E{emum} | The Trucking Career Questions That Nobody’s Asking

Look at the commercial airplane, right?

Airplanes have been autonomous to an extent.

95% Autonomous for 30 years.

30 Years, right?

95% Autonomous.

And yet even to this day, there needs to be two commercial pilots in every single airplane.

Why?

Because there needs to be someone there just in case something happens.

I don't think the human aspect is going away.

So I asked the guy, you know, when do you expect.

He's like, well, not in your lifetime.

Maybe your kids lifetimes is when you're gonna see full autonomous trucks becoming the standard.

They're utilizing technology to make the truck industry safer and better and more modern.

Everyone that has something to say about this has some sort of an agenda.

Don't just jump into it.

Just know what you're getting into and know that there's a ton of great opportunities.

Like I said, I've been, you know, going on 20 years in this industry.

I love this industry.

It's an exciting industry.

There's been a ton of changes.

There's changes that are coming, but I'm excited for them.

If you're thinking about a career in the trades and you want to know what employers actually look for, what the work is really like, and what nobody tells you before you get started, you're in the right place.

Built in the Midwest features conversations that'll help you figure out if this path is for you.

Welcome to episode 24 already of the Built in the Midwest podcast.

Today is going to be another Q and A episode, but it's going to be a little bit different.

We're going to be focusing on the trucking side of things, but this episode is really not about so much the answers, but really focusing on the questions that people getting into this industry need to be thinking about.

So the goal of this is not for people to just hear what we say and take that as what they should base their decision off of.

But we'll bring up some questions, we'll share some insights, just kind of get some thoughts, rolling some perspectives, some of your experiences within the industry and seeing so many enter the industry over the last several years.

And then really, the goal is anyone listening to this needs to do their own homework.

They need to do their own due diligence on this.

They need to come to a decision on their own while kind of factoring in things that they might not have been thinking about yet.

So with that, you have been in the industry for the last 15, maybe almost 16.

15, 16 Years with a CDL, but probably closer to 20 years just in the industry in general.

So to kind of Tee up things.

Looking back when you first got in 20 years ago, how much has changed in that time and where do you kind of see the next 15 to 20 going?

Yeah, that's an interesting question.

I knew you're gonna throw a curve ball at me, so I will tell you, just like all industries, trucking's no different in the fact that it's changed significantly.

And you look at 15, 20 years ago.

One of the big changes that I've seen just from employment wise is there was a lot of opportunities in trucking back then, 15, 20 years ago.

But the problem was there wasn't a lot of regional or local jobs available.

So for instance, a lot of people, you know, when I came through Midwest and got my CDL and everything, your options were your bigger carriers, you know, your Schneiders of the world and your CR Englands and Swifts and that's still a great opportunity for a lot of people.

But that was really your only opportunity today.

I've noticed with the massive driver shortage that's out there that the majority of students say we have a group of 28 CDL students, there's only going to be two or three of them, maybe four or five at maximum, that are going to be going the over the road route with some of these bigger carriers.

And a lot of these bigger carriers are having more regional and home daily options because the industry kind of wants that and the drivers want that because at the end of the day, does over the road work.

It absolutely does.

And for some people like Penny that we were talking about before, you know, she loved it, it worked great for her, she got to see the country and I think there's a lot of great things about it.

But if you're married or have kids and or other responsibilities outside of work, it is a huge commitment where over the road could be, you know, three, four, five, six weeks out on the road.

And so for somebody that maybe is not married, no kids, that wants to use it as a springboard to get on their feet, it's a great opportunity.

But if you're married with kids and everything, that might not be the best, best choice.

And so, but, but that's one thing I've seen is, is over the last 20 years that was the norm of people coming out of truck driving school.

That's, that's what your opportunity was.

Still had opportunity in trucking, but it wasn't your local and regional.

Nowadays we work with so many local and regional companies that want to hire students right out of school, where the majority of students they get into some type of local or regional job opportunity.

That would be a big change, to say the least.

And then the other thing, you can't talk about that subject all the time about technology.

I mean, you look at the technology changes, and you look at the industry standards.

So, for instance, automatics.

Automatics didn't really exist 20 years ago.

They didn't.

Not for semi trucks.

They could not make them effective and efficient enough and powerful enough to be able to drive a semi.

So everything was manual, and everything's been manual for the last 80 years.

And then you had Detroit come out, and then you had Volvo come out with an automatic transmission, and they went through a lot of trial and error and different.

Different things.

You had Allison come out with automatic transmissions, and they built them up to make them more and more powerful.

And now it's becoming, like, becoming the standard, where now the majority.

The standard is not a stick shift anymore.

The standard is an automatic transmission in semi trucks.

And so automatics are so prevalent that you look at a lot of your bigger carriers, like Schneider and Swift, and they're all automatic across the board.

And so there's a massive shift that's been going on really, the last 10 years with this.

And we're kind of on the other side of this coin now.

Where in another 10 years are we gonna see manual trucks on the road?

Probably not very many, because we're already going in that trajectory.

So you look at that kind of technology as well as when we're talking about AI Telematics.

So something that was really in the conference last year that I went to in Phoenix, Arizona, was AI Telematics and how much those have prevented accidents.

And it almost is like a crystal ball to see into the future where you get a guy that his eyes just shut a couple times, no one would pick that up.

AI Telematics picks it up, sends a message to the driver to pull over and stop driving because he's fallen asleep, he's fatigued driving.

Like, wow.

It's helpful.

Helpful to the company to know that that's going on.

Helpful to the driver to help train the driver as well as if the.

If that driver's doing some things that he shouldn't be doing, like maybe texting and driving or on his cell phone.

That stuff can be picked up right away as well.

And so, I mean, over the last 20 years, there's been so many changes in trucking, and yet on the other sense, there hasn't been many.

You know, so some aspects have changed significantly, and other aspects at the end of the day, you know, on the actual semi truck hasn't changed at all.

The trailers you pull hasn't changed.

The loads that you haul, how to back up to a dock, none of that.

The pre trip that you do, none of that's really changed.

That's all the same thing that it's been.

So some aspects have changed significantly, other aspects kind of remain unchanged, have stayed the same.

Yeah, well, I think one aspect that I would be curious to see the actual data on this, I'm sure it's somewhere of in some ways over the last 20 years, I imagine freight has changed subtly just with the increase of, you look at personal shopping online, the nature of just where distribution changed.

Where before it was going to malls 20 years ago, that's where you went to get a broad array of goods.

But now your TEMU orders have to get to you somehow.

So there's a whole, the supply chain has shifted quite a bit and I imagine that does correlate with the increase in need for localized and regional drivers where you can get things to distribution centers.

But then you need lots of people to get those goods to individual stores, homes or front door.

Absolutely.

I mean you look at so Amazon, Amazon just clocked as the biggest transportation company in America.

And people don't think of Amazon as like trucking or planes or flights or like a UPS or usps, but they're the biggest transportation company, you know, so.

And that's not how they started.

You know, they started as whatever selling books and different things, but now it's huge.

And you're exactly right.

You look at the Amazon distribution centers that are getting built around the United States.

I mean in our rural, rural small town, we have an Amazon distribution center that's getting built literally as we speak.

And so you're exactly right.

Where yeah, you have big truckload shipments going into there and then you have all the local drivers that need to take that freight elsewhere.

And so you're exactly right.

Where that supply chain has changed significantly where now more regional and local type stuff is, is the norm.

It really is the norm.

So you know, it's, you know, it's funny how like companies like that change the entire landscape on how trucking has and is part of how trucking has evolved to where we are now.

Yeah, which you look at big market leaders like that where Amazon's so big and they cover such a gamut, you can get anything on Amazon.

But then you look at what that trend kind of carries into smaller retailers even looking at, you know, regional stores.

Like meijer or different bases like that.

You look at the trend of how many people over the next 15 or 20 years will shift to maybe they have more of their groceries delivered or they have more of their just home good type stuff where they would normally go to a store.

They just have it delivered on a routine.

Well, that opens up opportunities for potentially reefer drivers or some of these other things that there just wasn't enough demand for.

But now there's a localized fleet and retailer that otherwise wouldn't have one, or it could be a third party that offers those services to those stores or however it ends up happening in a community.

Absolutely.

Odds are decent that that will happen.

So it's an opportunity that might not really exist right now in smaller communities, but it likely will in the coming years.

Absolutely.

You know, and I think I look back to Covid and how Covid changed trucking and it changed the landscape of stuff and it changed how people shop.

I mean, people started to shop because they didn't want to go into stores and be exposed in different things.

You know, people started getting their groceries delivered.

I don't believe that grocery delivery was a thing before COVID or grocery pickup.

I don't remember those lanes.

I mean, this was, I mean, during COVID that all started the grocery pickup, the grocery delivery, and it was like, wow, like.

And now it's kind of the norm.

Right.

I mean, you go over to walmart or meijer and they have tons of grocery pickup and as well as the grocery delivery that goes right to your house.

And so I think how the consumer buys products nowadays compared to 20 years ago has shifted dramatically.

And of course that's going to affect the trucking side of things on how everything gets to those locations.

Yeah.

So I think those are, there are kind of leading indicators that when you're looking at the long term sort of demand for certain types of positions, those are things that you can start to look for.

Like how are, what are the consumer behaviors?

Like, how are people shopping?

How do they experience things?

What are, what, what are they trying to get more of?

And then, you know, looking of where, where might you be able to kind of slot yourself in for that opportunity if you want to stay local or you want to.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

So looking at like, where, okay, last, last, you know, 20 years on what trucking has done and it's like, okay, let's look out another 20 years.

And it's like, that's, that's a long time, but at the same time that's going to Go by relatively quick.

But there's, there's going to be, there's going to be some major changes, you know, to say the least.

You know, one thing that I think a lot of people are concerned about is AI right now and AI taking over, taking over the world and taking everyone's jobs and, and they're looking for kind of AI proof careers kind of thing.

And, you know, I will tell you, like, kind of at the conference last year, something that got brought up because there was a lot of schools that were concerned, like, hey, this, you know, truck driving schools aren't going to exist in five years is what somebody said.

And a guy made a good point and he said, you know, look at the commercial airplane, right?

Airplanes have been autonomous to an extent.

95% Autonomous for 30 years.

30 Years, right.

95% Autonomous.

And yet even to this day, there needs to be two commercial pilots in every single airplane.

Why?

Because there needs to be someone there just in case something happens, just in case the plane breaks and the autonomous feature doesn't work, or just in case there's an issue.

But there's got to be somebody there.

And so, you know, is the.

Part.

Of a driver going to change a little bit inside the cab perhaps?

Right, but I think it'll be good where, yeah, drivers will need to know about these automated systems, need to know more about the technology that are in their trucks.

But are they going to allow a driver, a driverless truck, to drive down the road without a driver by itself?

You know, ooh, that's going to be tough.

You know, right now, from what they're saying, it's like they still want a driver, at least in some way, shape or form in the truck to make sure they're there.

Right.

To make sure there's no issues.

And the other thing is, even trucks nowadays, they're not up to snuff with the technology that cars are.

So you're driving on I80, going across Nebraska, and it's literally 600 miles completely straight.

And right now they're just now coming out with trucks that can just stay in the lane, let alone pass and break and everything else.

And it's like, yeah, we got a long way to go to get to fully autonomous trucks.

We just need that truck to stay in the lane.

The other thing is you have wind and adverse weather conditions.

I mean, there's so many other factors that play a role on into this.

And frankly, there's just too many calculations that a computer needs to make in order to make it effectively and efficiently.

So you know, when you look at AI proof, you know, so I asked the guy, you know, when do you expect.

He's like, well, not in your lifetime.

I was like, really?

Like not my life.

Like maybe your kids lifetimes is when you're going to see fully autonomous trucks becoming the standard.

And none of that has come true.

Right.

So people, I feel like, you know, they think technology is so much more than what it is.

And it is in a lot of respects.

I mean, technology is amazing and it's done leaps and bounds, but not to the extent where people think, think that we are.

I think there's a tendency to look at things like automation and AI and look at how visually fast it's moved where you can see a lot of so much happen where if you've been in that space and paid attention to it over the last four years, things move so fast.

So many companies have started and gone out of business or been bought.

There's a lot of that has happened in such a short of time.

So I think it has inflated the sense of speed of what is really going to roll out beyond just AI companies themselves kind of competing to secure market share, because that's ultimately what it boils down to.

A lot of it comes down to winning the majority of corporate interest to get because most of them are operating at huge profit loss and there's a whole bubble there.

Prior to working here, I worked in the AI world for a couple of months.

I talked to hundreds of people every month who their whole thing was how to use AI in their life, their business.

Most of them from a business angle, become more efficient.

Trying to be more efficient.

Exactly.

And a lot of it was taking something that would usually take you half an hour and doing it in two minutes, great, that's fine.

But a lot of them in the pursuit of productivity would find problems that they didn't really have to solve and use AI as a solution for it.

And like I did more and like, yeah, but did you have to do it at all?

I don't know.

And you look at all of the layoffs that have happened at big corporations, which everywhere except software and even that, to an extent, a lot of them have now had to kind of backpedal a little bit because they go and lay off 40,000 people and then they do the price cost of like Actually, we're spending about the same in terms of the people that we do have are now having to carry the weight of using AI to speed up process and make up for the loss of team infrastructure that either they're spending more in terms of compute, which is like when you're using large enterprise level AI at scale, it is very, very expensive.

Yeah, absolutely.

And there's just the cost of when things go wrong and you don't have someone to actually make sure it goes okay.

So I bring all that up to look at something that is moving through physical space.

AI and automation will impact trucking 100%.

That will happen, I think, even to.

In some of the environments that we kind of laugh about now because as of, you know, this past spring they were doing tests down in Ann Arbor for driving in winter conditions.

Well, and I know they, they've been doing different pilot programs down in Texas and stuff.

Oh yeah, there's stuff they'll see a lot.

I mean, Georgia, Florida.

Oh yeah, Texas, Arizona, like that.

They will see it more there.

Absolutely.

But they are already like, they know that the Midwest, you know, the Northeast, it's harder because storms are predicting, even.

Just rain, ice and snow and everything else.

Elevation, the whole thing.

So there will be automated convoys.

I think odds are it will.

My prediction is that it will be a convoy model.

There will be like one or two drivers that are one in the front, one in the back and they'll basically get across and there will be a couple of trucks in line that will just go.

They'll have lidar sensors, all these different technologies to kind of predict, perceive I can navigate for sure.

And then they have the safety option of probably hubs of drivers that are in an area.

They're like, hey, this truck can't drive itself to get to the depot, so go out there and drive it in and get it.

And that will require a lot more local drivers to be able to do stuff like that.

So that is a possibility.

Or I mean, just from an efficiency standpoint, like, all right, the storm is going to last six hours.

Truck pulls over the side, it waits and then it goes.

Once conditions are, you know, absolutely, there.

Could be and there should be, you know, and I'm excited about technologies like that.

Like I really am.

But trucking is, you know, trucking has always lagged behind passenger vehicles with, with some of that.

I mean, most trucks on the road today don't have backup cameras.

Right?

Backup cameras.

You know, the majority of them, the majority of them don't have backup cameras.

Like, explain that to me.

So we're going to getting into all this extra stuff, but we don't have a backup camera.

You know what I mean?

Trucks can't.

And that's the other thing is trucks can't back up themselves.

I mean, you know what it takes to back up a truck safely and understand how that truck maneuvers and stuff.

It's like, you know, I'm surprised that that technology isn't more there in the trucking industry.

And if it was bulletproof and effective, all trucking companies would have it right now.

But they don't.

So there's like, you know, yeah, we're thinking we're way up here when in fact it's like, okay, well let's get backup cameras and trucks and let's have better, better telematics on how drivers drive and how to back it up properly.

But I'm excited for some of that technology because it's almost like when cruise control came out, it's like, ah, cruise control made life a lot easier.

Right.

And even on newer vehicles like the blind spot detectors, right.

It's an obvious way where, you know what, we're not going to merge into the vehicle next to us and we can see what's going on a little bit better.

So this new technology, I think, you know, drivers are gonna have to be more trained because of it, but also it's gonna make them better, safer drivers to be able to utilize this technology.

I mean, what.

It's a new technology and it works extremely well.

And it's a safety thing.

I believe it was the National Safety Council or NHTSA that said that that in itself ESC was the greatest life saving improvement since the safety belts came into place like back in the 60s.

So it's one of those things where we're just now coming up with these great technologies that are life saving that do make a big difference, you know.

And then the other thing is, you know, you still, at the end of the day, there's still 40,000 people a year that die on our roadways.

Right?

Where's the technology to combat that?

Right.

And those numbers haven't gone down.

They really haven't.

They pretty much say like every year, every year we know that 40,000 people will be killed on our roadways.

And it's like, okay, where's the technology to help stop some of this stuff?

Right.

So it's one of those things that I think we got a long way to go to get to the point where it really is going to start making a difference.

But I'm excited for it.

We should have some more of this.

Yeah.

I think we can agree that it will happen, but it is less about these big quantum leaps where someone who's getting into the industry now or in the next couple of years where they need to really worry about to the same extent that some of these more white collar positions they're being impacted right now.

Very valid.

It's very hard to get into data science right now.

Or if you want to be a programmer, like that's a tough.

You have to be so exceptional to stand out and.

Absolutely, it's really tough.

But from a transportation world, you need to be aware of things that are coming and we could be wrong.

There could be some, you know, catalyst breakthrough that is like suddenly things snap into place and you know, in a matter of a decade, things suddenly start moving much differently.

It could happen.

Yeah, absolutely.

But the reality is, I mean just looking at the sort of incremental adjustments that have happened so far, even if the technology was perfected today, there is still bureaucracy of different regulations state to state.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Adoption the price of renewing old fleets.

There's.

It will take time.

Absolutely.

Those that are like, I saw an automated truck and there was no driver.

You will start to see it, but it's not going to be every time you go on the road.

But the fact is today there's millions of trucks on the road and very, very 1% of 1% of 1% is autonomous.

And even those ones that are autonomous have a driver there just in case.

Typically.

Unless in certain circumstances where it's.

Yeah.

A pilot program or something or a.

Very controlled route from, you know, place to place.

So it's one of those things that I like to give.

Give people an ease because.

And it's like.

They don't encourage that.

Right.

They still want you to have.

But you know that technology is coming and I think it's exciting.

I think it really is.

And I think it's gonna help drivers and make us safer out on the road and be another set of eyes out there.

Right.

You know, if you have AI out there kind of watching the road with you, it's another set of eyes for safety.

And, you know, I think we're gonna see that 40,000 people a year that get killed on our roadways.

When we start seeing that number go down, I think that's a good metric that the technology is starting to work for us.

Yeah.

Yeah, we can certainly hope so.

So looking at, just to narrow this down a little bit, the reality is when those things start happening, you know, if we start rolling out automated fleets across the country, more often than not, that's going to kind of squeeze out the middle, like the long haul over OTR type stuff.

That is already sort of a painful job.

Exactly.

Will be the first thing that's already not sought after.

Just like, just like Penny talks about it.

No, like it's become a point where no one wants to do over the road.

Right.

I mean, it's, it's.

People want local and regional.

They want to be home every night.

They want to have that quality time with their family.

And you can't blame them.

I do too.

Right.

And so honestly, like, once it does, like, that's going to, that's going to help the trucking industry.

And you look at this truck driver shortage like there's been a shortage in this industry for 20, 30 years.

Maybe this will help close the gap a little bit on this shortage.

Sure.

So I don't think it's.

I think there's a lot of positivity with it on what this will do for the industry.

But like you said, there is a ton of money being put into this right now and there's a ton of companies.

But looking at transport topics, it's like this company opens up, they do it for a year, they end up shutting down.

That's kind of.

So I want to see some traction on this and not just hype.

It seems to be a lot of hype right now without.

And a lot of substance.

Right.

Well, I think the mistake comes from trying to look at what problem an automated truck or an automated fleet fixes and thinking that it's replacing trucking in reality.

I mean, our country is just so big that in an ideal world we could just have railways for cargo freight, which is like, that's how we've Automated transport for 200 years.

18, 25 Was the first cargo train.

Have six cars of coal.

You're like, that is, that would be the most efficient.

And like you've got three people moving.

Exactly.

Millions upon millions of pounds of cargo.

Exactly.

With minimal issues.

I mean, it's incredibly reliable, it's incredibly affordable.

You know, grand scheme.

But we can't put rail tracks everywhere.

There's too many places that need cargo along the way, so.

And really why are they shutting down railroad tracks?

I mean, you look at it, I mean, look at how many abandoned tracks there are.

Right.

Look how many tracks they're taking out.

And they're making them ORV trails.

Back in the day before the mass production of trucks, it was effective, but it wasn't efficient.

Right.

I mean, yeah, you can get stuff from the east to the west coast on railway and all your big companies did.

But it was effective, it wasn't efficient because that stuff would take weeks and weeks to get there.

And the fact of the matter is trains are slow.

They're slow and they have to make the different stops.

Yeah.

Can they haul significant hundreds of times more than one semi truck?

Absolutely.

But there's this thing called just in time inventory, JIT inventory, which is very common in manufacturing nowadays where people do not have any more on their shelves for inventory than what they absolutely need.

And literally there's times where I've pulled into a stop and they said, oh yeah, we're just running out of that product and literally I'm there to deliver that raw material.

And when it comes to trucking, so if it was just about being effective, the railroad would have put out trucking a long time ago.

But just the opposite.

Trucking is becoming more prevalent, more popular because now I can get that load there.

And the fact of the matter is, why did FedEx become so popular?

What was their whole thing and why they started overnight shipping and that was their whole thing.

And they said why no one want overnight shipping.

No, that company's going to go belly up before it even begins.

And yet it's one of the world's largest freight because of overnight shipping.

Because people want something and they want it now.

And look at how.

And now that's a verb that we use.

Well, just FedEx it, right?

You know, just overnight that, FedEx that.

And you see that all the time.

So at the end of the day, you know, look at, look at Amazon and two day shipping.

Right.

They kind of, that was not a, you know, in free shipping, no less, you know, they incorporate it inside.

And so it's like at the End of the day, we are a consumer society and we want stuff and we want it now.

All right?

We want it yesterday.

And so it's.

And I think that's why you see all these distribution centers opening up so that way so people can get it as opposed to two day now it's one day or same day.

Same day.

Shipping is now a thing.

Right.

Where I order something online and I get there the same day.

Like that's, it's crazy the trajectory that we're going, but it's also exciting.

And that's what the market demands.

That's what us consumers demand.

We want something and we want it now.

Yeah, which, I mean, it's just that it's been a pretty steady pattern of more and more shifting to if you.

Reducing friction for a customer, which is what it ultimately boils down to.

So more reliable, faster, cheaper, all of that will be kind of guiding corporate interest.

But if it can get product into where it needs to go quicker, then that's, it's more efficient to move something within the same state than, you know, from across the country.

Absolutely.

So more and more things will just be localized because it just has to be.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

It doesn't make sense, you know, I mean, the train being the extreme example, but just doesn't make sense for something to ship from California to here, you know, when you could maybe get it from Ohio.

It just.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

And so, and that's going to bring more, more local type jobs.

More regional type jobs.

And so in essence that, I mean, you know, even with the introduction of autonomous trucks, we might see, we might see even a bigger driver demand because more and more things are getting delivered by truck.

And at the end of the day, you look around and everything you see in some way, shape or form got delivered by a truck.

And so.

And that truck had to have a driver in it.

And I don't see, I don't see like the, the Costco's of the world or the Walmart, so the Amazons, I don't see them slowing down.

I really don't.

And even if, because when you get to actually interfacing with a customer, you know, localized delivery drivers or, you know, even if you're not doing that kind of work, which, you know, many of our, our audience won't necessarily be doing that work, they are not bringing a box to someone's door necessarily, but you're likely dropping off where you know those people will be.

And so you, there's, I don't think the human aspect is Going away, odds are it will be an iterative shift similar to moving from manual to automatic.

We'll see.

All right, now, those that are assisted trucks or not, where you're working with the technology.

Exactly.

Most of it is there to help you.

Some of it is there to keep you in line, which is the company's prerogative.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, and they, you know, at the end of the day, I mean, you look at some of the distracted drivers on the road and talking about, you know, fatigue, driving and people that, you know, have their phones up to their ear and stuff.

Yes, to keep you in line.

But at the end of the day, it's also to save lives out there where the company sees that and they have the opportunity to do some corrective action to make sure you don't do that anymore.

You don't talk with your phone up to your ear, which is illegal.

Guess what?

They got an obligation do that to help potentially save lives out on the road.

And I think about talking about technology.

Look at electronic logging devices.

For 80 years, we had logbooks, and that's literally what we did is you had your logbook and you'd fill it out every single day, every change of record of duty status, you would adjust your logbook.

Right.

And now there's a bunch of different elds, and now you don't see nearly as much fatigue driving.

These ELDs are much harder to cheat.

So it's forcing drivers to drive legally, it's forcing them to take their 34 hour resets.

And now from a safety aspect, all right, they're utilizing technology to make the truck industry safer and better and more modern.

And so it's one of those things where I think there's a lot of good stuff to come that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Yeah.

So there's something I want to kind of address before we wrap this up, which is for those that are listening or watching and you are, there are many voices at play when you're looking at any career, but you know, with a focus on trucking for a moment or any trade, the goal of this is absolutely to do your own research on this, do your own thinking, like, look at the factors that are important to you.

Because admittedly, everyone that has something to say about this has some sort of an agenda.

Recruiters have their agenda, companies have their agenda, schools have their agenda.

Like we, we would love more students like that.

That's our goal.

That's Our, of course, piece of this piece.

And for many, it's a great decision.

But what we want is for people to have a career that they enjoy, that fulfills them, that allows them to live a life that they are happy with, that they can provide for themselves, their family, they've got security.

And for many, having a CDL means they will always have a job.

And for those that are looking online like, all right, well, this whole AI thing, automation.

Will I always have a job?

Is it?

Or am I being kind of baited into this?

And then I'm gonna assume that I'm secure and then I'll have the rug pulled out from under me.

And Now I've spent 20 years and I've got nothing.

We don't know all of the answers.

We have no idea.

There could be something that changes everything, like we'll be adjusting too.

It would put some pressure on us too.

But the point of saying this is question anyone who's trying to sell you on how to think about it.

Because we've seen people that have been kind of seduced in a way of.

They get an offer and they think it was a great deal, and then they're trapped, working for somewhere that really wasn't the right fit for them.

Absolutely.

And it's not to talk you out of it, it's not to talk into it, but get.

Talk to more than just the person that has a stake in it.

Talk to others in the industry, talk to friends and family or, you know, depends on how.

It depends.

Yeah, but if they're in the industry, it's somebody to talk to, somebody you could call, right?

Absolutely.

Make an informed choice, do your own homework.

Yeah, absolutely.

Think it through.

Because it's.

You can get into the industry quickly, but if you want to be in it long term, you got to think it through so you don't feel like you were tricked into it or misled.

Absolutely, absolutely.

No, I couldn't agree more with that.

And it's one thing where I like to be kind of very transparent and honest with students that, you know what?

I'm not going to paint you this picture of all roses and rainbows.

I'm not going to do it.

Fact of the matter is, if you want to do marijuana, guess what?

This isn't the industry for you.

Because you're going to be drug tested.

Right.

If you have a very unhealthy lifestyle, guess what?

You know what?

You gotta have a dot.

Physical.

Right.

You can have physical every year to two years.

You gotta maintain like halfway decent shape.

Right.

That's important.

If you're a reckless driver, this isn't the industry for you.

If you have a bunch of points on your license, this isn't the industry for you.

And so, you know, do your own research.

But also, you know what?

I'm not gonna lie to you, right?

This is a tough industry.

It's not an easy industry.

You gotta keep your license clean.

You got to stay away from drugs.

You got to, you know, be able to get that, that, that medical card to be successful.

This is.

There's a lot of great opportunities in this industry, but that doesn't mean it's easy.

Right?

And not to mention, at the end of the day, like, it still requires work.

Right.

It's not.

It's not just, oh, also, and I'm making 65, 70 grand a year, it's like, no, it still requires a lot of work and a lot of effort.

And so you got to have a work ethic on top of all this.

And.

But at the end of the day, students that are thinking about this, like you said, do your research, call some people, get an informed decision.

Right?

And make sure that you get your questions asked.

Don't just jump into it.

Just know what you're getting into and know that there's a ton of great opportunities.

Like I said, I've been going on 20 years in this industry.

I love this industry.

It's an exciting industry.

There's been a ton of changes.

There's changes that are coming, but I'm excited for them.

Right.

You know, it's just one of those things, but, you know, you got to make sure that, that, that that's the right choice for you at the end of the day.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, you know, with that full disclaimer, you know, if you are feeling things out, you want to see what it would take to get into the industry.

You want just someone to talk to that's in it.

You know, we aim to always put students first.

If you give us a call and we hear more about your situation and it's not the right fit, we are comfortable telling you.

So our whole team follows that as a precedent.

Absolutely.

We're here to.

We only succeed when you succeed in the industry.

So if you have questions, reach out, give us a call, we'll have a chat, and we can help get you some clarity.

Exactly.

Because at the end of the day, we want to be a good fit for you, but you got to be a good fit for this industry and a good fit for us, too.

You know, it's a two Way Street.

Want to make sure it's a win win on both sides?

Absolutely.

So thank you for listening.

Thank you for watching.

Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.

We'll see you in the next one.