Standing Out: A Podcast About Sales, Marketing and Leadership
Standing Out is a show created to help individuals and companies improve their sales & marketing outcomes, as well as their leadership development. Each episode we have an expert who has a unique perspective on sales, marketing and/or leadership providing insights from his or her experiences. And we throw in a few laughs from time to time. Be sure to hit Subscribe wherever you listen to our podcasts.
Standing Out: A Podcast About Sales, Marketing and Leadership
Standing Out with Charles Gracey: Trucking, Events, and Brand Growth in 2025
In this episode of Standing Out with Charles Gracey, we explore what the future holds for the trucking industry in 2025, from emerging technologies to shifting market dynamics. Trey and Charles also highlight key upcoming events you won't want to miss, providing insights into how they can help you stay connected and informed. Plus, discover how podcasting and media are transforming the way professionals grow their brands and stand out in a crowded marketplace. Don’t miss this conversation designed to help you drive success in the year ahead!
Thank you to our sponsor, Salesdash CRM – A CRM for Freight Logistics. Salesdash CRM is built for freight broker & agent sales teams. Manage your shipper prospecting and follow-ups. Organize your carriers and the lanes they run. Learn more at www.betaconsultinggroup.com/standing-out
Standing Out is a sales, marketing & leadership podcast powered by BETA Consulting Group, created to highlight best practices from industry leaders with incredible experience and insights! The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire individuals & companies to improve their sales, marketing & leadership development outcomes.
what's up everybody. Hey everybody. What's up everybody and welcome to another episode of standing out. Hello out there and happy new year. So excited to be back with you with another episode of Standing Out, this one live. We haven't done a live show in a long time. I'm so excited about that. I'm Trey Griggs, your host. So excited to have you with us today as the printer starts going. You know what? It's a snow day here in St Louis and so my entire family's in the house doing work and printing stuff off, so it's just the way it's going to be. This is what happens when you have a live show, but, again, hope you guys are doing really well out there. Hey, when you get a chance.
Speaker 1:A couple of things. I've created a page on my website with all the industry events that I know about. I'll be adding more to that. If you need to know what events are going on in the industry in 2025, you can go to betaconsultinggroupcom. Forward slash standing I'm sorry, not standing, gosh, I botched it. I botched that. We're live everybody. Forward slash industry dash events and you can see all the events in 2025. They're out there in transportation and logistics and you can click on the link and go right to the website and learn more about those. Just a little resource for you to help you out. If you need help with your event strategy or if you're putting on an event and you need an MC, let me know. I may know a guy who likes to do that. I love to MC events.
Speaker 1:I also want to give a shout out to our sponsor, salesdash CRM, my good friend Josh Liles over there. If you are a freight broker and you are not using SalesDash CRM for your sales team, what are you doing? I need you to change the way you're showing up in life. All right, check it out. It's built exclusively for freight brokers by freight brokers the only one in the industry like that. So make sure you check it out. You can find out more at sales-crmcom or you can go to our website, vaticonsultinggroupcom.
Speaker 1:Forward slash standing dash out. That's what I meant when I was doing the url earlier. It just happens, folks. You just get tripped up from time to time. That's the way it.
Speaker 1:Finally, before we bring on our phenomenal guest today, I want to say thank you to our friends over at Wreaths Across America. I don't know if you had a chance to participate in Wreaths Across America this past December. If you didn't, there's another December coming around. You can get started volunteering right now or sponsoring a wreath or getting involved for that event. It's an incredible organization to remember the past and to teach the future generations about the sacrifices that were made.
Speaker 1:We're so thankful to be a partner with him and to be on Trucking Tuesday's lineup every Tuesday at 6 o'clock pm. So if you're watching or if you're listening online, reads Across America, thank you so much. We love partnering with them. If you'd like to learn more about Reads Across America and how to get involved, go to ReadsAcrossAmericaorg. Forward slash standing out, partner with us and get involved with that community. All right, everybody, it is time to bring in our guest today on the show. I've known this guy for quite a while. He's doing some great things in the industry. We're going to talk today about podcasting and so many other things, so please welcome to the show my good friend, charles bracy what's up, buddy?
Speaker 2:it's 2025. I'm here with you, my guy. We gotta let this roll. Just a little bit this is a good one.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a good one. Classic rock, dude. I gotta tell you, man, my daughter's 17 and 15 and they're starting to find, they're starting to explore these older genres. My oldest daughter says that the 90s music is the best. My younger says the 80s is the best, but they both love classic rock. So I feel like I'm doing something right as a parent, you are you are my son.
Speaker 2:Uh, I'm blessed with his musical abilities. Mine are, uh, kind of quarantined off to hitting the play button, but I play. I failed recorder class. Oh, that's rough my son plays uh bugle for the scouts, trumpet for two different bands and then bass guitar in two different bands. He's highly into it. It's a passion of his and I'm just sitting there like, all right, I'm going to live vicariously outside and just appreciate the fact that you play music.
Speaker 1:I know that's awesome. So he's playing bugle, so he's playing taps, he's playing all the.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's cool. He's our Boy Scout Troops bugler.
Speaker 1:That's cool. So he's got the bugle badge and everything. I did that when I was in Boy Scouts as well, because I was a trumpet player, so I played the bugle as well, but I didn't actually have a bugle. Does he actually have a bugle? Yeah, he can play the trumpet without any fingers.
Speaker 2:So our old Scoutmaster never had a bugler. In his time as scout master there and right before he transitioned out, one of the things he did was procure an actual bugle to issue to the first bugler for the troop, which was my son that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of cool, so he's got like a brand new bugle like it's like, oh it's, it's actually a antique bugle and so kids not knowing it, he sees it and it's a little tarnished and stuff and he's like, oh, I'll polish it up and I'm like, no, don't touch it, oh yeah it's okay, it's got character dude, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:It always reminds me, um, you know, one of the events that we go to every year is the indianapolis 500, and they always start that event off with taps and man, it is powerful and so like just, it's amazing how a song with no, no keys, just some certain chords or certain tones that are made in that, can be so powerful and moving like that. So one of my favorite memories of the year, whenever I hear taps, it's just like Indy 500. So that's cool, man, good stuff, all right. Well, hey, listen, let's talk about you and let's talk about 2025. First of all, some people may not know who you are. Most people do, though, but for those that don't, give us a little 30 second intro into who you are, what you're doing and what 2025 is looking for you they call me the doctor, fellow trucking, but I have hair and I'm rocking a girlish figure.
Speaker 2:Uh, I'm the president of hot seat services, the host of cents per mile on freight waves and reefs across america radio, and then I'm also a radio host over on Sirius XM for road dog trucking.
Speaker 1:I love it, I know and okay, so I have to. I have to ask did you give yourself this name, the Dr Phil of trucking? Where did this come from?
Speaker 2:So I actually hid for it from it forever. Uh, I didn't like it when it was. It was given to me by Chad Hendricks Back when I was working on the carrier side. I was doing an episode of his podcast and we were talking about mediating issues for promotion of retention and he's like you're like the Dr Philip trucking, and it just clicked and everyone kept rolling with it and I came up with my own new name. I was like the Tatted Recruiter. I'm like yeah, I rocked it.
Speaker 2:I rocked it for two years and kept trying to fight it, but people found out. If you go on the google and you ask google or ai, who's the dr philip trucking kept spitting me out, so then I just embraced it you just embraced it and I think it's your handle now on x.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I believe it's dr philip truck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, on all social medias. It's my handle now I locked it down.
Speaker 1:It's a personal brand. It's so great. I mean you can we get the Dr Phil of trucking? We've got the strongest man logistics. We've got strongest woman logistics. We've got all these kinds of different things. I've got my good friend Tyson Lawrence. I call him the for you when you embrace that personal brand. How did that? How did that?
Speaker 2:change your. Uh, maybe, just what did that do for you? I guess maybe that's the best question. Well, fighting it didn't do much for me. Um, when I finally embraced it and I came to terms with that's a name people have chosen for me, I kind of treated it like nickname when I was in the Navy. You know people give nicknames. You don't go out and pick them yourself, you give them to you for a reason. Uh, it kind of stuck naturally. And then, uh, people start associating it. So I'll be walking through places or conferences and they're like dr phil. I'm like, oh, that's me, that's me. Yeah, and it's catchy. It stands out like there's tons of charles in the world. There, you know there's tons of trays. But when you get that personal brand, it locks in. It kind of differentiates you from the next person and what you're about.
Speaker 1:I don't know if there's a ton of trays, but I'm seeing more these days. I'm seeing a lot more now than I did when I was a kid. When I was a kid, I didn't know any trays, but I'm seeing a lot more.
Speaker 2:If I had another boy which I'm not, but if I had another, one tray would be at the top. It's different, you know, like my son's Charles Jr, my dad's Charles. There's enough, charles. You know people like those names. I'm seeing some interesting ones out there. So your son is.
Speaker 1:Charles Jr. So you already have a son with a junior. So the reason why I'm Trey is because I'm the third. So my dad is junior, grandpa senior and I'm the third and so that was the nickname it. It's kind of a funny story. My mom hates my real name. Really, it's my dad's name. He didn't even go by it. He was Buddy his whole life. He didn't even use the name. And so then when I was born, I was the only son and they were like, oh, you got to keep it going on. My mom was like, why, like you don't even use it, why would we do that? But that won out one out. But the uh. The compromise was that I would have a nickname. So I've been trey ever since I was born. But uh, it's always fun when you have to sign something legally or show your driver's license or, you know, buy a house.
Speaker 2:Uh, everybody's like oh, who's? Who's glenn who?
Speaker 1:is that guy?
Speaker 2:well, that is yeah I didn't like it when I was a kid, because my dad was chuck. I didn't like charles, it was too formal, so I went by charlie, uh. But then you had char and the Chocolate Factory Jokes, charlie, the Tuna Fish, you know, yeah, you had all those. So I was just like, or everyone kept saying, sorry, charlie.
Speaker 1:As I got older.
Speaker 2:I took Charles and my son. He was smart because he was an actual junior, because he had the same middle name as me. He's like I like CJ Charles Junior, so he goes by CJ. Oh nice, and I'm like all right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's smart. You know, a lot of people don't get to pick their nicknames. I got a friend who was just telling me about one of his best friends whose nickname is Peaches, who I know he didn't pick that out, that was not his choice at all, somebody else gave him that. So I wonder if there's some interesting nicknames out there, interesting nicknames, throw in the comments. We'd love to hear what some of those nicknames are out there that are just a little odd. I have noticed this as names continue like junior the third, the fourth. It's the weird names that keep going. I don't know why that is. It's the weird ones that keep going. I went to school with a samantha turner and her brother was ewell thomas turner the third, and he was the only other tray that I know you will, thomas. Why are we? Why are we continuing this? I don't know, but that's just how it goes.
Speaker 2:All right, there's a producer at Sirius, and his is Leviticus.
Speaker 1:Oh man, that's not a name.
Speaker 2:You will never forget that's old school. He doesn't go by Levi. No, he'll introduce himself.
Speaker 1:I'm Leviticus, I'm like wow, that's somebody whose mom was like no, you're Leviticus. No, you know you're Leviticus. Nobody called you Levi. Man, that's a. That's. That is definitely a tough one, so pretty wild, all right. So just for a moment, talk to us about hot seat services.
Speaker 2:What do you guys do, man?
Speaker 2:we are the one-stop shop for all things recruiting and marketing for drivers, we for truck drivers and trucking we we stay in what we know, where a lot of people are going into healthcare, and that we've stuck with what we know. We have recruiting third-party recruiting, where we use our recruiters, our marketing, to find new drivers. You pay for what you get, guaranteed cost per hire. We have marketing and lead gen in alignment with our sister company, cdl Life. We have the world's largest trucking audience, so we're able to provide a lot of leads for a low cost for our clients. And then we have rent a recruiter. You know that's a guaranteed cost per hire. It actually lowers your cost per hire with the more hires they make. You're paying per recruiter. And then we have consulting, which again we stick to what we know, which is marketing driver recruiting.
Speaker 1:Nice. I love that. That's really cool. And there's you know, there's several companies out there that do that. City Life obviously has a brand. They've been around for a long time. What are you finding right now from the truck driver side of things? I mean, this is a constant conversation. Is there a driver shortage? What's going on? I feel like the best trucking companies their trucks are always full. They don't have that issue. I feel like the drivers sometimes kind of play this game of kind of running around a little bit trying to get the bonuses, that type of thing. But from your perspective, what do you think drivers really want?
Speaker 2:What are they looking for? So there was a lot to digest in that, and the first thing is the driver shortage. Not real, self-created, convenient fall guy narrative, clickbait news. Yeah, it's just not real. Because I'm a hiring agent, I have drivers applying all day Now. There is a shortage of drivers qualified by today's standards that are set forth by companies and their insurance companies for various reasons, but you can't go out there and provide a narrative that there's a driver shortage when there's databases full of drivers looking for work and they can't find a job. Yeah, and I think that's one of the things that you're going to see this year is a lot of people either will live or die by the sword.
Speaker 2:Last year, if you were a carrier and you weren't full, you did something wrong. You can get your trucks filled just by being open, having loads. This year, if things go the way everyone's optimism are, is to. We're hoping to see a swing Now. Some people think it's going to be a big one. Some people think it's going to be a stair step. Regardless, a positive swing is good and welcomed.
Speaker 2:At this point, the problem is going to come from when people were full, they raised their hiring standards and I'm all for hey, looking for the cream of the crop. When you're full, you can afford to be picky, but when you change it on paper, that's where it becomes a problem, because you can always raise your standards, but if you ever need to get more drivers or hires, you're gonna have to lower them, and if you do, you've left a gap of liability for nuclear lawsuits and all that fun stuff. So the people that changed it on paper, they're going to be dying by that sword, either legally or in the amount of people they can bring in, because it's not realistic to the actual driver market. And what yeah, so.
Speaker 1:So if a trucking company says this is our standard, but then they find out they're really new drivers and they change the standard on paper, a lawyer could look at those two documents and go, hey, you, you did this intentionally, like you didn't know, this is on you and so, yeah, liability.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can see that and simply you could just say, hey, we're right, right, we're raising our standards, so it's just not a good fit at this time. You don't have actually have to change it on paper, but a lot of people did and that's going to be a sword that they're going to die by in 2025 yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 1:Well, I gotta tell you, man, like I, my dad was a truck driver, local truck driver, box truck uh, local in k City. So I got to see that side of it, but not the over the road side. Man, I got to tell you the more that I've gotten to drivers in the last three to four years in particular. Man, so much respect, dude, just seeing them out of the road, seeing what they do. They are the heroes of the supply chain, or maybe I'll say this better, they're the superheroes of the supply chain. I think everybody in supply chain is a hero because it keeps the economy going. I mean, it's this is so critical. But, man, the drivers are the superheroes.
Speaker 1:Man, like they, it's an incredibly tough job and you see what's happening right now, like I'm in Missouri, in the Midwest. We saw what happened just yesterday on I-70 massive truck pileup. I mean, if you're I was thinking about this if you're in a truck and you're going 30 miles an hour and you hit black ice too, and you hit black ice too bad, you're not going to stop that truck. And man, it's so difficult out there on the road, it's so dangerous it's a tough job.
Speaker 2:I did it for eight years. My dad did it before moving into the office. I think a lot of people lose sight on what's actually important to these drivers nowadays, and that's something that's going to be on the forefront of 2025. We've always talked about the shift in culture and trucking's always steps behind. In my opinion and if you ask a lot of drivers, they'll agree but it used to be the most important thing to the older drivers was pay, because they never had good pay. But now you saw pay come up and cultures at the forefront of the discussion. Uh, progression, Uh, how do I get out of the truck? None of these younger people coming in the industry are saying I want to be a truck driver forever. You might have a handful, but a lot of them are looking for a pathway out. If you don't have these things, or you're not at least discussing these things, you're going to be left in the dust in 2025 and 2026.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you drove for eight years. Were you over the road? What were you doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, you over the road. What were you doing? Yeah, I was over the road until I wasn't, and then I was local and then I did a bulk hauling and I hauled ethanol and diesel and delivered that to the gas stations.
Speaker 1:What were some of your favorite lanes to run? Because I'll tell you what. Like I'm an RV guy, you know driving a diesel, obviously you have somebody else's freight that you're hauling. It's more weight, it's definitely more reliability, but I think driving across the country is the best way to see the country in my opinion. What were some of the lanes that you enjoyed? Places you enjoyed going to the most?
Speaker 2:I had this sweet lane where I was going from Chicago to Indianapolis and it was a night run every night and no one wanted to do it because it was a night run. People have mixed feelings about that stretch going to Indiana, especially at night because of all the wrecks and winter, like right now, it's like a graveyard out there. But I loved it. There was less traffic. It was predictable. I enjoyed it. You know it became repetitive but I jammed out the music the whole way, so it was good.
Speaker 1:I like driving at night, man. I don't know what it is, but driving at night to me is is actually pretty enjoyable, um but, but you know, driving across the country and seeing, you know, seeing mountains and seeing different things out of the front window of a, of a semi RV is, uh, is absolutely incredible.
Speaker 2:And you're just not seeing those coast to coast as much lot of operations because a lot of drivers don't want to be out three to four weeks, so it's very rare to see as many coast to coast loads.
Speaker 1:A lot of these are engineered lanes where it's either relay or short distance and then picked up by someone else yeah, do you think we are going to have a driver shortage because the younger generations aren't seeing trucking as a career path and like? What can we do about that?
Speaker 2:I think if we continue to go down the path of there is a driver shortage and we don't address the elephant in the room and we keep addressing these side wins, as people like to call them, um, rather than the things that are actually important to drivers and yes, we're going to create one ourselves as an industry.
Speaker 2:But if we pay attention to the topics that are important to the drivers, which is consistent, consistent pay, consistent home time, good benefits, support for while they're on the road, these things matter career paths outside of the truck, and we have to put in a healthy dose of incorporating the youth into the industry. How is anyone going to get excited about a job that appears, on all for all, all regards, not a desirable place to land it's the backup choice if we continue to let that be the narrative rather than, hey, you can make a good living, you, there's progression outside of it. You need to highlight those people like uh, not highlight myself, I'm out there enough, but find people that have made it out of the truck and found successful foot footing somewhere else in the industry and share those stories, like I do with my son. I bring my son to mats. I bring my son to conferences where I can, I bring my family. That's how you excite the youth and I think people need to get back down to the basics on that.
Speaker 1:That is one of my favorite things about mats is it's very family friendly. It's one of my favorite conferences to go to and to see see the drivers and their families come together. But this is an interesting thing because you know there's there's two things kind of working against truck driving. That is one high schools aren't promoting it very much, you know. It's like it is a fallback type of thing. They're not promoting any traits, not promoting electrical or plumbing or welding or depending depending on where you live, that's true. But but you know there's a lot of high schools that have just done away with a lot of like woodworking and these different things. They're just not even in the curriculum anymore. But I feel like, especially guidance counselors, guidance counselors aren't talking about driving a truck. They're not talking about that. But then here's the flip side. Let's say that they did all talk about driving a truck. If you can't drive a truck until you're 21, there's a three-year gap. Well, technically.
Speaker 2:They have programs in place that can attract 18-year-old drivers and I come across them all the time people that are interested, they're 18. They want to get into truck driving and you have to actually dial them back because these programs are misleading. They say, hey, we take 18-year-old drivers but none of the carriers or their insurance companies have been brought into the discussion to insure them or employ them, because they can't be insured. So then you have this person that got fresh training top of their brain and now it's sitting there stewing for three years before they could be eligible for hire. So it's no longer fresh. So essentially you got to go through training again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, what do we do about that? To me, that's a problem when there's no direct line, because you're not going to send somebody to college, more than likely, and then put them in a truck. Not, there's anything wrong with that, but I just don't see that happening very much. Uh, you might see kids that graduate high school and are wanting to drive a truck and now they have to wait. It's like it's. It's just creating a barrier that I think is really hard to overcome. I mean I love what like next gen trucking is doing, getting getting the word out about truck driving, about diesel tech operations. I mean, do you make them a diesel tech for a few years and learn that side of the deal?
Speaker 2:Because half the drivers out there can't even change a light bulb, they call road service or other companies won't let them because they got so used to people not being willing to do it. One of the things that I thought was unique out here because I came from Chicago and now I'm a transplant in Chattanooga and it is a completely different landscape out here because you have the influences of the mega carriers that are in the area and brokerages in the area. I thought it was unique that when my son is gearing up for high school now, he was able to pick up to three career paths and I was shocked at which ones he picked. He picked logistics and transportation and audio video and I'm like you're gunning for my job. He's gunning for my job and if you ask him, oh yeah, I want to be you when you're older and he's like layers to this, my guy.
Speaker 1:That's cool to hear, man, that's really cool, but it's, but it's, it's like it's just to me that's the big problem is, um, and I feel like the diesel tech path might work out, but at the same time, if you get into diesel tech, you may not want to get into a truck because you're home. You're doing that, but we have a diesel tech shortage as well. It just seems like a problem that I wish they'd figure out a way to get. But I understand the insurance issue my daughter's 16.
Speaker 2:I cannot believe how much insurance costs for her, and she's a good driver, she's responsible, she's got that's where the government can get involved and give subsidies for hiring these people or discounts to offset the cost of the raise in insurance premiums. I think those discussions are more important and I think all the wins accumulate to overall better experience in the industry. Like, uh, the ata just had this one thing where, uh, someone sent it to me actually, and they were so happy because they know I bashed ata all the time and they're like, hey look, they did something for drivers and it was about shoring up the background checks. Uh, for hazmat or uhic, you had to get two different background checks for each one, and now one, if it's in a respectable timeframe, will count. And I'm like I get how that might appear to be a win for a driver. That's a win for the carriers. Uh, let's put it in the correct column.
Speaker 1:One last thing they got to do administratively.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, for the driver, that did not substantially change their driving experience. That might've changed slightly ever so slightly, if you want to give it any credit to the onboarding experience but by no means did it change the execution of the job, the pay for the job or the sacrifices you make doing the job. So until we can address things like universal bathroom access facilities that can provide drivers with a healthier lifestyle so they're not the drivers we do get we're not losing the health issues to a more consistent pay standard that's relevant to today's standards and not something that was done years and years ago. That's outdated. The fact that you got carriers hiring guys with five years experience for 38 cents like shame on you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's pretty wild. I want to get to. So I want to get to how companies can stand out when they're recruiting drivers. But before we get to that, I want to talk about this issue of truck parking and where you feel like this is going to go, and I learned some things. I was engaging with some drivers on, I think, linkedin or Twitter, one of the two X, whatever we're calling it. Are you calling it X for Twitter? What do you call it? By the way?
Speaker 2:X, an X for Twitter. What do you call it, by the way? X Okay, but it's weird to say like, oh, I just posted on X, so I still hybrid it.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh, I just made a tweet because I just made an X on X, right? Yeah, that doesn't sound right. I think I still call it Twitter and I think I'm showing my age. But I will say this. I had a chance to engage recently with some drivers about this and, um, you know, one of the things that still baffles my mind is that I know truck parking paid truck parking is kind of new overall, but a lot of companies don't cover this for their drivers and that shocks me a little bit, because if I'm on a business trip, if I'm on a business trip and I had to stay at a hotel, that's a company expense. And if you want your equipment, like if you're a W2 driver and this company wants their equipment to be safe and their driver to be safe and their driver to have, you know, good life out on the road, I'm surprised that drivers are still footing the bill for that. What?
Speaker 2:are your thoughts about that? Is that?
Speaker 1:a problem. You see, that, is that just anecdotal?
Speaker 2:No, it is a problem. So there's two parts to it, I think. To address the truck parking shortage issue, which it is an issue, it's going to take the private sector and the government to get involved. It's going to take all because it isn't that big of an issue and I think people that are too focused on oh, we don't want to see so much paid. It's an option, and when you have no option, a paid option is better than none. Plain and simple. Yeah, Now, if you're a company driver, this is where I'm going to give you a hot take, and I probably have some carrier clients that might not like what I'm about to say, but it's nonetheless.
Speaker 2:It's true. If you're a company driver and you are parking their equipment in a paid spot because you have to, for whatever reason, then you should be turning that into the company. And if you're the company, eat that. That's called the cost of doing business. You don't have to like it. We don't like a lot of the cost of doing business on our side, but we still have to deal with it. Your truck's safe, your freight's going to progress and your driver's safe. That should be your number one concern. If you're the driver and you ate that bill. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:There's avenues you can go, and here's where it becomes a hot take. Go to your respective government agencies, tell them that they didn't reimburse you and file a complaint, and they'll pursue it for you. If enough people do this, carriers will start paying for this stuff, because the nuisance of having to address the government agencies reaching out saying you didn't pay this person are going to be too great. Uh, the carriers that are paying for it. They're advertising it as a job perk right now and I think that they are going to be on the forefront of winning because it is a job perk when no one else is doing it. So I know one care specifically. We were revamping their marketing and they slipped into the conversation. We pay for truck parking. I'm like like, pay truck parking? They're like yeah, I'm like why isn't that on your ads? Yeah, they thought it wouldn't make a difference.
Speaker 1:And I'm like no, it makes a difference it makes a huge difference.
Speaker 1:That makes a huge difference. But this is my thought too is that paid parking? The biggest thing, in my opinion, about paid parking spot is that it's reserved so a driver doesn't have to search for it, because I know that's a big issue is that if a driver goes to try to find a free spot and they're all taken up and they got to go to the next place and potentially the next place and now they're burning up their hours of service, they're making more turns in the truck in tighter locations, but to me it doesn't seem like it's a win at all to not have a reserve spot for your truck, I mean that's a big step further.
Speaker 1:So I think about this. I'm an RV guy. When we go on trips on RV, I I've got it all planned out. I'm paying to put my RV somewhere because I want it to be safe. I want it to be, and this is an RV, this is somebody else's freight. You know hundreds of thousands of dollars of freight. It blows me away. Plus, it messes with the hours of service for a driver. I feel like this is in only the best interest of companies to do this Well absolutely For productivity reasons alone.
Speaker 2:It pays for itself Right. You pay $30 a night for truck parking.
Speaker 2:I'm not this bad parking. Well, not only that, a lot of drivers are trained to start looking depending on the time of day. You're running out of hours two hours prior to running out of hours, Now, that's two hours more they could be driving. If I'm a dispatcher and I'm tasked with keeping this driver being productive and revenue per truck, well then I'm looking. Hey, they should be doing this many miles. I'm going to reserve this spot as a goal and if you get there, here's a paid parking spot. Now that truck's progressing, they're getting more miles, they have a secure parking spot. It's a no brainer.
Speaker 1:I mean, you roll in your spot's there. You back in, you go take a shower, you get your full break, you maximize your hours of service. Again, I'm struggling to understand why companies are saying no, except the fact that there's a dollar sign in front of it.
Speaker 2:Because there's a dollar sign in front of it. But when you look at the savings, the better experience. You're not having as much turnover and especially if you get on this bandwagon now, eventually I think this is going to become a set thing. It's going to be standard, like overtime pay for office employees and stuff. But until then this sets you apart from everyone else. You should be wanting to do this because if you can get ahead of this curve, you're going to come out ahead because you're going to attract people in there that might not have been attracted to your offer to begin with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right. So let's let's take this one segue into what I want to talk about with companies, and that is how do companies really stand out when they're trying to recruit? I think truck parking has got to be one of them, like you talked about, but what else is there? How can companies really stand out when they're trying to find the best drivers?
Speaker 2:Well, I can tell you number one thing not to do. Don't put respect as a job perk. If your ad says we respect you, we'll treat you like a person. That's not a job perk. That's part of being human.
Speaker 1:That's like saying we won't rob you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's part of being human. That should not be the message you're sending.
Speaker 1:Do companies really do that? Is that really on their ads?
Speaker 2:Yes, or if you sit there and tell me your name, not a number, but then as soon as I walk in the door, every dispatcher is going to refer to you hey, what's your truck number? I mean, let's focus on the things that matter. Obviously, pay Everyone shows up to work for pay, but right now it's consistency. You could be paying 80 cents a mile, but if you ain't got the miles and drivers want transparency, that's another way to set yourself aside. Now we saw the pay transparency go into effect in a lot of states and I think that's awesome.
Speaker 2:I think, like everything, there's going to be a learning curve, because putting $0 to $3,000 as a range doesn't sound that attractive either. But I think, hey, with that, work that into your ads in conjunction with the actual average, and don't pick your top 10% or your top 3%. Put the actual average and be prepared to explain what drives an average Trucks off, people taking vacation. You can make more if you choose to work, or you can make less, should you not? Uh, I think that's going to be important. It's surprising how many people don't want to put their pay. Uh, I come across carriers all the time Like oh, we don't want to advertise our pay Cause, then we're expected to hit that Well yeah it's.
Speaker 1:It's. It's interesting. I think that you know. Know, what I'm hearing you say is that a lot of it comes down to messaging and communication, and I talk about this all the time. With marketing, like if you don't have the right message, it's not going to resonate with the right people. And to say we respect you, gosh, that's a terrible message. You know, we're not going to put a gun to your head and rob you when you, when you leave. We're not going to steal your stuff when you head on the road. It's like this. This should be table stakes. You know, like not a big deal. What's up, pedro? Man can't believe you'd associate yourself with people like charles. Hey, you know, I'm trying to uh, I don't know if I'm trying to up his uh, you know his credibility or mine, but we're having fun, man, so good to see you, pedro. Pedro, we need to get you on the show, you haven't been careful.
Speaker 2:What you asked for. We need to get on the show. Listen, I love hanging out with pedro. Oh yeah, pedro's good people.
Speaker 1:Hey, speaking of which, you both, you guys both came to the broker care summit and you documented the post and pray. Classic man, what were your thoughts about that?
Speaker 2:it was awesome. Uh, it was cool to see people from different sides of the industry tackling different topics and, historically, what you see, um, it wasn't set up like what I'd expect. That was my first first time going Uh, I plan on being back in April, but what was different about it is I expected to be just bombarded with sales, uh booths all over the place trying to sell me some, and instead it was get out there and network, which was the whole foundation of why these events began and then they kind of converted into this giant walk down. Uh, almost like you're going through a thrift store or something and everyone's trying to hand you off something and I'm just like, hey, I'm interested in knowing about you if I approach you, but I'd rather have a conversation with a person yeah, dude, we hate booths.
Speaker 1:We will never have booths. We have a hard no-sell policy because we believe that genuine sales comes out of genuine relationships. Like the best opportunities to work together come out of when you actually get to know somebody, when you sit down across the table and have a meal with them, when you play golf with them, when you go to the networking event and just talk a little bit for a while, like those types of things are what the Post and Pray Classic and the Broke Care Summit are all about is getting people together to network.
Speaker 2:I love the fact that you noticed that, because you're never going to see a booth at uh, at bcs. It was awesome. It was awesome the people. I saw people at this conference that I've never seen at other conferences, uh, and it was kind of nice to see uh those people in person, uh, from different regards. I mean, you had people from brokerage, you, you had people from being drivers, people from vendors.
Speaker 1:I mean you had.
Speaker 2:FMCSA there and everyone was under one roof and at points there was alcohol. No one got arrested.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's the beginning of everything I do. We're always one of the first fights going to break out, honestly, like it hasn't happened yet. But you know, and shout out to FMCSA because they came, they gave an update, they took some shots. You know, people asked tough questions and complained and they sat in there and took it. So I give a lot of credit to Ken Riddle and FMCSA for doing that. I really hope to have them back in Indy, which is coming up really soon. That's going to be a blast.
Speaker 2:That was awesome.
Speaker 1:The swag bags were the bee's knees. You know, we don't mess around around here. We don't mess around with good stuff, we give out around here.
Speaker 2:That's how it was. That was cool, and even the speed networking events. Everything I thought that you guys brought to the table at the event was different than what would have been expected after going to enough of these, and I'm looking forward, because it seems like it just keeps growing and growing all right.
Speaker 1:Well, listen, the day that we are like every other conference, you need to tell us to change, tell us to do something different, because we're trying to be different than everything that's out there right now and really provide value. We like to say that, uh, the broker carrier summit is where brands are elevated and deals get done, and that's what we're trying to accomplish. The networking, which is, which is a lot of fun. Speaking of my friend, we have to have a little fun on the show. We like to have a good time around here, and so today we're going to play a little game called Wavelength Wavelength. All right, my friend, I didn't tell you this right off the bat, but if you have a piece of paper and a pen in your hand nearby, you're going to need it. You can use Post-it, sharpie, whatever you want. Here's how the game works we're going to put up a banner, and that banner is going to have a category and a letter, and we have to try to come up with the same word based upon that clue, and see if we are on the same wavelength. You got it, I got you All right, so write it down on the piece of paper when you get it and we'll say three, two, one. Then we'll show our papers and we'll see if we got it right.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. First category. Here we go. First category is a fruit that starts with the letter M. I got mine, you got yours, I got it. All right, here we go. Three, two, one. Mango. What do you got Mango? Let let's go. We're off to a good start. Let me tell you, my friend, it's usually it's hard to get 50 of these. Right, we're off to a great start. Let's go. That's what it is, that's awesome. All right. Next one oh, pedro, pedro and mango as well. Look at you, all right. Famous actor or actress that name starts with an r. First name starts with an R First name starts with an R.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm terrible with names of actors.
Speaker 1:I got mine. All I'm going to say is it's a little old school. A little old school, mine's not. Well then, we're not going to get this one. Here we go, you ready, all right, three, two, one. I got Robin Williams, ryan Reynolds oh, that would have been a good one, that's a double.
Speaker 1:R. Look at that. That would have been good. All right, okay, so we're one for two. Russell Crowe, pedro, that's a good one. That's a good one. All right, one for two, that's a tough one. That's a tough one. There's so many options. All right, here we go. Next one Movies that start with B, first one that came to mind I know you're not gonna get, I don't want to do this. Oh man, okay, listen, I'm just gonna do this. We're not gonna get it, but I'm gonna do this. I can't think of anything else. This is the thing about this game is that sometimes, out of the gun you don't always like, it's hard to clear the mind and really think of something. You ready. I am three, two, one bewitched bad boys oh, look at you with a double, double letters the whole time.
Speaker 1:So impressive. Okay, we're one for three. We got to get like at least three for five. That'd be good. Three for five would be great. All right, here we go. Next one animals that start with a t. Okay, we going to keep this simple. My friend, keep it simple. You ready, I am All right. Three, two, one. I got turtle. Tiger. That's simpler than turtle. That's on me. Okay, all right, pedro got it. He said tiger, so you and Pedro are definitely on the same a better way length than we are. Okay, last one. Here we go. Last one, let's see if we can get two out of five. City that starts with P. Oh man, okay, I got two.
Speaker 1:I'd come to mind which one are we going to go for I don't know. Dude you ready? No, how are you writing this down? You're like so, like you're like stealth over there. That's amazing. You're okay, all right. Three, two, one. I got philadelphia, let's go, let's go. All right, two out of five. That's respectable. And pedro went philly also. So, uh, you and pedro, I think you got like three or four out of five. That was impressive that checks out.
Speaker 2:Him and I are usually on the same bandwidth that's a tough game.
Speaker 1:That is not an easy game to play at all, but it's a lot of fun, which is cool. All right, man? Well, hey, listen. So, uh, let's talk about what you have on the horizon for 2025. Before we came on the show, you talked about what you're doing with, uh, serious xn road dog trucking. Give us a little rundown of what you're going to be doing in 2025. Where can we find more? Charles gracie?
Speaker 2:oh, and said nobody ever. But uh, uh, you know? Yeah, I started mid-year with Sirius Road Dog Trucking Radio and we're excited to expand on that relationship.
Speaker 1:How did you get that gig. By the way, let me just ask this what was the connection and how did you get that? Because I know, like you know, gray Sharky's on there, you know Freightways are doing that. How did you get into that gig?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I had been guest on a couple different shows a couple different times and become more regular. So they eventually said, hey, we're interested and we'll do a trial, and it went well. So then it came down to just get me introduced to the audience on a more regular basis.
Speaker 1:Are you on there?
Speaker 2:every day. What's your schedule? Right now I'm playing rotation between all the different shows. Whenever someone's off, I'm covering that, but the goal is to get me in a regular rotation this year.
Speaker 1:Nice, Very cool man. Well, I'm excited about that. I enjoyed coming on the show last year and talking about Broker Care Summit, which is coming up again April 28th through May 2nd, so we'll have to talk about that a little bit more.
Speaker 2:What else are you going to be doing this year? So this year got a lot of exciting stuff. So when everything slowed down last year, a lot of people just tried to focus on revenue how to drive it up.
Speaker 2:I decided with Hot Seat and myself to focus on core level offerings and diversification. So we took a lot of the recruiting knowledge that we had and applied it to the marketing side with tools and support. So not only trying to give people a more turnkey solution, but also to have all the solutions in one place so it's easy to manage. And not every solution fits every carrier or every offering, so we made it more tailored to your needs, which was something that was often lost. Being on the carrier side and being a driver, I always saw it was like a one size fits all approach. So we took that away and got scrappy and it's worked out and paid off in dividends, not only for us but for our clients.
Speaker 1:So 2024, you got focused what it sounds like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we just decided to revamp everything. Uh, the market had changed so much over the past couple of years. If you didn't do that, you, you were going to get left behind. So we took that downtime and focused on our foundation and we're already seeing great indicators that, not only for the clients but us, it's paying off in dividends already, so we're super excited because we got more to come. Then, on top of that, it's the content. So we're driving more content. We're more aggressive where we're driving and we're listening to the people that are listening to us about what they want to see, which is always something that when you get so busy, it's hard to tune into everything everyone's saying. But we've made the commitment. That's what we're doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is. Well, that's cool man. I love to hear that. Let's get you out of here on a high note. How can people connect with you? What's the best way to connect with you personally and with hot seat services?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Dr Phil of trucking on most social media handles. You can find me on LinkedIn under Charles Gracie. You can hit me up at info at hotseatservicescom. Love servicescom.
Speaker 1:Uh, love to talk to everyone and anyone that just wants to talk.
Speaker 2:Trucking, you're gonna have to shave your head and bick it if you're gonna keep this doctor. I did that over the holidays. I started growing it back finally yeah, okay, well, you got pictures. We need to see this oh yeah, man, it was uh pretty uh entertaining for a lot of people, because it's the second time in my life I've done it. But uh, a lot of people just like oh, we like it, my wife hated it.
Speaker 1:You got one, you can show. You got one you can put up to the camera?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 1:I grew a mustache in November for a musical that I was in and my wife's like when is that going away?
Speaker 2:I did the handlebar mustache at one point and my wife hated it.
Speaker 1:A painter wants to paint the head up like a magic eight ball. I love that idea. We need to do that, so maybe for the BCS you can cancel it again. Ooh, let's zoom in and see what you got there. Oh, look at that, there we go, let me get you.
Speaker 2:It's close enough.
Speaker 1:There, it is right there. Whoa, look at that sharp, Look at that. You look pictures only with this. It's snowing here in St Louis, as you know, and today I got to take my youngest daughter and her friend out sledding. Look at this. I got torched. I was the front of the train going down the hill so I had to slow us down. I put my foot down and I just got torched with snow in my face and my beard everywhere. But face and my beard everywhere. But we had a great time, man, it was a lot of fun. So if you're out there in the Midwest and it's snowing, go have some fun with your kids. Go have a good time.
Speaker 2:You won't regret that. Take some pictures, that's for sure. And Charles, thanks for being on the show today man.
Speaker 1:It's great to talk to you, buddy, always great to talk to you. I love what you're doing and thanks for the invite. My friend'm sure you guys are doing something with that. We didn't even get to it today. Let's just prime the pump that we're going to have that conversation again soon and talk about that right here on the show. But again, thanks for coming in. We'll talk to you real soon. All right, sounds good, brother. Thanks See you, man. All right, everybody, make sure you come back every Tuesday for an episode just like this with guests, just like Charles Gracie on the show. And before we go, we gotta also say thank you to our sponsor, sales dash crm. If you are a freight broker and you're not using better, check them out. Go ask josh lyles to give you a demo. Tell him that I sent you and you heard about it right here on standing up. So we get some credit for it. Folks, we appreciate that and until next time, don't forget folks. Stop standing. Still, start standing up. We'll see you soon. Thanks for watching, guys.
