Speaker 1: This is America's truck and Network with Kevin Gordon, one.
Speaker 2: Of the more Thanks for tuning in on this Wednesday morning.
Speaker 3: You know, last week we started seeing.
Speaker 2: Well, in the last couple of weeks, we've been seeing
Speaker 2: you know, the news in review looking back in the past,
Speaker 2: some of the top stories and where things were in
Speaker 2: terms of what they had expected at the beginning of
Speaker 2: the year, where they were versus the end of the year.
Speaker 2: Now this week we're starting to see stuff about well,
Speaker 2: what is twenty twenty six going to bring? And you know,
Speaker 2: based on their estimates for last year, I'm not so
Speaker 2: sure that we can really depend on those. But what
Speaker 2: you can depend on is at N because we have
Speaker 2: been right more often than they have been right. But
Speaker 2: let's just go. Let's play the game and see what
Speaker 2: they have to say. Market uncertainty to follow trucking into
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six. Now, Eric Starks, the chairman of FTR
Speaker 2: Transportation Intelligence, he's having his predictions in here. One of
Speaker 2: the things kind of skipped to the chase here. I
Speaker 2: think the best case scenario would be a flat market
Speaker 2: into quarter one, but you could see noticeable softening quarter
Speaker 2: one into quarter two if we start seeing substantial layoffs
Speaker 2: and consumers pulling away. Well, we haven't seen any examples
Speaker 2: of that so far. We haven't seen any hint of
Speaker 2: that happening based on what we've seen as far as
Speaker 2: retail sales, what we saw as far as gross domestic
Speaker 2: product in the third quarter, and we're also anticipating now
Speaker 2: what we're going to be seeing the gross domestic product
Speaker 2: in the fourth quarter coming up here in the next
Speaker 2: few days. Complicating outlooks starts note is a lack of
Speaker 2: capacity of certainty on how long stable environment would need
Speaker 2: to be in place to instill calm in the marketplace,
Speaker 2: not going to require any time at all. Once they're
Speaker 2: are standard, once the playing field is known, and once
Speaker 2: people know what's going on, it will go pretty rapidly,
Speaker 2: because let's not forget the fact that we are rugged individualists,
Speaker 2: not the crazy crap that we're getting out of Mondani
Speaker 2: in New York that we want to have collectivism and
Speaker 2: all that.
Speaker 3: It's a story for another day.
Speaker 2: He suspects business will remain cautious on investing, especially when
Speaker 2: it comes to equipment and technology. Yeah, centering around interest rates,
Speaker 2: which we should see a break in that come May
Speaker 2: when the new FED chairman is installed, and hopefully this
Speaker 2: guy will be a supply side economist and get the
Speaker 2: economy moving with lower interest rates. And I may want
Speaker 2: to interject here that our interest rates are twice what
Speaker 2: they are in other developed countries. So if we get
Speaker 2: those down, we'll see an economic boom and businesses expanding,
Speaker 2: employees getting hired, and so on. This could contribute to
Speaker 2: tough for operation conditions in the first part of next year,
Speaker 2: according to him. Chris Rogers, head of supply chain research
Speaker 2: at S and P Global Market Intelligence, let me see
Speaker 2: the story of terrorists.
Speaker 3: Is over, he says.
Speaker 2: We still have to have a decision from the Supreme
Speaker 2: Court about the International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs that
Speaker 2: President had implemented, whether they're legal. They're going to make
Speaker 2: that determination, and if they're not, what will replace them.
Speaker 2: There's a whole lot of national security tariff reviews still
Speaker 2: going on, covering electronics, medical supplies, machinery, and critical minerals.
Speaker 2: I will be very disappointed with the Supreme Court if
Speaker 2: they're stupid enough to rule against the Trump administration, because
Speaker 2: by all accounts, these terroifts have been good. They've been
Speaker 2: a good generator for the American public plus, it levels
Speaker 2: the playing field, it makes it more fair trade instead
Speaker 2: of just free trade.
Speaker 3: And they ought to understand.
Speaker 2: And you know, I got to tell you, you know,
Speaker 2: when it comes down to law and it comes down
Speaker 2: to interpretations. I have seen on a personal basis and
Speaker 2: with clients that I've had in the past, that you
Speaker 2: can have all the facts on your side, and you
Speaker 2: can even have the law on your side, but when
Speaker 2: it comes to certain decisions, certain people, like Kentucky Supreme
Speaker 2: Court several years ago, took a look at a situation
Speaker 2: that was clearly being violated by a non governmental.
Speaker 3: Entity that was collecting taxes.
Speaker 2: But they looked at it from the standpoint that, well,
Speaker 2: gee whiz, if they've got to go back and refund
Speaker 2: and do that and these other not only that particular county,
Speaker 2: but like eighty eight other counties in Kentucky, that would
Speaker 2: be a headache and a nightmare. So they just took
Speaker 2: a pass on it and said well, and their determination
Speaker 2: was that you know, everybody knew based on.
Speaker 3: What the law was, that they were wrong.
Speaker 2: But the comment from the Supreme Court was, well, the
Speaker 2: Institution did the good faith effort in following the law
Speaker 2: and I'm telling you. From that point on, I kept saying,
Speaker 2: you know, I'll tell you what next time. I you know,
Speaker 2: if I ever pull up to a stop sign and
Speaker 2: I rolled through it and I get pulled over, I'm
Speaker 2: going to tell the cop. Hey, look, I made a
Speaker 2: good faith effort to stop there. Oh, I made a
Speaker 2: good faith effort to keep my speed not overspeeding. And
Speaker 2: you know, with that kind of method, maybe I could
Speaker 2: get by with it now. But this is what their
Speaker 2: ruling actually said, that they had made a good faith effort. So,
Speaker 2: you know, politics aside and whatever, what's good for the country.
Speaker 2: These tariffs have been good for the country. If the
Speaker 2: Supreme Court knows what's best, they will go ahead and
Speaker 2: side with the Trump administration. Just one man's opinion there,
Speaker 2: and of course, you know I have an opinion. I'm
Speaker 2: not afraid to use it. SMP Global in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: six outlook side of these legal challenges surrounding Trump's use
Speaker 2: of the i EPA, which again is International Emergency Academic
Speaker 2: Powers Act in settlling terraiffs, specifically as it relates to
Speaker 2: implementation of Section two thirty two duties. This Section two
Speaker 2: thirty two provisions of the Trade Expansion Act empowers the
Speaker 2: use of levies to address imports that are deemed a
Speaker 2: threat to national security. Trump has used this rule as
Speaker 2: the basis for most of the tariffs, and I think
Speaker 2: he's dead on as far as that's concerned, but the
Speaker 2: legal interpretation has been challenged.
Speaker 3: With the ongoing cases.
Speaker 2: Working their way through the courts, legal determinations are expected
Speaker 2: to be finalized in early twenty twenty six. Trade policy
Speaker 2: that has nothing to do with terriffs also expected to
Speaker 2: remain in flux as twenty twenty six arrives, according to Rogers,
Speaker 2: and of course that is Chris Rogers, head of supply
Speaker 2: chain research at S and P Global Market Intelligence. He's saying,
Speaker 2: the big one is that we're watching, obviously, is to
Speaker 2: negotiate renegotiation in the United States Mexico Canada agreement. He said,
Speaker 2: that's going to be going on throughout next year and
Speaker 2: should be completed ahead of the US midterm elections. But
Speaker 2: I wouldn't take that for granted, and then we have
Speaker 2: the deals being signed elsewhere in the world. Talks about
Speaker 2: in this article rule crackdown, The Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Speaker 2: Administration stepped up enforcement of English language proficiency for truck
Speaker 2: drivers and titaned scrutiny on issuance of non domiciud commercial
Speaker 2: driver license threatens long term removal of capacity from the market.
Speaker 2: While safety stands at the forefront of the effort. The
Speaker 2: net result could be smaller driver pool that puts upward
Speaker 2: pressure on freight rates. This according to Jason Jason Seedel,
Speaker 2: managing director of the investment banking firm TD Cowen. Now,
Speaker 2: the purpose of that of cracking down on the non
Speaker 2: domiciout English proficiency and these CDL mills and getting rid
Speaker 2: of incompetent drivers and drivers that don't have the skill
Speaker 2: is a safety issue and keeping insurance rates low, keeping
Speaker 2: the American public safe and cause less deaths on the highway.
Speaker 2: And if it pulls out excess capacity and freight rates
Speaker 2: start going up a little bit so that these companies
Speaker 2: can make some money and get things back on a
Speaker 2: level playing field, that will be good for the economy
Speaker 2: as well. So they're kind of taking this approach as
Speaker 2: though it's going to tighten scrutiny and capacity will be
Speaker 2: taken out of the market. Well, do you want over
Speaker 2: capacity or you want safety?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: I just people keep taking out the human element in
Speaker 2: terms of these decisions and what is possibly going to
Speaker 2: cause havoc around the war, around the trucking industry, and
Speaker 2: as far as safety on the highway in terms of
Speaker 2: historic norms. Title notes that the that over the road
Speaker 2: trucking demand tends to be softer following the holiday season.
Speaker 2: Of course, we'll see how things pick up in the spring.
Speaker 2: US Bank Corporate Payment Systems Jeff Pate, manager of Transportation
Speaker 2: US Corporate Payment Systems, says fleets that embrace artificial intelligence
Speaker 2: and ring efficiencies should do a little bit better. And
Speaker 2: I think that is important as well. When you implement
Speaker 2: certain areas of artificial intelligence and get those get more
Speaker 2: efficiencies within the trucking industry, that will pay off. Also,
Speaker 2: they talk about possible industry cooperation. Let's see there is
Speaker 2: much greater emphasis on collaboration and transparency on both sides,
Speaker 2: leveraging data and technology to make smarter, faster decisions instead
Speaker 2: of focusing solely on price. So a lot of estimates
Speaker 2: going into twenty twenty six and coming up we're going
Speaker 2: to be talking to in relating to this. As far
Speaker 2: as the CDLs and illegal aliens obtaining CDO license, we're
Speaker 2: going to be speaking with Mike Kucharski, co owner and
Speaker 2: vice president of JKC Trucking, and then I will get
Speaker 2: into a little bit of our predictions from ATN. I'm
Speaker 2: Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking Network seven hundred WLW a's America's
Speaker 2: Trucking Network. My guest is Mike Kucharski. He is co
Speaker 2: owner and vice president of JKC Trucking, has over thirty
Speaker 2: years experienced. JKC Trucking is the largest refrigerated trucking company
Speaker 2: based out of Chicago, Illinois.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the program, Mike.
Speaker 4: Nam program again, thank you.
Speaker 2: Now, as if a three year freight recession, increasing cargo theft,
Speaker 2: cyber attacks pushed to during the prior administration to convert
Speaker 2: the EVS weren't enough, or some of the other EPA
Speaker 2: restrictions that were there, if that weren't enough, Now we
Speaker 2: have to deal with illegal aliens obtaining CDLs and in
Speaker 2: many cases unable to demonstrate English language proficiency. So welcome
Speaker 2: to the trucking industry in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4: Yes it is. You know what's what's happening out there is?
Speaker 4: How is this number one? The trucking industries is overregulated,
Speaker 4: a very hard industry. But you know what's happening out
Speaker 4: there with.
Speaker 5: These non domicile drivers and illegal driving these trucks, you know,
Speaker 5: is eye opening and concerning because this is a is
Speaker 5: a serious safety crisis on American roads and pretending.
Speaker 4: It isn't happening. No longer is that option.
Speaker 5: Because the trucking industry runs on trust from a from
Speaker 5: a safety standpoint, this kind of enforcement, you know, matters, you.
Speaker 4: Know, thinking about it.
Speaker 5: Every every morning we put our kids on the school buses,
Speaker 5: millions of commuters had to work in their cars, millions
Speaker 5: of families will be traveling up for the holidays.
Speaker 4: They and they need they need trust.
Speaker 5: And the professional is driving eight thousand pound trucks around
Speaker 5: them that they can read roadsigns or safety commands and
Speaker 5: reacting to emergency commercial This.
Speaker 4: Isn't about you know who someone is or where someone
Speaker 4: is from.
Speaker 5: It's about whether they're qualified safety, safety operating heavy equipment.
Speaker 2: On public grows exactly. And the question, well, actually it's
Speaker 2: this kind of started. I guess over the last couple
Speaker 2: of years they were talking about I guess at some
Speaker 2: of these trucking shows talking about the English language proficiency.
Speaker 2: That was was a reason for out of service being
Speaker 2: put out of service, but wasn't enforced during the latter
Speaker 2: years of the Obama administration. But at that time there
Speaker 2: wasn't this invasion from the southern border, so some of
Speaker 2: these were a lot, I guess more, fewer and far between.
Speaker 2: But now once we have this invasion from the southern
Speaker 2: border under the last administration, this has exploded. And then
Speaker 2: you have states where like California and I think you're
Speaker 2: in Illinois, that they can actually gain the system, find
Speaker 2: somebody that will certify them, sign the documents falsely, and
Speaker 2: issue a driver's license. It just makes things a whole
Speaker 2: lot worse.
Speaker 4: It does.
Speaker 6: It does, And I'm glad you brought the English proficient
Speaker 6: language because back in the nineteen seventy two is when
Speaker 6: they made the law saying that English proficiency costruck drivers
Speaker 6: should English's language.
Speaker 4: You must speak English.
Speaker 5: That was in the seventies, right, And then twenty sixteen
Speaker 5: a Bottle orginistation change that role a little bit saying, look,
Speaker 5: you don't have to be proficient in English, but you
Speaker 5: could use a device like a Google Translate to to
Speaker 5: communicate with law enforcement and everybody else.
Speaker 4: And that sounded great.
Speaker 5: But what they what they did is they took that
Speaker 5: and they twisted it completely different way. And the drivers
Speaker 5: that are out there right now speak very little English.
Speaker 5: And if you want of these videos, there's drivers out there,
Speaker 5: truck divers making videos of all other truck drivers talking drivers,
Speaker 5: troopers talking to these drivers, and they speak very little English.
Speaker 5: And if they do speak English, there's they don't understand
Speaker 5: a word or they're giving the completely wrong answer. Ian
Speaker 5: this is you know, this is alarming because you know truckers.
Speaker 4: Truckers are the.
Speaker 5: Heartbeat of the American economy and the supply chain. You know,
Speaker 5: a truckers only move at least only seventy percent of
Speaker 5: all the goods nationwide. You know, because of the scale
Speaker 5: and responsibility trucking, his formula recognized as a critical infrastructure
Speaker 5: to something America relies on every day.
Speaker 2: Well, and we saw the example this past summer. We
Speaker 2: saw that hard genders sing who did that illegal you
Speaker 2: turned down in Florida, and then another guy by the
Speaker 2: name of Josh and pret saying no, I don't think
Speaker 2: they're related, but had that crash he was under the
Speaker 2: influence and rear ended a bunch of cars out in
Speaker 2: California and when these fiery crashes happen, and then of
Speaker 2: course it gets people's attention. But going back to what
Speaker 2: was it in April that President Trump did the executive
Speaker 2: order demanding that English language proficiency be there and that
Speaker 2: the CDL licensing process be regulated. Sean Duffy then issued
Speaker 2: a proclamation that this was going to be enforced, and
Speaker 2: then it was supposed to go into effect or whatever
Speaker 2: in June. This guy gets pulled over in July in
Speaker 2: New Mexico. They did the English language proficiency, let him go,
Speaker 2: he didn't pass, and then a month later, in less
Speaker 2: than a couple of weeks later, causes this accident down
Speaker 2: in Florida. So this is something that the Trump administration
Speaker 2: has been working on, but there needs to be some
Speaker 2: cooperation with the individual states and possibly some legislation from
Speaker 2: Congressman and senators to put some teeth to some of
Speaker 2: these laws.
Speaker 5: Correct, correct, and the whole main the goal of this
Speaker 5: is is two things. Number One, safety for all the
Speaker 5: commuters on the road are family.
Speaker 4: Members, mothers, fathers, daughters that you know children.
Speaker 5: And two, protecting American jobs and ensuring the integrity of
Speaker 5: our workforce is absolutely centre. Look, my primary concern is
Speaker 5: always going to be who's behind the wheel. Example, law
Speaker 5: abiding truckers pay for training, insurance, and compliance, and when
Speaker 5: others cut corners, it undercuts the trucking and undercuts the
Speaker 5: truckers doing the right thing every day.
Speaker 4: You know, if you look up this.
Speaker 5: Year, about twenty thousand trucking companies or studior last year
Speaker 5: have gone out of business. You know, these truckers are
Speaker 5: killing the American dream and truckers. You know, for for
Speaker 5: small business, for small trucking companies like mine, Enforcing enforcement,
Speaker 5: keeps things honest and fair and protecting the jobs of
Speaker 5: law abiding citizens.
Speaker 4: Well, American jobs first.
Speaker 2: Basically levels the playing field, so everybody's playing by the
Speaker 2: same rules. My guess is Mike Kucharski. He is co
Speaker 2: owner and vice president of JKC Trucking. So I guess
Speaker 2: the problem I have is trying to figure out how
Speaker 2: in the heck a company would hire somebody who doesn't
Speaker 2: have the qualifications. That's going to shoot up your insurance rates,
Speaker 2: that's going to put the public at risk. How do
Speaker 2: you sleep at night? How do you go through this
Speaker 2: and know that you're actually with a ticking time bomb
Speaker 2: out there, and then when this happens, it gives a
Speaker 2: bad reputation to all truckers. You know, used to be
Speaker 2: in the dad and my wife talks about this a
Speaker 2: lot when we're out driving. She said, you know, it
Speaker 2: used to be that the best drivers out on the
Speaker 2: road were the truck drivers. And once in a while
Speaker 2: you see somebody that really doesn't seem to be that
Speaker 2: good of a truck driver, but that ruins it for
Speaker 2: the thirty or so out there that.
Speaker 5: Are correct, correct, correct, you know, I mean, I mean,
Speaker 5: it's crazy what's happened in this country. Let me let
Speaker 5: me explain to you what's happening and how these people
Speaker 5: are maybe paying a picture of how these people are
Speaker 5: getting licenses.
Speaker 4: You know, these people are coming to.
Speaker 5: Stays like California, where they've set up these trucking companies,
Speaker 5: well truck driving schools that they'll pay to go to
Speaker 5: this school. This school will quickly push them through, and
Speaker 5: they're getting grants from the government to obviously, uh train
Speaker 5: these drivers usually and then when these drivers get a license,
Speaker 5: they're brought to a trucking company or a truck lease
Speaker 5: program where they take these drivers and they say, look,
Speaker 5: we're gonna lease to a truck, a trailer.
Speaker 4: H you're gonna work for us, You're.
Speaker 5: Gonna we're gonna deduct the payments every month from from
Speaker 5: your paycheck. And on top of that, they say, look,
Speaker 5: I'm giving you a truck and a job.
Speaker 4: We're gonna give you loads to two haul.
Speaker 5: And these are like, well, these guys are like, this
Speaker 5: is great, this is the full package. Let you know
Speaker 5: where do I sign? And these guys all ten nine
Speaker 5: ten ninety nine. Because truckers should be W two's unless
Speaker 5: you are independent driver, so they put them in an
Speaker 5: independent class, which.
Speaker 4: Is, you know, rooting for independent drivers.
Speaker 5: In my opinion, they're getting these jobs, getting your truck
Speaker 5: and put on the road with very little experience. And
Speaker 5: on top of that, these companies are also selling them insurance.
Speaker 5: And shame on the insurance companies for you know, covering
Speaker 5: these guys, because for example, if I are a driver,
Speaker 5: he needs to have two years of experience. These guys
Speaker 5: have no experience. Obviously they have to I assume, you know,
Speaker 5: I mean they're looking the other way and then giving
Speaker 5: them licenses.
Speaker 4: You know, So there's.
Speaker 2: Insurance, and the insurance area is something to talk about,
Speaker 2: and we need to take a quick break here and
Speaker 2: when we come back, we'll pick that up on the
Speaker 2: other side of the break. Speaking with Mike Keacharski, co
Speaker 2: owner and vice president of JKC Trucking, I'm Kevin Gordon,
Speaker 2: America's truck in Network seven hundred w L.
Speaker 1: We stayed in the rest of the country in the
Speaker 1: Tri State O but I'm mostly claudy. They'll go down
Speaker 1: to forty partly sunny Wednesday, a high of fifty three. Thursday,
Speaker 1: mostly claudy with a slight chance of afternoon rain. Highs
Speaker 1: in the lower sixties. Rain likely in the morning Friday.
Speaker 1: Otherwise claudi hies in the mid sixties Nationally through Thursday.
Speaker 1: Heavy mountain snow expected in the Cascades as well as
Speaker 1: parts of the interior West in the Northeast State, which
Speaker 1: are storm tonight bringing snow, sleet and freezing rain. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: well above average temperature scene from the Great Plains of
Speaker 1: the Appalachians through Thursday.
Speaker 2: This is America struck In Network seven hundred WLW. I'm
Speaker 2: Kevin Gordon. Continuing our conversation with Mike Kacharski. He is
Speaker 2: co owner and vice president of JKC Trucking, Before the break,
Speaker 2: we talked about the insurance angle of this, where you
Speaker 2: talked about how these drivers who are ill equipped, ill trained,
Speaker 2: got some sort of I guess a pass or paid
Speaker 2: off the licensing bureaus and motor vehicles to get the license,
Speaker 2: go to these companies, get hired to get a lease,
Speaker 2: option to buy truck or at least i'm a truck,
Speaker 2: and then provide the insurance for them. But the insurance
Speaker 2: companies themselves are probably well, aren't less than reputable, and
Speaker 2: they will have a bunch of policies out there like this,
Speaker 2: and if one of them, you know, gets in a
Speaker 2: major accident, then they just you know, go file bankruptcy
Speaker 2: and go on from there.
Speaker 3: Did I have that correct?
Speaker 4: Correct? Correct? Yeah? So there's there's four people to blame.
Speaker 5: Number one is that the driver getting the license because
Speaker 5: he knows that he did not get enough training, got
Speaker 5: pushed through to get a license too.
Speaker 4: I blame whoever gives them the license, whoever part.
Speaker 5: Of the DMV, like especially in California where they had
Speaker 5: the giving seventeen thousand licensed to trug evers.
Speaker 4: That had expired work V Size three to blame is
Speaker 4: the insurance company.
Speaker 5: How you mean How could these insurance companies hire these
Speaker 5: guys when they knew they have zero experience? And for
Speaker 5: I blame the people that are giving them them the freight.
Speaker 5: The shippers are giving them the freight that they're not
Speaker 5: checking to because they're liable if they get an accent,
Speaker 5: I mean they're they're partially liable to give to give
Speaker 5: these drivers inexperience, brand new drivers freight.
Speaker 4: I mean, we're living in a crazy world.
Speaker 2: Now, you mentioned your drivers. You don't hire people that
Speaker 2: have at least two years worth of experience. Now that
Speaker 2: could be well, of course, you talk about somebody who
Speaker 2: comes out of school, a rifidal school, they get the
Speaker 2: CDO license, then they have to basically partner with another
Speaker 2: person to where they shadow them or train them on
Speaker 2: the road for a period of time before they let
Speaker 2: them loose. Describe that process and you know how quickly
Speaker 2: is somebody capable of being out on the road or
Speaker 2: I guess, I guess there's two pronged question here. You've
Speaker 2: got in state deliveries or you have interstate deliveries, and
Speaker 2: of course with interstate, then you go into other areas
Speaker 2: with different climates, different temperatures, cold, hot, snow, whatever within
Speaker 2: the individual state. It's a little different than being cross country.
Speaker 4: Correct. Just to give me an idea.
Speaker 5: So my insurance, my liability insurance company says I cannot
Speaker 5: hire nobody.
Speaker 4: With less than two years driving experience. The insurance companies
Speaker 4: you know, say that, look, you need two years.
Speaker 5: They believe that's enough for them.
Speaker 4: For some drivers.
Speaker 5: Yes, I believe in my opinion, you know, it takes
Speaker 5: two three years to be a well run of drivers.
Speaker 5: But let me let me give you a let me
Speaker 5: paint a picture. Let's say you and I go truck
Speaker 5: driving school. We'll be in truck driving school two three months,
Speaker 5: we'll graduate, we'll get our medical card, and then we
Speaker 5: need to find a trucking company that will train us.
Speaker 4: Further to get this experience, because you mean, all we did.
Speaker 5: Is passive drivery TSK. We know the very bare essentials.
Speaker 5: Now need to get the experience and truck other trucking companies.
Speaker 5: For example, we have a truck driving program that we
Speaker 5: ran for Native American Indians.
Speaker 4: They would get they would go to truck driving school,
Speaker 4: and they.
Speaker 5: Would come to our shop and we would give them
Speaker 5: a local job for three months at least ninety days,
Speaker 5: sometimes one hundred and twenty days of these they would
Speaker 5: have to they would go with another driver training driver
Speaker 5: and they would do a lot of local deliveries and
Speaker 5: pickups so they could get used to accustom, you know,
Speaker 5: traveling through busy cities, the paperwork. After that, if they
Speaker 5: passed the local they get used to that.
Speaker 4: When we put.
Speaker 5: Them on uh you know, regional runs with with with
Speaker 5: a driver trainer, which is overnight.
Speaker 4: They'll go to like let's say we're out.
Speaker 5: Of Illinois, they'll run to Michigan, Detroit and the back
Speaker 5: to get more experience under that out that would be
Speaker 5: another to three months to do that. And after that
Speaker 5: we put them on long distance with the tr trainer
Speaker 5: and after they have a good grasp of that for
Speaker 5: fwoture months, So that that whole process takes about a
Speaker 5: whole year. Right, I'm driving with a trainer, and then
Speaker 5: when they're good enough, we either let them drive you know,
Speaker 5: uh locally not locally, well, they could do local, they
Speaker 5: could do overnight regional, or or we start sending long
Speaker 5: distance but short long distances so they could get that
Speaker 5: under their belt. It takes a long time because you know,
Speaker 5: truck driving is it's not like jumping your car, You're
Speaker 5: you're you're traveling through multiple states, you're traveling through elevation,
Speaker 5: you're running through white out storms, black guys in the summertime,
Speaker 5: extreme heat. It's it's a very very complicated process. It's
Speaker 5: not it's not like you know, running into the grocery
Speaker 5: store and back. It's you had There's a lot to learn,
Speaker 5: and even after three years of experience, I mean, I
Speaker 5: feel tru numbers are still always learning because you know,
Speaker 5: you things are having there on the road all the time.
Speaker 5: It's a lifestyle and you have it too, some of
Speaker 5: a lifestyle and you can't do it in two three months.
Speaker 2: We're speaking with Mike Kocharski. He is co owner and
Speaker 2: vice president of jk C Trucking. So I guess we
Speaker 2: move into the legislative phase here because there's been a
Speaker 2: number of bills that have been put out there. One
Speaker 2: that I've seen, I've read several different bills, but one
Speaker 2: that kind of peaud my interest was kind of cleverly
Speaker 2: named No CDLs for Illegals Act. This is done by
Speaker 2: a representative, Jeff Van Drew from New Jersey.
Speaker 3: Of all places.
Speaker 2: Of course, he's a Republican in this What type of
Speaker 2: things do you want to would you want to see
Speaker 2: in a bill?
Speaker 3: Is there a bill out there that you like?
Speaker 2: Is there something that you're in support of, because obviously
Speaker 2: something needs to be done to rain this system in No.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so right now we are what's happening with the
Speaker 5: Department Transportation and Sean Duffy, he's I mean the ability
Speaker 5: to speak of this hrd A sixty three OCLS for
Speaker 5: Legals Act. That is what they're redoing is recmenting what
Speaker 5: ARI was there.
Speaker 4: They're saying, look, if you come to this country and.
Speaker 5: You don't have a Social Security number, you cannot get
Speaker 5: a CDL. You need to be you need to have
Speaker 5: a residence and you have to domicile at least a
Speaker 5: Green card to get a CDL.
Speaker 4: This was always the law until recently, and I don't
Speaker 4: know what happened.
Speaker 5: And what they're doing is they want to do this federally,
Speaker 5: which is great. And then on top of that, other
Speaker 5: states are taking other steps. You know, Arkansas last year
Speaker 5: before all this even surfaced, February of twenty twenty four
Speaker 5: said look, anybody comes in a state of Arkansas is
Speaker 5: going to be tested for English proficiency. They made them
Speaker 5: read some sentences. They would have to write some stuff
Speaker 5: and describe what they did when they would come to
Speaker 5: the point of venture of Arkansas.
Speaker 4: Texas is taking the same stand. Last night, I was
Speaker 4: reading the Tennessee saying that if a driver comes.
Speaker 5: In that has non domicile license will be put out
Speaker 5: of service, arrested, and it might face up to jail
Speaker 5: time in Tennessee. Because we have this internal battle, a
Speaker 5: lot of states will all states should be going, look,
Speaker 5: we need safe drivers.
Speaker 4: A lot of states are saying we support.
Speaker 5: That these drivers should be put out of service, and
Speaker 5: some states are fighting it. So we have this battle,
Speaker 5: and I support anything that supports because houses we need
Speaker 5: safe drivers.
Speaker 4: These laws are coming out because we need safe drivers
Speaker 4: on the roads you know, run.
Speaker 5: By legitimate businesses and legitimate drivers. You know, this keeps
Speaker 5: the American public safe. And when it keeps the American
Speaker 5: public safe, we all win.
Speaker 4: Because right now it's a wild while West exactly.
Speaker 2: And I think one of the things about this bill
Speaker 2: that is kind of interesting is not only does it
Speaker 2: penalize the driver, but then it penalizes the non compliant
Speaker 2: states that are allowing these licenses to be issued, targeting
Speaker 2: them with transportation, with holding transportation funds and also targeting
Speaker 2: the trucking companies themselves, because again, the people that are
Speaker 2: putting these dangerous vehicles out there need to be held
Speaker 2: responsible and until somebody goes to jail, until somebody is
Speaker 2: shut down. You know, reputable companies like JKC Trucking with
Speaker 2: Mike Kocharski as the co owner are going to be
Speaker 2: I guess beneficiaries of a bad reputation because of the
Speaker 2: bad people out there driving.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what a lot of these dates are doing.
Speaker 5: They're forgetting that the federal motor Carrier, Sean Duffy is
Speaker 5: They're the gatekeeper. He makes the law for all of
Speaker 5: American we should all follow it. In a lot of
Speaker 5: these states are saying no, well we're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 5: look the other way. But they're the gatekeeper regards how
Speaker 5: was this. The law should be the same from New
Speaker 5: York to California, wherever you go. You can't just pick
Speaker 5: and shoes what because it consistency and this was set
Speaker 5: up for the safety of the American people. And these
Speaker 5: states are deciding to fight these things and look the
Speaker 5: way they're twisting issues.
Speaker 4: My favorite thing is that you got.
Speaker 2: To wonder how much concern they have for the American
Speaker 2: citizens and the driving public out there. Mike, we're up
Speaker 2: against the clock here and it's been a pleasure talking
Speaker 2: to you. We got to do this more often. I
Speaker 2: talk to you again about this disease of bills proceed
Speaker 2: Any final thoughts.
Speaker 3: Here real quick.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Look, my primary concern is always going to be
Speaker 5: who's behind the wheel.
Speaker 4: Law abiding truckers pay for training, insurance, and compliance.
Speaker 5: One of the cuts corners that are undercuts the people
Speaker 5: doing the right thing. You know, if we have safe
Speaker 5: drivers on the road, run by legitimate businesses, this keeps
Speaker 5: the American public safe and we all win.
Speaker 2: Fantastic Again, my thanks to Mike Ktarski, co owner and
Speaker 2: vice president of JKC Trucking. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's truck
Speaker 2: in Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 7: It happens all the time. Your neighbor's pet zebra it's lose.
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Speaker 7: pooping on lawns and mounting your cement goose. Right, So
Speaker 7: then you got to go in the house and you
Speaker 7: got to get your zebra product again. And then you
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Speaker 7: got to get the duct tape out and then you
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Speaker 7: bring it back to your neighbor. But now you've missed
Speaker 7: part of my show, the Scott Sloan Ship.
Speaker 3: Don't worry.
Speaker 7: You can still listen to the podcast on the iHeartRadio
Speaker 7: app and get it and missed and then save the
Speaker 7: stun gun, duct tape and tart for the neighbor.
Speaker 2: Kevin Gordon thanks to Mike Katarski spending time with us.
Speaker 2: He's co owner and president vice president of JKC Trucking.
Speaker 2: If you missed that interview or any of our previous shows,
Speaker 2: hit up that iHeartRadio app brought to you by our
Speaker 2: friends at Rush Truck Centers. Now, as far as predictions
Speaker 2: from ATM, let's not forget how much ATN Kevin Gordon
Speaker 2: on ATN was right about tariff's not leading to runaway inflation,
Speaker 2: which everybody was predicting was going to happen. A lot
Speaker 2: of the economists tariffs causing massive layoffs and or recession
Speaker 2: didn't happen GDP. They predicted being at one point eight
Speaker 2: percent to maybe two percent GDP was be too. I
Speaker 2: predicted j GDP was going to be between four and
Speaker 2: a half to five percent versus their one point eight
Speaker 2: two percent. GDP in the third quarter was four point
Speaker 2: three percent, a lot closer than their estimate, and I
Speaker 2: still think the fourth quarter is going to come in
Speaker 2: even better. Now that flying the ointment here is the
Speaker 2: fact that the government shutdown. According to estimates. Now when
Speaker 2: those numbers come in, remember that the shutdown could possibly
Speaker 2: have caused according to the government estimates CBO and all
Speaker 2: as of government Congressional Budget Office, could have caused a
Speaker 2: one point five to a two point two reduction in
Speaker 2: the GDP. So thank you Chuck Schumer, the Schumer shut
Speaker 2: down and the Democrats who voted to keep the government
Speaker 2: shut down and to punish the military. Because the Democrats
Speaker 2: didn't get their way with some of their goodies and
Speaker 2: their subsidies to people that.
Speaker 3: Really don't well illegal aliens.
Speaker 2: They wanted to fund all these plans to subsidize illegal
Speaker 2: immigration in this country. And so thanks to them, GDP
Speaker 2: will be suffering by one point five to two point
Speaker 2: two percent. And all those people, the military, the air
Speaker 2: traffic controllers, and many of the government workers that went
Speaker 2: without a paycheck for forty three days, Thank you, Chuck Schumer.
Speaker 2: So again atn was on the head of this, and
Speaker 2: as far as inflation is concerned, I predicted that we
Speaker 2: would be at two percent by the end of the year.
Speaker 2: I don't think we're going to get there when the
Speaker 2: numbers come in when we see what happened in the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter. However, when you take into consideration the different
Speaker 2: contracts that have been signed between ups, railroad workers, auto workers,
Speaker 2: all the ports on well the ports on the East
Speaker 2: coast and the West coast, all those negotiations as far
Speaker 2: as salary, all those contracts, as far as wages are concerned,
Speaker 2: have affected inflation, and so that we may be off
Speaker 2: a little bit there, but I will take a four
Speaker 2: point five to five percent GDP over not hitting the
Speaker 2: inflation target every day of the week. Now, referring back
Speaker 2: to the story that we had before, we talked to
Speaker 2: Mike Kacharski talking about what the predictions were going into
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six and what things might look at. Again,
Speaker 2: they're talking about, well, you know, well, the people will
Speaker 2: the citizens, will customers, consumers, will they pull back? We
Speaker 2: haven't seen any evidence of that in fact, when we're
Speaker 2: seeing retail sale numbers, it's above expectations, better than expected,
Speaker 2: and so on. And here we have another situation and
Speaker 2: we're talking about a major purchase.
Speaker 4: Here.
Speaker 2: Ford reports best annual US vehicle sales since twenty nineteen
Speaker 2: out of Detroit. Ford Motor on Tuesday said US vehicle
Speaker 2: sales last year increased six percent to achieve the company's
Speaker 2: best annual sales since twenty nineteen, in other words, pre pandemic.
Speaker 2: The Detroit automaker reported sales to two point two million
Speaker 2: vehicles in twenty twenty five, including a two point seven
Speaker 2: percent uptick to more than five hundred and forty five
Speaker 2: thousand units in the fourth quarter. In twenty nineteen, the
Speaker 2: automaker sold two point four to two million, so they
Speaker 2: were within about two hundred thousand vehicles of what they
Speaker 2: sold back in twenty nineteen, so again, best sales years
Speaker 2: since pre plandemic. Ford finished the year third largest automaker
Speaker 2: in the US, behind Toyota, which had which was up
Speaker 2: eight percent in sales, and domestic sales leader General Motor,
Speaker 2: which was up five point five percent in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Ford US vehicle sales for the and Imagine what vehicle
Speaker 2: sales would have been if we had decent interest rates.
Speaker 2: When you look at the price of seven eight percent
Speaker 2: for interest rates on vehicle purchases. If the Federal Reserve,
Speaker 2: if lion Jerry Powell had gotten off his butt and
Speaker 2: reduced those interest rates, then as far as the overnight
Speaker 2: rate to the banks, the credit cards would have fallen
Speaker 2: in place, truck loans, car loans, mortgages would have fallen
Speaker 2: into place as well, and we would have seen more sales,
Speaker 2: more vehicles sold in that fourth quarter. But again, Federal
Speaker 2: Reserve holding US BACKUS vehicles for the year were largely
Speaker 2: in line with I get this, okay. They were up
Speaker 2: six you know, we saw Ford was up six percent,
Speaker 2: GM was up eight percent, and General Motors was up
Speaker 2: five point five percent. US Ford US vehicle sales in
Speaker 2: the year were largely in line with analysts expectations, such
Speaker 2: as those from Cox Automotive, which expects industry wide sales
Speaker 2: to have risen by about two percent. Okay, where is
Speaker 2: six percent close to two percent, where is five point
Speaker 2: five percent close to two percent, where is eight percent
Speaker 2: close to two percent? Industry analysts predicted a two percent increase,
Speaker 2: where Ford had a six percent, Toyota eight percent, and
Speaker 2: GM had an increase of five point five percent. Unbelievable,
Speaker 2: but they're still sticking to it. Andrew Frick, president of
Speaker 2: Ford's non fleet vehicle business. He said that the automaker
Speaker 2: seems to be on track to offset lost production of
Speaker 2: tens of thousands of lucrative pickup trucks this year, including
Speaker 2: adding another shift to a plant in Michigan. Now that's
Speaker 2: a result of fourth quarter. Ford fourth quarter performance came
Speaker 2: in continues to battle production troubles because they did have
Speaker 2: some plant fires, two separate fires at a New York
Speaker 2: plant and a key aluminum supplier Novellas F series sales,
Speaker 2: including a popular F one point fifty. We're up eight
Speaker 2: point three percent in twenty twenty five, but off three
Speaker 2: point three percent during the fourth quarter. Like many automakers
Speaker 2: for they're getting away from the electric vehicles that only
Speaker 2: accounts for about fourteen percent of their sales. Eighty six
Speaker 2: percent of Ford's sales are in the internal combustion engines.
Speaker 2: One of the areas that's kind of creeping up and
Speaker 2: looks to see some promise is hybrid vehicles, which could
Speaker 2: actually be very good. So you know, again, we're seeing
Speaker 2: this mixed bag. We've got the so called experts saying
Speaker 2: that there are things headwinds going into twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: But the evidence that we have already in hand from
Speaker 2: what happened at the latter part of twenty twenty five
Speaker 2: and showing no signs of slowing down show and points
Speaker 2: to a good twenty twenty six as opposed to some
Speaker 2: of these other predictions. Now, seeing what's going on even
Speaker 2: after the capture of Nicholas Maduro over the weekend, with
Speaker 2: Venezuela and the oil down there, all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: now China isn't interested in buying Venezuelan oil, Isn't that interesting.
Speaker 2: They're the ones that have been propping up the regime
Speaker 2: down there, the illegitimate regime. They've been buying the oil
Speaker 2: from them and taking it and I guess storing it
Speaker 2: because I guess they've got deep pockets there. They're shunning
Speaker 2: that now. What it appears is though, that people talking
Speaker 2: about whether or not there'll be a ramp up and
Speaker 2: whether or not how quickly the oil industry can get
Speaker 2: back on par don't discount the ability of American companies
Speaker 2: to go in and when they really put their mind
Speaker 2: to it, how quickly certain things can get done. I'm
Speaker 2: sure the Venezuelan Pea people are anxious to get out
Speaker 2: of eighty six percent of the people there are living
Speaker 2: in poverty.
Speaker 3: And if the newly installed.
Speaker 2: Vice president now president of Venezuela, they say that she
Speaker 2: has been very cooperative and very interested in working with
Speaker 2: these oil companies, maybe the oil companies get in there
Speaker 2: a lot quicker and ramp up the production. At one
Speaker 2: point they were producing up to three million barrels per
Speaker 2: day down there, and they are now down in the
Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of barrels per day. So again, how
Speaker 2: quickly that can come on board, And I think that
Speaker 2: is going to surprise a lot of people over the
Speaker 2: coming years. So it's going to be interesting to see
Speaker 2: how that all pans out. Well, folks, that does it
Speaker 2: for us? We're up against clock here. Stay tuned for
Speaker 2: Retie Radio atop the hour. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's truck
Speaker 2: in Network seven hundred WLW