Jared Flinn:
You're listening to the B Floats podcast, your number one resource for everything bold freight trucking. Hey, guys, Jared Flynn with the Bulk Loads podcast. Got Tyler with me.
Tyler:
What's going on?
Jared Flinn:
Let's kick it off with that truck feature.
Tyler:
Yep, today we got Michael and Tracy Lynn Chase with Chase Trekking out of Dillsboro, Indiana. They have been a member with us since 2016, so quite a few years.
Jared Flinn:
I've met him a couple times. They've been at Matt's.
Tyler:
Yep. Yeah, they've been at Matt's, I think all the times that we've been there and they've stopped by the booth and stuff. We've seen them, got to visit with them. But this picture is really cool. Yeah, I love those. Yeah, the blue one, it's obviously the better looking one, but they're both sharp. They're both sharp Kenworths. Yep.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah, super cool. And if I remember right, they are featured on our calendar, right?
Tyler:
You're not supposed to. You're not supposed to.
Jared Flinn:
Oh, crap. You're gonna have to go back and.
Tyler:
Edit while we're on that, though. Yes, we did. We do have the calendars placed and we are getting those shortly. So we're gonna be giving some away free of charge as well to our listeners and subscribers. So stay tuned for that in our next episode. We'll more info on how to get one.
Jared Flinn:
But one thing we are going to give away this episode are these nice vests. So we've had several people ask that have emailed me or sent me direct messages how they get a vest. We ordered these in for the company, but I always order a lot. And we have extras that we want to give away. We have a navy blue. You have that olive or the green one. We have black and all that. All different sizes.
Jared Flinn:
So if you want to vest, what do they need to do?
Tyler:
I think they got a comment on this podcast and they got a specifically to stand up.
Jared Flinn:
These vests are nice. Keep talking.
Tyler:
Yeah. So all you have to do to get one of these to be entered to win to get one. We'll choose one or two people in the comments. You just got to leave a comment. What issues have you dealt with? A driver shortage. Let's do that.
Jared Flinn:
Okay.
Tyler:
Talk about your experience with driver shortage in the comments.
Jared Flinn:
And then at the end, just put V E S T at the end of the comment and we'll get one to you. We do have a limited amount of these, but yeah, if you want one, happy to send these out free of charge. They're nice looking. Vest us. Very fitting for upcoming holidays.
Tyler:
Yep.
Jared Flinn:
Put that plug in there. So, yeah, reach out. We'd be honored to gift these to you free of charge. And yeah, just comment down below.
Tyler:
Yeah. Awesome.
Jared Flinn:
So awesome. Well, with that said, today I'm going to bring on Todd Vettel with Trucker Force and International Workforce Services. They are CDL company. Todd signed up on the board this summer and have had a couple conversations with him. Love what he's doing. He's been in. Actually, he's a military veteran. We'll talk about that bit.
Jared Flinn:
But then worked for ADM for a while on the operation side and then started the CDL school. And then now they even have their trucking company. And I like this one. And we have not had a CDL school on. We know that now it's a mandate. All new CDL applicants have to go through CDL school, a certified CDL school, which they are, and Todd's going to talk about that. But they have a little bit different angle on what they do, and that's what I think we're really going to share on this. But we hear it all the time.
Jared Flinn:
There is a driver shortage, Quality driver shortage. I should explain. And how do we do that? Todd's going to come on here and talk about that. He's right here in the good old Midwest up in Columbus, Nebraska. And I think, man, we are always trying to find ways that we can bring good content, good speakers, good podcasts, but give you valuable information to help grow your business. And we think this is going to be one of them.
Tyler:
Yeah. And I can tell Todd, you know, the way that he. He built this companies, you know, they. They're just sol really what he was saying with the drivers, that they make sure that they succeed. So even if they don't, you know, succeed the first time, they don't make them pay, you know, another fee or anything. They just go back in and help them make sure that they are bringing up quality drivers. And then also just the faith aspect of it that he incorporates with these guys, you know, whenever they show up, that he hands them, you know, a bible and stuff, and that way they can get to work.
Jared Flinn:
Yep. Well, we'll touch on those things that Tyler just said a little bit after the podcast. So with that said, here's my conversation with Todd Vettel of International Workforce Services. Todd, thanks for coming on.
Todd Vettel:
Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Well, we connected, really, just over the last month, and you graciously said yes to coming on the bulk loads. Podcast. But yeah, you're a newer member if I, if I'm not mistaking on the bull clothes. And we've chatted back and forth but love your story and yeah, just to kick us off like take us from down to the beginning. Are you a Nebraska native?
Todd Vettel:
Yeah, I was born and mostly raised in Nebraska. My dad was in ag business so always been around it. He. He got relocated to Illinois. So I went to high school in Illinois. So yeah, the Midwest is definitely home for me.
Jared Flinn:
And went into the military. Right. Can you talk about that?
Todd Vettel:
Yep. So I always had the military written on my heart since a little boy for whatever reason just was and wanted to be a commando or something like that. So I joined the Marine Corps, knew exactly what I wanted to do and right out of high school was, was there and I was, I was in when 911 happened. So I had two post 911 deployments and met my wife in the last year that I was in the military station in California at the time and we've since obviously come back to the Midwest and I've converted her into a highly conservative Midwesterner now. And yeah, we're settled. Settled back into Nebraska.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Well, first off, thank you for your service number one. But you said you always knew that was other family members. Did they serve and you just knew that it was no, you know, both.
Todd Vettel:
Grandpa on both sides. They were in World War II. So I think that's kind of a lot of a lot of the same story with guys our age. You know, Grant grandpa was in World War II and you know an uncle here and there in Vietnam. But no, my didn't have any brothers. My dad wasn't military. My brothers had no interest in it for whatever reason. I just remember being a young kid and I liked the military.
Todd Vettel:
It just was always there. So that's what I wanted to do. And when, when it came to 17, 18 years old, I didn't need recruited. I, you know, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to go into the Army Rangers of the Marine Corps infantry. And that's, you know, I took the Marine Corps route because I guess they, they did a better job selling it. Their, their uniforms and their marketing is pretty intense and that's kind of. I was an intense individual so I just walked right down that path ironically.
Jared Flinn:
So you said your grandpa's. So my, my grandpa Flynn was an Army Ranger in World War II, was at the Battle of the Bulge and my other grandpa Harkey was an ex Marine fought in the Korean War. And when I was A junior in high school, I wanted to join the Marines and went and talked with the recruiter and boiled down to I was in a, I had a farming accident and actually it was in that same year, but lost three of my fingers. And the Marine recruiter, he was very turned off after he kind of realized I had a disability. I think I probably could have still made my way, but like there was a point where like I want to go do this and I want to, you know, want to be a soldier. I don't want to be behind a desk. And it didn't work out. But yeah, I always, I had ambitions.
Jared Flinn:
I actually even tried to join the Air Force out of college and got all the way down to the MEPs hall. Got turned down when they did the detailed physical with my hand injury. But hats off to, to the people that serve a lot of our members on bulk loads, our veterans as well and past military. So man, that's awesome. Kind of moving forward. Todd so you leave the military and if it is, was the next stepping stone working for ADM coming back?
Todd Vettel:
Yeah, yeah. So I got out of the military, started college and put a resume out for a job that required a four year degree. It was with Archer Daniels Midland and it was a grain elevator superintendent position. And they interviewed me and waived the college requirements in lieu of the military experience. So I was there for two harvests, almost two full years and really got to know the grain business and did a lot of unloading of trucks and loading of trucks. So got really, you know, really into the, into the really the bull calling stuff not knowing that I was going to, you know, be doing this again 20 some years later. So yeah, I did that for about two years and then I ended up getting into kind of a private global security sort of thing for about 10 years, which took me to a lot of different places. I traveled a lot while I was in the military and I think I traveled even more places doing this global security stuff.
Todd Vettel:
And yeah, so that, that's, that's kind of the stepping stone after the, the Marine Corps was, was that. And then I continued with college throughout all of that. Got tired of all the traveling and convinced myself that small business was the, was the thing to do. So I don't have to kind of work for the corporate overlords anymore and talk my brothers into it as well. And we pulled our resources and, and got into fitness centers. So we, we, you know, started with one gym and then we, we got a second gym and then at that point we, we thought we could do do this 100. So we staggered our exit from the corporate world and eventually got up to five fitness centers and then Covid happened and killed three of them off. We still have two left and Covid was not a good time for anybody in that area.
Todd Vettel:
It still really hasn't completely recovered. So we, you know, sort of divested out of that and we are doing scooters coffee franchising as sort of the next thing that happened. And around that same time when we first started getting into scooters coffee, we, you know, we had this back office and administrative support from doing franchising gyms, coffee drive thrus. So we at that time we attached the CDL academy through adding my dad in. So he was on his second career in trucking. My, you know, his dad, my grandpa was in trucking, uncles in trucking. My dad, he retired from agribusiness and went and helped his uncle with OTR trucking. So he was helping out recruiting and found all kinds of challenges recruiting the, you know, the native borns, the Nebraskans that are already here willing to get into trucking, they don't exist.
Todd Vettel:
So one thing led to another and he got into this, you know, legal immigration system where they, they have a vetting process all over. You know, there's recruiters all over the planet looking for drivers with seven or more years of experience driving in Europe or South Africa, for example. And you, you, you bring them, you sponsor them and start them on your, on your equipment. So he was doing that and we were talking like, hey, we should scale this. You know, you're not the only company that's having driver shortages. They're everywhere. So that conversation really led to let's start a CDL academy. You, you already know how to do this.
Todd Vettel:
You're doing it for, you know, uncle's trucking company. Let's, let's try to scale this. And that's what international workforce Services, you know, has, has become. So that's kind of the story of the businesses and how we got to where we're at doing a CDL Academy. It doesn't logically make sense that, you know, you open up a kickboxing facility in a fitness center and then you naturally progress to a CDL academy. You know, it's kind of a strange combination, but that's, that's just how it started.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah, well, I think we all have stories where, yeah, it doesn't seem like they match up, but then you see that pathway later down in life. Talk about. And this is where I really found this fascinating you know, immigration's got a bad rap these days. You know, people, I mean especially illegal immigration, I mean, and we're in a political, you know, election right now. So I mean it's been thrown around but over the past years we don't need to get into the politics of that. But what I love about you saying like you've been, you were working with or these, like a lot of these immigrants come over and actually legal immigrants wanting jobs and especially truck driving jobs and like you all are providing that through the school, correct?
Todd Vettel:
Yeah, absolutely. We, we house them, we lodge them, we conduct all the human care while we credential them. We, you know, adapt them to America road American roads and then get them their CDL before handing them off to their carrier, the trucking company. Most of them are long haul drivers, but there are some custom haulers, bulk haulers that come through and I think that's only going to grow. But yeah, essentially we, we've got legal immigration and immigration is kind of a naughty word. But I think, I think the different, the differentiator here is what happens on the southern border. It should not be confused with immigration in general. What happens on, on the green cards.
Todd Vettel:
The guys that we have are generally family men that want to work and they have a high level of work ethic and they, they're pursuing the American dream. And you know, maybe some of that's in cultural decay, but I think that American dream, whatever that used to mean, whatever it can mean now, is still active because these guys get here and they're making money and they're bringing their families here and their families are getting jobs. We have a work ethic problem and an anti work sort of sentiment in the United States. The employees have got to come from somewhere. So we do our very best. We'll give them a copy of the Constitution. We're very faith based and conservative in our values. So we'll give them a copy of the Constitution and the Bible when they arrive.
Todd Vettel:
And that's our approach. It just is, that's our value system and that's what we do. And we're trying to make new Americans. And I think it's important when we talk with politicians or private sector, public sector, it's important to know that the people coming through on legal immigration we have, we have a Mexican guy, a student, you know, at any given time we'll have people, we have almost 20 international students with us now and almost another 15 local students. The, they come from all over. The guys coming from Mexico for example, or South America. They've been in queue for six, seven years. So they've got money invested in this.
Todd Vettel:
They've gone through dhs. This is all before we had a problem.
Jared Flinn:
I mean, all before.
Todd Vettel:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The legal, the legal pathways, it takes some time. They got to go through background checks and speak English and have money put into this. So I think it's important to properly. Perspective is important. Let's look at this for what it really is.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Yeah. I guess I'm just thinking like, I would be a hypocrite if I would be against that. I mean, as far as, like, we were all immigrants at one time, right?
Todd Vettel:
Yeah, well, exactly. You know, you, you don't have to go back that many generations for, for most of us European Americans and you know, you'll find, you'll find different ethnic groups that have immigrated to the United States before a lot of European Americans did. There's some, you know, Mexican Americans that had immigrated into Southern California generations before European Americans do. Now you go into most small towns in Nebraska and what you're going to see is a lot of European Americans. And that's what, you know, that's what we see. That's what we know. So that's what, that's what comment. That's what's common to us.
Todd Vettel:
But things have changed. There's a new landscape in America. You know, love it or hate it, it just is. The fertility rate has been down for. Well, it's been going down for 50 years and it hit a record low in 2007. So, you know, if you've got a low fertility rate, look, look to what's happened in Germany and Japan and that, that's what's going to happen here. And so, you know, if we're going to either stop the economy and the. I think the economy by default will not allow that to happen.
Todd Vettel:
It's going to continue moving forward, trying to grow. So the employees are going to have to come from. From somewhere. The drivers have to come from somewhere. Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
So if you don't mind, go back and give us some real life examples of some immigrants that maybe came through the program. And you have to name specific names about, like, where have they come from, how long the process is. You got them through the school, man. They're with the company now.
Todd Vettel:
Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
Making a career out of it. Support.
Todd Vettel:
Definitely.
Jared Flinn:
Paying taxes.
Todd Vettel:
Yeah. All that. They, they're doing all of that they can, you know, they can do most of most anything that an American citizen can do. And if they stay gainfully employed for five years they get sworn in or naturalized by whatever governor of the state they're in. So they're on the pathway to become Americans and they're, they're contributors. You know, these guys are working and they're working hard. And we have had a couple gals too. We had a German woman.
Todd Vettel:
Our first German student was a woman who apparently had been trying to get here to the States since the German reunification. You know, eastern Germany, western Germany, they had their problems and the Berlin Wall went down and she's been trying to get here for some time. She's finally here and. Yeah, so lots of different nationalities. We're over 40 different nationalities. We've worked with, I think for cultural management purposes, we're going to try to streamline that with just a, A fewer. I think if you're, if you're looking at 40 different countries, that's, that's a lot. That makes it harder for us to manage the pantry when you have, you know, different culinary aspects to those, to those people.
Todd Vettel:
So there's some reasons to, I think, narrow that down and we're going to try to do that, but we're not, we're not forcing any nationalities in or out of this. And I think it'll continue steadily growing. I think if we can hyper focus on, you know, five or less, that will be. That'll probably add some efficiencies. You know, We've done over 300 graduated students success stories.
Jared Flinn:
Wow.
Todd Vettel:
Excellent customer feedback stories. Where their families are here now. There's a family living here in Aurora, small town. The, you know, the, the dad, the original driver, he's still with his trucking company in Grand Island, Nebraska. He's been there going on two years now. His, his son is now in the army. It's a Zimbabwean family. His other son is in, he's a senior in high school and the mother is taking, you know, she's a school lunch lady and she's cleaning hotel rooms.
Todd Vettel:
You know, because there's enough jobs to go around in Nebraska, our unemployment rate is dangerously high. So I, I mean, if you've got a heartbeat, you can get a job. We need more people to work. So it's, it's fantastic that we could bring a driver, a quality, a quality driver, plug them in with a trucking company in need and then their family can help out everywhere else as well.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah, I mean, I get emotional thinking about it because, I mean, they're, these people are living the American dream. I mean, coming over and making that dream a reality. Hey guys, we're getting Ready to launch a new version of Bulkloads.com. before you panic, hear us out. We actually have made some changes to.
Todd Vettel:
Enhance the load board.
Jared Flinn:
Now again there's going to be new features on there and a lot of this is to make it more user friendly, make it more efficient and really to provide more features. As we've grown we've added more features and some of that we need to do different designs just to make the user experience better. But for you out there that don't like change, you will still be able to use the old version for a limited time. So we just want to give you a heads up on that. We know that sometimes change is difficult but also we are in the business of improving our website software giving you the best value for your service. So just want to give you a heads up. Look for a new version of Bulk Loads coming soon.
Todd Vettel:
Again you'll be able to use the old version but man, we want you.
Jared Flinn:
To be excited for this because we were doing this to help you out to make the experience that much better, to make it that much more successful for you to find loads, trucks and better for your business. So man, I hope you enjoy this new version. As always we always want to hear.
Todd Vettel:
Feedback how we can improve it better.
Jared Flinn:
Because again we're here for you as our clients. So man, just want to give you a heads up on this.
Todd Vettel:
God bless.
Jared Flinn:
Todd, what if you could narrow down, you talk about like 40 different nationalities but what are primarily what nationality you guys deal with the most or what's the common one that you see coming through? And then also just to follow up with that, are most of these drivers getting set up kind of more with a larger. I don't want to use mega trucking company but larger over the road fleet. Is that who most of them get placed?
Todd Vettel:
Yeah, yeah. 150 truck fleets and up now there are smaller fleets that are dabbling in this with fewer immigrant drivers. But most of the customers we work with, I would, I would say they're you know 150 up to even mega fleets, thousands of trucks. And I think, I think a lot of these companies, they, they see the writing on the wall and they know that the driver shortage is going to continue. I think they're trying to find quality drivers. You know there's a, is there a driver shortage or not? I think, yeah, I think there's definitely a driver shortage but qualify it with it's a quality driver shortage. So that's what we're really working on now is the select the selection process. Of these drivers.
Todd Vettel:
But there, there are a lot of companies that, you know, this is the limiting factor for their growth is drivers. It's not equipment. So this is what they do, this is what they must do, or at least they have to have it as a, one of the tools in their toolboxes. To answer your first question about the nationalities, the top nationalities that we've dealt with are South South Africa and Zimbabwe. Lots of drivers coming from those South African drivers have a lot of experience doing cross border, kind of like interstate here in the United States. Lots of really good, highly, highly skilled experienced drivers coming from South Africa and Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe, many of their drivers are driving all over South Africa. So they, they share a lot of the same experiences.
Todd Vettel:
After that it's going to look like Colombia, Argentina and then Eastern Europe. We have an English guy with us. We've had a Frenchman, Germans, so you get some western Europeans mixed in there as well. But Polish, Serbian, Eastern European countries would be on that list as well.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. You talked about equality, a shortage of quality drivers, and I agree with that. I've always said two things in, in my 20 years in trucking. It's always been, you know, quality. There's a shortage of quality drivers and a shortage of driver pay. You know, the market usually will adapt to, you know, placing drivers, you know, supply and demand. But like people always talk about shortage drivers. Like, no, there's a shortage of quality drivers and driver pay.
Jared Flinn:
If those come up, you're going to see the drivers that enter the workforce in that. A couple questions I want to move on to your, your next business too, trucker force. But the last thing I'll ask on international Workforce Services, you guys are a CDL school. So can, and I know there's, now there's, it's government mandated where you have to go through a certified CDL school. I, I assume obviously you all have that certification as a certified school and can regular US citizens, like if you're based up in that area and want to go through CDL school, can you go through that school as well? Do you offer that to anybody?
Todd Vettel:
Absolutely. We're an on demand CDL academy. So we're starting new classes every day. We don't, we don't make students wait four months for the next class to start at the community college. I think when people find us, it's they, they first go to the community college and they tell them you have to quit your full time job to do this. And then they find us. So we are licensed and certified by dot. We can do all the uploading through the training portal.
Todd Vettel:
And we are also regulated by Department of Education, so it's no joke getting through all the paperwork. And it really took about a year to get all that done and audited. So we're also examiners. We can, we can do everything from the eldt, the behind the wheel, all the classroom curriculum, all the way up to the CDL issuance. We can do everything that is necessary for cdl, essentially like a private dmv. But I think our claim to fame here is we're on demand. For example, we've got a student that he's sponsored by a grain hauler not that far away from where we're at. And so, I mean, he's, I mean, he might even watch this podcast for all I know that the company, I think they have a dozen or so trucks and they're always looking for drivers.
Todd Vettel:
They're doing, they're doing grains and ddg, all the bulk stuff. Oh yeah, this guy's in Florida and he wants a career change and he wants to leave Florida. So here he is in our, in our academy now and he's living here with us and he's in one of our, you know, dorms. We have occupancy for 44 students. So I think that's something important to point out with IWS CDL Academy is we can help companies, you know, bulk custom haulers find their edge. If, if it's drivers, if it's finding drivers, we know the business. We can train them very efficiently and they can stay here with us, you know, regardless of where they're going. They could, you know, we've had somebody from LA county, he didn't want to spend the money and do all the jumping through the hoops in California.
Todd Vettel:
So he takes a flight from LA and he's here with us for, I don't know, not quite a month, gets a CDL and he's, you know, back in California. So that's one of the things that I think is unique about us is we're on, on demand and you can live here with us. We have really a trucker barracks and dorms.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah, well, that, yeah. Two other questions. So I thought, I thought I saw that somewhere or maybe a post. But yeah, people, some people don't necessarily have to quit their jobs vs other CDL schools like you can. You can basically go to school and still have a working job, making income, right?
Todd Vettel:
Absolutely. Yeah. We have online availability for the classroom. You can also do it in our classroom physically here at the academy. And we offer night and weekend training. So if Monday through Friday during business hours doesn't work for you because you are, you know, doing whatever, not a problem. We are, we're very flexible. That's what.
Todd Vettel:
When we, when we talk about what is being an on demand CDL Academy mean? Well, that means we have to. We have to cater to the student to a degree. Now we won't do it to the point where you, you don't do any training for a month and then you want to come back. And rust has developed, you know, we've got to nudge them along through the process. I think orally, we want to create very good drivers. We want to. We want to build the very best drivers. So there's going to be some expectations from us.
Todd Vettel:
The student doesn't come here and demand how their training happens, but we do have flexibility. So when we talk about on demand, I think that means scheduling flexibility.
Jared Flinn:
So with that, though, so what is the average time from the time someone starts the school till when they graduate or they're ready to move on or.
Todd Vettel:
Be placed with a company by the numbers. When you clump together our international program and domestic program all together, it's 32 days now. The international guys, the first week they're here, they are getting a bank account and a cell phone and they are getting a class O driver's license. So there's. There's at least two weeks added onto that. That's administrative and human care sort of stuff for locals. We need to do a better job of breaking that out. And that's one of our projects now is sort of filtering domestic students and native borns from International Academy.
Todd Vettel:
I can tell you, if a student is highly committed, they. They can get through this program. If they're highly committed and, you know, they have natural, a natural skill set to driving in three weeks. We won't, we won't rush anybody through this, though. So I think our. Our fastest international driver did it in 17 days. That was an anomaly. I don't know.
Todd Vettel:
I can't remember who said this, but somebody joked about the guy came out of his mother's womb with a steering wheel in his hand, so he was just good in every way. And, you know, and we'll have farmer boys that have grown up on the farm and they've been around, see, you know, they've been around the scene since they were, you know, crawling. And, you know, we don't need to do anything farther than the minimum with behind the wheel. So we'll. And they don't. And they need to get moving. They've got things to do. They've got to go and haul commercially.
Todd Vettel:
So we've had guys come through the program in a week too, but that, that's, that's a rarity. That's, that's kind of reserved for the farmer boy.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah, well, I've been saying that for years, but that farmer boy is becoming less and less. I was one of those boys that grew up on the farm, you know, driving pickups and tractors at a young age. I got my CDL when I was 18 and they passed on the first try. I'm not saying that to brag, but like, bless, there's less and less of those growing up on the farm. So you're not having that experience of these young men or women on the farm operating machinery, the people that are coming to the program? I'm not probably more inner city, but just people that aren't around heavy duty machinery and equipment and don't have that. Just, you know, they're just not accustomed to that. And that's why I think a program like this, like, it's almost, I hate to say, but it's been good that they do have now these mandated CDL schools for people. So you don't, I mean, ultimately it's about safety on this, on the roadways.
Todd Vettel:
Yeah, that's right. Our litmus test is would we want our family? What I want my wife in the van driving next to this student in a truck. If I can't say that honestly, then that guy's not passing. We need to slow down. And we've, we've, you know, we've turned students out of the program, that we're not meant to be drivers. So not everybody is meant, you know, to operate heavy equipment. That's really what we're doing here. And I think that's, you know, in terms of morals and ethics, that's, that's an easy one.
Todd Vettel:
But I think in terms of long term business relationships, we've got to do that for our customers as well.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. What? Man, that just breathes. One more question.
Todd Vettel:
What.
Jared Flinn:
So what is the percentage of people that pass or graduate through the program versus fail?
Todd Vettel:
Oh, 90, 95. Over 95% will pass this program. Yeah, it's, it's very uncommon to have drivers not get through the program.
Jared Flinn:
Nice. Well, let's move on just for the sake of time.
Todd Vettel:
And I'll, and I'll qualify that. We've, you know, we've had people with us for greater than four months. So, you know, we all will we'll spend the time. We don't just kick them to the curb and tell them to re enroll. Now maybe that doesn't make all the business sense in the world and we're kind of walking through that. Maybe we should, you know.
Jared Flinn:
No, I think that, I think if.
Todd Vettel:
You fail a class do at a typical college, maybe you have to re enroll and do tuition. But at this point we're committed to the student. When we'll turn them away is when it's obvious to us after months and months of behind the wheel training that this person is never going to be a safe driver. At least with our instructors then the moral thing to do is to, to tell them that plainly and clearly because it's kind of, it's cruel to string them along longer than necessary. They need to go and find something else to do.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. I think I heard one time we were talking to some, you know, it was a family, but their son was going to go up to Iowa. But there was a CDL school that like it's a 48 hour. They get you in and out to graduate which. Yeah, that's it sounds efficient. But is it safe or, I mean are they doing it? I don't know the name of it or whatever. But like I was like, man, that just seems really fast for.
Todd Vettel:
Yeah, that's a CDL mill. And you know, I don't think that you'll last long term in this. I suppose they'll, they'll, they'll cash flow a lot of students quickly. But I, I don't think that's the right thing to do. And that's not something. Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
And I, I guess I'm just thinking like I would hate for that to be in my conscience that you push somebody through and that person got in a wreck that they were liable for just because they didn't have the proper training and like you said, killed a family. And yeah, I love that Litman test that you said that you use. Like if your family's driving next to this truck, do you feel safe? I mean, I think that.
Todd Vettel:
Right.
Jared Flinn:
That's awesome.
Todd Vettel:
So we all share the roads with them.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Let's talk about trucker force. What is trucker force?
Todd Vettel:
So trucker force is a custom hauling, you know, mini fleet. We really grew out of iws so it's as much as IWS Express as it is trucker force. We would get calls from local brokers asking if we, you know, haul stuff. They noticed we're a CDL academy. We call the, you know, weekly still do with Hey, I need help hauling grain. I need help hauling ddg, salt, whatever. And it's like, okay, well, we know the demand is there, so let's, let's just try this. So we took one of the trainer trucks out of the mix and signed it as our first bulk hauling truck.
Todd Vettel:
Got a grain trailer, rented one just to begin. One of our instructors was ready to start hauling again. He was getting burned out from instructing. And, you know, instructing is a job. You know, you're talking a lot. It's, it's a very highly. A high degree of social skills is required. I couldn't do it for a long time.
Todd Vettel:
So I think it's kind of a good thing to sort of trade back and forth. You go haul, you're ready to get back into instructing. All right, take a breather from instructing, Come and haul. So that's really what happened. We, we got him out of instructing, put him in the truck. He started hauling corn and salt now hogs and DDG and paddle trailer stuff. And, you know, that one truck quickly turned to, you know, two and then five. And that's where we're at now.
Todd Vettel:
You know, we're not even, we're not even six months into this. And I, I want to do this slowly and smoothly. It is, it is very cutthroat and the rates are what they are. So I think we need to make sure we can manage our expenses and not break things. And I don't want to go, I really don't want to go much more than five at this point. Will we go to seven or nine? I, I'm optimistic, but I just want to do it the right way. And our bread and butter is the academy. So I want to make sure whatever we do with trucker force never wears down on the academy as well.
Todd Vettel:
So that, that is sort of the summary of what trucker force is, how it came to be, really. I think it was the market, the same market that created iws with low fertility rate, the baby boomers getting out of, getting out of the workforce and you know, anti work overemphasis on higher education. Those things created the lack of, you know, the skills gap, the lack of people in the trades, the durable trades, the blue collar jobs that created iws. You know, we're going to get into diesel mechanics next. The market forces created trucker force as well. As we talk to people in the industry asking us for help. That's, you know, we're just, okay, let's try to be a solution.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah, no, I think that's awesome. You're. You're listening to the demands of the market. It's very similar to what we've done with bulk loads. And we started with a load board but saw that there was a need for getting people paid quicker on our smart freight and then our insurance permitting and. And yeah, you just listen to those needs. I was gonna. It just reminded one.
Jared Flinn:
I had a lady in our studio. We did recording, but her and her husband, they had a small trucking company and a farm, but unfortunately they got a divorce. But she said, man, she would continue to get all these phone calls from freight brokers even over the. You know, even after she was out of the business or away from her husband. And. But yeah, it just made me laugh with. You said you kept getting all these calls from different freight brokers on freight to haul to see that opportunity. But I guess, man, like, you never see.
Jared Flinn:
I guess especially when you talk about freight brokers, how much where they try to go to find the potential.
Todd Vettel:
They get creative. I think they have to be creative. Yeah, that's what I say.
Jared Flinn:
Very creative. On trying to figure out contact to move freight so well. Todd, man, I've really enjoyed this show and if we could just end on this, like, if you don't mind sharing, I'm kind of putting you on the spot. But how does your faith played a role in. I mean, all of this, but really kind of where you're at today? Because, man, I think you just tell, man, you wear your heart on your sleeve, man. You talked about that earlier in the show, and I mean, that's a common. Commonality that we share together.
Todd Vettel:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a good. That's a good story. On really what led to this. I saw your prayer request email, and I'm. I'm like, all right, I'm into this. I like that.
Todd Vettel:
My. My position and this is my family's as well. As we seek first the kingdom of God, there's nothing else that matters. All this stuff that we're doing here in the physical, the trucking, the academy, I hope that whatever we do is God honoring and purposeful in that way. And really that's it. My faith is. Is everything. Without it, there's.
Todd Vettel:
What else is there? So when I set out and you know, in the morning every day, it's. How am I going to honor God? How do I seek first the kingdom of God? And I think getting my kids to get to that point on their own is my first and primary mission with them. It's not about Score a good act and being a super athlete. I don't care about any of that stuff. I'm not saying that's bad, but my first objective is that. So I think that sort of, that's what I take with me with my family into the workplace. And I'm not afraid to talk about it with drivers and other people when it comes up and it's appropriate and I think there's something to be done there. It's really the driving thing behind me.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah, no, I love that. I think and I'll just say this. Yeah, for me it's really is as I become I hopefully more wiser in my, in my older years, like I just realized the, the importance of even, just mentioning that and sharing that, that commonality with others. I think there's so time as we grow businesses and sometimes we lose track of just the monotony. But like I love what you just said. It's like it's why we, it's why we exist. It's really why we're here. And for me, man, I gotta take those moments just to take a deep breath and recenter and be like, this isn't about Jared Flynn.
Jared Flinn:
This isn't about Todd Vettel. You know, it's about glorifying God and seeing his beauty and being blessed because of that. So man, I appreciate you sharing that. So Todd, I will let you go, man. I thank you so much for coming on. God bless what you're doing for, you know, the CDL training school, what you guys doing with trucker force. And man, just a little bit I know about you. I'm sure there's going to be more opportunities that will, that will be in your pathway and look forward to share those.
Jared Flinn:
So man, thank you very much for coming on. God bless you.
Todd Vettel:
Yeah, same to you. Thanks.
Jared Flinn:
Jared Tyler, I'm going to call it out before people probably post in the comments below that obviously they bring a lot of immigrants in, legal immigrants. But I love that he brought to fruition like, well, first off, we're all immigrants at one point and coming to this country. But a lot of these people, they bring the program. These aren't illegals that have come over the border. These are people that have applied years ago to come into the states, provide for the families, pay taxes, you know, become contributors to society. I think it's a beautiful thing. I know sometimes there can be bad rhetoric on immigration, especially today in everything that's happened. And again, there is a problem with, we know, with illegal immigration and stuff ahead of them.
Jared Flinn:
We're not going to dissect that today. That's not our job. But I love what they're doing to bring these people in to fill a gap in trucking. And I think it's just a beautiful thing that they're doing, providing these jobs, filling roles that can help our society and help trucking.
Tyler:
Yeah, I agree. Thanks for pointing that out because we actually just got a message this morning from one of our members. They, they were kind of asking our opinion, but they sent over a news article that was saying, you know, all these illegal immigrants that are coming over from, you know, the southern border, apparently they are getting paid, you know, $200 a week to drive a truck. And so I'm glad that you point this out that Todd and his company are specifically doing this the legal way. And all these guys like Todd says are waiting on a list for, you know, six, seven years to come over the right way properly and then they're here to, to stay, pay taxes and all that. But it is, it's hard, this driver shortage that we have. It's just a hard way whenever you can't find quality drivers, you know, and these immigrants are coming in and they, they want to work and they work hard and they're just, you know, as quality drivers as, you know, some other people. So I mean, I think what Todd's doing is really good thing.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. So yeah, awesome one and I forgot to mention Todd actually they, you know, they also have trucker force, their own trucking company. They're running some hoppers. Some of these guys, they've graduated, they've helped them get a truck and get started in there. Todd has become a user on our TMS platform which is awesome. So man, love what he's doing and love that we can be a part of his journey on growing his company.
Tyler:
Yep. So if you are curious about RTMS and you could utilize it as well for your company, definitely check us out bulk tms.com or you can click on the transportation management tab on bulk loads. What it is is just a, a system to where you can control the entire loaded life cycle and you can dispatch your trucks through it and everything like that. Also, Todd uses our permitting services.
Jared Flinn:
Oh yeah, that's right.
Tyler:
I forgot about that Batten. He leads that up. But yeah, Todd has worked with us in many different facets so we thank you for that. If you want to check out our permitting services, what we can help you there. We can help new carriers get their authority set up. We can help broker authorities, IFTAs, all that stuff. So check us out bulkpermitting.com and we'll be able to help you there.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah, we're going to have an episode coming up here soon. Talking more about tms. We haven't in a while. A lot of people still sometimes don't know what that is, if you're new to bulk loads or how that can help grow. We've got over 300 companies on the platform now. Continues to grow. We keep developing out there. So check that out.
Jared Flinn:
A couple of things before we leave out of here. Conference Bulk Freight Conference 2025 is coming up April 16th through the 18th. Branson, Missouri. Tickets are now on sale. Right now they are discounted. There's an early Bird special, so go to bulkfreightconference.com you should be able to get the tickets right there. Go ahead and secure your tickets right now. You don't want to miss it.
Jared Flinn:
This thing will sell out. It sold out last year. It's going to sell out this year. I know you think I got plenty of time. Six months plus away. Get them right now. Make plans to be there. Get your hotel booked.
Jared Flinn:
We have hotels blocked off. It's going to be awesome. We got some speakers already lined up. We're still kind of going through that. You went to the venue actually this last week and saw kind of how it's going to be. It's going to be how much bigger?
Tyler:
Like event center? Yeah, just the Expo center where we're going to have the cocktail night is 45,000 square feet. And it's, it's just. We're going to have semi trucks. We're going to have some trailers in there. All of our exhibitors are going to be in there. It's going to be really great. It's super exciting. So you can do everything from that website, bulkfreightconference.com there's a hotel booking link and there's a ticket link there.
Tyler:
We are quite a. I mean, actually we're not. We're almost five months away from the conference. But these Early Bird tickets, the ones with the discount on them, they're. They're only going to last for another month or so. So you want to go ahead and secure those before the price goes up.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah, plan to be there. Like Tyler said, just imagine walking through again an event center. Whether you're going to have show trucks, we'll have equipment, manual manufacturers, more booths set up. There's going to be a lot more to do, breakout sessions. So this is something that you're not going to want to miss. Guarantee it's going to help your business, your network is your net worth. You will build a network at this conference. I promise you it will pay dividends for years to come on growing your business.
Jared Flinn:
We want to see you there. Click on the link below. Get signed up. Cool. Last but not least, we man, our video we just released last week, Barnhart, that we shot. I went up to up into Pennsylvania with Joe Zeigler on our video team. We shot this thing, I guess it was, man, it's been a while ago. Finally got it out last week and it has went viral.
Jared Flinn:
The link will be below if you're looking. Man, check out that video. It's a really cool one. The only reason I say check it out, but also we want to feature you. I'm actually going to be on the road this next coming week up in Pennsylvania again, visiting a couple different more shoots that we're going to be doing. We want to do that for you. We hear it all the time. These videos, they help your company, your brand.
Jared Flinn:
They help you recruit more drivers, more shippers. Again, this is something. It's not just for, you know, for us shooting it in bulk loads, but, man, this thing works tenfold. It'll help grow your business.
Tyler:
Yeah. And I will say, I think one of the reasons it's going viral is because it's about these two brothers who built a trucking company from scratch, all the way up to 150 trucks. And so it's just about their story, how they did it. And so it's at, I mean, almost 50,000 views right now, but by the time you click on it and watch it, it's probably going to be over that.
Jared Flinn:
I'll say this, I've been now doing this almost 20 years. I am learning every day. But the more and more I start going to these companies, learning the industry, I'm not saying there's not secrets, but like, you got to watch these videos and you can figure out what these people are doing to grow. If you want to grow your business and you want to figure out how people are making. I used to be, you know, you got ups and downs, waves, and like, how are these companies surviving all that? These companies are thriving and they're figuring out ways to do this that aren't necessarily what people tell you to do. And it's not what mainstream what you see online. These guys figure out ways to be super profitable, super successful that they can bless their employees and bless their families. And we put all this together for you to see.
Jared Flinn:
So check out that video. And more to come. It's been such so rewarding.
Tyler:
Joe just has a special set of skills to where he can capture all that.
Jared Flinn:
It's entertaining too.
Tyler:
It's like a TV show.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. We'll put the form if you. I didn't say that. We do have a form to fill out. You reach out to us anyhow. But there's a form down below you can fill out if you want us to come out and feature you. We'd be honored. People ask all the time, no cost to do it.
Jared Flinn:
We do it again as a marketing for us to advertise and market out to our audience. You get the benefit as well. So it's a win. Win both ways. It just takes usually a day of coming out, setting up the time and getting all the. All the footage done. So, yeah, reach out to us. Form will be below.
Jared Flinn:
And then last but not least before we close out of here. Semisam books. You've seen these before, man. These are coming off the shelf. I think I signed probably 50 or 60 this week and mailed them out. You know, it's still fall time, but we want to get these in your hands to you and your kiddos. Why? It's fall and so. Yeah, just reach out below.
Jared Flinn:
Love to. I think there's a form link that Garrett has set up that you can fill out or just send us a message. Love to. Get these hands. Happy to sign them again for any child. Make them address them them to any specific child or grandchild or niece or nephew. Just tell us who it is, where you want them mailed. We'll get it in there.
Jared Flinn:
It's a thank you from us just so we can help bless those who bless us here at bulk.
Tyler:
And this is your actual signature. It's not like a stamp you have, like you were. Actually.
Jared Flinn:
I sign all of them. Yep. So, all right. Yeah.
Tyler:
Why have you signed one later for me?
Jared Flinn:
For you or for your child?
Tyler:
For me. Hey, you never know. We might have to sell it on ebay. I mean, 20 years and you don't know how much it's going to go for.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Awesome. Cool. Well, I will close this out in prayer. And then just one more thing before I do that. But, yeah, let's close this out. Father God, we thank you for this day. Lord, we thank you for this industry this time of year.
Jared Flinn:
Lord, we know that there's chaos and uncertainty. And Lord, we look every direction. We think that things are just out of control. But Lord, we know that you are in control of everything, Lord, that we know that if we are obedient, Lord. And that, Lord, that we pray to you, Lord, that you will answer our prayers. Lord, we pray over this community. We pray for those out there that are struggling. We know that there are issues.
Jared Flinn:
And Lord, that we pray that we can be lights to those out there, Lord, that we can be your serving hand and arms for those out there that need help, Lord. So we pray over our community, Lord. We pray with people in this time of need, Lord. And we pray for agriculture and truckers in your heavenly and precious name.
Tyler:
Amen.
Jared Flinn:
And like I said before, I said out of there we do have a prayer line
[email protected] so if you have a prayer that you'd like to send us, we'd love to pray over that.
Tyler:
Yep.
Jared Flinn:
All right. So cool. Last but not least, don't forget to follow us as well by clicking on the subscribe button down below. And if you know just a few companies out there that I say this every week, man, we'd just love for you to share this out there. It doesn't take much just to click the share button and just send it to two or three people that might find this fascinating. Maybe they want a free book, maybe they want a free vest. Send us out there. We can bless them as well.
Jared Flinn:
Thank you as always and God bless.
