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- Welcome to another episode of "Keeping It Roehl."
I'm Michael.
- And I'm Roman.
Mike, how was your weekend this past weekend?
- It was really nice.
Took a nice long weekend on the bike.
How 'bout yourself?
- Well, I was here at work all weekend,
doing my duties here.
Met a few new drivers, talked to them, helped them out.
So you know what we do on the weekends here
being an additional training, help out when we can,
what we can do for them.
Mike, why don't you introduce who we have today.
(thunder rumbling)
("Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30")
- Tell us a little bit about
how you became where you're at
and maybe a brief history from Rick's point
of view of the company Roehl
from when it started with Everett.
- Sure, yeah.
I know some guys have heard this.
I know when I would talk with orientation groups,
I know some guys had heard this part of it,
but you know, basically Roehl began as a family business
that my dad started and he started with one truck
and was able to add another truck one year
and another truck the next year.
And so started out mostly hauling lumber
for sawmills in the area.
And well my grandpa had a sawmill, too,
and so really he learned how to drive a truck
by delivering lumber for his customers.
So then he decided to buy his truck
that he could run himself
and work for some other sawmills.
That was in '62 and so then I wasn't around
until late in '62.
(men laughing)
I didn't start playing with the trucks
until probably, you know, when I was 10 or 11,
something like that.
- How was it growing up with Everett?
I don't know him that well,
but how was it growing up with him?
How was he?
- Well, he was always pretty even tempered
and it wasn't where we did a lot of things
on the weekends, you know?
Like this last weekend, we went up,
spent some time on the boat.
- Right, that sounds nice.
- We didn't have a boat though.
(men laughing)
We had trucks.
(men laughing)
- Did you spend a lot
of time growing up servicing trucks,
up under trucks, working on 'em?
- Saturdays were mostly,
well back then we didn't have air dryers,
so we treated the air system with alcohol,
so they wouldn't freeze.
And you know, if water got in the system
it wouldn't wouldn't lock up the valves or anything.
So they actually don't recommend doing that anymore
just because it does dry out the seals.
- I grew up, my father was a diesel mechanic
and owned trucks.
A lot smaller than where you're at now.
But I grew up, I was up under 'em,
I was pulling 'em into shops for 'em,
a lot very similar to what you're saying.
Yeah, so I know where you're--
My vacation was I didn't have
to work on a truck that day.
(men laughing)
- Well, that was Saturday in the winter.
Making sure that, well, first you had to drain the system
and then add a little bit to it.
- So started out with maintenance and then?
- Yeah, well, then when I was older would help
in the shop with sweeping the floors
and then I started working on,
I would do the services by myself,
first the grease service and then oil change,
I eventually worked into doing that, too.
But when I was in high school I always wanted
to drive trucks so then when I turned 18
and finished high school I started driving a truck.
- Who taught ya?
Or did you teach yourself?
- Pretty much learned by moving 'em in the yard.
- So from '62
to the time you graduated high school,
how much did Roehl grow at that point?
Do you remember?
- I don't remember the truck count we had in '81,
but my first truck was number 45.
And that was one of the older ones at that time.
It was probably,
I'd say five, six years old.
- At the time?
- What kinda truck was it?
- It was a International Cabover.
It was the B model, the B Model Transtar, I think.
Ya know, it was the one with the extra extension
beneath the cab.
The ones before that didn't have that.
- Where'd you all go?
I mean, did you just stay local or did you go nationwide?
I mean anywhere that you could go you went?
- No, when you're 18, you can only drive
in the state of Wisconsin so I had to stay here.
And so I did a lot of hauling of gravel too,
with the dump trucks and the belly dumps.
But otherwise, a big run we had was hauling chips,
where we pick 'em up down by Lacrosse
and take 'em to Green Bay so that was one thing.
- It was a predominantly local company at that time?
- No, we had I remember, well,
this was before I started driving,
but the big run early was down to Kentucky.
We had a customer, Murray, Kentucky, I think.
It was a pallet customer down there.
But then before I started driving,
we were starting to go most the 48 states.
- At what point, what truck number,
what time, did you look at it and go,
man, this is gonna be something?
Ya know, you look at that point
and you go from one truck to 40-some odd trucks,
and you go, wow, this is actually gonna be something here?
- Did you guys ever imagine
you'd get as big as you are today, back then?
- I don't think so.
I mean, we were always glad to have growth,
but ya know, we always wanted to make sure
we had good business too, not just to grow
and not be profitable or be able to pay the bills.
- So your customers, how did you find 'em?
I mean obviously we don't have what we have today,
the internet and stuff like that,
how did you guys go out and get your?
Do you still have customers from then today?
How about that one?
- Well, there's a couple.
There's Felker Brothers here in town.
We started hauling for them I think back in the 70s.
The one customer that had the Kentucky delivery,
that was the pallet factory, Woodruff Pallet,
down in Vesper, and right now they switched that hauling
over to vans and sometimes it doesn't work.
Well, in the winter is when it doesn't work out as well
'cause you get the moisture inside.
- In the chips you're talking about?
- No, that's the pallets.
- Oh the pallets, okay.
- The original pallet haul was all on flatbed,
but then a lotta places now,
they don't want the pallets getting dirty
so they put 'em in a van.
- How do you contribute you keeping them customers
and the ones we have now?
How have you managed to keep that base of customers?
- Just gotta take care of 'em, you know?
And the drivers see the customers more often
than any of us here and so that's a big part of it,
but you know, also responding to the needs that they have.
And well, you asked before about how did we find customers,
'cause we didn't have sales people
or we didn't have telemarketing or anything like that.
So a lot of our leads were from drivers.
You know, a driver would make a delivery
or a pickup and say, well,
this place is shipping here and there.
So then we'd call 'em up and go visit,
if that was something that was doable
and so a lot of it was just leads
and from one customer hiring you
to make a delivery someplace so then you found out
they had something going on
and they might need you to move something
and you just ask them
and sometimes you would get a good response.
But at that period, I forgot to mention this
as we were talking about the growth,
in 1980 the federal government
deregulated the trucking industry
and what that meant was trucking companies
could make agreements with shippers
without the federal government approval.
Where prior to that, you had to make an application
to the federal government
and your shipper had to support that application,
and they would grant you permission,
they called it authority, to haul for that shipper
or to make those moves.
And they would name it specifically as this type
of commodity from this place to those states.
And so it was a very highly regulated industry.
So when that law became effective in 1980,
we were able to talk to a lot more shippers.
- Did that seem to benefit the industry more?
It made it better?
- Well, it opened up a lot
of opportunities for companies like ours.
You know, it did create some turmoil though, too.
There was a lot of, I would say LTL companies,
in particular, it seemed like they ceased doing business.
I mean, there was a couple in Marshfield even.
But it's not that we were hauling the same freight as them,
but it created more competition,
it became more competitive,
and we were a smaller company with a lower cost base,
so it was a beneficial thing for us.
- And now you the rest
of the story basically, right?
Paul Harvey.
So Rick how do you guys come together as a family
when you guys have to make decisions about the company?
- I'm blessed that we don't have a lot
of turmoil with our family.
You know, I'm the CEO and the majority shareholder
and so I pretty much make quite a few of the decisions.
There's some decisions that we consult,
but for the most part I make a lot
of those CEO type decisions.
You know there's some shareholder decisions
that as a family we make,
but those aren't everyday things or those are more rare.
- Okay, so speaking of decisions,
do you ever get in that mindset that when you get home
I know me personally, I get home and I go,
oh, I'm the boss here, and then your wife
puts you in check real quick.
(Rick laughing)
Whoops, I'm not at all.
(men laughing)
- So now you're not the boss.
(men laughing)
- You forgot to flip the switch, yeah.
- I couldn't resist.
(men laughing)
- Normal family like everybody else, right?
(men laughing)
- Well one thing, my wife, Tamie,
she works in the office as well
and so she's aware of everything that we do
to keep things goin' so she understands.
She doesn't put a lotta pressure on.
But yeah, there's certainly the dynamic
that switches once you leave the office.
(men laughing)
- It's funny, mostly every family,
and they're higher up in something
and when they get you always get back
to that level ground there.
(men laughing)
- That's good.
Okay, everybody knows where we're at today.
Actually, how many trucks do we have total
in the fleet right now?
- I think we got a little over 2000 trucks.
- Started from one Mike, you know,
it's easier for one, look at it, you know?
Any plans to make it 2500, 3000?
I mean, is that a goal or do you kind
of like where it's at right now?
- Well we'd always like to grow
because we can spread our overhead a little bit more
and so investments that we have in our terminals,
that's probably the biggest thing,
and other investments are a little bit
of the trailer pool but usually when you add trucks
you gotta add trailers as well.
But another big overhead is our non-driver wages
so by having more loads that we can spread
those costs over it does create an advantage
in the margin but you know, you can grow a certain point
then you have to add those overhead items as well.
- What do you like for ratio of trailer to truck?
What's your good range there?
- It depends on the business you're doing,
but right now we're, I think, 2.8
to 2.9 van trailers to a truck
but as you bring on new business,
if that business needs eight trailers
at the location, you might only have
any one day six drivers that are doing work
for that customer but the eight trailers are something
that some of the other business doesn't require
and so the more of those type of things you have
the harder it is to define it by a ratio of how this works.
For reefer trailers, you know,
they are a lot more expensive,
and so we don't leave those sit around,
as much as some customers would like.
A lotta times we run into issues
with customers who just like the extra storage room
and so they don't unload 'em
and so then when the driver thinks he's gonna be at a place
and get an empty trailer, it's not there.
And that happens on vans too.
but our ratio is about 1.6 to 1.7
for reefer trailers to reefer drivers.
Flatbeds are probably in that same neighborhood too.
I haven't looked at that recently.
There's not as many flatbed customers that want trailers,
but there are some, you know.
We have those customers that it works out well.
We don't have to have the driver wait to put that on.
- I've heard that some, too,
where you're saying some of the customers
are using them for storage.
Have you found a way to resolve some of that issue?
- Well at the drive ends, we have the cargo sensors,
and so if a customer doesn't unload
or uses the trailer too much for their benefit,
not for ours, we do bill 'em.
So it's something that technology allows us to do.
For the reefers, we don't have the certainty
of the cargo sensor, but we know if the reefer is running,
and we also know if the driver shows up and it's not empty,
we can investigate that further that way.
- Makes sense.
So with some of the trailers being used
for storage from some of the customers,
have you seen a lot of detention?
You know, how have we been handling that here at Roehl?
- Well, that's the reason we have more trailers
than we have drivers so that we don't have
to have drivers waiting for the customer
to put the product on or to take it off too.
So it's a really nice, convenient.
It's not a free convenience,
but it is convenient when it works.
And so that's one thing that we heard
at the driver advisory group meeting
that we had a couple weeks ago
is just the time that they're not driving down the road.
Most drivers wanna drive.
And so we understand that
and that's why we do have some more trailers.
Every day we wish we had more trailers,
so it's not where we've got the ideal amount
or that every time we go to get an empty one
that there's one there,
but it is something we put a lot of effort into.
And it's something that we're looking at
to increase our driver satisfaction,
which should help us with our retention.
- Yeah, and how's that going
so far this year with our driver retention?
- We had a good year going until probably late May
and we just had more turnover than we'd had all year.
In fact I'll mention, I think a lot of drivers
have heard us talk about our WIG.
That's our Wildly Important Goal.
And so this is this process that the people
at Franklin Covey helped us put together,
but it's their process really.
And so the Wildly Important Goal is defined as
if you could change one thing in your business
and improve it without affecting anything else,
what would have the most impact?
Hands down we know if we can lower our driver turnover,
our business improves in so many ways.
You know, we have better service to our customers.
We have less accident frequency.
We have a lot of productivity benefits
by just having guys that are here longer.
So a lotta things.
All of us know that when you do something longer,
you get better at it
and so you don't spend as much time doing it
and so you can see those benefits.
- Question that I'm sure some
of your newer drivers had, or even potential GYCDL drivers
in the program that we have here.
So we keep our drivers, okay?
We have that retain and we're not losing as many.
Is that gonna affect how many possible new drivers
we could have that we train here at our facility?
Would you slow that down or would you say,
hey, come on, we can always grow?
'Cause I remember you mentioned
we could add trucks or something or add business.
Is that something that you would do?
'Cause that would be something on everybody's mind.
Somebody that was maybe possibly thinking about coming here,
well, I'm gonna wait three months, four months,
whatever they think of at home and all of a sudden,
no, we're keeping our drivers,
so we're not gonna bring in as many as we normally do.
- Well, we're always trying to bring in drivers,
especially right now.
Right now the business environment is really good
and every employer wishes they had more people,
in fact, that's one of the issues that we run into
with trailers not being unloaded.
Some places that we make deliveries too,
or we go to pick up product,
they just don't have enough people
to run the forklifts to put the product on.
Or they might not have enough people
to manufacture the product to complete it for the customers.
So right now we want to add more people
because there's customers that would like us
to do more hauling for them.
The challenge is getting the qualified drivers
and keeping the drivers that are in our fleet.
- What have you guys done
to keep the ones we have?
- Well, the big thing we're doing is
to create an outreach
so that our drivers know their fleet managers.
I know they all know their fleet managers,
but we want them to be able to call them
if they've got any issue.
We've heard, and this came up
in a driver advisory group meeting,
where the question was asked, how come a driver
wouldn't call their fleet manager if they had that question?
And even drivers that had experience,
had a reluctance to make that call.
And so I guess it was common among the drivers
that were there, they said that it's common
that drivers don't wanna appear
to not know as much as they were expected to know
but especially for someone who's new.
I mean there's no expectation that you know everything
and there's no expectation
that you're not gonna need some help.
And so to create that comfort to pick the phone
and make that call is huge, I think.
- Everybody knows what happened last year.
You know, the pandemic, COVID, and us as a company,
we did pretty good last year business wise, correct?
- Yeah, we had a really good year.
- And why is that?
What did Roehl provide that some
of the other companies in the industry couldn't maintain
or couldn't give them, these customers ?
Do you know that answer?
- I know what happened to us
but I don't know what happened
in most other trucking companies.
But I bet they were going through a lotta the same thing.
One thing I know, we continued to hire drivers,
even though there was a period of probably six weeks
that the economy really tanked.
There was that period when water and tissue
and all that stuff was being purchased
and really the demand to move that stuff
was outstripping the supply, but then it fell off a cliff.
And so there were some companies that shut down hiring
and training, training probably more so.
But there wasn't many people to hire.
I mean, there wasn't many people that were looking
to change jobs during that period.
So naturally our groups in orientation were much lower
and even training was much lower.
Just people didn't wanna travel
and visit a new place and sit in a room
with a bunch of strangers and learn about a new job.
And so it was naturally lower
and our driver group drifted down
but the the demand was down too so it was not where
it was we felt we were missing business.
- I mean this year now,
it seems like the media's telling us
that it's coming back to a point.
In some areas of the country that they're starting
to see a raise in cases.
Last year, learning experience.
So we should be able to do just as good
as we did last year, this year in theory, right?
- Hopefully.
- Says that with a snicker, yeah.
- We're trying to do that
and it's a good time right now
because people have goods to move
and there's demand for the products
and so we're trying to meet that,
but we are shorter than our goal of drivers in trucks.
And so we're working feverishly to correct that
and we're putting drivers in, get your CDL,
and plus drivers who know how to drive.
We hire those as well.
- Yeah, we seem to get a good bunch coming
through the GYCDL program
and we got great instructors over there
that bring 'em up and our trainers are outstanding.
We've had a few of them on air.
- Yeah, well, and here's another thing
that last year was really good,
and so far this year it's really good as well,
is we've had good safety results
and so that's a product of what the drivers are taught
and how they execute their day.
- Well, I mean they hear that from the day one,
when they came in here, from the Roehl Way,
our cornerstone value is safety,
and they really, really drive that home,
and they perform that in every function of this industry.
- Well, good job, you guys.
They really practice safety
and that's something that we always have
to retain that value so that we can avoid
spending those monies fixing stuff (chuckles)
- So along with what we were talking about
with COVID, obviously health, wellness.
Little bit that we talked earlier, you have some things
that you'd like to talk about with that?
- Yeah, you guys talked with Tiana
and she heads up our wellness program here at Roehl
and we're in our infancy,
but we'd like everybody to be as healthy as they can be.
And I know it's harder when you're living on the road.
It's harder to get those healthy choices for your meals
and it's a little bit more challenging
to have a regular eating schedule
just because of sometimes the trips
and the locations you're at, and the customer commitments
that are out there, and so it's just harder
to maintain that regular rhythm,
but we wanna help out as much as we can
and make those options available.
- Yeah, Mike, I remember when we had her
on the show, a lotta good information.
Rick, did you hear about Mike's kale recipe?
He's got a perfect one, if you're into that.
- Kale?
Isn't that seaweed?
- Yeah, well, I don't know.
He's got a great recipe.
Maybe he'll tell you about it afterwards
but it's a good one, it's a good one.
I think you're gonna like it
so we'll talk afterwards on that one.
- And as simple as getting outta the truck
and doing a little bit of exercise, it always helps.
Lotta people wanna get somewhere and they're tired,
and they just wanna climb into bed and call it a day,
but getting outta the truck,
stretching your legs a little bit, that helps.
- How did you do your health
and wellness and eating and diet when you were driving?
- Well, I pulled flatbeds
so that keeps you in shape to a degree,
but as you do the longer trips
it is harder because you're not out there
moving the tarps or whatever.
- You did flatbed and I know that's where Roehl
originally come from with the lumber.
What made 'em go in the direction more driving,
I know there's more driving and reefer
than there are flatbed now, is there any particular,
just the industry took 'em that direction?
- Well, most of the fleet was flatbed
but we always had a few drive ends.
You know, the earliest customers
were like soda pop distributors and beer distributors
so they'd hired us to take empties down to the brewery
and bring back the full ones.
So had a few that way.
Then we had a door customer, not the Masonite here in town,
but it was a different one that relocated,
and we always made their deliveries on vans.
But then when the deregulation came along in 1980,
we were able to make contact with paper mills in the area.
And Wisconsin had a lotta paper mills
and so they shipped paper all over
and so there was a lot more freight.
And before I really was out traveling on the highways,
I really thought most trucking was done on a flatbed,
but turns out there's more product being moved
in a drive in and in reefers.
- Do you still go out on the road
once in a while yet?
- Here and there, yeah.
It's probably been over a year since I've been out,
but I like doing it, it's fun.
- That'd be kind of cool pulling in
to a truck stop and you're over there, back in,
and Rick Roehl back next to ya.
(men laughing)
It's like what the?
(men laughing)
Hey, you look familiar.
(men laughing)
- I mean when you do go out,
you see another driver for Roehl and they recognize you,
you just talk normal right?
It's not like, oh my gosh, they kind of stay away from you
or do they just come up to you
and talk to you like we are right now?
- I think pretty normal.
I mean some probably don't recognize me.
- Have you run into just
where they've come up and talked to you
and they obviously don't know who you were.
And you were, hey, that's me.
(men laughing)
- That hasn't happened for a while.
(men laughing)
- That would be funny.
(men laughing)
- Rick, along with the health part of it,
exercise, diet, in the early seventies,
when you were able to cross borders with the truck,
how did you eat?
I mean, you didn't have like refrigerators,
you weren't able to keep stuff cool, refrigerated,
did you have that back then or how did you manage that?
- Early seventies?
Well now I must really look old.
(men laughing)
Like the mid-80s.
- Mid-80s, I'm sorry, early 80s,
I did my math wrong, I apologize.
(men laughing)
Early 80s, yeah.
- Well, actually I didn't have all that great
of eating habits, and actually there wasn't much
for options either.
The trucks back then, they didn't have any way,
unless you were running the engine
to generate battery power,
but one thing I did do is cut down to like twice a day.
Like a mid-morning breakfast and a mid-afternoon meal.
It seemed like if I would eat like at normal supper time,
then I would be more drowsy
and so I'd have to stop earlier
so eating at about two
or three in the afternoon did work for me.
But I gotta tell ya, I wasn't that good
at measuring portions or anything like that.
(men laughing)
- You didn't meal prep is what you're saying.
(men laughing)
- That's really advanced in that area today, right?
- Yeah.
- You know, we got refrigerators.
We have microwaves we can put in.
- Yeah, the new trucks have power inverters.
- Power inverters.
Many ways, you can put like a Crockpot in there,
cook in there.
- I've heard some of the stories
of the people preparing, I mean, it was a three course meal
on their truck going down the road.
They got it and it's cooking while they're.
I did that and then the hardest thing
about that was you would smell it cooking
while I was driving and
I gotta hurry up and get there, I'm hungry.
- So there's a lotta ways
we can eat healthier now with the technology
that we are allowed in the truck
and that they make specifically
for inside the truck, ya know?
So again, anything that you have any questions about that
we can always go to Tiana.
She'll answer all your questions.
She's a great person, very smart
from what we had her on the show.
- She's fantastic.
- Taught me a lot a little bit.
Not a little bit.
Taught me a lot.
- But you're so fit, though.
- Yeah, I'm getting there, all right?
I'm on the delayed cycle.
(men laughing)
- Well, now all this knowledge you have
about food selection, see I didn't have that back then.
(men laughing)
- One thing Tianna V. told me was start small.
Cut something out once.
And I've been doing that.
So obviously, I mean Mike knows, my son got engaged,
so my goal lose some weight for his wedding, you know?
So I have something to look forward to.
- And I have a question for you.
I know your Roehl is big into the military,
honoring our veterans and everything.
You yourself, you served?
- No, I didn't, no.
- Okay, I know Roman did as well.
What got you guys to that point to where
you're so big on honoring the military?
- Well, for one thing
they've really helped our country,
they've really made a significant sacrifice
to serve their country and that is very commendable,
but ya know, another thing is their lifestyle
is somewhat similar to the lifestyle
of over the road drivers.
They've moved away from home to go do their service
and they're training, it's probably been months
at some of those periods where they've been away from home.
And so they have somewhat of a flavor of what that entails
because working with get your CDL
or even new drivers who join the company
from getting their CDL,
I think probably the biggest adjustment
is the lifestyle.
You're pretty much living in the truck and away from home.
- They seem to make some of the best drivers too.
They've been through the military.
They're very committed.
They follow things through.
- Way it needs to be done, right?
And again, safety, that's what we talk about here
and we talked about it earlier, how we push that.
- Where do you see Roehl going in the future?
I know it's kind of a blank, "Where do you see it?"
But in the future, where do you see us going?
- One of the things we're looking more at
is having runs where drivers can be home daily
and certainly weekly.
We've got well over 50% of our drivers
who are home at least weekly,
but we've really added to the home daily number
of drivers that we have in our fleet.
So that is a different model for us.
The drivers who are looking forward
to spending two weeks on the road,
those drivers are fewer than there used to be
and so we are really moving toward that.
So even on the longer trips that we can
have a pretty prescriptive route plan.
There's some of the trips
that we've been doing for a few years,
one that I can think of on the reefer is
we go to Arizona from the Midwest here,
but the loads out there come right back to here
and so try to have more regularity in that regard.
- You see the industry going that direction?
- I think there's others, yeah.
I don't know.
There's always gonna be a need
to move that stuff over longer distance
so there's always gonna be those moves
but intermodal has taken a lotta
those long haul opportunities away.
And so I think the successful trucking companies
are gonna have to really look at what they do.
- With all the drop yards we have
and everything there's always relays
that'll get it there and get you back home
so that's always nice.
- That's an option, yeah.
- Any plans in the future
to maybe have another working terminal someplace else
in the country other than what we have now?
- Well right now we have looked at the benefits
of having some place like on I-80 in Pennsylvania,
more on the Eastern side.
Right now we do a lotta business Southeast
and Gary Terminal gets a lotta traffic.
I mean they keep their head above water.
They do a great job down there.
But there's a lot of activity
and some of that activity is moved
from those Eastern parts.
And so we don't have a site picked out or anything,
but we have some general locations
that we think would be good.
And like I say, we don't have anything
in the works right now but we recognize
that there's some things that would benefit us.
- I suppose as you grow?
- Yeah, yeah, sure that would be
a significant overhead add so it'd be nice
to have a little bit of growth to be able
to make a contribution to those costs.
- And guys down in Gary do a great job.
I was in that area quite a bit when I drove
and I mean from the maintenance on up
to the fleet managers and everything out of that.
They're just all around great people.
- It's like Chicago O'Hare Airport.
- It is, man.
- Just constantly going through.
- You're cruising through there
and you're like where did this come from (laughs)
- Well, it's such a convenient spot to park
because, well when I drove,
that was probably the worst thing is.
If you got through Chicago then there wasn't
any really good places to park down there
so having a spot like that
is really a nice advantage for a driver.
- Any in the near future?
I know Gary has the restaurant inside the terminal.
I've heard some of 'em ask some
of the drivers that's come through here, hey,
is there any restaurants coming
in the near future to Marshfield,
Appleton, any of the other terminals?
- We don't have any planned right now.
We remodeled our break area here
in the office in Marshfield.
But that's something that I think Gary's the place
that has enough traffic to support that.
Many of the other places,
it'd probably be food getting cold
waiting for customers to drive in.
- I guess jacuzzi tubs
are completely outta question though.
- Yeah, I don't see any of those
on the horizon right now.
(men laughing)
- Well, we tried.
We tried, we tried.
- Who was it?
I think Demitria or somebody come here
and asked that question.
- That's right.
I wouldn't have said her name now
because now he's got it, right?
(men laughing)
Sorry, Demetria.
(men laughing)
What about a swimming pool, not a jacuzzi?
- There's none on the horizon right now.
- An infinity pool, let's go.
If we're gonna dream, let's dream big.
(men laughing)
- Oh boy.
- As far as new equipment and everything,
how do you see the electric trucks?
I mean, God forbid,
they said we'd have flying trucks by now so to automate?
- Can you imagine trucks flying?
- Yeah, ya know.
- Gosh, that'd be something, you know?
- I mean if you had, I don't know, 60 trucks
and they just flew in the air.
(helicopter blades whirring)
I mean it would be.
- What do you call them, autonomous?
- Autonomous, is that the way you say that?
- Yeah, autonomous, that's the self driving trucks.
You hear a lot about those technologies
and there's cars that have that, more and more features.
And our trucks that we have today really have evolved.
It started out where automatic transmissions,
we're on the second generation now.
Back in the 90s there was the first generation
that we used some of.
And then there was the forward looking radar alert system
to help the driver identify things that were in the path.
Now they've got the cruise where it'll adjust
the cruise speed to the vehicle ahead.
And we started getting recently,
it was probably in the last couple years,
the braking, the trucks will brake now,
and so most drivers probably are aware of that.
And so there's all these features
that are aiding the driver.
You know the autonomous type operation,
I think is quite a ways down the road,
although I do read and hear about things
where they're doing tests and those type of things.
- If those developers ever approached you
and said, hey, can we use Roehl,
for testing or research, would you allow that?
- Depends what it is.
I wouldn't say no but I don't think
they've got any shortage of things to test that on
but you'd have to look at the whole thing.
There's certainly gonna be some liability
if the driver's not in control.
But yeah, I do believe that that's down the road a ways
when that's an accepted technology.
- We used to get that coming through GYCDL.
That was a good question.
Do you think the self driving stuff,
I'm gonna be out of a job eventually?
And I said probably not in your lifetime (laughs)
- Right.
- So Rick, I know over the years
we've tried different things, different fuels,
we've tried some of the propane vehicles,
and now I see a lot of the electric vehicles out there.
What's your opinion on electric vehicles?
- Well, for heavy trucks,
it's probably down the road a ways, too,
especially for long haul because of the charge
that they can carry in the battery.
So there's probably some urban operations
that that would work out well for,
especially if the weight isn't real high.
Right now, from what I've been hearing,
is in order for current loads to be hauled
on a battery truck they would have
to increase the allowable weight by about 10,000 pounds.
- Wow.
- But they say that should only be
for 10 years though.
After 10 years they think the battery technology
will improve and they'll be able
to get rid of that exemption.
But right now I think it's incredibly expensive
and it's lot of prototypes.
- And I would have to change our infrastructure
and everything to support all of that weight, yeah.
- Yeah.
- Well not just there.
Well, yeah, our infrastructure.
- Our bridges, everything, yeah.
- Even at our terminals, too,
we would have to accommodate for all that,
training the mechanics, the fuel islands,
where we're gonna chare 'em.
And you know, where are we getting that from?
So yeah, I can see that would be a huge.
- So for the upcoming driver,
the ones coming through GYCDL,
the experienced ones coming here,
do you have any words of advice?
- Well, don't be afraid to ask questions.
That's one thing,
We talked a little bit about that.
But I think don't get discouraged too early.
And if you ask questions and get those feedbacks,
I think you're gonna find people that are willing
to help want you to be successful.
We want you to be successful here.
And that makes all of our jobs easier.
- I have found that everybody at this company,
they may not have your answer right then,
but they they'll find your answer
and they will get it for you.
- Or direct you to where you need
to get that answer.
That's one thing that GYCDL does
is they stress ask those questions, now is the time.
When you get with your driver trainer,
ask as many questions as you can.
talk to your fleet manager, talk to the maintenance,
talk to anybody.
When you're at a terminal, go inside the orientation,
ask that instructor.
- 'Cause we're just a big company.
We're just a big family, that's what I was looking for.
We're just a big family.
Rick, you've answered a question about the GYCDL end of it.
As far as the experienced guys,
what do you say for the guy that's reluctant
to ask the question?
Ya know he doesn't wanna feel less of a driver.
- Well, same thing as other groups.
I just encourage you to make that call
and ask that question because we're all here to help
and we all want you to be successful.
We as a team wanna be successful.
So do not hesitate.
Do not think that there's gonna be any bad outcome
by any question you ask.
- And we're just human.
- Absolutely.
- In the end of things we're all human.
Feel free to call and ask.
- Exactly, yeah.
- Well, it was a pleasure having you
with us today, Rick.
I find out a lot of useful information.
- Yeah, it was good getting to know, Rick.
I mean we see him once in a while
but we actually got to sit down
and talk with you, it was fun.
- And I hope everybody enjoyed it.
- Yeah, and everybody make sure that you drive safe,
drive the Roehl Way, use that Safe Seven all the time.
It was designed for you guys for a reason
and that's why we are as successful as we are.
Safety is our cornerstone, okay?
It was great talking to you, Rick.
Can't wait to have you back on the show.
It was fun.
- All right, all the drivers, drive safe out there.
We'll talk at ya next time and can't wait
to talk with our next guest.
- And remember, keep it safe
and do it the Roehl Way.
(funky music)