.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. No. That makes perfect sense. Yeah. I wanna move on, and we're gonna get back into the lease, purchase because, I think this is just an awesome program that you guys got going on. But, Rick, I'll start with you. Like, you've been in the business for a while. You've built some companies up and sold them.
Jared Flinn:
Can you talk about let's just start with the mistakes that you made. Know? We we all we all make mistakes. We're like, what were some of those big mistakes that you made, and how did that help you learn to build a better company?
Rick Johnson:
Well, one of the mistakes was when we started the tanker company. At the time, we started drivers wanted to own their own truck. And so we started at least purchasing the trucks for them. But we controlled the truck and the freight. And that we deemed was a mistake. That's why we peeled off and started another company because the drivers were required to run the truck there, and we felt that was
Jared Flinn:
a mistake. Why why was that?
Rick Johnson:
What? Because it's back to the scenario with the big boys did. They control the truck and the freight. Guy's not really independent. He is more of an indentured servant. Okay. So we recognize that in 2018, and that's why we went totally in a different direction on the trucks. So that was probably the biggest thing, and the truck is industry's, evolved. Back then, people wanted the heavy iron, the 389 Peterbilts, the w 900.
Rick Johnson:
You could probably afford them then, but the cost of those trucks, the insurance cost, the fuel economy, the maintenance, even though some of them want those trucks, they simply can't afford them anymore. You wouldn't start a taxi cab company with a Porsche. And we want them to be successful. And one of those things is we wanna make sure that they don't bite off more than they could chew. Because the worst thing that can happen is that they lose the truck. They default. 65% of our buyers are second time buyers. They keep coming back.
Rick Johnson:
Oh, wow. That's what we want. Yep. So that's how we corrected it. The other thing was we we tried some at the time, we had 3 small trucking companies going. And I had 3 sons. The idea was I could sit home in a rocking chair, and they'd run the companies. And that was that was too much at once.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. So we sold them all, and, we sold 2 of them invested in 3rd, and then we built it up and sold it. But, no, we're not gonna sell them, MJ. This is my this is my eventual retirement.
Kirk Erickson:
I'm afraid Rick could cut up and burn any rocking chair you gave him anyway. But
Rick Johnson:
Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Kurt, you you you were for, obviously, one of the largest trucking companies, you know. I did. But what would you say were some of those key things that really drove success there at that company or something that we could learn as industry or an owner operator listening to this that that they had that really got them to be from one truck to I don't know how how many today, 8,000 plus.
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. That that is a good example. I'd say hard work hard work, dedication, and staying focused are probably the main goals.
Jared Flinn:
And think about, like, Prime there, from what I've always understand, everything's incentivized. It is. So, like, there's this model where, I mean, every little thing from I've heard from the secretary's answering the phone to the mechanic, how fast he can repair a trailer. I mean, there's an incentive base or incentive pay on every process out there.
Kirk Erickson:
There probably is on the secretarial level. I don't know. I didn't see that, but I know there is in in management, dispatchers, operations. Everybody is incentivized to a large degree, and I think that that is a great model, especially in trucking, because hard work should pay good. It should pay more than the guy sitting next to you that doesn't wanna work hard, and that doesn't produce. It's based on production. I'm a big fan of of incentivization. I think it's a good a very good model to follow, and, it just it seems to work best.
Kirk Erickson:
I mean, obviously, look what's happened at prod. Yeah. I mean, that's a that's a great example, and they are the master of it. So I would take a lot away from that and say that that's a good program. Awesome. Yeah. Yep.
Rick Johnson:
Rick, I'm gonna go back to
Jared Flinn:
the lease purchase, and I'm thinking about, you know, there's companies out there. What what's the advantage to, you know, say a company, they have 10 trucks
Rick Johnson:
Mhmm.
Jared Flinn:
And they can expand. Maybe they don't wanna purchase any more trucks. What would be the advantage of them bringing on lease operators that basically you supply the truck for? They're just basically leasing them on.
Rick Johnson:
Well, when you're a small company and you go out and spend $210,000 for a new truck, that's on your balance sheet. That's your cash flow day 1. And if you have 5 trucks, that's very difficult to justify going out a limb. If you can hire an owner operator with his own truck, that's a variable cost. So whatever you're gonna pay him as a percent of the load, you get the rest. That's the best way for a small company to grow their business is minimize your risk. And typically at that level, most of them learn the lesson in terms of accounting. And that's the first thing you learn is you may give up a little bit of control because he's an owner operator and he's allowed to move.
Rick Johnson:
But if you treat him right, you pay him well, he's gonna stay, and you don't have to invest a ton of money because the investment is on him. And he can make as much money as he wants, and you're thrilled because for every dollar he makes, you get x percent of that.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. That's good.
Kirk Erickson:
I would I would totally, add to that and say that I think owner operator programs, if they run effectively, are by far the best. I think the driver, when he's got some skin in the game Yep. And has some ownership, it's gonna make a big difference. There's always gonna be a few bad ones out there. But in general, if you manage your owner operator program correctly, I think the drivers are gonna be your best asset. They're gonna work harder. They've got they need to. I think you're gonna get a lot better production per truck.
Rick Johnson:
Do you
Jared Flinn:
ever see in in your experience with some of these programs, do some of these owner operators that that you lease a truck to, they purchase it, but then they actually grow their own fleet?
Rick Johnson:
Mhmm. Sure.
Kirk Erickson:
So I
Jared Flinn:
think that's a that'd be a great way for someone to get into it, but also if they have those aspirations of, you know, someday I wanna have 5 trucks, or I wanna get my own authority and then lease people on, but actually grow into that.
Rick Johnson:
First thing you have to teach them is accounting. You know, the idea may be great, but where's your business plan? Put it down on a piece of paper. Understand what your expenses are gonna be and approach it in that manner. And if you got a guy that's got a good credit history and he's got a really good head on shoulders, and a lot of them too have a a wife or a partner somewhere that helps them. So it's a hard business to start by yourself. The other thing we try to do for these smaller guys is we provide maintenance support on the truck from day 1 until it's paid off. You have a maintenance account, but it's not a we we pay 4% compounded interest weekly so that they have money set aside that they can see. It's their bank account.
Rick Johnson:
They can see it online. They know exactly what they got in there. But it's not just the money. It's if they break down or they have a problem. We have 2 people, and their full time job is to handle their needs because you don't want them out there all by themselves.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah.
Rick Johnson:
If they have a flat at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, they're out in the middle of nowhere, then we have them find, you know, get a truck, get it to them, get it fixed, get it back on the road. We pay for it out of their maintenance account, and they drive off. The idea is so we can help them flat rate their expenses. So if they're budgeting, they can't budget for an alternator that failed on the side of the road and cost them $2,000. But what they can budget for is what their weekly is, and then they can see that variable account we manage for them. But it's their money. And, it does pay 4% compounded weekly. So it it builds up in a hurry.
Rick Johnson:
And but the big thing for them is not necessarily the money. It's the support. Exactly.
Jared Flinn:
When I was just the organization that they like, somebody's helping them stay structured and organized that they have a maintenance account. Right. And when that issue happens, which is gonna happen and soon as you're gonna get a flight, it just it's bound to happen that there's a plan in place, and it's not just
Rick Johnson:
Right.
Jared Flinn:
Oh my gosh. I don't have the money to do this.
Kirk Erickson:
And they can get ahold of somebody Yeah. All the time. Somebody
Rick Johnson:
Cash their money.
Kirk Erickson:
It's their money.
Rick Johnson:
It's not our money. It's a liability on our books. But there's usually $300,000 in that account. Well, in all of the accounts. But they can see it. And when they get it and there's no charge for this. There's no charge for the maintenance support or anything. The only time they ever see a charge is if we have to pay, like, a ComCheck fee to get a repair done.
Rick Johnson:
And the repairs, $1500 plus $4 for the ComCheck fee. When they look at that receipt and they can see it online, they can print the receipt themselves. When they see that receipt, they'll see the exact cost of repair, exact cost of the comm check, and no fee from us whatsoever. It's a part of what we do to make them successful, and that's 2 full time people that that man those phones. Kurt, correct me if I'm wrong, but
Jared Flinn:
on some of these lease programs, are are you all you are getting the getting paid and then paying the driver.
Rick Johnson:
Is that correct? So you're
Jared Flinn:
handling the money, you know, so whatever they lease onto end of the week or whatever, that company is settling with you and then you're settling with the driver.
Kirk Erickson:
Sure. Yeah. And they all do it a little differently.
Jared Flinn:
You're not? Okay. You're doing that and but on your and since driver get gets paid then pays you the the agreement
Rick Johnson:
We have 2 different programs. Yep. Okay. 1 is you have some very large carriers who will agree to take that money out of their settlement and send to us. Right. Then you have some companies that you have 10 trucks there. That doesn't make sense. So those guys sign up for an automatic bank draft, and it's a specific amount.
Rick Johnson:
It's the same amount each week, the same day, same time. And then they know in their business account how much they need to have in that bank account on Friday or Monday or whatever it is. So there's 2 ways to set it up, and and it works. Yeah. Works very nice either way.
Jared Flinn:
That's awesome. You're talking about and they're one of, a big company in our space, Bruce Oakley Trucking.
Rick Johnson:
Love them. That that down there last week.
Jared Flinn:
You were down there last week, but, yeah, you you've placed a lot of owner or lease purchase owner operators over there. Right?
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. We started with them about 2 years ago. We've got on a truck and then 2 and then 3. And I think we have 10 there now, and I have a well, I have a brand new. And if you looked at website, you would see a brand new 579 that went down there last week. And it it actually shows on our website going to Bruce Oakley Trucking. Oh, that's awesome. And he is one of our success stories.
Rick Johnson:
He started with us at the tank line 9 years ago. He paid off a truck. Then he got a 389, which he wanted, and he paid that truck off. And he went to Bruce Oakley. He ran that. He put 980 1,000 miles on that truck and decided it was time to put a bullet in his head before it
Kirk Erickson:
came up. Yeah.
Rick Johnson:
And so he called me and said, you got anything coming? And so I set him up, and he special ordered that 579 that you see on there. He wanted the twin stacks. Now this is a 389 guy. Yep. That has realized that the cost operating that all 389, that he's spending too much money doing that with the fuel and the maintenance. So he loved getting that new 579.
Kirk Erickson:
He's making it look as much like a 389 as
Rick Johnson:
he can. Oh, yeah. So he's He's polished tanks. He wanted the external
Jared Flinn:
Oh, nice.
Rick Johnson:
And all that. So and a 13 speed. So that's what he got. And he would got the color he wanted.
Kirk Erickson:
But he's getting the fuel economy.
Rick Johnson:
He totally doesn't believe the fuel economy. He went from 5a half to 9a half. That was 500 something dollars a week.
Jared Flinn:
Oh my gosh. And his wife
Rick Johnson:
loved it. Yeah. Because she saves the money.
Kirk Erickson:
Yep. Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
Well and I wanted you to even touch on that. I'm glad we're talking about that, but, like, that's a big mistake. And, again, I I want this to come out of your mouth, not mine, but, like, the issue of some of these trucks that these guys buy and this emotional tie versus really getting something that's gonna optimize
Rick Johnson:
Right. Performance and efficiency. Sure. What what's the number one reason he's in business? Make money. To look going down the highway or is it to make money? Because if you wanna look good going down the highway, go to somebody else. If you wanna make money, do it the right way. It's money that you save. And most of them well, I said most of them, that's not fair.
Rick Johnson:
A lot of them don't really put a pencil to the difference in in what it costs. So you got a his truck was and he put 700,000 miles on himself, so he knew exactly what it operated at. He was a 5.5 mile a gallon truck. We'll do the math. 5.5 miles a gallon, $4 a gallon versus 9 and a half $4 a gallon. And they're like, well, it's only so much so much. I said, you know, how much that is in money? And we have a calculator that will tell them when you when you're specking a truck exactly how much you're gonna give up in fuel. So if you wanna waste that much money and and and try to go for the heavier iron, which is way more expensive, then you probably don't fit the program because your chance of failure is more than twice what his is.
Rick Johnson:
Well, yeah. We wanna we want them to be successful, but you have to do the math and think of the money.
Kirk Erickson:
And that's why we got away from even giving them that choice. That choice is already done. We've made it for them. They're gonna have a truck that's gonna be fuel efficient. And that way, they will be much more prone to be successful.
Rick Johnson:
And that doesn't mean it's a dog. Yeah. Because a lot of them are like, oh, jeez. You're gonna buy these little bitty
Kirk Erickson:
pack our
Rick Johnson:
motors, and then we'll run. Don't have it. We we don't we don't buy those because we know what it costs to maintain them. You can't pull heavier loads with a 12 or 13 loader motor and have it hold up. You gotta go at least 15 liters. Yep. And that's all we buy. So, yeah, it's it's not a it's not a cheap fleet truck.
Rick Johnson:
It it's not one that's gutless. We don't, you know, we don't spec them with 2 64 rear ends in them where they won't pull. We try to spec them where it's a it's a perfect spot between fuel economy and power.
Kirk Erickson:
Mhmm.
Rick Johnson:
So our trucks with 13 speed, we normally spec up 325 rear end, and that gives them about 1250 RPMs at 67 miles an hour. Yep. And that's a sweet spot for them. And when you tell them that, they know exactly what you're talking about then. Banks don't know that, but the truck driver does.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. And you guys have years of experience even explaining it to them that they wouldn't even know that. Is so when you're spec in trucks, are there different specs for different companies that they'll be going to, or is it is it pretty close to the same? Like, is is is a truck that you're gonna be placed that's gonna be placed over Bruce Oakley gonna be different than a truck that you got somewhere else? Are they all relatively
Rick Johnson:
They're very close.
Kirk Erickson:
Pretty close. Okay.
Rick Johnson:
But they can special order. For example, if you're if you're wanting a condo, we can do that. A lot of our trucks, well, the bulk of them are mid roof.
Kirk Erickson:
Mid roof.
Rick Johnson:
Because we specialize in in dump, anchor, upper bottom, flatbed. Yep. So those are all midriff. You don't need the extra space. But they can order a condo. They can order with or without the fairings depending on the look of the truck. But we try to stay away from the highly specialized. You know, the 18 speed, 565 horse, triple axle.
Rick Johnson:
That's not our right. And that business is very spotty. So we try to spec a truck that fits that environment. And strangely enough, our truck fits all 4 of those perfectly. And you mentioned earlier the weight. We want the dry weight of our trucks to be about 18 1.
Jared Flinn:
Oh, wow.
Rick Johnson:
Which means with fuel, because we spec aluminum cross members, aluminum bell housings, all that sort of stuff to keep the weight off. So our loaded weight I mean, our weight with with fuel and driver on board, we want that weight to be around 19 5 tops. Yeah. And Bruce Oak you mentioned Bruce Oakley trucking. They won't take a truck heavier. If it's £20,000 or over, they won't lease it all. And Because it's too heavy.
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. Right. And our largest customers are in the liquid bulk business. So, primarily, they're all in 46, 47, £48,000 max load all the time, every time. So they've got to be spec'd out to pull that kind of payload all day long. Yeah. And that's what
Jared Flinn:
By the way, in the hopper bottom business, just back in the years I mean, we were always based in 25, 26 tons.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah.
Kirk Erickson:
Is that right? Yep. Like that we're
Jared Flinn:
we're figuring that rate, like, hey. This guy's gotta be hauling 25, 26 tons to make pull it. Yeah.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. And when he's got a heavy tractor and a heavy trailer, he's at a huge disadvantage. Yep.
Jared Flinn:
Some people are loving it. Are these trucks so you I mean, you're specking these out really even sometimes before the placement of that owner operator.
Kirk Erickson:
I mean,
Jared Flinn:
you know exactly just kinda what you're getting. You're getting them up and then you got those trucks already at hand Yep. To get
Rick Johnson:
Right. But the average buyer, the guys, he he got started with the used truck because he's tippy toeing into the business. And then when he's successful and we see it and he sees it, then he can come to us and say, okay. I wanna trade this truck in on a new one. What do you have coming? And that's when we talk. Do you want polished tanks, or do you want the do you want the skirts? Do you want the side fairings? You know? But one of the things we always spec is the new electric style APUs. We don't want them idle in the truck. We don't even want them burning diesel when they're, right, when they're taking their break.
Rick Johnson:
They all have refrigerators. They all have, you know, plug ins for their all their amenities so you don't have to run an inverter. But they can modify it. You want twin vertical stacks because it's just a look thing. There's an exhaust coming through the driver's side vertical. It just
Kirk Erickson:
looks good. Don't say that.
Rick Johnson:
Well, it's true. There's nothing coming through that. Just needs one exhaust.
Kirk Erickson:
I see. There really is just one exhaust.
Rick Johnson:
So they get to customize a little to make their own. And then the only thing they pay for is if there is an up charge beyond what our bulk price is. Yeah. So that's all they would have to pay us in order to get on the slot for that. Now if they're a first time buyer, we may want some sort of a deposit because I don't want a special order or some sort of a truck. And then the guy in 6 months say, oh, well, my wife made me get out of the truck, and you you're gonna have to give it to somebody else. For a
Kirk Erickson:
$1,000 worth of graphics, that sort of thing. Oh, yeah. The electronic Rob does. Yep.
Rick Johnson:
Yep. They'll take and put their own logos on them. They'll make some of them to put a wrap. The color, believe it or not, the hardest thing for them to make up their mind is the color. Yeah. You want a 13 speed manual, or do you want a 12 speed automatic? Yeah. But all of our trucks are PTO compatible. That way, we don't worry about Mhmm.
Rick Johnson:
You don't need that with a hopper. Yep. But if you switch to an endo, you gotta have it. Our mechanics are familiar with wet kits all day long. They know what you need. That's why it comes that way. If it doesn't have a PTOS button 1 ounce piece of cake.
Kirk Erickson:
Sure.
Rick Johnson:
So that's our business.
Jared Flinn:
You, you send your mechanics. You have shop up here or your own mechanics at
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. If you, if you check our website, that's a picture of our building here in town.
Jared Flinn:
Okay. Nice.
Rick Johnson:
We lease a part of that building to Keenan Advantage Group
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah.
Rick Johnson:
Because they're a big tanker customer. They bought our old tank line. Yep. But we also have our own mechanics in the shop down there, and we do that. And if we get overburdened, then we have the mechanics at the other end pick up the slack because those guys, the bulk of them used to work for me anyhow. So, the truck goes down there for me. But the idea is a driver in motion goes ahead of the line. If you have a truck that needs the alternators going out and you take it to x y z, and he says, man, we're swamped.
Kirk Erickson:
Even if he's under a load.
Rick Johnson:
I can't I can't get to you for 3 days. That guy's gotta go. Yep. Out of town drivers go to the head of the class. You stop what you're doing and take care of the out of town.
Jared Flinn:
That's awesome.
Kirk Erickson:
Every time.
Rick Johnson:
Every time. And if he's broke down and it's gonna be 3 weeks on the back order, I got loaner trucks in the yard. Which one you want? Yep. And if he and if he's broke down for 72 hours or more, he doesn't owe a payment for the week. Because if the truck broke, you can't expect him to pay for something
Jared Flinn:
That's awesome.
Rick Johnson:
That broke. Yeah. Because that's that's just not right. Now you cannot call up and say, I'm gonna go fishing with my uncle Joe. That's what you can watch.
Kirk Erickson:
Susie's birthday. Hello, Susie. Flick.
Rick Johnson:
Because that's me hanging up. Yeah. But, yeah, that's that's what we do. So and if you need a loaner truck, let's say we have to rent 1 for you.
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. We can do it.
Rick Johnson:
Pick. You wanna make your payment, or do you wanna pay for the rental, but you don't pay for 2?
Kirk Erickson:
That's right.
Rick Johnson:
So it bites us sometimes. But
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah.
Rick Johnson:
Once again, that guy didn't budget for 2 trucks. And it happens normally when there's a part shortage Yeah. Or in the case of an accident. So if we know it's gonna be 3 months before a part comes in and it has happened and it will again, then we say, what do you want? Do you want a a short term rental or do you wanna just give us back this truck and take that one right there? So the whole objective is he can't make money if he's sitting at home waiting on a part shortage. Yeah. He he he has to he has to move. So if he wants to work, we'll find a solution. Sure.
Jared Flinn:
I love that you all have I mean, obviously, you have skin in the game. They have skin in the game, but it's it's a really win win. It's not like
Rick Johnson:
That's right. This isn't
Jared Flinn:
a zero sum like, hey. You're on your own. Tough luck. Like, you want them to win. I mean, it's not it's your It's our best interest.
Rick Johnson:
It's your best interest. I mean, we're we're in lock step with them until the day the truck's paid off. And check this. Those guys are gonna be back. Yeah. A truck is a rapidly depreciating item. And sooner or later, he's gonna put a bow in its head. And 65% of our buyers right now are 2nd time or 3rd.
Rick Johnson:
So That's huge. It is. It speaks volumes. And it's all we've never done a podcast. It's all word-of-mouth
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah.
Rick Johnson:
Or they'll see it on the Internet, but we don't spend money on advertising because our best source of leads come from the drivers in our trucks. They see that truck. It's a good looking truck. They talk to the guy. If it's a good deal, you treat him right. He'll tell 10 people. Yeah. 1 of them will call you.
Kirk Erickson:
They said he's making money.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. If it's a bad deal, he'll tell 20 people. Yeah. And none of them will ever call you. So we live and die by what we've done with the guys who come before us. That's awesome. All he wants is a fair deal.
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. That's right.
Jared Flinn:
This is a big question, but this is something I know guys maybe just even looking on the outskirts, getting into this industry. But, like, I mean, and we're in kind of a depressed market right now, but, like, some of these programs, what's that driver at the end of the year gonna walk home with? Like, what what's gonna be his taxable income after all expenses paid on average?
Rick Johnson:
If he doesn't make double what he would as a company driver, he probably shouldn't take the risk. Company driver
Jared Flinn:
is So that's a rule of thumb. If he's not gonna make double what he would as a company
Kirk Erickson:
driver That's true. That's right. Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
That's pretty good, actually.
Rick Johnson:
That's what you need to shoot for because if you're gonna take the risk, a company driver is a commodity.
Jared Flinn:
Yep. It's like
Rick Johnson:
to me, it's like punching a clock. A clock in at 8 o'clock, and I clock at x. They get paid x number stands for driving x number of miles, essentially. So regardless of the program they're on, it's a a kind of a controlled commodity. In our case, he can make as much money as he can, as long as he's willing to work. He has a brain attached, and he has a good truck. Right.
Kirk Erickson:
The end of the year? 4 years ago is a lot different than now. Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
But, I
Rick Johnson:
mean If they don't make a $100,000 by the end of the year, they're doing something wrong even in this economy.
Kirk Erickson:
Okay. On the high side, I think I've seen drivers make as much as 250.
Rick Johnson:
That was in 2022. Yep. I had one of them at 3.
Jared Flinn:
They were taking home.
Kirk Erickson:
3 150. I take home. Mhmm. Yep. That's right. Pay taxes on.
Rick Johnson:
Wow. Yeah. So it's
Kirk Erickson:
my fault. Driver make that much.
Rick Johnson:
The most important thing in all of it is the truck and his mindset.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah.
Rick Johnson:
If he has to be home every weekend to check on the little wife and he's got this and that, he's
Kirk Erickson:
gonna He's gonna he's gonna struggle.
Rick Johnson:
He's gonna struggle. Yeah. He he needs to be probably in a company truck because he's really not ready to make that investment.
Kirk Erickson:
Of time.
Rick Johnson:
Of time. Yeah. But by the same token, we don't expect him to go out there and live in the truck. That's right. We just want him to matter of fact, we don't we don't really pursue those guys. We want the ones that wanna that wanna work hard. They wanna work safe. They wanna watch their money.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. And they wanna make way more on what a company truck pays. Right. And they don't wanna drive that piece of crap company truck. I'm sorry, but
Kirk Erickson:
that's They usually are.
Rick Johnson:
Well, I'm sorry, but they're facts. Facts.
Kirk Erickson:
Good examples.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. They they they expect the financial people at these large companies are the ones that buy the trucks. And they scan him down. They wanna get it as cheap as they can. Yep. And an owner operator doesn't wanna drive that cheap plain thing Manila company truck. He just does. So let's give him something he's proud of that he can make the money with and then the rest of it too.
Rick Johnson:
Be dead honest when
Jared Flinn:
I say, like, I've always had a bad taste in my mouth on lease purchase programs. And again, that's what I've seen and, like, the how these truckers have been preyed on.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We started Goldberg
Jared Flinn:
years ago to give smaller operators more power, more freedom. You know, it's always something I've always lived and breathe my legs. We we didn't care. It wasn't about if we help these guys, we're gonna be fine. You know? I love that you guy it seems like you guys are figuring out a way with the per lease purchase program that actually works. It's actually benefiting the dryers.
Rick Johnson:
Are you Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
And, again, I'm not saying that it's both smoking. It's like Yeah. I'm not saying, like, you're like, you're not you're a good salesman, but, like, this is actually, like it's awesome to hear. It's relieving to hear because in my mind and I've even done some of these previous podcasts where, like, I've been, like, the least like, some of these companies, like, stay away. Don't do it because
Kirk Erickson:
Oh, yeah.
Jared Flinn:
Like, you're just, like, you're setting yourself up for failure, but this
Kirk Erickson:
You are.
Rick Johnson:
They control the truck and the freight. What chance do you have? Now are you familiar with the federal task force on lease purchase agreement?
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. It's it's getting to be a federal level there.
Rick Johnson:
They have Yeah. They have 8 people assigned. But the check has signed them about a year ago to determine what is the problem with the predatory lease purchase program.
Kirk Erickson:
Standard ball.
Rick Johnson:
Best thing they ever did. Yeah. And you know the one thing they came up with first. The one thing. And the guy in charge of that committee is a personal injury lawyer. Sorry, guys. Don't throw rocks at me. I've been hiring.
Rick Johnson:
But he came up with the fact that the basic problem with the lease purchase program is that the company, for the most part, the company controls the truck and the freight.
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. It is predatory.
Jared Flinn:
It controls it all.
Kirk Erickson:
It is predatory.
Rick Johnson:
And then Very aggressive. By the fact that was present, it's predatory. Yep. So he suggests that they simply take or remove that option. If you are a lease purchase company, they should be allowed to move the truck. You cannot have controlling interest in both companies. Yep. And the second thing was that his recommendation was that they not do at least purchase a single owner operators for the very thing I just talked about.
Rick Johnson:
Yeah. Because the risk is too great. Yeah. So that's the direction they're going, and you can check the federal register. They had a meeting June 14th, and they made about every 60 days. So I I watched those articles that come out. That's the direction they're heading. So if they could ever get a consensus, if they just Yeah.
Rick Johnson:
Whether it's a law, a rule, or how they word it, if they just eliminate the fact that the same company controls both. Yeah. Go ahead. Then the lease purchase program, our business will explode. We we have to get ahold of Bill Gates to get enough money to fund all of this.
Kirk Erickson:
It would.
Rick Johnson:
Because she sure won't give it to you.
Kirk Erickson:
And and it's gonna happen. It's just a matter of time. I think it is definitely gonna happen.
Rick Johnson:
It'll happen. It has to happen.
Jared Flinn:
Yep. It's just it allows more for a free market.
Kirk Erickson:
Sure.
Jared Flinn:
With these guys.
Kirk Erickson:
Exactly right.
Rick Johnson:
In a nitric server anymore.
Kirk Erickson:
That's exactly right.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Wow. Well, just to kinda land this plane and and sum up here, Rick and Eric or excuse me, Rick and Kirk, Kirk.
Kirk Erickson:
You're good.
Jared Flinn:
To for these guys are listening to podcasts, and maybe they wanna learn more about what you all offer. We discussed a lot today. What's really the next step for them to reach out
Rick Johnson:
to you all? Well, we each have a website. Yep.
Jared Flinn:
And we'll put those if you wanna say it, and we'll put those links if you listen on the podcast. Okay. You'll be able to see them in the episode notes, but the website is
Rick Johnson:
It's mjleasingllc.com.
Jared Flinn:
Okay.
Rick Johnson:
It has a picture of our facility on the front, so you can see it's a real business. It's not a backwoods deal. Yeah. We have pictures of our It looks great. Our available trucks on there, and you can see what they are, the miles, the just like like you're going to the dealer. Yeah. Then there's a tab that has frequently asked questions because every question that we've covered here today is what a lot of them are gonna ask. So if someone has asked that question more than twice in 6 months, we've published that in the FAQ.
Rick Johnson:
So you can read through the the questions the other guys have asked, and what's the answer? So you get a really good idea of the program there. And then if you're interested, there is a little credit app you can fill out with your cell phone. It takes about 2 minutes. It encrypts the file, sends it to 2 people within our organization. And then we look at him, we assess him, and then we see if we if we think he's got a chance of making it. Yeah. So we try to qualify him with no money down. It isn't always possible, but it it largely some of
Kirk Erickson:
the time it is. Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
Is, is there a certain percentage of people that were in bad lease purchase programs before
Rick Johnson:
That's nice.
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. So I'd say a lot of them. Yeah. They're skeptical, very skeptical when they come off.
Rick Johnson:
They're worried to death. Yep.
Kirk Erickson:
But they were yeah. They've been they've been hurt. They've been hurt.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. And then, Kirk, for yours, it's krmlease.com. That'll get to me.
Kirk Erickson:
That'll get to you. So we're similar site.
Jared Flinn:
For the listeners, which do they hit for who do they contact first?
Kirk Erickson:
Well, we don't We yeah. We're both very similar.
Rick Johnson:
We No. Yeah. You guys are working together. We yeah. We don't compete.
Kirk Erickson:
Yeah. We actually help
Rick Johnson:
He has a driver. Yeah. And I have the truck, then we share that. The idea is to try to get that guy set up with what we got, available. And if we don't have it, if Kirk does, we send them to him. Because at the end of the day, we're not we're not really worried about customers. They're coming to us for a reason. Yeah.
Rick Johnson:
We just wanna get more of it.
Kirk Erickson:
So Yeah. That's exactly right. Yeah. We don't compete. We help each other.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Awesome. Well, Kirk Erickson, Rick Johnson, man, thank you so much for coming to podcast. Again, I've just met you guys recently and Thank you. Man, you sold me on this. I think, I love what you're doing, and you've really changed my mind on the lease purchase. And, again, there's different programs out there for every different person, but I think this is
Kirk Erickson:
We could both give you all kinds of examples from drivers that it's been very successful for.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. It's just, it's a breath of fresh air. So, hey, thank you all for coming on the show. God bless you.
Kirk Erickson:
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Jared Flinn:
Tyler, there was so much wisdom, I think, that Rick and Kirk unpacked Yep. In this show. But, one thing, I guess, that really caught my eye when when they talked about how they had the knowledge when specking out trucks. Yeah. And specifically, you know you know, Rick comes from well, they both come from the bulk in, you know, side of things. So they know exactly what these companies are looking for and the best way to spec a truck out to have really the best ROI. And I think that's one thing. And maybe, you know, a little bit in the industry, you know, driving a truck, but, man, they have really just, I guess, got laser focused on when they're ordering trucks for specific companies, they exactly know.
Jared Flinn:
And, again, I didn't realize how many of their trucks, especially Rick, that actually are, that go to Bruce Oakley, trucking business.
Tyler Allison:
Yeah. I was shocking to find that out. But, yeah, he's exactly right. I mean, whenever you're getting into this business, you're getting into make money. Right? Like, everybody wants to look good going down the road. I'm a fan of the good looking trucks.
Jared Flinn:
But It's a it's a, like, it's it's a tough thing because you wanna look good. We got a beautiful truck up here. And then and then all 4 of those, but also at the same time, the truck's gotta make a profit. And there's gotta be a balance between yeah.
Tyler Allison:
Yeah. Exactly.
Jared Flinn:
So I just yeah. I think this was cool. And, and, yeah, I like what he said. You wanna be, you know, you wanna buy a Porsche to start taxi cabs. Yes. That's just good advice there.
Tyler Allison:
So One thing I thought was interesting is that 65% of their buyers come back to, you know, lease a second truck. And I think that just speaks volumes of if if guys are coming back to him, then they know the program works.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. And they want a program where guys are continue to come back. They're owning trucks. They're doing more programs. This isn't a program where they're trying to weed out people, and they're getting them in these, I hate to say, a predatorial agreements where the driver's gonna be destined to fail. They have a very good success rate with this.
Tyler Allison:
So Yeah. So I'd say for anybody listening or watching, if you if you're thinking about a lease purchase, obviously, do your own research outside of this? There are different advantages and disadvantages of different programs out there. But I think there's just that bad taste in people's mouth whenever lease purchase programs get mentioned. And until, like, we really dove into this podcast, you can see how they're they're different. Yep.
Jared Flinn:
And I yeah. I think I say this, like, there are so many different ways to skin a cat. I think if you're looking to expand your business, you know, maybe a lease purchase program, you know, to grow your trucking company might be the option, may not be. But, man, it takes a lot of the a lot of the pressure on those assets off you Yep. And puts it on the driver, but you can still actually add capacity and serve your clients. So there's just so many ways to slice and dice and look at this. And, again, we wanted to bring this, you know, first and foremost to our audience to look at this as maybe another option out
Tyler Allison:
there. So if you're curious, we'll drop the link below. Mjleasing.com. You can go visit their website. I'm sure you can either, call them up, and they'd be happy to give you advice whether it's a good fit for you or not.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Cool. Couple of things before we head out of here. Conference is
Tyler Allison:
we're
Jared Flinn:
getting that squared away. I I've had people ask about actually, I'm gonna say this real quick. I I was on a call today with a guy, and he was at our conference. And he works professionally, you know, office cubicle, and they have to have some kind of key badge. He took our lanyard, and he uses it as key badge. But he wears the, basically, the lanyard that we gave out every day as a reminder of the Bocalist conference. It was best conference to
Tyler Allison:
Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. That's really good to hear. Yep. So we are planning for the next one already for the 2025 conference. We don't have dates squared away yet, but we are getting close to actually lining those out. The best way for you to get notified instantly whenever we do make those updates is go to boltfreightconference.com.
Tyler Allison:
You can enter your email there, and we'll, we'll keep you updated along the way. Yeah. Awesome. Cool. One other thing I wanted to point out, we had that, I forget who it was. You might know. But we sent out a t shirt, and she posted it online. And she made a whole video unboxing the shirt and everything.
Tyler Allison:
I thought that was the coolest thing. If you if you wanna know what we're talking about, you can head over to our LinkedIn. We actually shared the post, but I'd encourage anybody if you're getting swag or anything like that and you wanna show it off, just simply post it on social media and tag us. We'd love to see it.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Kate, thank you for doing that. She said she was new to the freight industry. She found the bookless podcast, been listening to it just to gain insight. So, man, from the bottom of our heart, thank you so much
Tyler Allison:
It's so cool to see.
Jared Flinn:
For doing that and promoting that. We, we absolutely love that.
Rick Johnson:
So Yeah. Awesome.
Jared Flinn:
Cool. Man, well, that's it for this show. As we do on at the end of every show, we wanna pray for you, and your companies out there. Man, we know that there's a lot that we need prayer for, especially for our company right now. Man, some of the events that's taking place, you know, week 4 last is just earth shattering.
Tyler Allison:
Yep.
Jared Flinn:
And we wanna acknowledge those and and and really be praying. And we believe God, when we petition our prayers to him, he does answer those, maybe not in the way we want to, but in the way that he feels, we will benefit from. So, Tyler, you wanna close us today?
Tyler Allison:
Lord, we come to you today just to thank you and praise you, Lord. We ask that, this week you just provide us just wisdom, and grace, Lord. We ask that you just, play a part in every business decision that we have to make, Lord. And we ask that you, you just bless every one of our members and viewers out there, Lord. We know that there's a lot of, unsteadiness going on, Lord. And we ask that, we just can tug on your shoulder and rely on you to bring us strength and peace to continue on, Lord. We ask that, no matter what we do, Lord, we do it for you and others can see that, Lord, and that we are a light, for everyone out there, Lord. We love you and we thank you.
Tyler Allison:
Amen. Amen.
Jared Flinn:
Thank you as always for listening to the boatloads podcast. If you haven't yet, don't forget to click down the subscribe button in the lower left hand corner. That way you won't ever miss an episode. We produce more than just podcasts, great video content. We have a lot coming out, so and make sure and subscribe to that. Please send to, a friend or poo or share on your social media. That way, we can get this in the hands of others out there that can benefit and thrive in trucking. So thank you very much, and as always, God bless.
