Safety Over Operations: The Cypress Truck Lines Standard

1 00:00:00,880 --> 00:00:06,640 There are a lot of things in trucking that feel urgent appointment times, delivery windows, hours 2 00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:13,040 ticking away on the clock, a customer waiting, dispatch calling traffic building, weather rolling 3 00:00:13,040 --> 00:00:19,000 in. And when you're sitting behind the wheel of 80,000 pounds, it's easy to convince yourself that 4 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:25,680 you've just got to get there. But at Cypress Truck Lines, there's an old saying that puts all of that 5 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:32,360 urgency into perspective. We're not hauling body parts. Nobody's lying on an 6 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:38,080 operating table waiting for that load of building materials. Nobody's life depends on shaving ten 7 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:43,880 minutes off the trip, but somebody's life absolutely can depend on the decisions you make 8 00:00:43,919 --> 00:00:49,759 trying to save those ten minutes. Today, we're talking about why safety doesn't take a backseat 9 00:00:49,759 --> 00:00:55,440 to operations at Cypress. Because as safety DirectorSharee DeHart puts it, safety isn't 10 00:00:55,440 --> 00:01:02,260 something operations has to work around. Safety is part of how we operate. We'll hear from Sherie 11 00:01:02,620 --> 00:01:07,700 Blayze Padgett from Dispatch and David Penland Jr, about a philosophy that's been part of this 12 00:01:07,700 --> 00:01:12,779 company since Dave's father founded it. And then we're going to meet a man who might be the 13 00:01:12,780 --> 00:01:19,019 perfect example of what that philosophy looks like after millions of miles. Mark Angel has spent 14 00:01:19,019 --> 00:01:25,460 more than 20 years driving for Cypress 2 million safe miles, and now he's trading the steering 15 00:01:25,460 --> 00:01:30,900 wheel for a keyboard and training to become a dispatcher. The guy who used to make the phone 16 00:01:30,900 --> 00:01:36,740 call is about to start answering it, and he's bringing 2 million miles of experience with him. 17 00:01:36,980 --> 00:01:41,179 Mark was given a piece of advice when he was a new Cypress driver that stuck with him for his 18 00:01:41,180 --> 00:01:47,819 entire career. It's not what you're hauling, it's how you're hauling it, because straps don't keep 19 00:01:47,819 --> 00:01:53,580 every load on the trailer. As Mark told me, it's your driving that keeps that load on the trailer. 20 00:01:54,300 --> 00:02:00,909 That's 20 years and 2 million miles of wisdom distilled into one sentence. So today, what happens 21 00:02:00,910 --> 00:02:07,790 when safety, operations and the driver all have to make the call? When do you push forward? When do 22 00:02:07,790 --> 00:02:13,989 you park it, and why is getting there safely more important than getting there on time? Because 23 00:02:13,990 --> 00:02:19,110 we're not hauling body parts. And today we're going to find out what that really means. 24 00:02:24,270 --> 00:02:28,830 Count down to the Cypress Truck Lines podcast starts now. 25 00:02:31,149 --> 00:02:38,070 Your number one professional flatbed podcast here to deliver stories, safety updates and company 26 00:02:38,070 --> 00:02:42,830 news directly to your ears. Let's get down to business. 27 00:02:50,789 --> 00:02:56,849 How's the weather out there? Cypress and sun belt. Welcome into another episode of the Cypress Truck 28 00:02:56,889 --> 00:03:03,409 Lines podcast. I am your host, Marcus, thank you so much for joining me. Uh, today's episode has a lot 29 00:03:03,410 --> 00:03:09,649 to do with safety. Okay. We're going to talk about the intersection between safety and operations. 30 00:03:09,649 --> 00:03:14,729 And we've got some great guests joining us to really dig in a little bit deeper past that 31 00:03:14,729 --> 00:03:21,289 surface level of how things run here at Cypress, and why it is that safety is really the order of 32 00:03:21,289 --> 00:03:28,249 the day. First, every single day before operations even really gets involved. And, uh, 33 00:03:28,249 --> 00:03:34,809 a great look at how these two sections of the company operate with one another. They operate 34 00:03:34,810 --> 00:03:40,289 together. And, um, there's so many good quotes that come out of this one. I already gave you a few 35 00:03:40,289 --> 00:03:46,089 quotes in the in the cold open there. Uh, pay attention to some of the, the notables that come 36 00:03:46,089 --> 00:03:51,489 out of this, not only from David, not only from Sharee, not only from Blayze, but Mark as well. 37 00:03:51,489 --> 00:03:57,579 They've got some great one sentence adages that will really help you as you build your career 38 00:03:57,580 --> 00:04:03,260 here with Cypress Trucking or Cypress truck lines. Excuse me. Say it right, idiot. You're the host of 39 00:04:03,260 --> 00:04:09,219 the podcast. Good lord, I'm even wearing a hat that says it. Anyway, since we're talking about safety 40 00:04:09,219 --> 00:04:13,579 and that's kind of the order of the day for today's episode, there's a very important reminder 41 00:04:13,580 --> 00:04:19,299 that I want to give everybody out there driving right now. And it is that the CBSA breaks. Safety 42 00:04:19,340 --> 00:04:26,339 week 2026 takes place from August 20th 3rd to August 29th. Certified inspectors 43 00:04:26,339 --> 00:04:32,539 across the United States, Canada and Mexico will perform commercial vehicle roadside inspections, 44 00:04:32,540 --> 00:04:38,099 removing trucks with critical brake or out of service violations from the road. This year's 45 00:04:38,099 --> 00:04:45,099 specific emphasis area is the condition of brake drums and air disc brake rotors, so 46 00:04:45,140 --> 00:04:51,599 definitely be looking out for that. Um, you know, it's it's a safety week that focuses on one part 47 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:57,759 of the truck. Um, but it's really a good time to start thinking about those inspections. You know, 48 00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:03,079 refresh, make sure everything is where it should be. Pre-trip equipment awareness, following 49 00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:09,519 distance, patience and knowing when to stop are all part of of safety. Just because CVS A's break 50 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:14,879 Safety Week doesn't talk about all those things, it's still a good time to think about them. Uh, 51 00:05:14,880 --> 00:05:19,279 it's going to put extra attention on that one component of the truck. Uh, but today's 52 00:05:19,280 --> 00:05:24,960 conversation is really about the component of the truck that, uh, resides between the seat and the 53 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:31,079 steering wheel. Okay, that's the driver making safe decisions. Understanding that sometimes pushing it 54 00:05:31,079 --> 00:05:35,959 a little bit, trying to fit it in before you run out of hours, trying to get there before the 55 00:05:35,959 --> 00:05:41,160 weather, trying to race ahead of traffic. It's not always the right decision. In fact, what you'll 56 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:46,119 hear today is that Cypress, as far as their operations and safety departments are concerned. 57 00:05:46,200 --> 00:05:50,099 Uh, don't ever want you to make that decision. If you don't feel safe doing it, they want you to 58 00:05:50,099 --> 00:05:56,219 make the decision that will keep you, everybody else on the road and the load safe. That's the 59 00:05:56,220 --> 00:06:00,859 biggest thing. That's what I learned anyway. Now I am talking to you from the future because I've 60 00:06:00,859 --> 00:06:06,060 already recorded the interviews with Sharee, Blayze and David, and I've also already recorded 61 00:06:06,060 --> 00:06:12,379 the interview with Mark. So, um, just think of me as a genie that can see back in time, okay? Because 62 00:06:12,739 --> 00:06:17,259 I'm telling you right now, I already told you, the notables that come out of this episode are ones 63 00:06:17,260 --> 00:06:22,339 that it's like, tattoo them on the back of your eyelids style. This is something that maybe if I 64 00:06:22,339 --> 00:06:28,259 was a if I was a truck driver, and I like to put sticky notes on the dash as a reminder, a sticky 65 00:06:28,260 --> 00:06:33,578 note on the dash might be we're not hauling body parts. Another sticker on the dash, a sticky note 66 00:06:33,579 --> 00:06:39,579 on the dash might be it's not the load, it's how you're hauling it. Uh, and again, you know, bringing 67 00:06:39,579 --> 00:06:43,939 back some of the things that David said in his part of the interview. Make sure you pay attention 68 00:06:43,939 --> 00:06:50,309 to that. He's got a really good philosophy on how you should drive every single day. And it's it's 69 00:06:50,309 --> 00:06:56,108 better put than I've ever heard it before on this podcast, so hats off. Um, I just need to hurry up 70 00:06:56,109 --> 00:07:00,349 and get out of the way here, because we got a lot of great content for you. I don't want to oversell 71 00:07:00,350 --> 00:07:04,510 it. You need to hear from the experts, and we're about to bring them in right now. 72 00:07:13,630 --> 00:07:19,790 Welcome back into the Cypress Truck Lines podcast. Very excited for this next segment that we've got 73 00:07:19,829 --> 00:07:25,669 here. I've got three people joining me, and we're about to talk about why we say here at Cypress 74 00:07:25,669 --> 00:07:30,988 Truck Lines that we aren't hauling body parts. Let's start off with our Director of Safety,Sharee 75 00:07:30,989 --> 00:07:35,829 DeHart.Sharee, thank you so much for being here again today. Uh, always a pleasure to welcome you 76 00:07:35,829 --> 00:07:40,629 to the podcast. And you always give us so much time. So thank you so much for being here today. 77 00:07:40,670 --> 00:07:46,450 Can't wait to dig into this subject with you. Oh, hi. It's nice to see you again, Marcus. Always a 78 00:07:46,450 --> 00:07:51,489 pleasure. Thank you so much for being here. Also joining us from dispatch. We've got Blayze Padgett 79 00:07:51,489 --> 00:07:56,889 on the line. Blayze, we appreciate your time as well, my friend. Welcome back to the show. Good to be 80 00:07:56,890 --> 00:08:02,649 here Marcus. Appreciate it man. And joining us finally we've only had him on one time before. And 81 00:08:02,650 --> 00:08:09,489 this goes all the way back to the very beginning of the podcast. We have David Penland Jr here. And 82 00:08:09,489 --> 00:08:14,409 uh, David, you've been around for this thing going all the way back to the beginning. Man, it's a 83 00:08:14,409 --> 00:08:17,729 pleasure every time we get to have you on the show. Thank you so much for giving us some time 84 00:08:17,729 --> 00:08:23,289 today. Yeah, I appreciate you having me on. Absolutely. And and, Dave, I'm going to start with 85 00:08:23,290 --> 00:08:29,170 you on that. Uh, we're not hauling body parts going all the way back to the very beginning of your 86 00:08:29,170 --> 00:08:35,009 time here with Cypress, uh, with your dad watching the company grow. David, what does it mean to you 87 00:08:35,009 --> 00:08:41,650 to hear we're not hauling body parts at Cypress? It means that, you know, we're safety first. 88 00:08:41,650 --> 00:08:46,469 Always. You know, we've got to be. If you can't operate safely, you don't need to be operating. 89 00:08:46,469 --> 00:08:53,229 Period. You know, there's no no load or no freight is worth anybody's 90 00:08:53,229 --> 00:09:00,109 life for the life of their family. So you've gotta you've got to operate safely 91 00:09:00,109 --> 00:09:05,549 before you can get the freight delivered. You know, that's the main objective. Because like I said, if 92 00:09:05,549 --> 00:09:11,389 you if you can't be safe, you know, you can't operate. That's that's how we look at it 100%. Now, 93 00:09:11,390 --> 00:09:16,669 is that something that your dad used to say, David, or is that just kind of a cypress philosophy that 94 00:09:16,670 --> 00:09:23,429 grew with the company? Um, just kind of wondering where that came from. Yeah, that came from him. He 95 00:09:23,429 --> 00:09:30,149 was always, you know, safety first. You know, he's he's the one that started that. We're not 96 00:09:30,229 --> 00:09:35,950 we're not. Nobody's waiting on any body parts. So if we're late because we're being safe and the 97 00:09:35,950 --> 00:09:40,748 conditions require us to go slower, there's more traffic or whatever, you know, we're not. There's 98 00:09:40,749 --> 00:09:46,479 nobody waiting on a hospital table for an organ that we're bringing, so we've got to get there as 99 00:09:46,479 --> 00:09:52,840 quickly as we can, but as safely as we can, you know? Sure. Sure. Well, you can tell, uh, just in 100 00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:58,799 talking to drivers, terminal staff, training staff, you name it. Um, it's something that is kind of 101 00:09:58,840 --> 00:10:04,158 runs through the veins of this company, and everybody not only believes it, they live it, and 102 00:10:04,159 --> 00:10:09,479 they execute it every single day here. Um, and that's why I ask kind of where it comes from, 103 00:10:09,479 --> 00:10:14,839 because to have something like that that everybody agrees with and everybody is in on. Um, 104 00:10:14,840 --> 00:10:18,719 that's something that's been around for a long time. That's that's part of the culture of the 105 00:10:18,719 --> 00:10:23,959 company. David. And and I appreciate you, uh, telling us that that was that was something that dad came 106 00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:29,120 up with. It sounds like something that dad came up with. You know, I mean, it just has that ring to it, 107 00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:34,919 and it's. It's such a simple statement, but it carries so much weight. And it's really what we're 108 00:10:34,919 --> 00:10:40,419 here to talk about today. And,Sharee, I want to go to you next. Obviously from a safety perspective. 109 00:10:40,419 --> 00:10:45,859 When you hear we're not hauling body parts, it means a lot to you, I would assume. But walk me 110 00:10:45,859 --> 00:10:51,779 through it, okay. It does. It does mean a lot to everybody from operations to safety. I mean, we're 111 00:10:51,780 --> 00:10:56,779 hauling building materials and other types of freight, and that can usually be replaced. You know, 112 00:10:56,820 --> 00:11:02,459 a chart can be repaired, a trailer can be replaced. Delivery appointments can be rescheduled. But you 113 00:11:02,460 --> 00:11:08,099 cannot always make a person whole after a catastrophic accident. So it reminds us to keep 114 00:11:08,099 --> 00:11:12,539 things in perspective. You know, no load is important enough to ask a driver to operate 115 00:11:12,579 --> 00:11:18,539 unsafely and violate his hours of service, or take an unnecessary risk just to make a delivery. 116 00:11:18,580 --> 00:11:24,419 Absolutely. And I wonder, Sheree, because everybody's different, right? Every driver has a 117 00:11:24,419 --> 00:11:30,940 somewhat different level of confidence. Every driver assesses situations in their own way. 118 00:11:30,979 --> 00:11:37,309 Obviously they all do it with safety in mind first. Um, but how do you sort of. And maybe this is 119 00:11:37,310 --> 00:11:41,390 a question for Blayze toSharee. You can you can let me know here if we should kick it to him. But 120 00:11:41,549 --> 00:11:47,469 how do you go about sort of assessing and helping coach drivers when it comes to making that 121 00:11:47,469 --> 00:11:51,909 decision to, hey, maybe it's time to shut it down. Maybe this isn't the safest thing we can do. Maybe 122 00:11:51,909 --> 00:11:57,949 we should wait here. Um, what what goes into those decisions and and how frequent are you guys 123 00:11:57,950 --> 00:12:03,349 seeing decisions like that? I know we're not coming up to a lot of snow or, you know, crazy 124 00:12:03,349 --> 00:12:09,189 black ice and things like that right now, but we are getting into hurricane season. So how do you 125 00:12:09,189 --> 00:12:13,669 talk through the drive through this with the driver, Sheree, about when it's okay to go ahead 126 00:12:13,669 --> 00:12:19,829 and shut it down if you feel like you need to? At the end of the day, it really is the driver and 127 00:12:19,830 --> 00:12:25,629 and his license when he's driving the truck. How does he feel about it? What's going on? If it's a 128 00:12:25,630 --> 00:12:31,510 weather condition that we would not typically drive in, we automatically shut them down. If it is 129 00:12:31,510 --> 00:12:38,130 something along the lines of, hey, I'm pushing my clock and I can't get there in time. Then we just 130 00:12:38,130 --> 00:12:43,289 looped the driver manager back in and see if we can reschedule that load and make a different 131 00:12:43,329 --> 00:12:47,769 time. Otherwise, we shut them down for their ten hour break and they reschedule and go on down the 132 00:12:47,770 --> 00:12:54,169 road safely. Got it. Now, Blayze, that's kind of where your, uh, your job comes in a little bit here. 133 00:12:54,169 --> 00:12:59,089 What's the ripple effect like when you have a driver that needs to shut it down? Because it's 134 00:12:59,090 --> 00:13:04,530 just not safe? Um, I assume you're you're getting in contact with plenty of people right away 135 00:13:04,530 --> 00:13:10,849 because there's a bit of a ripple effect, right? Oh, yeah. It goes all the way down from start to 136 00:13:10,890 --> 00:13:15,489 finish. So the you gotta let the shipper know, hey, this load is going to be a little late because of 137 00:13:16,049 --> 00:13:21,209 whatever conditions are, um, but I mean, that's something that we don't mess around with. So if a 138 00:13:21,210 --> 00:13:26,049 driver doesn't feel safe, like like they said before, we're not hauling body parts. If we have to 139 00:13:26,049 --> 00:13:30,809 have a load late load because of safety, it's going to be late. So we kind of just tell them how 140 00:13:30,810 --> 00:13:35,109 it is, like, hey, this is the conditions that we're facing. We're going to have to push this out a day 141 00:13:35,109 --> 00:13:39,510 and then contacting the customer we're delivering to just let them know, like, hey guys, like this is 142 00:13:39,510 --> 00:13:43,749 this is where we're at. The driver doesn't feel safe. I can't send him any closer to you guys 143 00:13:43,749 --> 00:13:48,310 today. We'll have to reschedule for tomorrow. And generally there's pretty good responses from that 144 00:13:48,310 --> 00:13:53,830 depending on the situation. Yeah, it has to happen to them frequently, right? I mean, you think about 145 00:13:53,830 --> 00:13:57,549 the number of trucks out there on the road, you think about traffic, you think about where 146 00:13:57,549 --> 00:14:03,789 everybody's coming from and where they're going. Um, it's it seems to me like if a customer were to 147 00:14:03,789 --> 00:14:09,189 get really upset about this all the time, that customer would just be really upset all the time. 148 00:14:09,189 --> 00:14:13,749 It kind of behooves everybody to just understand that the drivers are out there doing their best. 149 00:14:13,750 --> 00:14:18,989 But the customers also blase understand that safety is a major part of this equation, I would 150 00:14:18,989 --> 00:14:24,349 assume. Is that correct? Yeah, typically rather they're pretty relaxed whenever it comes to a 151 00:14:24,350 --> 00:14:29,029 safety concern or bad weather. Like we get a hurricane coming through. That's a just an example. 152 00:14:29,029 --> 00:14:34,119 We actually don't get too much of like drivers saying, I don't feel safe because, I mean, we're in 153 00:14:34,119 --> 00:14:39,999 the southeast. It's usually sunshine, maybe some rain. But in those cold winter months when we get 154 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:43,960 up in the northeast, every now and then, some guys are like, hey, I don't feel safe right now. And we 155 00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:47,519 call those customers up there and they're used to it. They're like, yeah, I mean, I wouldn't want to be 156 00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:54,359 driving in it either in my car, much less so. 80,000 pounds tractor trailer combo. For sure, 157 00:14:54,359 --> 00:15:00,599 for sure. Now, I assume that there's there are, uh, shipments out there where urgency is a 158 00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:05,919 factor. Um, how delicate do you have to handle those situations? Is it a thing where you're 159 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:11,839 looking for the right driver when urgency is a factor? Um, are you looking for the right situation? 160 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:17,479 How do you go about when a customer is really banging on your door and saying, I need this ASAP? 161 00:15:17,599 --> 00:15:23,679 Um, how do you handle that situation safely? Yeah, usually we're hand picking a top driver, somebody 162 00:15:23,679 --> 00:15:30,099 with some experience, like a Ronnie Norris type of guy. Um, just somebody that we know can handle any 163 00:15:30,100 --> 00:15:36,659 conditions and is reliable. And then, I mean, even if at the end of the day, no load is more 164 00:15:36,659 --> 00:15:42,339 important than the driver safety. So, I mean, there is that to consider. But, uh, yeah, if we do have one 165 00:15:42,339 --> 00:15:47,019 that's a high priority or it's going to a tough area, we usually shoot for the more experienced 166 00:15:47,019 --> 00:15:52,940 guys. We have some areas even that we have to wait till our drivers get hit is six month mark before 167 00:15:52,940 --> 00:15:56,819 we even send them into the area, like the northeast region, the New York especially. That's a 168 00:15:56,819 --> 00:16:02,739 rough one. I mean, I've heard some stories, and I can't wait to get Ronnie on to talk about his 169 00:16:02,780 --> 00:16:08,738 trips up and back to, uh, the New York area, uh, just back and forth and back and forth. He told me a 170 00:16:08,739 --> 00:16:13,218 great story when I was down there, uh, for the launch of the podcast. And, and we're going to get 171 00:16:13,219 --> 00:16:18,100 him on to tell that because you mentioned his name. He's super experienced and he's a guy you 172 00:16:18,100 --> 00:16:24,219 might need to make these types of trips. And, uh, David, I want to kick it back to you as as the 173 00:16:24,219 --> 00:16:29,189 management. You guys do a really good job. These drivers know, and they've told me on this podcast 174 00:16:29,190 --> 00:16:36,189 that you guys have their back. How important is it to kind of reinforce this, this adage that 175 00:16:36,229 --> 00:16:41,109 we're not hauling body parts and that safety is the most important thing kind of in the day to 176 00:16:41,110 --> 00:16:47,669 day of what you do there, David. Yeah, we have a lot of appointment type loads and loads that have to 177 00:16:47,669 --> 00:16:54,069 be there. But still we we reiterate to the driver that, you know, no load nice is having 178 00:16:54,069 --> 00:17:00,269 this, uh, drive like you've got a state trooper sitting over there and jump seat and you're on a 179 00:17:00,269 --> 00:17:06,149 road test all the time and pretend that you're following your family down the road, you know? And 180 00:17:06,149 --> 00:17:10,030 how would you want somebody following your family? And how would you drive if you had a state 181 00:17:10,030 --> 00:17:15,309 trooper sitting over there in the jump seat and you're driving? So that's how you want to drive 182 00:17:15,310 --> 00:17:22,109 every time you go to deliver a load. And we don't care how important this load is, if you feel 183 00:17:22,149 --> 00:17:29,129 tired or sick or whatever the reason is, you just give us a call, shoot a message. Hey, I'm 184 00:17:29,129 --> 00:17:32,969 not going to make it so we can call. That's. That's all we ask them. Let us know so we can let the 185 00:17:32,969 --> 00:17:39,688 customer know. So we we we stress that we do have to make on time deliveries, but no load 186 00:17:39,689 --> 00:17:46,129 is worth getting in an accident or driving tired or driving sick or anything like that. It's 187 00:17:46,130 --> 00:17:52,609 communication is communication is the key. Sure. That's such great advice. I've never heard it 188 00:17:52,609 --> 00:17:57,609 phrased like that. Sit or drive like you've got a state trooper and you're on a driving test and 189 00:17:57,609 --> 00:18:03,049 you're following your family. I assume that comes from the experience that you got behind the wheel, 190 00:18:03,050 --> 00:18:08,529 David, back when you were still driving. Um, how much of that experience do you apply every single 191 00:18:08,530 --> 00:18:14,489 day? I mean, you had to have learned so much back then that you're still applying today to the 192 00:18:14,490 --> 00:18:20,609 company. Yeah. You know, it helps to if you've been out there in the situation that they're in to be 193 00:18:20,609 --> 00:18:25,349 able to communicate that to them. So all my time Driving out there on the road is really helped me 194 00:18:25,389 --> 00:18:29,630 see and see from not only our point of view and the customer's point of view, but from the 195 00:18:29,630 --> 00:18:34,149 driver's point of view. And that goes a long way when when explaining yourself and telling you, 196 00:18:34,189 --> 00:18:39,829 telling them why it's so important that safety is the main thing and we just don't say that, you 197 00:18:39,829 --> 00:18:46,349 know, we live it here in Cypress. We live. Safety is the main thing. Yep, you can tell. And that's I feel 198 00:18:46,349 --> 00:18:51,069 like that's why, you know, you hear blase talk about it. Hey, I'm on the phone. And these people 199 00:18:51,069 --> 00:18:56,510 have they've heard it before. They understand. Uh, it's it's one of those things that you guys there, 200 00:18:56,550 --> 00:19:02,029 this isn't an a big change in the way that you do things. If something like this happens, if a driver 201 00:19:02,030 --> 00:19:06,749 has to shut it down because it's not safe, you guys are all prepared for it because it's the 202 00:19:06,789 --> 00:19:11,948 it's the number one thing that you guys are concerned about is the safety and not the actual 203 00:19:12,030 --> 00:19:18,469 the nuts and bolts of operations, if you will. Um, I think it's so cool. And and just being a kind of a 204 00:19:18,469 --> 00:19:23,439 fly on the wall here for these last 6 or 8 months that I have been. I've learned so much about it, 205 00:19:23,439 --> 00:19:28,039 and I think it's so unique in the trucking industry. You know, every every fleet talks about 206 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:34,999 safety, but not every fleet lives safety like you guys do and execute safety like Cypress and 207 00:19:34,999 --> 00:19:40,079 Sun Belt does. And, uh,Sharee, I feel like we got to give you some flowers here because, uh, that's your 208 00:19:40,079 --> 00:19:45,599 department. And, uh, you can tell everybody takes a lot of pride in it. I wonder how it makes you feel. 209 00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:50,999 If you've maybe heard some of the drivers talk about how they approach safety. Uh, working for 210 00:19:50,999 --> 00:19:56,000 Cypress here on the podcast. Can you can you give me any examples of, uh, of hearing something here 211 00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:01,719 and maybe just having it fill your heart up a little bit or make you smile? Oh, sure. We've got 212 00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:07,160 we've got a lot of drivers who really appreciate both what operations and safety do every day. I 213 00:20:07,160 --> 00:20:14,079 mean, it's it is a culture that we have motivated each of our drivers with our coaching, what we 214 00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:20,378 do when we speak with drivers, they pay much more attention to what we do than what we say. So when 215 00:20:20,379 --> 00:20:25,339 we're talking to them and we coach them and we say, look, you know, this driver has done this, this 216 00:20:25,340 --> 00:20:30,339 driver has done that, or David Jr or that, or one of us have experienced the same thing that you're 217 00:20:30,339 --> 00:20:36,459 going through. It speaks to them and they go out and then maybe a week or two later they'll come 218 00:20:36,459 --> 00:20:41,939 back and say, hey, you know, I really appreciate the talk that we had. It gave me a new perspective. It 219 00:20:41,939 --> 00:20:47,499 helped me see things where I should be seeing things from our coaching standpoint, and it works 220 00:20:47,499 --> 00:20:53,699 great. I mean, it's really a good thing to hear that no matter whether it's operations or safety, 221 00:20:53,740 --> 00:20:58,659 talking to our drivers, they hear what we're saying and they go out and put it in use. And then 222 00:20:58,979 --> 00:21:03,100 two weeks later come back and say, thanks for doing that. It really helped me get my score 223 00:21:03,100 --> 00:21:09,139 better help me work towards my safety bonus. Help me realize I could be a better driver for sure. 224 00:21:09,180 --> 00:21:13,979 Yeah, there's money involved here, so let's get those safety scores up. Let's get that bonus right? 225 00:21:14,020 --> 00:21:20,759 Um, sure. Right. You know, Sheri, something came up last week in the episode where we talked to Randy 226 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:26,719 and Ken from CTC and orientation, and then we brought on a couple new drivers, Tim and Kameron, 227 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:31,920 who have been in the truck less than a year. And one thing that they talked a lot about in the 228 00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:38,119 orientation and in the CTC side of things was building confidence and being confident that they 229 00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:44,079 knew the job, they knew how to do it safely and efficiently. And I wonder, are there some 230 00:21:44,079 --> 00:21:50,359 situations where a driver maybe doesn't have the confidence as a new driver and they can turn 231 00:21:50,359 --> 00:21:56,319 maybe a relatively small problem into a bigger one because they tried to save the load, or they 232 00:21:56,319 --> 00:22:02,079 tried to get there on time, and maybe a little bit more experience would have told that driver, hey, 233 00:22:02,079 --> 00:22:07,959 that's not what we what we need to do right here. Um, anything like that that comes to mind. Where, 234 00:22:07,959 --> 00:22:12,959 where confidence and experience kind of comes into it and maybe hurts a driver a little more 235 00:22:12,959 --> 00:22:19,769 than it helps them. Sure, Sure. We just had one yesterday. Who? Um. If he had 236 00:22:19,770 --> 00:22:25,329 paid attention during his training time. And I'm sure that maybe he did get this during his 237 00:22:25,329 --> 00:22:29,089 training time, but it just went in kind of one ear and out the other, because there's a lot of 238 00:22:29,089 --> 00:22:35,889 information that is given to a newer driver when they come on board. Uh, poly is not you're not 239 00:22:35,889 --> 00:22:42,409 able to throw away the Polly when you deliver a load at every plant. So instead of putting the 240 00:22:42,409 --> 00:22:49,328 Polly on the back of the trailer, you should put it inside your sleeper or inside the cab of the 241 00:22:49,329 --> 00:22:55,169 truck itself, and then dispose of it at your earliest convenience. He put it underneath his 242 00:22:55,170 --> 00:23:01,409 tarps, and when it on the trailer, and as he's going down the road, the tarps come out and it 243 00:23:01,409 --> 00:23:07,089 wraps around the drive shaft at the trailer. Oh, no. This was an expensive lesson for him to learn. He 244 00:23:07,089 --> 00:23:14,030 lost his safety bonus. But after we had a conversation and he understood he was at fault, of 245 00:23:14,030 --> 00:23:20,949 course, but he didn't understand that poly being a slippery type of plastic will come out. No matter 246 00:23:20,949 --> 00:23:25,749 how well you chain down your tarps. It's going to come out from underneath your tarps, and then it's 247 00:23:25,749 --> 00:23:30,310 never going to be a good thing. And it wasn't a good thing. So it left him on the side of the road. 248 00:23:30,310 --> 00:23:36,550 It kept him out from his next load. But it was something he learned. And he said, you know, this is 249 00:23:36,550 --> 00:23:41,989 never going to happen again. And it probably won't. But it was a just one of those learning lessons 250 00:23:42,030 --> 00:23:48,869 that newer drivers get. Yeah. Uh, wrapping it around the drive shaft. I've had that happen before in my 251 00:23:48,910 --> 00:23:54,509 in my truck. Just my pickup truck. I was driving down the road and there was a bunch of, like, this 252 00:23:54,510 --> 00:23:59,869 queen on the road, and I couldn't get out of the way. I was on the freeway and it wrapped around my 253 00:23:59,869 --> 00:24:05,269 driveline so tight. I was at a rest area for like 45 minutes trying to dig that stuff out of there. 254 00:24:05,270 --> 00:24:11,759 And that's so minor compared to what we're talking about. Um, like you said, expensive lesson, I 255 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:17,159 wonder, David, I want to kick it back to you here. Uh, is there anything that's happened over all 256 00:24:17,159 --> 00:24:21,359 these years that just kind of leaves you, you know, maybe with a smirk and shaking your head a little 257 00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:27,519 bit. That one right there sounds, uh, out of the ordinary, to say the least. But, uh, are you ever 258 00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:34,519 surprised, David, by the things that can happen out there on the road, given all your experience? No, 259 00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:41,238 I'm never surprised. We've seen a lot of crazy things over the years, and it just 260 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:47,999 never surprises me when something happens out there. You know, it's. Nothing's new under the sun, 261 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:54,479 as they say. So we've seen about everything that can possibly happen to a to a 262 00:24:54,479 --> 00:24:59,760 driver, you know. Now, Blayze, I wonder because you're, uh, you're you're the young one in the 263 00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:05,439 group here. Um, you're still seeing all these things as they happen, as something new happens 264 00:25:05,439 --> 00:25:11,300 that you think, how on earth did that ever occur out there? Are you starting to figure out, or have 265 00:25:11,300 --> 00:25:16,059 you already figured out that just like David said, nothing's new under the sun here. You're starting 266 00:25:16,060 --> 00:25:21,179 to feel like, man, uh, anything can happen out there on the road. You just got to be ready for it where 267 00:25:21,180 --> 00:25:26,300 you sit. Yeah, we just gotta roll with the punches, Marcus. We've seen all all sorts of things. I've 268 00:25:26,300 --> 00:25:30,939 been here for a little over two years, and I feel like I've seen all sorts of different 269 00:25:30,939 --> 00:25:37,339 catastrophes and things go wrong, but you just gotta go with it. Figure it out. Cherise. One of the 270 00:25:37,340 --> 00:25:42,380 best at that. You can call Sheree with anything in the world and she'll figure it out. Oh, I bet I, I 271 00:25:42,420 --> 00:25:46,259 can tell just. You know, the, the short amount of time I've gotten to spend with Sheree over the 272 00:25:46,259 --> 00:25:51,979 course of this podcast, I learned something every time I'm on the phone with her. And, uh, and that 273 00:25:51,979 --> 00:25:56,419 goes for pretty much everybody. You guys all are the experts here. That's why I say I'm just Steve 274 00:25:56,419 --> 00:26:01,780 Nash on this podcast. Just get the ball to the point scorers. Uh, and that's you guys, Blayze. I 275 00:26:01,780 --> 00:26:06,459 wonder what's the wildest thing. Uh, you know, we're we're sitting here, we're having a conversation 276 00:26:06,460 --> 00:26:11,760 about safety. We're talking about how we're not hauling body parts here. What's, uh, what's the 277 00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:17,640 craziest thing that you've seen a driver have to shut down for? Or maybe delay a delivery for, uh, in 278 00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:23,639 your two years here at Cypress? Um, I don't know if I could come up with it right off the top. It'd 279 00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:28,160 probably be one of these shifted loads. We'll have some guys. They'll. You'll just see the pictures 280 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:32,959 from safety pop up. And this guy's out in the middle of nowhere in a ditch, and we're like, how 281 00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:38,719 did we end up here? Trailers kick sideways. The loads about to fall off the trailer. We're like, 282 00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:46,359 this load is supposed to deliver today. That one's not going to make it. Sure, sure. Well, load secure 283 00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:52,719 is such an important part of, uh, of the safety here. And obviously, uh, you know, Cecil over there 284 00:26:52,719 --> 00:26:57,838 and, uh, over there in orientation, doing a great job with it. But, uh, that's a very, very nuanced 285 00:26:57,839 --> 00:27:04,478 part of the operation here. And, um.Sharee, I wonder from, from your standpoint, load 286 00:27:04,479 --> 00:27:09,929 security, Specifically, how often is that something that you're having a conversation with a driver 287 00:27:09,930 --> 00:27:15,328 about? Um, I don't hear much about it here on the podcast. It seems like Cecil does a really good 288 00:27:15,329 --> 00:27:19,729 job getting these guys trained up, but we are hauling flatbed here, so it's something that 289 00:27:19,729 --> 00:27:26,289 happens. How often are we dealing with, uh, load security issues? Load security issues with newer 290 00:27:26,290 --> 00:27:32,129 drivers? Maybe every other week we have something going on. I would say 291 00:27:33,210 --> 00:27:39,530 experienced drivers, unless there's an issue like we had one yesterday, there were no tracks in the 292 00:27:39,530 --> 00:27:44,890 van. The load shifted a load of buckets because there were no tracks for the load locks to lock 293 00:27:44,890 --> 00:27:51,410 into, so the bucket shifted, but it wasn't the driver's fault. So with that, of course, the load 294 00:27:51,410 --> 00:27:56,969 had to come back to Cypress and we had to rework the load, put it on a trailer that did have the 295 00:27:56,969 --> 00:28:03,449 tracks, and then pre deliver the load so that driver didn't lose his bonus, but if it 296 00:28:03,550 --> 00:28:09,229 were his fault, he would have lost his bonus. Got it. And that's just, you know. And that was a long 297 00:28:09,270 --> 00:28:14,829 time experienced driver. So it happens. It's not just the newer guys that happens to. It happens to 298 00:28:14,870 --> 00:28:20,269 guys who have a lot of experience to. Sure. So I would say maybe every other day we're talking in 299 00:28:20,269 --> 00:28:26,509 some form of load sacrament, whether it's lumber V boards that you know, hey, what do we have to put 300 00:28:26,510 --> 00:28:32,949 on this load? What do we need to do? I've got a tarp and it's damaged. Should I use. Should I go 301 00:28:32,949 --> 00:28:37,349 down the road and it's going to rain and get the product wet? Those are the type of load sacrament 302 00:28:37,349 --> 00:28:42,628 issues we have. Nothing major. Really? Sure, sure. Right. If it was something major, we would be. We 303 00:28:42,629 --> 00:28:48,709 would be taking bigger steps and just having conversations, I'm sure. So I, I love the fact that 304 00:28:48,710 --> 00:28:54,229 one thing that drivers always talk to me about on the show here,Sharee, is that, well, when I see a 305 00:28:54,230 --> 00:28:59,469 cypress driver out there, tarpon is load or securing his load. I go over and help him. And 306 00:28:59,470 --> 00:29:06,319 that's almost everybody that we talk to, the camaraderie and the the, I guess teamwork that 307 00:29:06,319 --> 00:29:11,198 we see out there, we've really got to make you feel good as the safety director, knowing that, hey, 308 00:29:11,199 --> 00:29:16,358 when I see a super experienced guy go out there to help a new guy secure that load, uh, that not 309 00:29:16,359 --> 00:29:20,560 only do I not have to worry about that load as much, but I don't have to worry as much about that 310 00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:25,600 driver because he just learned how to do this appropriately. How to do it right. It's got to make 311 00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:32,078 you feel good from your seat, Sheree. It does, it does. We have a bunch of great guys here. Uh, always 312 00:29:32,079 --> 00:29:38,679 willing to lend a hand from our drivers to our loads, commit to our orientation to our 313 00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:44,719 CTC instructors. Everybody is always willing to lend a hand. And that's the nice part of being 314 00:29:44,719 --> 00:29:50,999 with Cypress. Now, David, I assume that's been a part of the company culture for, uh, going back as 315 00:29:50,999 --> 00:29:56,319 long as you can remember. But, uh, talk to me about it. Has that always been sort of the drivers that 316 00:29:56,319 --> 00:30:02,020 you look for at Cypress, or guys that are willing to step in, share that knowledge, help the new guys 317 00:30:02,020 --> 00:30:08,659 out, and sort of bring that new fresh crop of drivers along, uh, under the tutelage of somebody 318 00:30:08,660 --> 00:30:15,339 that's very experienced. Yeah, we've always gone with that policy. In fact, back back in the day. 319 00:30:15,379 --> 00:30:22,259 Dad used to come out on the yard and give a class on how to how to put the chocks down on the load. 320 00:30:22,260 --> 00:30:26,860 That how they go on the mainframe, you know, not on the not on the sides of it. It goes down the 321 00:30:26,860 --> 00:30:32,338 mainframe and it actually would come out on the yard and give dispatcher a 322 00:30:33,539 --> 00:30:38,859 showing how to do it, you know, training dispatch. And then we came up with this about, uh, 323 00:30:40,300 --> 00:30:45,979 20 or so years ago, uh, these load briefings that we give on certain type of loads that we know are 324 00:30:45,979 --> 00:30:51,459 going to take, they're not just your load of shingles or sheetrock. It's, uh, off the wall, not 325 00:30:51,459 --> 00:30:57,459 off me, like a lumber load or a coil load or, uh, ceiling tile. Some type of different than 326 00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:04,319 sheetrock or wallboard. And, uh, we got a load briefing sheet that we go over with the 327 00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:09,439 driver on each of those particular loads, on how it's supposed to be tied down and what you're 328 00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:14,839 supposed to do, and go over the whole thing with him, and then put that comment in the computer 329 00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:21,438 that he's been briefed on this particular type of load. So we kind of refresh everybody's memory on 330 00:31:21,439 --> 00:31:27,359 how we want these particular loads tied out each time they pull one. Yeah. And and I bet the way 331 00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:31,920 that that just compounds the experience of every driver. It doesn't matter if you've been doing it 332 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:38,639 for 20 years or 20 days, that type of of refresher on your training and that type of 333 00:31:38,639 --> 00:31:44,120 briefing on what you're dealing with, I imagine is so valuable to every single driver that gets to 334 00:31:44,159 --> 00:31:49,959 see it. David. And, uh, that, again, is just it's part of the safety culture of the company, isn't it? 335 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:56,089 Right. Yeah, exactly. Just you got to be. That's our main motto is you got to be safe before you can 336 00:31:56,089 --> 00:32:01,329 be anything. And those those briefings, I think even like you said, for even for the experienced 337 00:32:01,329 --> 00:32:06,569 guys, it's a good just a refresher to see, you know, hear those words coming across our ears, how we 338 00:32:06,569 --> 00:32:12,449 need to tie this down. Here's what we need to do on it. Sure. Uh, Blayze, I want to go to you for this 339 00:32:12,449 --> 00:32:19,129 one. Um, have you ever had a driver maybe make a conservative call, uh, to to shut it down or 340 00:32:19,249 --> 00:32:24,410 something involved with safety? That in hindsight, turns out, hey, they probably could have made it. 341 00:32:24,410 --> 00:32:29,769 They probably had enough hours. It probably wasn't. Um, you know, the weather probably wasn't bad 342 00:32:29,769 --> 00:32:35,850 enough to shut it down. And if so, how do you go about approaching that with the driver? Um, to just 343 00:32:35,850 --> 00:32:42,289 sort of talk it out with them and get a feel for maybe what might happen next time? Mm. Uh, yeah. 344 00:32:42,289 --> 00:32:47,049 We've had a few instances like that. Uh, one particular, it was just like picking up a load off 345 00:32:47,050 --> 00:32:52,209 the yard that somebody else had dropped, and the person before didn't tie it down properly. And 346 00:32:52,209 --> 00:32:56,549 I've had a few guys come in and say, hey, like this load isn't tied down properly. I'm gonna have to 347 00:32:56,549 --> 00:33:02,189 fix it. I might be a little late. I'm like, okay, man, go for it. And another one is, uh, like inspections 348 00:33:02,189 --> 00:33:06,709 on equipment and stuff. Hey, this this trailer was dropped here, but it's got a light out. It's got a 349 00:33:06,709 --> 00:33:13,069 gash in the tire. I'm like, well, good for you for catching that. Let's let's get that taken care of 350 00:33:13,109 --> 00:33:17,310 before we move on with the load. I mean, I wish we could deliver it on time today, but if it's not 351 00:33:17,310 --> 00:33:22,229 going to happen, it's not going to happen. But nice catch. So yeah we run into that all the time. Yeah 352 00:33:22,230 --> 00:33:27,429 I kind of assume so. And that's I, I had to get to that one for sure because you know it's we talked 353 00:33:27,430 --> 00:33:31,590 about it off the top. There's there's a lot of judgment that goes into this and everybody's 354 00:33:31,590 --> 00:33:37,589 different. Um, everybody approaches the job in their own way. So it was it was something that was 355 00:33:37,590 --> 00:33:43,389 on my mind to ask you, and I'm glad that you had some examples for us there because, um, I think 356 00:33:43,390 --> 00:33:48,949 that the drivers listening to this are going to hear what you guys have to say about the way that 357 00:33:48,949 --> 00:33:54,729 you approach these issues when they do arise, and hopefully it makes them even more comfortable 358 00:33:54,729 --> 00:33:59,009 than they already are. Knowing that you guys are in their corner and you have their back and you 359 00:33:59,010 --> 00:34:05,570 see it, like I say, every single week on this podcast. And we reward them when we see, like if 360 00:34:05,570 --> 00:34:10,849 I'm out on a trip or running up and down the road, going on vacation or taking a business trip, and 361 00:34:10,849 --> 00:34:16,769 we see a guy or even just around the city, if we see a guy that's he's in the right hand lane, he's 362 00:34:16,769 --> 00:34:22,168 not tailgating, he's got his load tied down. Right. We'll call. We'll send an email. Hey, give this guy 363 00:34:22,169 --> 00:34:29,129 a $50. Attaboy. You know, so we reward the guys that that have, you know, look, have 364 00:34:29,129 --> 00:34:34,009 their load tied down, right? And they're doing the right things on the road. Absolutely. Those out of 365 00:34:34,010 --> 00:34:39,689 boys are such a cool thing. And you never know when somebody's watching, right? David, you could be, 366 00:34:39,770 --> 00:34:44,889 uh, 200 miles away from Jacksonville and somebody might spot something, and you might end up with an 367 00:34:44,889 --> 00:34:51,139 attaboy. So the point is to always be doing it the right way. The Cypress way. right? Correct. I've even 368 00:34:51,139 --> 00:34:55,299 had friends from other states. Call me. Hey. Saw one of your trucks today. Was doing a good job, you 369 00:34:55,299 --> 00:35:01,499 know, and so. Well, we always, always reward those guys to get called in or get seen out there on 370 00:35:01,499 --> 00:35:06,138 the road. I hear you. Well, I know you guys don't make it out here to, uh, the great Pacific 371 00:35:06,139 --> 00:35:11,059 Northwest very often, but I've got my eye out. David and I will be giving you a call if I see 372 00:35:11,059 --> 00:35:16,218 someone, because I would love it. You know, uh, running into a Cypress truck out here or anywhere 373 00:35:16,219 --> 00:35:21,138 in the great United States would be an absolute privilege, because I know I could look at that guy 374 00:35:21,139 --> 00:35:26,899 and say he's going down the road safely. I'm okay being out here on the road with him. He knows 375 00:35:26,899 --> 00:35:31,819 what's up. So, uh, great stuff from all of you guys today. I told you off the top. I wanted to keep 376 00:35:31,820 --> 00:35:36,539 this one a little shorter. We're going to bring in another guest, uh, to also talk about this from the 377 00:35:36,539 --> 00:35:41,980 driver's standpoint. But as you guys know, we've got our final thoughts segment here. Uh, want to 378 00:35:41,980 --> 00:35:47,759 thank you all,Sharee Blayze David, for joining us today and kind of giving us some insight on how 379 00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:53,438 we're not hauling body parts here at Cypress and Sunbelt. Um. Director of safety. Sheree DeHart. 380 00:35:53,439 --> 00:35:57,839 Always a pleasure to have you on here. Final thoughts before we let you go today, uh, did we 381 00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:02,639 leave anything on the table in this theme that you want to talk about, or any other thoughts you 382 00:36:02,639 --> 00:36:08,479 can leave us with before we let you get back to it? Well, yeah, we can always say that safety isn't 383 00:36:08,479 --> 00:36:15,239 a department that operations has to work around. Safety is a part is is part of how we operate. So 384 00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:20,800 with that being said, safety and operations work hand in hand and we want to help our drivers be 385 00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:25,159 safe, deliver the freight on time, keep our customers happy. And I think we're all doing a 386 00:36:25,159 --> 00:36:31,599 great job of that. And communication is key with that. Well said and hats off to everybody because 387 00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:35,800 your director safety just said we're doing a great job of it. And I think that's right where 388 00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:40,319 you want it to be.Sharee, thank you so much for the time today. We'll get you back on here again soon. 389 00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:46,409 Okay. Thanks so much. Have a great day guys. Thank you. Blayze Padgett, on to you. Final thoughts before 390 00:36:46,409 --> 00:36:51,929 we let you get back to it, man, I know you're busy. We greatly appreciate the time. Marcus. You asked 391 00:36:51,929 --> 00:36:58,889 me for a crazy one earlier, and I. I found one I remember. Yes, not long ago we had a load from 392 00:36:58,889 --> 00:37:02,609 Savannah, Georgia. Going somewhere. I don't even remember, but I was the one that planned the load. 393 00:37:02,610 --> 00:37:08,968 And I come in the next day and this load is sitting there. So I yell at this guys. Dispatcher I 394 00:37:08,969 --> 00:37:14,448 said, why is he not on this load? And he comes back and says his truck got struck by lightning. Oh, 395 00:37:14,490 --> 00:37:21,330 what? His truck. His truck's down. He got struck by lightning. I'm like, okay, that's probably the 396 00:37:21,330 --> 00:37:27,810 most valid excuse I've ever heard. We'll go with that. Yeah. It was was the driver okay? I mean, I 397 00:37:27,810 --> 00:37:34,448 imagine shaken up, but was he physically okay? Yeah. Like scared him. But I don't think he had any no 398 00:37:34,449 --> 00:37:39,049 issues. He's totally fine. The truck had some, uh, electrical shortages, naturally. So that had to 399 00:37:39,050 --> 00:37:43,530 come into the shop and the load was late. But there's nothing we can do about that. That's an 400 00:37:43,549 --> 00:37:49,669 act of God, as they say. Yeah. In the in the finest terms, I think an act of God is the one that fits 401 00:37:49,669 --> 00:37:55,829 that Blayze. That's awesome man. Thank you so much for for bringing that up. Uh, like we say, anything 402 00:37:55,830 --> 00:38:00,989 can happen out there. And, uh, David, you said it so well yourself. Uh, nothing's new under the sun, 403 00:38:00,989 --> 00:38:05,669 Blayze. Really appreciate the time, my friend. We'll get you back in here soon as well. Uh, thanks for 404 00:38:05,669 --> 00:38:12,469 being here today. Yeah. Thanks a lot, Marcus. David Penland Jr, on to you. Final thoughts before we 405 00:38:12,469 --> 00:38:17,269 let you go here. This has been a really great segment. And you can tell that going all the way 406 00:38:17,270 --> 00:38:22,350 back to the very beginning of your time, uh, working with your dad here at Cypress, that you've 407 00:38:22,350 --> 00:38:28,709 had an eye for safety. And you understand that we're not hauling body parts here. Uh, thank you 408 00:38:28,709 --> 00:38:34,789 for your time today. Final thoughts before we let you get back to it. Yeah. You know, that has been 409 00:38:34,790 --> 00:38:40,869 our culture from the beginning that was bred into us, from our dad. And so it's just always been, you 410 00:38:40,870 --> 00:38:47,009 know, the top tier thing we are here is Cypress is safe. That comes before everything. You know, we've 411 00:38:47,010 --> 00:38:53,929 got dad's a famous quote. We've we've got to be safe. We got to be safe. You know, and you just 412 00:38:53,970 --> 00:38:59,050 drill that into us. And I think it's made a lasting impression on the whole, the whole company. 413 00:38:59,610 --> 00:39:05,370 It really has. And we get to see it all the time here on this podcast. David, thank you so much for 414 00:39:05,370 --> 00:39:09,889 the time here today. We really appreciate it. We love it. Anytime we get to get one of you Penland 415 00:39:09,889 --> 00:39:14,928 brothers in here on the show, and we always get so much out of it. So thank you very much for the 416 00:39:14,929 --> 00:39:19,729 time today. We'll get you back on here again okay? Okay. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Thanks, 417 00:39:19,729 --> 00:39:20,369 guys. 418 00:39:27,969 --> 00:39:34,809 All right. Welcome back into the Cypress Truck Lines podcast. Now I was super excited about our 419 00:39:34,810 --> 00:39:40,459 last segment. I'm even more excited about this segment because what we got to hear was how the 420 00:39:40,460 --> 00:39:46,699 safety department, how the operations department sort of work hand in hand, and they put safety out 421 00:39:46,699 --> 00:39:52,059 front. Is that number one goal. Well, now we get to hear from that or about that from the driver's 422 00:39:52,060 --> 00:39:58,459 seat. And, uh, a really unique situation here. I'm super excited to welcome in my guest, uh, I will 423 00:39:58,459 --> 00:40:04,259 say driver slash dispatcher right now. Mark. Angel, Mark, thank you so much for being here today, my 424 00:40:04,260 --> 00:40:10,899 friend. Oh. You're welcome. So, uh, before we get into sort of the safety and operations stuff that 425 00:40:10,899 --> 00:40:15,339 we're talking about earlier in the episode, I want to chat with you a little bit about, uh, what 426 00:40:15,379 --> 00:40:21,620 brought you here. How long have you been driving for Cypress at this point, Mark? Over 20 years. Wow, 427 00:40:21,860 --> 00:40:27,260 what a career, man. I bet, uh, you wearing one of those million mile jackets or anything like that. 428 00:40:27,300 --> 00:40:34,139 No, it's a 2 million mile. 2 million miles. Man, that is amazing. Congratulations. Uh, something that not 429 00:40:34,139 --> 00:40:39,919 a lot of drivers accomplish in their life, and, um, you're making the transition to dispatch. He 430 00:40:39,919 --> 00:40:45,199 actually told me via text message the other day that you're training as a dispatcher. Uh, what was 431 00:40:45,199 --> 00:40:51,678 behind the decision to come off the road? I was ready to pass the torch. You know, over 20 years at 432 00:40:51,679 --> 00:40:57,959 Cypress. I had two years prior. You know, just. I'm ready. Family. Ready for you to come off the road, 433 00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:04,678 too. Oh, they're all grown and doing their own thing. Okay. Gotcha. Well, I mean, look, what an 434 00:41:04,679 --> 00:41:10,519 accomplishment to put 20 years behind you, behind the wheel. And now you feel like it's time to pass 435 00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:15,759 the torch on to the next drivers. How do you feel like you can use your experience behind the wheel? 436 00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:22,840 Uh, to be a great dispatcher, Mark. Well, understanding what goes on on the road would 437 00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:28,479 make me a an effective dispatcher when they're talking about, you know, working off their hours 438 00:41:28,479 --> 00:41:33,959 and recapping and everything. I know because I've lived that life. Mhm. Yeah. Great stuff there. And I 439 00:41:33,959 --> 00:41:40,329 mean it it seems like every driver that I've talked to on this podcast and many others, 440 00:41:40,490 --> 00:41:45,729 um, if you gave them the opportunity to say, hey, you're going to take a dispatcher with you as a 441 00:41:45,730 --> 00:41:50,529 fly on the wall for a week. Uh, they feel like they're dispatcher would know a lot more about 442 00:41:50,529 --> 00:41:54,168 what they're dealing with out there. So that experience that you've gained is going to be 443 00:41:54,169 --> 00:41:58,809 really beneficial not only to you, but to the drivers. You're going to work with Mark. And on 444 00:41:58,810 --> 00:42:05,009 both sides. Because I'll admit, as a driver, I didn't fully understand what exactly went on in 445 00:42:05,050 --> 00:42:10,289 operation. So my first day of training, it was like, oh my gosh, I want to call my old dispatcher and 446 00:42:10,290 --> 00:42:17,129 apologize. I had no clue because nearing the truck, the only word about one truck and one 447 00:42:17,129 --> 00:42:22,889 load. And then you get here. Now you may be worried about 30 or 40 and it's like, wow. So I think it 448 00:42:22,889 --> 00:42:29,089 would be good for both sides to experience and get a better understanding. Yeah. I don't know how 449 00:42:29,090 --> 00:42:33,609 the office would accommodate that many drivers sitting in next to their dispatchers though. Is it 450 00:42:33,629 --> 00:42:38,110 a rowdy enough environment to, uh, to placate the drivers? If they were to come and sit in the 451 00:42:38,110 --> 00:42:43,708 terminal for a week? It's not a large environment up in this patch, and it gets pretty hectic, but it 452 00:42:43,709 --> 00:42:48,749 would not hurt to have it. Maybe a dispatcher talk to the guys in orientation. Yeah. There you go. 453 00:42:48,750 --> 00:42:53,908 There you go. Well, you know, the training programs are so robust here at Cypress. And we talked about 454 00:42:53,909 --> 00:43:00,309 that last week on the podcast. Um, and I, I'm sure, Mark, that there's probably a little bit of 455 00:43:00,310 --> 00:43:06,869 training, uh, that you can pass on to. Maybe you end up dispatching for a driver that's really new out 456 00:43:06,870 --> 00:43:10,509 there and, and some of the stuff that you've learned on the road, you can probably impart to 457 00:43:10,550 --> 00:43:15,510 that guy, can't you? Well, no, on the freight corridors and knowing the customers and stuff 458 00:43:15,510 --> 00:43:19,188 like that would help help them out a lot, especially if they're brand new and maybe never 459 00:43:19,189 --> 00:43:24,509 been to a customer. It's like, hey, I've been there. Uh, don't use this gate. Go on this gate. Right? 460 00:43:24,510 --> 00:43:28,030 Don't take your first left, take your second. Otherwise you're going to be there for a while. 461 00:43:28,070 --> 00:43:33,889 Right, right, right. And everybody, everybody misses that first delivery. We always gotta turn around. 462 00:43:33,929 --> 00:43:39,968 Yep. I hear you, man. That's great. Well, Mark, the reason that you were suggested to us by 463 00:43:39,969 --> 00:43:46,329 management for this episode in particular was because of your stellar safety record over 20 464 00:43:46,330 --> 00:43:51,810 years, 2 million safe miles. Uh, how does that make you feel? Do you take a little bit of pride in 465 00:43:51,850 --> 00:43:56,249 that, knowing that management will call you out and say, if you want to talk about safety from the 466 00:43:56,249 --> 00:44:03,209 driver's perspective, Mark is a great candidate. In all honesty, I was surprised because I, 467 00:44:03,649 --> 00:44:08,849 I really don't think of it as an accomplishment. I'm doing my job. I'm doing what I was hired for. 468 00:44:09,210 --> 00:44:14,649 What does it require to make sure that you can stay safe over all those 2 million miles? I mean, 469 00:44:14,689 --> 00:44:19,928 you kind of said it right there. You're not really doing anything outside the scope of the normal 470 00:44:19,929 --> 00:44:26,089 job duties. But, um, obviously, you know, some drivers have better safety records than others. So is it 471 00:44:26,090 --> 00:44:32,658 attention to detail, Mark? Is it just a straight up passion for the job. Um, you know, these pre-trip 472 00:44:32,659 --> 00:44:37,459 inspections, post trip inspections, safety inspections, they're all kind of fine tooth comb 473 00:44:37,499 --> 00:44:41,938 stuff. Do you find that you got really good at that over the years? And it kind of became second 474 00:44:41,939 --> 00:44:47,699 nature or what? What are your thoughts there? Well, that is a lot of it. It does become second nature, 475 00:44:47,699 --> 00:44:53,579 but a lot of it is just taking pride in what you do and, you know. And how do you when you see 476 00:44:53,579 --> 00:44:59,099 somebody take pride in what you do, how do and what they do? How do you kind of translate that to 477 00:44:59,100 --> 00:45:04,539 yourself? I mean, obviously nobody spends 20 years in one job without taking a little bit of pride 478 00:45:04,540 --> 00:45:11,219 in it. Mark. True, true. Well, never I don't know, I'm going to have to think about the answer to that 479 00:45:11,220 --> 00:45:15,779 question, to be honest. Yeah, that one was that one was out of the blue. I kind of pulled that one out 480 00:45:15,780 --> 00:45:21,060 of the sky. But we can come back to it. Hey, we can come back to it. You got no idea what it's like in 481 00:45:21,060 --> 00:45:25,619 the six inches between my ears, Mark. There's stuff flying through there all the time, so if you need 482 00:45:25,620 --> 00:45:31,360 to think on one, just let me know. I'm happy to come back to it. Um, I've got I've got some other 483 00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:36,159 things here. Uh, what what does a good safety record actually require over those thousands of 484 00:45:36,159 --> 00:45:41,399 miles? I kind of started to ask that and got off the topic. But is it is it all discipline? Is it 485 00:45:41,399 --> 00:45:46,439 patient? Is it habits that you develop? I'm kind of looking for what you would tell a brand new 486 00:45:46,439 --> 00:45:53,199 driver who really wants to take safety seriously and wants to end up 20 years down the road with 487 00:45:53,199 --> 00:46:00,039 2 million safe miles as well? Well, if I can, um, tell a real short, quick story. Please. About 488 00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:05,919 what happened. Okay. I was brand new to Cypress. I hadn't been here but a few months and a long time 489 00:46:05,919 --> 00:46:11,999 veteran driver at that point offered me some advice. And that advice I carried with me my whole 490 00:46:11,999 --> 00:46:18,840 career. And, you know, the veteran drivers that know him, it was Jimmy, Jimmy Williams, he said. 491 00:46:18,879 --> 00:46:24,399 He said, just remember this. If you want to be here for a long time, it's not what you're hauling, it's 492 00:46:24,399 --> 00:46:30,539 how you're hauling it. And when you actually think about that as a flat butter. I carried that with 493 00:46:30,540 --> 00:46:36,739 me my entire career. I bet. I bet that makes so much sense, because it's I mean, the way that you 494 00:46:36,739 --> 00:46:41,620 drive with those loads, regardless of how well they're secured and how well they're Tarp and how 495 00:46:41,620 --> 00:46:46,579 well they're strapped, you can still have an effect on that load by not driving in a safe 496 00:46:46,580 --> 00:46:52,379 manner. Right, Mark? Yes. The straps are a false sense of security that you're driving that keeps 497 00:46:52,379 --> 00:46:57,460 that load on the trailer. Man, that's great stuff. And see, you just passed that on to a bunch of 498 00:46:57,460 --> 00:47:02,019 other young drivers that are out there listening to this right now. And that's exactly why we 499 00:47:02,020 --> 00:47:07,179 brought you in here, man. I love the fact that there's like an adage attached to it. It's not 500 00:47:07,219 --> 00:47:12,499 what you haul, it's how you haul it. And that kind of brings me to the next thing. I mean, it's in the 501 00:47:12,499 --> 00:47:18,619 title of this episode, something that David Penland said a long time ago, and we still live it 502 00:47:18,620 --> 00:47:22,739 every single day. And I'm sure you've heard it, Mark. But has anybody ever told you, hey, we're not 503 00:47:22,780 --> 00:47:29,590 hauling body parts here. Yep. Yep. And he also said, and I quote, if you want your safety bonus, 504 00:47:29,590 --> 00:47:36,269 don't mess up. It's so simple, isn't it? Exactly. And that's true 505 00:47:36,270 --> 00:47:41,669 too. When you hear we're not hauling body parts, what does that mean to you or what did that mean 506 00:47:41,669 --> 00:47:48,269 to you as a driver over your 20 years? Mark. Getting in a hurry just ain't worth it. Mhm. And 507 00:47:48,270 --> 00:47:53,789 I've driven an all weather conditions running over the road you know. And Cypress will never 508 00:47:53,790 --> 00:48:00,589 question why you parked. If weather conditions and road conditions got too bad. But you 509 00:48:00,590 --> 00:48:07,509 wreck the truck. They'll question why you didn't park right. And on those times have you 510 00:48:07,510 --> 00:48:11,829 ever had to personally call your dispatcher out there over the road and say, listen, I'm not going 511 00:48:11,830 --> 00:48:16,789 any further. This is getting too hairy out here. I'm shutting it down. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. 512 00:48:16,830 --> 00:48:21,469 I've been caught in polar vortexes out in the Midwest in the winter and told my dispatcher, I'm 513 00:48:21,470 --> 00:48:26,688 not moving to. The roads are passable and it'd be 2 or 3 days. But you know what? There was no 514 00:48:26,689 --> 00:48:32,449 accidents. Right? Right. Not that I caused. You know, when you're out there on I-80 and the wind's 515 00:48:32,449 --> 00:48:36,289 blowing and there's snow and there's black ice, those guys that try to push it are always the 516 00:48:36,289 --> 00:48:43,089 ones that end up in in the accident reports, aren't they? Exactly. And exactly. 517 00:48:43,129 --> 00:48:48,250 You kind of felt like dispatch lived up to the exact same adage of we're not hauling body parts 518 00:48:48,250 --> 00:48:53,129 when you called them, I'm sure. Can you walk me through a little bit of of how dispatch responds 519 00:48:53,129 --> 00:48:58,369 to you when you call and say, look, I gotta shut down? These roads aren't aren't passable. Oh, it was 520 00:48:58,370 --> 00:49:03,249 it was never an issue. It was never an issue. It's just roads aren't passable. I'm not going to wreck 521 00:49:03,289 --> 00:49:09,009 the truck. They say, okay, give me a call when you get moving. Man, that's simple. That's great. And I 522 00:49:09,010 --> 00:49:12,969 bet you that that makes you feel good. Transitioning to dispatch, knowing that now you 523 00:49:12,970 --> 00:49:19,769 get to be on the other end of that, which makes the driver feel supported, safe. And and, you 524 00:49:19,819 --> 00:49:24,179 know, there's there's a lot of commitment from the company to the driver. We know there's a lot of 525 00:49:24,179 --> 00:49:28,859 commitment from the driver to the company, but sometimes it doesn't go both ways, Mark. It really 526 00:49:28,860 --> 00:49:35,540 seems like it does here at Cypress. It does, it does. Now, maybe there's a 527 00:49:35,540 --> 00:49:40,500 time it will actually let me frame this question this way. Was there ever a time when you were 528 00:49:40,500 --> 00:49:44,859 running and you felt like you were running a little bit late, and you were tempted to push 529 00:49:44,860 --> 00:49:50,099 maybe a little bit harder than you should? Uh, if there was a situation like that, how do you keep 530 00:49:50,100 --> 00:49:55,978 yourself from crossing the line of of what's safe and what's not market? Well, I've never pushed 531 00:49:55,979 --> 00:50:01,779 myself to that. You know, I know my limit. And when I got close to that limit, that's it, that's it. You 532 00:50:01,780 --> 00:50:07,459 know, it's it's not it's not worth the consequence. Right. And, you know, and even if it's something. 533 00:50:07,459 --> 00:50:14,099 Okay, I'm getting tired. Even if I gotta stop and take a little one hour power nap. You know, just 534 00:50:14,379 --> 00:50:19,999 it's it's not worth wrecking a truck. It's not worth hurting other individuals because you think, 535 00:50:20,039 --> 00:50:25,759 oh, I gotta get there. I gotta get there, right? Yeah, you'll get there. But this is one time where 536 00:50:25,760 --> 00:50:32,639 better late than never applies. Sure, absolutely. And hey, I mean, if I. If I can say so myself, 537 00:50:32,719 --> 00:50:38,519 uh, those one hour power naps have a sneaky way of being like top five, top ten naps in your lifetime 538 00:50:38,520 --> 00:50:44,800 because they can a really make you feel better. And b, uh, look out for your safety. Uh, in the long 539 00:50:44,800 --> 00:50:50,080 run there, if you're not running, uh, with your eyes trying to slam shut on you. So I'm all about a 540 00:50:50,080 --> 00:50:54,320 power nap. Mark, I've always been a big advocate for those. In fact, I might take one later today. I 541 00:50:54,320 --> 00:51:00,519 don't know how I feel yet, but, uh, you never know, right? Right? Right. You know, David, uh, Penland 542 00:51:00,519 --> 00:51:05,840 junior said something to us that I want to bounce off you and see how you feel about it. Or if maybe 543 00:51:05,840 --> 00:51:11,119 he's even said this to you before. But when I asked David, kind of, you know, for some advice for 544 00:51:11,120 --> 00:51:16,419 drivers when it comes to safety, one thing he said was drive as though there's a state trooper in 545 00:51:16,419 --> 00:51:21,219 your passenger seat conducting a road test, and the people right in front of you are your 546 00:51:21,219 --> 00:51:26,419 immediate family. Uh, what what goes through your mind when you hear a guy like David Jr say 547 00:51:26,419 --> 00:51:32,779 something like that? Mark? Yeah. I mean, it's a good point because everybody drives different when 548 00:51:32,780 --> 00:51:39,059 there's a, uh, when you see the light bars on the car, right? Everybody does. But, you know, there's a 549 00:51:39,060 --> 00:51:45,939 lot to be said about, uh, expect the unexpected. Yeah. No joke. You know, and there's a lot to 550 00:51:45,939 --> 00:51:52,658 be said of. Just just leave more room. Yeah. That's all. I mean, it's just it's that simple. 551 00:51:52,659 --> 00:51:58,779 It's not complex, and it's not difficult to be safe. Man, that's well said. I mean, it's so simple. 552 00:51:58,780 --> 00:52:03,099 And I was actually you kind of took the words out of my mouth. I was going to ask you, if you 553 00:52:03,139 --> 00:52:07,739 consciously think about following distance differently when you're fully loaded with an 554 00:52:07,740 --> 00:52:13,619 80,000 pound backpack on, you kind of just said it it it might be even a little bit subconsciously 555 00:52:13,669 --> 00:52:19,549 after 20 years. But you're leaving more room. You're leaving yourself an out. Right? Right. A lot 556 00:52:19,550 --> 00:52:25,749 of it just becomes habit. That's great. Man, I love that you could do it so long and be so, uh, 557 00:52:25,749 --> 00:52:30,908 successful at it that you can make habits. And they're good habits. You know, a lot of times, uh, 558 00:52:31,190 --> 00:52:36,309 the word habit gets kind of negatively connotation. But, uh, not in this sense. I, I really 559 00:52:36,310 --> 00:52:41,109 don't think you can you can have a negatively annotated habit when it comes to safety, as long 560 00:52:41,110 --> 00:52:45,628 as you're going through the correct steps and, and, uh, you know, following the appropriate procedure. 561 00:52:45,629 --> 00:52:52,229 Mark. Um. Right, right. What's something in your experience, your vast experience that four 562 00:52:52,709 --> 00:52:58,229 wheelers will routinely do around trucks that they don't realize puts everybody out there on 563 00:52:58,229 --> 00:53:02,870 the road in danger? Anything bubble up in your mind when I ask that? Oh, yeah. Well, there's several, 564 00:53:02,870 --> 00:53:08,749 but the two, the two most common are, um, they'll be flying up on you and you can see them in the 565 00:53:08,749 --> 00:53:14,089 mirror coming up, and then when they get right by you, they just creep. Oh, I'm. Hey, I haven't figured 566 00:53:14,090 --> 00:53:19,169 out that why yet. But then the other thing is, they gotta get in front of you to take the exit ramp. 567 00:53:19,209 --> 00:53:26,010 Oh, yeah. And that one's really dangerous, right? Every time. Every time. And 568 00:53:26,090 --> 00:53:32,889 it's like if you just stayed behind me. I don't understand why they do that. They just do. 569 00:53:33,729 --> 00:53:39,289 Yeah. There was just recently. I mean, this has been within a month here. Um, there was a truck that 570 00:53:39,290 --> 00:53:46,249 tried to cross three lanes of traffic very aggressively and get to an off ramp, and his 571 00:53:46,250 --> 00:53:51,009 tailgate clipped the barrier and flipped his truck, and he hit a telephone pole. And that that 572 00:53:51,009 --> 00:53:56,169 was a fatal accident right there. And it was a really, um, you know, somebody that was, uh, known in 573 00:53:56,169 --> 00:54:03,009 the community. I, I know I knew the guy personally. It was a very tragic deal. Um, but you just have 574 00:54:03,010 --> 00:54:09,049 to understand that those types of maneuvers as a four Wheeler, um, you're not skilled enough to make 575 00:54:09,050 --> 00:54:14,418 them. I mean, I've not been to any driving schools other than I went to a little quarter mile track 576 00:54:14,460 --> 00:54:19,939 up in Post Falls, Idaho and ran a stock car around it for a little bit, but I was terrified the 577 00:54:19,939 --> 00:54:24,939 entire time. I don't think I ever got faster than 70 miles an hour. And what I learned in that 578 00:54:24,940 --> 00:54:31,499 instance is that there's so much mark to driving and driving skillfully and driving 579 00:54:31,499 --> 00:54:38,419 safely, that the common four Wheeler never even understands. They don't know that it exists 580 00:54:38,419 --> 00:54:43,539 as like a standard operating procedure. And those are the things that you're doing every single day 581 00:54:43,539 --> 00:54:49,378 to keep yourself safe out there. The the divide between everyday four wheelers and truck drivers 582 00:54:49,379 --> 00:54:55,819 is really a chasm, isn't it, Mark? Oh it is. It is because they they just they have no 583 00:54:55,819 --> 00:55:01,059 idea. And they wouldn't, you know, they're not they weren't trained like that. They're not thinking 584 00:55:01,059 --> 00:55:04,938 like that. They're just, you know, they don't even understand, you know, when you talk to them about 585 00:55:04,939 --> 00:55:09,999 brake lag, they don't know what that is. You know, it's like we do, you know, because there's every 586 00:55:09,999 --> 00:55:15,399 second, every hour, every day for us, right? You know, one thing that they they taught us about a little 587 00:55:15,440 --> 00:55:19,360 bit in that school, and I think they spent a grand total of ten minutes on it. Mark. So I didn't get a 588 00:55:19,360 --> 00:55:25,439 lot here, but, uh, it was the weight distribution on your tires, depending on whether you're, um, 589 00:55:25,479 --> 00:55:31,879 accelerating or decelerating or braking and how wide spots in the front tires will, will be 590 00:55:31,879 --> 00:55:37,479 contacting the pavement if you're braking. But smaller, you know, more tennis ball size spots if 591 00:55:37,479 --> 00:55:43,360 you're accelerating and people just don't have any frame of reference for that type of stuff. Oh, 592 00:55:43,360 --> 00:55:48,079 you mean the front wheels basically start to come off the ground when I'm speeding up? Yeah, that 593 00:55:48,080 --> 00:55:53,439 could make your front wheel drive car a little tougher to handle. But people don't know that. Do 594 00:55:53,439 --> 00:55:58,559 they. Know? No. And they're not thinking about tread depth. They're not thinking about tire age, you 595 00:55:58,560 --> 00:56:04,759 know. But yeah, I mean I think about that. But I've made my living on tires. Exactly, exactly, man. 20 596 00:56:04,800 --> 00:56:10,259 young, long years. anybody would be thinking about that. Now that takes me to another question here 597 00:56:10,260 --> 00:56:16,540 that I have for you. What did younger Mark think? That he knew that experience. Mark understood. 598 00:56:16,579 --> 00:56:22,019 Understands that he didn't know. Well, I'll be honest. The only thing I knew was how to do a 599 00:56:22,020 --> 00:56:28,579 pre-trip. Okay. But when I came to Cypress, Cypress had a lot of veteran drivers, 600 00:56:28,580 --> 00:56:35,139 and being a new to Cypress and still fairly new to the industry, even though I had experience 601 00:56:35,300 --> 00:56:40,339 first thing, I did make friends with the veteran drivers because I want to know how you did it, 602 00:56:40,340 --> 00:56:46,419 because I'm going to do what you did. I'm going to follow your example, you know? So if I, you know, was 603 00:56:46,419 --> 00:56:51,860 tying down the load that I've never tied down and I see a veteran driver, hey, could you give me a 604 00:56:51,860 --> 00:56:56,980 hand? Because the veteran drivers. Not once the day ever say, get away from me. They're like, oh, you 605 00:56:56,980 --> 00:57:02,259 need help? Let me show you how to do this the right way. Yeah. And and you're you're like the, I 606 00:57:02,260 --> 00:57:07,309 don't know, the 20th person at Cypress. That's told me that that's the case. And that's one thing that 607 00:57:07,309 --> 00:57:12,789 I love, Mark, when it's I mean a veteran driver like yourself, because I assume knowing that you 608 00:57:12,790 --> 00:57:17,349 received that help from them as you worked through your 20 years, you became that guy that 609 00:57:17,350 --> 00:57:23,110 was always helping out out there, didn't you? Well, to an extent, you know, but a lot of a lot of these 610 00:57:23,110 --> 00:57:27,629 drivers today, they're not asking anymore. Interesting. What do you think is the reasoning 611 00:57:27,629 --> 00:57:33,989 behind that Google. Ah, okay. Everybody's got it. Everybody's got an encyclopedia in their pocket. 612 00:57:33,990 --> 00:57:40,949 Right. Well so they think but you still can't beat experience. Yeah 100% I, I, I love hearing 613 00:57:40,950 --> 00:57:45,829 that that there's such camaraderie there that nobody will really ever turn you away. And, and I 614 00:57:45,829 --> 00:57:50,949 hope that through hearing that on this podcast that more younger drivers will start to reach out. 615 00:57:50,949 --> 00:57:56,470 Mark, because the depth of experience that you're dealing with when you're talking about these guys 616 00:57:56,470 --> 00:58:02,369 that you're referring to and yourself included in that is a really it's it's the only way to learn 617 00:58:02,370 --> 00:58:06,449 all the things that can happen out there. You can't read it in a book. You can't watch it in a 618 00:58:06,450 --> 00:58:12,449 video, and you certainly won't find it on a forum. Um, how does that make you feel to know that? I 619 00:58:12,449 --> 00:58:18,488 mean, if you had the opportunity, if if more guys would ask that you're one of those guys now. I 620 00:58:18,489 --> 00:58:24,409 mean, you've got all the experience, man. You were recommended to me by the top level of management 621 00:58:24,409 --> 00:58:30,650 as just the epitome of a safe driver. So I gotta say, man, you gotta feel. I feel like you owe 622 00:58:30,650 --> 00:58:35,049 yourself a pat on the back here. Mark. It's been 20 good years. It's something that not very many 623 00:58:35,049 --> 00:58:41,409 drivers get to say. True, true. But, you know, there's not a lot of drivers that have done it that long 624 00:58:41,409 --> 00:58:48,209 either. But I mean it's like, oh, it's great that I did it, but I'm still 625 00:58:48,250 --> 00:58:52,888 humble about it. You know, right now I don't need to walk around arrogant about it. You know, it's 626 00:58:52,889 --> 00:58:58,009 like, hey, I've been here 20 years. You need advice, but I got no problem showing you. I got no problem 627 00:58:58,010 --> 00:59:03,189 passing down the knowledge, because that's. But that. That's why we're here as veteran drivers. 628 00:59:03,230 --> 00:59:08,789 Exactly, exactly. What mistakes do you see some newer drivers make? Because they're maybe trying 629 00:59:08,830 --> 00:59:12,949 too hard to prove that they can handle something. Is there anything like that in your experience, 630 00:59:12,949 --> 00:59:19,350 Mark, that you've seen? Oh, they're in a hurry. Yeah. And they you know, there's that 631 00:59:19,829 --> 00:59:26,829 they just want to get it done. And and their, their mistake is they're not taking pride in what 632 00:59:26,829 --> 00:59:33,428 they do because they're not understanding the industry. You know, like, my stuff always look like 633 00:59:33,429 --> 00:59:39,228 a Christmas present because when you're driving down the road and people see Cypress truck lines, 634 00:59:39,229 --> 00:59:44,149 they don't know the Pinelands on that, right? They don't know nothing about corporate. All they see 635 00:59:44,190 --> 00:59:50,309 is that driver. So that driver is the face of Cypress at that time and when and when you know 636 00:59:50,350 --> 00:59:55,989 your load looks sloppy. That's what they see. And that's the impression that they get. Yeah. It's 637 00:59:55,989 --> 01:00:00,479 almost a little bit of a of a customer service angle, even though it might not be your customer. 638 01:00:00,519 --> 01:00:05,999 That you're taking the load to, uh, that you you're kind of, you know. Putting that face on for. And 639 01:00:06,000 --> 01:00:10,599 presenting that to you. You see a lot of drivers out there. You never know who's cruising by in 640 01:00:10,600 --> 01:00:16,119 their in their pickup truck. And they need a lot of wallboard hauled one place to another. If they 641 01:00:16,120 --> 01:00:22,559 see your truck, they might give Cypress a call. Right. Because you know, it's future customers. But 642 01:00:22,560 --> 01:00:27,120 at the same time, think about it from the customer you're delivering to, you pull in there. What do 643 01:00:27,120 --> 01:00:33,999 they see? They see you. They see that load. And it's if it doesn't look good, it's just like, 644 01:00:33,999 --> 01:00:40,839 oh my gosh, you know, this guy just brought me this. And maybe, 645 01:00:40,840 --> 01:00:47,719 uh, that may be enough to turn them around for many future loads. Yeah, 100%. I want to 646 01:00:47,719 --> 01:00:53,839 put you in Blayze's shoes for a minute here. Um, this one, you know, Blayze joined us with Sharee and, 647 01:00:53,960 --> 01:01:00,019 uh, David Jr on our earlier segment, and he explained that when safety delays load, dispatch 648 01:01:00,020 --> 01:01:05,699 starts making calls shipper, receiver, customer, you name it. And the answer can simply be the driver 649 01:01:05,700 --> 01:01:10,979 doesn't feel safe here. We're going to have to reschedule. Now, you spent years being the guy 650 01:01:10,979 --> 01:01:15,339 calling dispatch Mark. Now you're going to be answering that call. Does that change how you 651 01:01:15,339 --> 01:01:21,698 think about the job at all? Not really. It just, you know, being that many years on the road, I've got a 652 01:01:21,699 --> 01:01:27,579 better understanding for the job. Yeah, yeah. And we've definitely established that you can tell. Uh, 653 01:01:27,580 --> 01:01:32,419 well, do you think you'll be able to tell when a driver is genuinely in a bad situation versus 654 01:01:32,460 --> 01:01:39,179 when somebody didn't just, maybe just didn't plan their trip well? Mark. Well, yes. Mostly 655 01:01:39,179 --> 01:01:45,899 because chances are I've been to those customers. Right? You're just like an encyclopedia yourself, 656 01:01:45,899 --> 01:01:50,539 man. Let me tell you a couple of things about it. And and let me ask you this. Are you the type of 657 01:01:50,579 --> 01:01:54,669 guy that will sort of freely offer that information, or are you going to wait for the 658 01:01:54,669 --> 01:02:01,229 drivers to to approach you for it? Because that's a, you know, that can be sort of a relationship? 659 01:02:01,270 --> 01:02:07,590 Um, I guess a test of the relationship between driver and dispatcher, if, uh, you might be talking 660 01:02:07,629 --> 01:02:13,310 to somebody that doesn't want the advice. Um, if you offer it without them, you know, prompting you 661 01:02:13,310 --> 01:02:18,589 for it, that might affect the relationship. So how do you plan on navigating those waters as a 662 01:02:18,590 --> 01:02:23,789 dispatcher, Mark? It's going to be a little bit of both, actually, because it's not a one size fits 663 01:02:23,830 --> 01:02:30,349 all. It's just going to be an individual basis for each driver. There you go. And that might be the 664 01:02:30,350 --> 01:02:34,069 best thing that you can understand as a dispatcher is that everybody's different out 665 01:02:34,070 --> 01:02:41,029 there and everybody's fighting their own battle every single day. Um, that type of understanding is, 666 01:02:41,029 --> 01:02:46,229 I feel like, crucial in the driver dispatch relationship. And, you know, something that somebody 667 01:02:46,229 --> 01:02:50,789 told me a long time ago about the driver dispatcher relationship. Mark and I want to bounce 668 01:02:50,789 --> 01:02:56,969 it off of you. They told me this is not necessarily a friend relationship as much as it 669 01:02:56,969 --> 01:03:03,369 is a sibling relationship. There might be some times when we're going to butt heads, but we know 670 01:03:03,570 --> 01:03:09,969 even after we've butted heads that everything is going to be fine because we have that deep trust 671 01:03:09,969 --> 01:03:15,129 in one another. Any thoughts on that? Oh, I totally agree with that. 672 01:03:17,130 --> 01:03:22,249 But both chairs, you know, whether it be the one in the truck or the one behind the desk, both of them 673 01:03:22,250 --> 01:03:28,890 are very stressful. It's just a different kind of stress. And right. That that was that that the 674 01:03:28,890 --> 01:03:34,768 sibling relationship. I got to agree with that. That's true. Sharee told me something before you 675 01:03:34,810 --> 01:03:40,609 came on to is safety isn't a department that operations has to work around. Safety is part of 676 01:03:40,609 --> 01:03:45,570 how we operate. You've been the driver out there actually living under that philosophy. Is she 677 01:03:45,570 --> 01:03:51,269 right? Oh, yes. Yes. Because as a driver out there, you're not just dealing with 678 01:03:51,870 --> 01:03:58,629 safety. The safety department. You know, you got to deal with Dot. To which is also safety. Right? And 679 01:03:58,629 --> 01:04:05,110 then you got to be safe. Whether you be driving or whether you're delivering, you know because these 680 01:04:05,110 --> 01:04:11,029 loads sometimes they can be dangerous. What's under that tarp. Yes, sir. You know, so it's like it. 681 01:04:11,070 --> 01:04:16,950 You know, you've heard that saying, you know. Well safety. It's a way of life. You know it. Flat 682 01:04:16,950 --> 01:04:21,749 betting. It really is. I mean, it don't matter what you're doing. It's just safety. Safety. Safety. 683 01:04:21,789 --> 01:04:27,269 Safety. And that's what's going to bring you home. Yep. And also bring everybody else on the road 684 01:04:27,269 --> 01:04:31,829 home. Right. Let's not forget another thing. Cypress always says we have an obligation to the motoring 685 01:04:31,830 --> 01:04:38,510 public to be safe out there. Well, yeah. Yeah. You know, we have to be professional to make up for 686 01:04:38,510 --> 01:04:44,069 everybody else's lack of. Yeah, there's a lot of it. There's a lot of lack of out there, isn't there, 687 01:04:44,070 --> 01:04:50,239 Mark? Oh yeah. Yeah, I've seen it here and there. Yeah. over. I'm sure over 20 years. You've got more 688 01:04:50,239 --> 01:04:56,120 stories than we even have time for. Mark and I will bring you back on here again once you're 689 01:04:56,159 --> 01:05:00,959 kind of got your feet wet over at dispatch, I want to bring you back on and see how things are going 690 01:05:00,959 --> 01:05:06,559 sometime in the future, because this has just been a great peek behind the curtain, not only of 691 01:05:06,560 --> 01:05:10,399 somebody that's got 2 million safe miles under their belt, but somebody that's making the switch 692 01:05:10,400 --> 01:05:16,679 and coming off the road. That's an interesting part in the career arc of some drivers, and not 693 01:05:16,679 --> 01:05:23,038 all of them do it. A lot of them push that gas pedal down until they retire. Um, but not you, man. 694 01:05:23,079 --> 01:05:27,400 You're, you're you're trading in the steering wheel for a keyboard. Are you excited about that 695 01:05:27,400 --> 01:05:33,759 transition? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I am, I am. It's going to be exciting. It's going to be stressful and 696 01:05:33,759 --> 01:05:39,919 aggravating. But you know what? This is what I signed up for. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Uh, well, Mark, I give 697 01:05:39,919 --> 01:05:44,399 everybody a chance to share their final thoughts with me before we let them go. I know you're busy 698 01:05:44,400 --> 01:05:50,020 trying to get trained up right now, So I want to get you back to it. But before you go. Is there 699 01:05:50,020 --> 01:05:54,859 anything that we left on the table here that you think might be worth mentioning? Uh, or any other 700 01:05:54,860 --> 01:05:58,859 final thoughts you might have to share with us? Now, this is your first time on the show, so I'll 701 01:05:58,860 --> 01:06:03,779 tell you sometimes there's shout outs here. Sometimes, uh, the driver will say hi to the family 702 01:06:03,779 --> 01:06:10,259 at home or, uh, shout out dispatcher safety. The point is here, Mark, the floor is yours. You can say 703 01:06:10,260 --> 01:06:15,659 whatever you want. Take as much time as you need. Uh, final thoughts from Mark Angel. Before we let 704 01:06:15,659 --> 01:06:22,659 you get back to training up as a dispatcher. Oh, yeah. My big brother al had better tighten up and 705 01:06:22,659 --> 01:06:28,179 get them loads delivered. I'm watching you now. You got a little bit of a different dichotomy in the 706 01:06:28,179 --> 01:06:34,739 relationship now, don't you? Oh yeah. Yeah yeah yeah. He he he don't need to get little brother mad. 707 01:06:34,780 --> 01:06:41,619 He'll see boy. Dispatch I love it Mark. Well hey, thank you so much. Very grateful for 708 01:06:41,619 --> 01:06:46,029 your time today. You did this for us on short notice. He absolutely knocked it out of the park. 709 01:06:46,030 --> 01:06:51,949 Mark, you are welcome back on this podcast anytime. Um, let's get you back in here after a few months 710 01:06:51,950 --> 01:06:56,308 when you can tell us some of the stories that come from the dispatch side rather than the the 711 01:06:56,309 --> 01:07:03,030 windshield side. All right. Yeah. I mean, I'm looking forward to, uh, being on in the future and, uh, well, 712 01:07:03,030 --> 01:07:07,190 you know where I work, so, you know, just let me know. Yes, sir. I got your number. You can't get away 713 01:07:07,190 --> 01:07:12,989 from me now, Mark. All right. That's Mark. Angel, thank you so much for joining us today. Mark. We'll 714 01:07:12,990 --> 01:07:15,789 be in touch. Okay. Do appreciate it. 715 01:07:20,350 --> 01:07:27,269 Oh. Great stuff for Mark angel. They're really excited that he was 716 01:07:27,269 --> 01:07:33,549 able to pull this all together and make it happen for us. It was no small lift as he is training to 717 01:07:33,590 --> 01:07:38,749 become a dispatcher right now. So he's given me, uh, valuable time here for this podcast that he could 718 01:07:38,789 --> 01:07:43,489 have been learning more about the job in dispatch, but instead he was here sharing some of that 719 01:07:43,490 --> 01:07:48,850 knowledge with us that he gained over 20 years and 2 million safe miles out there on the road. 720 01:07:48,889 --> 01:07:53,489 And there's one thing that was kind of what I found to be the emotional center of that entire 721 01:07:53,490 --> 01:07:58,609 interview is right off the top, Mark said. I was ready to come off the road and I'm ready to pass 722 01:07:58,610 --> 01:08:04,329 the torch. If somebody that has that many miles and that many years of experience under their 723 01:08:04,330 --> 01:08:10,529 belt uses that terminology, I'm ready to pass the torch. It doesn't mean he's ready to put the torch 724 01:08:10,530 --> 01:08:16,129 down, walk away from it and let somebody else pick it up when they find it. It means that the torch 725 01:08:16,169 --> 01:08:23,169 being the knowledge, the experience, um, the safe habits, all of those things get personally 726 01:08:23,170 --> 01:08:29,169 handed from Mark to anybody that needs it. And I think that that's also something I really want to 727 01:08:29,169 --> 01:08:35,170 bring home here, because Mark did mention that he doesn't feel like new drivers approached, uh, 728 01:08:35,170 --> 01:08:40,870 veteran drivers as much as they used to when he was coming along. And a very valuable part of 729 01:08:40,870 --> 01:08:46,470 Mark's career was when he would go and make friends with Vette drivers and pick their brains, 730 01:08:46,509 --> 01:08:53,470 ask them for help. Um, look, I, I am a slave to my phone as well as everybody else out there is. And 731 01:08:53,470 --> 01:08:58,309 you truck drivers are actually better at staying off your phone than many of us, because you have 732 01:08:58,310 --> 01:09:03,229 to be, because that's a life and death decision that you make every single day. And, uh, making the 733 01:09:03,230 --> 01:09:10,068 right one, of course, is crucial. I will tell you this as a guy who's tried to learn as much about 734 01:09:10,069 --> 01:09:16,789 the trucking industry as I can from every avenue available to me, the internet and 735 01:09:16,789 --> 01:09:22,668 Google and the forums and the Facebook groups and all of that stuff. They can teach you some things. 736 01:09:22,669 --> 01:09:27,350 They can they can introduce you to some things that you didn't know were a part of it. But the 737 01:09:27,390 --> 01:09:33,669 knowledge, the experience, the know how that that I've gained a lot of, let me tell you, I've got to 738 01:09:33,669 --> 01:09:38,878 be sitting here at close to what, 3400 episodes I've made for truck drivers in my four years 739 01:09:38,879 --> 01:09:45,359 doing this job. All of the best stuff comes directly from the mouth of these veteran 740 01:09:45,359 --> 01:09:52,039 drivers. I'll tell you that right now. No forum, no Facebook group, no email chain, none of the 741 01:09:52,040 --> 01:09:58,359 experts that I've talked to, so-called experts in the industry outside of the fleet, can bring you 742 01:09:58,359 --> 01:10:04,878 the level of knowhow, experience and safe habits that a vet driver can. And I think that's what 743 01:10:04,879 --> 01:10:10,119 Mark was trying to get across there. Um, you know, you can learn a lot by typing something into 744 01:10:10,160 --> 01:10:15,239 Google, but you can learn a lot more by walking across the lot, asking one of these guys that's 745 01:10:15,240 --> 01:10:22,119 been here for 20 or 30 years, you know, I, I think about a question you might ask a guy like Mark if 746 01:10:22,119 --> 01:10:27,919 you saw him out there, or maybe a question you might ask a guy like Ronnie Norris or Ken Coder 747 01:10:27,919 --> 01:10:34,160 or Randy Wells. These guys all have so many miles under their belt. They're the guys that can tell 748 01:10:34,160 --> 01:10:40,379 you how to do it, how to do it right, How to do it efficiently. How to do it safely. Um. The internet. 749 01:10:40,900 --> 01:10:45,740 Look, use it for memes. I'm telling you right now. Use it to stay in touch with people that you 750 01:10:45,740 --> 01:10:51,139 don't get to see anymore. Uh, use it to make yourself laugh. Uh, trying to learn how to be an 751 01:10:51,140 --> 01:10:56,819 experienced truck driver from the internet just seems like a failing proposition to me. So go out 752 01:10:56,820 --> 01:11:02,339 there and ask some of these guys. These last few episodes that we've had have really shown a light 753 01:11:02,339 --> 01:11:08,660 on the camaraderie that exists at Cypress Truck Lines. And I think that here in a guy like Mark 754 01:11:08,700 --> 01:11:13,299 say that that was my first order of business, was to go meet the vet drivers and start to learn 755 01:11:13,299 --> 01:11:20,059 from them. Fast forward 20 years. He's got a 2 million miles, uh, 2 million safe mile jacket on, 756 01:11:20,059 --> 01:11:25,140 and he's ready to hand any and all of that information down to the next group of guys. If 757 01:11:25,140 --> 01:11:29,740 you're listening to this right now, you just cleared orientation. Maybe you're like Tim and 758 01:11:29,740 --> 01:11:36,479 Cameron from last week's episode and you're 8 or 9 months in. There is a bevy of information 759 01:11:36,479 --> 01:11:41,279 available out there to you. You just got to go ask for it from some of these vet drivers. And you 760 01:11:41,279 --> 01:11:45,919 just heard one of them here on the show. That guy is not going to say no. And that's another thing 761 01:11:45,920 --> 01:11:52,079 Mark said never once in his career did a vet driver shoo him away or not help him. They always 762 01:11:52,079 --> 01:11:57,719 help. It's 100% of the time, and we've heard a lot about that right here on this podcast. And we did 763 01:11:57,720 --> 01:12:04,439 again today. So hats off to Marc Angel and congratulations to Marc on such a successful 764 01:12:04,440 --> 01:12:10,119 and safe driving career with Cypress. Here's to the next 20 years. Uh, sitting behind the keyboard 765 01:12:10,119 --> 01:12:14,839 and answering the calls rather than making them Mark. Uh, we had a great time with him on the show 766 01:12:14,839 --> 01:12:19,920 today. That was a lot of fun. A fast paced interview. I really like those. It it makes me flex 767 01:12:19,920 --> 01:12:24,479 my muscle a little bit and get back to my radio days when everything had to be in, like a five 768 01:12:24,480 --> 01:12:29,398 minute segment. Uh, fortunately, we were able to spend almost a half an hour with Mark, but it felt 769 01:12:29,399 --> 01:12:35,129 fast paced, which means we got a lot of information out there. Want to thank Blayze, Sharee, 770 01:12:35,169 --> 01:12:41,330 David and Mark all for their time this week. Uh, we got a lot of great personalities on this episode, 771 01:12:41,330 --> 01:12:47,210 and we got a lot of information in it as well. So your homework this week, since I didn't say a word 772 01:12:47,210 --> 01:12:52,529 about it in the open, is once again to tell a friend about the Cypress Trunk Lines podcast. If 773 01:12:52,529 --> 01:12:57,609 you're listening, if you've gotten anything from this at all, maybe it's just a like, not even a 774 01:12:57,609 --> 01:13:02,209 laugh, but maybe I just made you do one of those, like, you know, like a, like, kind of a smirk type 775 01:13:02,250 --> 01:13:07,129 thing or like, you know, a little air escape from the nose, even if you got that and you told a 776 01:13:07,129 --> 01:13:11,930 friend about it, it would help us out. If you've gotten more out of this podcast, you've gleaned 777 01:13:11,930 --> 01:13:17,609 some knowledge, like the episode that we had today where there's a ton of great information. Uh, 778 01:13:17,649 --> 01:13:23,329 awesome. We appreciate that. To the point is, tell a friend, and don't forget to hop on over to the 779 01:13:23,330 --> 01:13:29,889 website podcast.cypresstruck.com. That's where we've got all of our episodes now. They're also on 780 01:13:29,889 --> 01:13:34,749 every streaming platform that you can imagine Spotify, Apple, Google, you name it, there's a 781 01:13:34,749 --> 01:13:41,509 thousand of them. We're there too. But, uh, we do see a large portion. In fact, way 782 01:13:41,509 --> 01:13:47,149 more than half of you listen to this podcast at the website. We appreciate that greatly. There's a 783 01:13:47,149 --> 01:13:51,390 button you can click right there. If you want to email me, send me an email, tell me what you want 784 01:13:51,390 --> 01:13:56,629 to hear about. We'll do our best to make it into an episode. Now, I'm not the last line of defense 785 01:13:56,629 --> 01:14:02,149 there. I have to get these episodes ideas cleared, but they don't give us very much, uh, very much 786 01:14:02,189 --> 01:14:06,669 flack about the episodes that you guys are recommending. So send me an email over there at 787 01:14:06,670 --> 01:14:13,269 podcast.cypresstruck.com and I promise you, we'll do our best to make an episode out of whatever you 788 01:14:13,269 --> 01:14:17,789 want to hear about. Maybe you don't have an episode idea, maybe you just want to come join me 789 01:14:17,789 --> 01:14:22,829 for whatever we're talking about. That's where to do it. Right there. Send me the email, we'll get in 790 01:14:22,829 --> 01:14:29,079 touch with you. And also, before we get out of here, I want to make one more mention because CVS break. 791 01:14:29,080 --> 01:14:34,359 Safety Week is August 23rd through August 29th. Want to make sure you guys are paying attention? 792 01:14:34,399 --> 01:14:39,079 US, Mexico and Canada. They're going to be out there and they are going to be checking for 793 01:14:39,080 --> 01:14:45,919 specifically this year brake drums and air disc brake rotors. So make sure 794 01:14:45,919 --> 01:14:50,399 you're on top of those pre trips. You don't want to get that safety score marred up just because 795 01:14:50,399 --> 01:14:55,318 Break Safety Week showed up at the end of the summer. Uh, look out for him out there. Be safe out 796 01:14:55,319 --> 01:15:00,318 there on the road, all of you. Cypress and Sun Belt drivers. And until next week I've been Marcas 797 01:15:00,319 --> 01:15:05,519 you've been great. We'll see you again next Wednesday for an hour of content from the Cypress 798 01:15:05,520 --> 01:15:08,039 Truck Lines podcast. Be safe out there drivers.