WEBVTT - How Trucking Works 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:05.160 Hey, everybody, we're coming to your town, so you better 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:07.720 get ready, put on your best duds and come out 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:09.520 and see us. But first buy some tickets. 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:12.239 That's right, we are finishing up. These are the last 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:14.480 shows of our twenty twenty three tour. We're gonna be 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:19.040 in Orlando, Florida on August twelfth, Nashville, Tennessee on September sixth, 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:21.720 and wind it all up here in Atlanta on September ninth. 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:24.439 Yes, and you can get all the info you need 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:27.080 and links to tickets which are on sale now at 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:30.040 our website Stuff youshould Know dot com on our tour page, 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:32.600 or you can go to linktree slash sysk. 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:42.920 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:48.720 Hey, and welcome to the podcast Good Buddy. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:52.000 and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry's here too, 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:55.200 so that makes us a route tune an episode of 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:56.040 Stuff you Should Know? 0:00:57.680 --> 0:00:59.920 Was there anything more thrilling as a child being on 0:00:59.920 --> 0:01:05.200 the highway and getting that trucker to pull that horn change? 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:09.000 Yeah, it was very thrilling. You felt drunk with power, 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:09.440 didn't you? 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:11.960 Sort of that as a kid it was. 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:15.000 It was like, wow, like they paid attention to me 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:15.720 sort of, you know. 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.800 Yeah, yeah, And the only time I ever tried that, 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:22.240 though the trucker flipped me off. 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:27.840 No really kidding. I totally bought that. 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:30.080 That would be a Josh Clark childhood story though for 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:35.000 sure it fit. Yeah, for sure. So was that it? 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:36.920 Is that all you wanted to talk about with truckers? 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:39.119 Yeah, I mean, I know, I don't know if this 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:44.679 came specifically from a specific trucker as an idea, but 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:46.840 I know that we've gotten a few emails here and 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:51.320 there from long haul and regional shorthaul truckers that say 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:54.520 they listen to us, and you know that they're out 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:56.160 there and they'd love to hear something about it. 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.640 So to that, we say ten to four, ten to four. 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:00.200 Good. 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:03.760 Yeah, apparently stuff you should know is the greatest thing 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:06.200 that's ever happened to the trucking industry in the history 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:08.960 of the trucking industry. As far as the truckers who 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:12.120 listen to us, they're concerned. So hello out there, everybody 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.960 driving trucks listening to us. We appreciate you. In fact, 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:18.240 we appreciate you so much. We're doing a whole episode 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:21.959 on your industry. And it's one of those things, Chuck, 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:25.400 that I mean, you drive alongside truckers, you tell them 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:28.160 to get the heck out of the middle lane. You 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:32.240 see them unloading shipments and just doing their thing. They're 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:36.880 just a part of life. But it's definitely one of 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:41.720 those things that if it goes wrong, it becomes apparent 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:47.720 very quickly. Because truckers and trucking is the way that 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:52.000 America runs, not just America, we're talking Eurasia. Basically, the 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:56.560 whole world runs on commercial trucking. That's how stuff gets 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:59.720 moved around. Yes, we move stuff by sea, that's true, 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.760 move stuff by rail, that's true too. We even fly 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.280 stuff somewhere once in a while. But for the most part, 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:09.280 the vast majority of stuff that goes from a factory 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:15.399 to a store in most countries, it's it's carried by trucks. 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:16.040 Yeah. 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.200 I think the Grabster helped us with this, and I 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:20.639 think he found a stat that said that long haul 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:24.800 trucking carries about seventy percent by weight of everything that 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:26.960 we ship in the United States. 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:31.080 Yeah, eleven billion tons of freight in a year. I 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:35.880 saw that maybe about six hundred billion dollars. That's how 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:41.400 much the industry makes gross of course, But the I 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.760 think the key here is that trucking has created that 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.160 the world that we live in today. Like the grocery 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:50.760 storees you know it today, you can thank trucking for that. 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.160 Box stores for better or worse, thank trucking for that. 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.480 They they've allowed it. Like as trucking is advanced, it's 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:03.320 allowed the United States economy to advance as well, and 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:05.440 it's just created all sorts of new things that you 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:07.880 probably couldn't have predicted along the way. 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.680 Yeah, and that's why, even though it can be frustrating, 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:15.200 you should try and be very patient and understanding when 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:18.640 that semi truck gets over in the left lane to 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:22.520 pass somebody, and which they have to do sometimes, and 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.240 they find themselves all of a sudden going on a 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:29.120 long uphill stretch right and they just don't have the 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.280 engine power to go as fast as you want to go. 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:37.640 I used to get pretty frustrated with that stuff, but 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:39.720 I try to understand now, they didn't mean to do that. 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:41.680 They don't want to be on that uphill, stuck in 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:44.279 that left lane, and they're trying to get you your 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.920 dumb package or oranges or whatever. 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:52.320 I have respect for truckers in the trucking industry, but 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.320 I think being asked to be patient about that is 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:57.160 a bit of a stretch. 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:01.159 All right, Well, we should probably go back in time 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:06.520 some to the early nineteen hundreds, specifically the nineteen tens, 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:11.360 when what we think of as the modern tractor trailer 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:20.560 was basically invented by a guy from Detroit named August Fruhuf. 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.400 Something tells me he's German, I think so. And he 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:27.600 built a trailer to move lumber around. Called it a 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:28.599 semi trailer. 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:31.120 Oh yeah, you don't call it a semi. 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:36.000 Well, a semi trailer. I call it a semi. 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:37.880 You call it a semi No, I call it a 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.920 semi okay? 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:42.680 Was that just a gas lid? 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:45.160 Maybe? 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:45.680 Okay? 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:50.080 And then about a year after that he licensed this 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:54.719 fifth wheel design, which is which was kind of changed everything. 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:58.880 It made a uniform method for very quickly and easily 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:02.640 attaching a trailer to a truck. And back then it 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:04.960 was called the fifth wheel because I looked up old 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.039 pictures of these things. It looked like a wagon wheel. 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:09.640 It looks a lot different now, but that was where 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:10.360 it got its name. 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:14.159 Yeah, if you've ever seen a naked semi driving along 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.640 without a trailer, there's a big round steel plate on 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:20.440 the back and that's the fifth wheel. And like you said, 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.359 I mean it revolutionized everything because it allowed trailers to 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:28.720 be swapped out very quickly. And also it came up 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:33.080 it might come up again later. It it underscores the 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:35.760 whole point of everything is that all you need now 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.760 is the tractor, the semi, the trunk, and you can 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:43.440 interchange that with all variety and manner of different trailers. 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.159 You can pull all sorts of different things. So because 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:50.640 it's modular and swappable and you can collect all fifty 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.880 that that also allowed that the whole industry to grow too, 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:57.520 just in that one little invention. 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:01.320 Yeah, and do I understand in this correctly that. 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:05.760 A tractor trailer is the name of you know, the 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.120 front part in the back part, and it's called a 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.920 semi truck and a semi trailer because it's like part 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:12.400 of that like semi. 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.360 Literally that's my understanding, all. 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:17.320 Right, if we got that wrong, and I feel really dumb, 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:20.240 but I think that's the deal. And like you said, 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:23.080 now people will generally just call them semis. 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:24.800 A lot of times like a shorthand. 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:27.680 But there's you know, there's been a lot of developments 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:30.640 since that fifth wheel, Yeah, to come along. 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:32.000 To make these sort of the go to. 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:36.120 The first big one was just you know, air tires 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:40.240 rather than rubber wrapped around a steel wheel, right, that 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:44.920 was a big deal. And then refrigerated trucks, which came 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:49.320 along in the nineteen thirties courtesy of a very successful 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:54.480 and prolific inventor on an African American Army veteran named 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:59.240 Fred Jones, who developed the refrigerated truck. And prior to this, 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:01.760 it was like how much ice can we fit in there? 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:02.480 Kind of thing. 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:07.880 Yeah, they would take like barrels of brine along I 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.680 guess to lower the melting point for the ice, and 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:14.119 that stuff would just drip out of it and onto 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:17.840 the truck and it would rust the truck quickly. Even 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:20.760 if you did have a very successful run, it was 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.960 a very short run. All that stuff was any perishable 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:28.680 stuff was very local. Like if you bought something, yeah, 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.520 fish especially they did not have fish in Georgia at 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:35.160 the time, certainly not saltwater fish. But if you bought 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.960 something like at the store that was produced, it was 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:41.520 probably grown within twenty miles of where you were, probably 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.360 even closer than that, in large part because they just 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:46.960 couldn't ship it further than that. And then if you 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.040 have a truck breakdown, you're in big trouble because that 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.079 whole shipman was just just a wash. 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:57.200 Yeah. I mean, if you ate like a swordfish steak 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:00.439 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the nineteen sixties, you're lucky to 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.640 be alive. Yeah, exactly, Actually, not the sixties. I should 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:07.160 have said that the eighteenth sixties. Let me try that again. 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:11.559 If you ate swordfish Until's Oklahoma in the nineteen twenties, 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:13.080 you're lucky to be alive. 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:15.199 You're lucky to be alive. Anyway, If you're alive, then. 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:19.200 I think Swordfish in Tulsa is a great album. 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:21.679 Now, Oh yes. 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.160 I can see a guy with a pencil thin mustache 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:27.439 seated at a table, an intimate little table with the candle. 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:31.240 He's wearing an ascot and sunglasses even though it's indoors, 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.120 and he's toasting you the viewer of the album cover. 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:38.760 Oh man, Aaron Cooper get busy. 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:42.600 So I guess we're trying to say here is that 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.640 it's really difficult to overstate the impact that the refrigerated 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:50.520 trailer had on not just the trucking industry, but just 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.640 the economy and the way that we consume food. Now. 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:59.080 Yeah, and you know, truck farming started a couple of 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:02.160 decades before, which was the idea that you could now 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:06.160 put fruits and vegetables on trucks that didn't necessarily need 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:07.079 to be refrigerated. 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:09.280 It does not mean growing trucks from c. 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:15.559 That started a while before, which meant all of a 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:19.320 sudden farming went you know, regional and then national. But 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:21.280 then you know, a couple of less than a couple 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.320 of decades later, when these reefer trucks is what they're called, 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:27.800 came along, then you could have cold goods shipped more easily, 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:30.600 and then basically everything was on the table as far 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:31.920 as getting it from here to there. 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.800 Right, And that's another example, like you can haul a 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:38.560 dry load and a regular trailer one day and the 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.000 next day you could be hauling a reefer truck thanks 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.920 to that fifth wheel, like I was saying earlier. Yeah, 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.720 another big, one, huge, huge change not just in trucking 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:51.160 but in shipping in the global economy in general, was 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:54.960 when the standardized shipping container came along. We have to 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:57.360 do an episode on that. I can't believe we haven't yet. 0:10:57.920 --> 0:10:58.600 Yeah we should. 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:03.640 The closest we came to was the floaty friendly floaties, 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:05.520 the rubber ducks that went overboard once. 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:07.280 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.040 That's the coast we came. But so when the shipping 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:14.000 container container became standardized, that meant that when you shipped something, uh, 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:16.920 you packed it and sent it off and it was 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:19.000 lifted on a crane to a ship, it was lifted 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.160 off the ship by another crane on the other end 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:25.040 onto a tractor trailer, and then it was just taken 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:27.600 straight to the store. No one needed to touch it 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.960 after you packed it, which really cut down on theft 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.200 damage that kind of stuff. It also put the long 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:39.880 shortman profession essentially out of business forever. But it also 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:44.319 it allowed trucking to expand. I guess in in kind 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:46.600 starting around the seventies, I think is when they really 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:47.000 caught on. 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:48.640 Aren't there still long shoremen? 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:48.920 No? 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:54.880 I thought they were. 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:57.840 They just like now, they just managed the loading and 0:11:57.840 --> 0:11:59.080 the loading of containers. 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:02.800 Yes, of the containers. So yes, there are still long shoremen. 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:08.320 There's still Steve Doors, but they the number of them. Sure, yeah, 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:11.640 of course, I mean decimated times nine. 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:12.480 All right. 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.440 I was just imagining a long shoreman working right now 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:17.600 listening to this, going what I. 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.160 Don't exist, and he just pops right out of existence 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:21.680 because he stopped believing. 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:27.679 Another big thing that made trucking possible, obviously, was the 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:30.800 Federal Highway Act I'm sorry, Federal Highway Aid Act of 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:34.440 nineteen fifty six, which you know we've talked about it before, 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:39.200 created the highway system, very big boon and then getting 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:43.200 rid of way stations. It didn't increase trucking, but it 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:48.160 really ramped up efficiency because back in the day, every 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.640 state had their own weight restrictions for trucks or you know, 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.000 they weren't literally all different, but they all had their 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:58.079 own and you had to stop at every state line 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.080 at a way station and sometimes sit in a long 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:04.120 line and get weighed, and you could be delayed hours 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:10.080 and hours, especially well if you were overweight like you would, 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:12.040 they'd say, sorry, you got to pull over there probably 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:13.120 and we'll handle this. 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:13.640 But vomit. 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:19.400 The Surface Surface Transportation Act, well, I guess in the 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:23.800 fifties they made it. They had a federal limit imposed, 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.520 but states could still have their own individual limits if 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:29.640 they if they wanted to, they were allowed to keep those. 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:32.200 And it wasn't until nineteen eighty two of the Surface 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:38.439 Transportation Assistance Act that they made it completely uniform. There 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:40.720 were still way stations because I remember them when I 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:43.719 was a kid. It wasn't until the nineties that they 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:47.440 got that. They became smart essentially, when they got these 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:52.400 weaight in motion scales and radio frequency ID transponders, and 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.520 truckers didn't even you know, they didn't have to stop anymore. 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:58.000 I was alive for that too, that transition in it 0:13:58.000 --> 0:13:59.880 took me a while to catch on. I didn't understand 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:03.120 what had happened. I thought that they'd just done away 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:04.280 with playing all together. 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:06.920 No, I didn't. I had no idea until like yesterday. 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:08.800 But that was like a familiar scene from when we 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:11.000 were young. Just trucks lined up at the way station, 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.720 you know, just idling and releasing tons of greenhouse gas 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:16.760 into the air, and you just try to pass and 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:19.280 make that pull down motion, and they'd just be like, 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:21.280 leave us alone. This is not the place for that. 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:21.920 I know. 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:23.840 I'm trying to come down off of an eight hour 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:25.280 cocaine binge. 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:29.000 Right So one of the other things though, in addition 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:31.760 to RFIDs, is like that's a really good example of 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:37.640 how just technological trucking has gotten. And another example of 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.640 it is that they used to up until like not 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:44.080 very long ago, last few years, I think truckers kept 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:47.640 logs like they actual They kept like actual, like like 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:50.640 written logs of their their time on the road and 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:53.000 how many miles they drove and all that, and to 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:56.040 get around like laws and regulations, which we'll talk about 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.800 in a minute. They would they would some of them 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:02.800 keep two books, and they called the one that they 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:06.000 showed an inspector, which was a doctor. They called it 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:09.280 a comic book. But they'd also keep a real one, 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:11.600 which I didn't understand why they would keep a real one, 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:16.720 but they maybe get paid, I guess, so yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.880 because you wouldn't mess around with the truck company owner 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.160 like that. That's true, great idea, but they they can't 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:23.880 do that anymore. 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:24.080 Now. 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.320 It's all very much tracked and kept on tabs, and 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:30.320 it's just because of that a much different industry. It's 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.160 also much safer, but it also has had an effect 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:35.760 on their ability to make money. And I just touched 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:38.160 upon like ten things that we're going to talk about soon. 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:40.960 So I say we should catch our breath and take 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:41.440 a break. 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:53.800 Let's do it. 0:15:56.040 --> 0:16:00.160 Well, now we're on the road in your truck. I 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:03.720 want to learn a thing or two from Josh Chuck. 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:05.480 It's stuff you should know. 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:13.360 All right, Hey, real quick, before we dive in, we 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:17.320 were talking about technology and people logging things. I had 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.800 a recent I'm gonna tell the quick version, but a 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:24.000 recent dispute with Federal Express. Oh yeah, because they had 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:27.440 a freight shipment delivery delivered to my house and that 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:30.440 was you know, prepaid by the shipper, and then they 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:32.360 sent me a bill for a few hundred bucks after and. 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:34.240 I was like, yeah, is this They do that a lot. Well, 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:35.960 that's happened to us multiple times. 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.280 Well did they tell you what they told me, which was, hey, 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.080 the trucker was there for like an hour and twenty minutes, 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:47.920 and that's like long. They said, that's the longer charge, 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:50.240 or you get charge extra or whatever if it's over 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:52.560 a certain amount of minutes for a certain amount of weight. 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:53.760 And I was like, no, he wasn't. 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:57.720 And we went back and found like video doorbell camera 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:00.600 stuff and text messages that like the guy was in 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:03.200 and out of there, or at least delivered in like 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:07.280 seven or eight minutes. I was like, I don't know 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:09.800 if your trucker was sitting out in the road for 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:10.800 an extra thirty minutes. 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:11.840 I don't remember that part. 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:14.920 But you know, here are the text messages that say, hey, 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:19.000 the truck's here, the truck's gone. Yeah, and as of now, 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:20.680 I don't even know if it's been resolved. 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:22.360 They just sort of ignored me after that. 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:26.480 That's also apparently so that's what's called detention time pay 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:30.280 right where if you are a trucker and you're sitting 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:34.520 around or you're doing the actual unloading, you're very often 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:36.680 not paid for that time. You're paid for the time 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:42.000 you're actually driving. That's it. Usually some companies pay detention time, 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:44.160 but it's at a lower rate than you're driving rate. 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:49.840 But if there is like a built in detention rate 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:54.080 into like a shipping contract, it's usually on the shipper 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.560 to pay it, the person sending the thing. It's part 0:17:57.560 --> 0:17:59.600 of the contract that if there's if you go over 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:02.080 this great period, it's off in two hours where the 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:04.920 trucker is just sitting there not driving, and it's your fault. 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.200 Because your dock or your warehouse is backed up after 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:12.160 two hours, you have to pay this this detention time rate. 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:16.720 It sounds like FedEx tried to pass their detention time 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:19.400 rate onto you even though they shouldn't have even been 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:22.320 paying it. So because you brought that up, I wasn't 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:25.679 gonna say this. We like, we have a lot of 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:31.000 stuff like delivered, and FedEx has become awful as a company, 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:33.520 not as the drivers, nothing like that. We've not had 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:35.959 any problem with drivers or any delivery guys or anything 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:38.920 like that, but as a company doing stuff like that, 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:42.679 being impossible to get in touch with, just being they've 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:46.000 really gone downhill from the FedEx that that you know, 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:51.439 we we were brought up with like they exactly and 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:53.600 then he gets lost and looked what happened? 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:56.480 Well, and just to put a button on this, I 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:58.520 don't want to go on and on about it, but 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.320 the initial charge was for like an hour and fifteen 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:02.359 or twenty minutes or something. 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:03.960 It was like three or four hundred bucks. 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:06.280 And then they came back and said, oh, well, we 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:08.800 checked the closer in the logs and it was actually 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:10.280 like a seventeen minutes. 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:12.080 So it's really just eighty dollars. 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:14.199 I was like, I'm like, you know what, I'm not 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:16.800 paying that even because that's not true. Yeah, but if 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:18.200 I would have paid that to begin with, you would 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:19.639 have ripped me off for four hundred. 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:23.160 Bucks, right, Yeah, No, it's rible. So how did it end? 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:24.120 I don't know. 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:26.720 They've ignored me since I sent in these text messages 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:29.399 as proof, so for all I know, they're turning me 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:30.840 over to like a creditor. 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:33.920 Yeah. That's really terrible. 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:38.920 But okay, I'm flush in the face. I'm coming down there. 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.520 Man. You need to keep everybody posted on your ongoing 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:42.520 saga with FedEx. 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:47.359 Okay, all right, so let's get back to this. I 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:50.000 guess we can talk about the trucks like themselves, because 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:52.560 they used to be, I guess, prior to World War Two, 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:58.159 mostly short haul trucks and fairly spartan and basically of 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.400 the same design. Thank you Mac Truck and Peter Built 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:04.320 and Kinworth trucks that really kind of figured out that 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:08.560 early design and shape. But these days, as we all know, 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:11.159 and for a while now, you can get a pretty 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:15.399 sweet sleeper cab situation going on. And I know I've 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:19.280 mentioned this before on some episode, but I was obsessed 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:22.159 with those when I was a kid. Yeah, me too, 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:25.960 because I love tiny, small spaces, and I could just 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:27.239 I didn't know what was in there. 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:30.159 I'd never been able to look in the What you did? 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:30.879 You're like, WHOA? 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:32.399 I was like, what is it? 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:36.159 Well? I finally did because our buddy John Pindell, my 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.720 friend that always sees us in Brooklyn, he was a 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:43.159 regional trucker for a while, and he showed me his 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:47.320 little sleeper cab. Nice would you in bed in TVNBCR. 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:50.000 His was, you know, not like super lux, but I 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:52.320 could see where they could get, you know, pretty gussied up. 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.360 Yeah, some of them are. Basically they cut the mid 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:58.080 section out of a very nice RV and then put 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:01.800 it onto the back of a tractor, a semi truck. Yeah, 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:04.960 like it can get that nice. But I think by 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:08.440 and large, not just because those are expensive, but because 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:10.480 it also takes up space so you can carry less 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:12.800 of a load, and it's heapier so that you spend 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:15.840