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Explore the world of driver recruiting with the Hire Truckers Podcast! Join us as we talk to recruiting experts, offering industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to enhance your recruiting skills. Whether you're a seasoned recruiter or just starting, our podcast is here to help you level up your game in the trucking industry.
Welcome to the Hire Truckers podcast, where we interview experts in driver recruiting. We provide industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to help you level up your recruiting game. Welcome to the Hire Truckers podcast. I'm your host, Aaron Craddock. And today, I have Tracy Rushing on with us from RE Garrison.
Aaron Craddock:She's been in the industry, over 28 years, started with weighing trucks, and now is the director of safety and HR at RE Garrison. And so, and and Tracy's been been a client of ours for a while, and and I had a chance to go out to their safety summit, recently with Ginger on our team. And so some swag I have from that is this Ari Garrison truck, which I'm a huge fan of little trucks. And so when I found out that was in my bag when, we were there, I was just pumped. So thank you so much, Tracy, for jumping on today, and thank you for the truck.
Tracy Rushing:Thanks for having me.
Aaron Craddock:So one of the things that came up at at the banquet with your team, which I loved just culturally, just how Ari Garrison, just all the employees just love being there and and how much you care for your team. Like, it was a standout. Like, I visited, you know, hundreds of fleets in my career and, yeah, just impressed with just their excitement and enthusiasm, and that all starts with with leadership. And so one of the fun things you did at the safety awards banquet was, something involving a turtle. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Tracy Rushing:So this year at the safety summit, we met for the first time ever, Terry, the truck and turtle. And something that I heard back at the TCA annual meeting this year was that there was a fleet that had come up with, kind of a mascot that they really kinda rally their team around. We started kicking that around. And years I guess about 2 years ago, there was a video that was captured from one of our tractors where a car came to an immediate halt in the highway. And the driver realized, even though it was, you know, a roadway incident, nobody was hurt.
Tracy Rushing:Thank goodness. But it was because of a turtle. And you hear the driver say, They stopped for a turtle. And I just thought, you know, it's kind of an insignificant thing, you know, in the wild world of trucking, but sometimes you gotta stop for a turtle. And, you know, it just take a minute to enjoy where you are and what's going on.
Tracy Rushing:And sometimes it may be born of an incident and sometimes not, but our safety team has adopted the of Terry the truck and turtle, and he is so much fun. And so this year, we unveiled a 4 foot tall version of our Terry the turtle. And I think that there's a lot of good things when you kinda create a mascot, it gives you something to cheer for, and it unifies you as a team. And it's really been a lot of fun for us since the summit, but he was unveiled the night of the banquet, and it was a lot of fun.
Aaron Craddock:Mhmm. Yeah. And she and and Tracy is not exaggerating. Like, this massive turtle is unveiled in the middle of this, and and there was dancing. There were sparkly outfits, like jackets, and just so much fun and just joy with the whole team.
Aaron Craddock:It you know, a lot of award ceremonies I've been to have just been, like, kinda drab and dull. But this was, I mean, really just a celebration. Then I just love just that spirit of joy, just at work. So one of the things that, you touched on in your pre call, Tracy, was that r e Garrison cares about drivers, and there's 2 types of employees at r e Garrison. So what are those 2 types of employees, and, why do you think about it that way?
Tracy Rushing:So we do think that there are 2 types of employees in trucking, and and I think that as we see this be adopted through the industry, it's making a difference for our drivers. And I believe that there's when you you kind of put every put the refocus back on, am I gonna drive the tractor? Am I gonna support the person who drives the tractor? There's a million ways to do that. But when you categorize the the two types of employees within a trucking company or contractors, however your company is structured, if you are driving the truck, then you need support.
Tracy Rushing:You need support in the shop. You need support you need somebody to meet you at the door when you get here and say, how can we service your tractor? You know, sometimes it's just a preventative maintenance. Sometimes it's because there's been a breakdown. But the person who meets you at the door, meets you in the bay, meets you in the oil lane, the safety lane, whatever it may be, the goal when it aligns should be the support of that driver.
Tracy Rushing:If I do my very best at correcting whatever this mechanical issue is, that driver is safer. The driver is on time. The driver is able to generate more revenue. If I'm the driver manager and I sit down at my desk and I've got a ton of loads that need to be assigned to a tractor, and I've gotta figure out feasibility, and I do that from a place of supporting the driver. Well, this driver's got little league on Tuesday, so I don't wanna give them this load.
Tracy Rushing:And this driver's got a doctor's appointment on Thursday or, you know, this driver's got 3 weeks to run. Let's put him on a longer load or, you know, a longer run. If those tasks are done from the position of how am I best supporting the driver, then that driver in turn supporting us is a no brainer. Like, their actions are they're gonna have an easier time of it, less less areas of complication. And I think it really keeps us on focus of every single thing I have to do is significant because it is driver focused.
Tracy Rushing:There are no insignificant things that have to be done. If I'm a custodian over in our driver's lounge, and I know that some drivers are gonna get here at 3 AM and need clean towels, if I'm putting the towels out for the purpose of supporting the driver so that they can get a full 10 hour rest break, It's not just folding towels anymore. It's about the person that that's gonna impact. And I have seen that over the last several years make a big difference in in our culture shift at Garrison. Garrison was well on its way to establishing the culture that you see here today.
Tracy Rushing:And I I couldn't be more proud that when we have our industry friends come in, that's what you leave talking about. So Garrison decided who it was, put it down on paper, did the did the work, wrote a mission, put their vision out, established their core values, and that's not easy to get a body a group of people to align on. Who are we? And so when we really started focusing on how do we breathe life into that, it was if I am, you know, if community is the core value that I'm that I'm working on today or the thing that I'm gonna be involved in today, am I the driver or am I the person who needs support today? It's you know, we say at Garrison that we build our legacy one drive at a time.
Tracy Rushing:And I think something that has translated well outside of the cab is, I have to determine what my drive is every day. Today, my drive is meeting with you to do a podcast and hope that, you know, we we leave little tidbits of goodness around by doing a great podcast today. But tomorrow, I'll be, with some drivers who need some remedial training. And so my drive will be different tomorrow. And I think that Garrison and our leadership team does a really good job of keeping us focused on are you if you're not driving the truck, then your function is to support the person who drives the truck, whether that is a clean financial statement at the end of the month or an on time, you know, fuel tax payment or, you know, the things that keep our drivers moving.
Tracy Rushing:And, I think having that adopted so well has made even a larger impact than I could have wished for or hoped for because it is vitally important that your support staff, the people who are outside of the cab, understand there's no insignificant thing that you're gonna do today. There's not an insignificant phone call you're gonna make. There's not an insignificant cup of coffee you're gonna share with the driver today. And I think that it really it keeps us energized.
Aaron Craddock:Mhmm. I love it. So only 2 types of employees. There's the people driving the truck and the employees who support the driver. I just love that.
Aaron Craddock:So one of the things like, again, I I was just blown away. Ginger and I talked about it for weeks after the summit. Just, yeah, just the positive culture just from when we walked in, just the warm environment and just the smiles on all the faces. Like, again, we're like I mean, we're going through presentations on safety like this, but still just the passion and excitement and fun. How do you create because I think this all rises and falls on leadership.
Aaron Craddock:So how, Tracy, have you created just a great culture in in safety and HR at at Garrison?
Tracy Rushing:So the the the people make it easier. They really have adopted, you know, the their support role. And having a great team with me makes makes it just fun. I know you and I have talked some that kinda one of my one of my little life motto is if it ain't fun, I ain't going. And so I try to say that, you know, if I'm gonna ask you to sit with me at a safety summit and learn about being prepared to defend our company litigation, which is not fun.
Tracy Rushing:And is and I don't know a way that you could make it fun. But the thing is is if you're well prepared, then at least it's not not fun. So maybe when you take all that kind of thought processes, I I I wanna be somewhere that I enjoy being. So I feel like I'm making a good investment of my time. And I think that it drives us to really know the difference in happy, my happy, am I emotional, or am I joyful?
Tracy Rushing:Am I truly satisfied in what I'm doing?
Aaron Craddock:So what is what is the difference between, like, happy and joyful?
Tracy Rushing:Well, happy comes quickly, and it goes quickly. And joyful is, to me, a state of mind. It's a determination that I've made in my heart that I'm going to serve joy joyfully. Whether I feel like it, whether my emotions are doing that thing today or not, there is joy in it. Seeing my safety team be successful in a coaching call with the driver who we never see that repeat behavior.
Tracy Rushing:Or my HR team being able to sit down with the driver who, you know, is coming in because they need employee assistance, because they have something going on in their family, and have them walking away feeling fully supported. There there's joy in that because we're pointed at the people. I know for just a thing that you hear is people are the point. They're not the problem. And when we when we are able to be well prepared for those conversations, you know, we're gonna get it wrong.
Tracy Rushing:People are gonna make errors. And knowing that and being free to recover from those errors and and then have a better outcome or an easier outcome the next time, I think, is how you get to joy and satisfaction. Our driver engagement team has adopted that over the last year or so, and and still prompt to tell you about that because, you know, for a long time in our industry, we heard that happy drivers don't leave. And I got to thinking about that, and I thought, well, what if they don't have a Hebrew national hot dog at the fine day when they only have Nathan's Famous? Then that's you know, I can't be responsible for the happiness.
Tracy Rushing:If I'm if I'm happy if they have, you know, strawberry monster versus only the vanilla monster in the cooler or you just can't. There are certain things that we can take on responsibility for. But whether or not our team is satisfied is driven from, are we doing a good job as a leadership team and saying this is the expectation? This is how we're gonna educate you to meet that expectation, and this is how we're gonna coach you when we have failure. And knowing that going in, I think as long as we are open to being coached, all of us included, in saying, you know, we did the thing, and we got the job done.
Tracy Rushing:And we have we had a successful outcome, but it could have been so much easier. There could have been less obstacles if we had done it this way or if we had put things in a different order. I think knowing that that is how we drive our teams to being satisfied and joyful is kind of eliminating happiness from from our equation and saying, happiness is gonna be between you and the Lord, or you and and whatever your source is. And satisfaction is something that I can absolutely drive. And being joyful in that is a decision that I can make every day.
Tracy Rushing:And I think, you know, monkey see, monkey do. When you when you have a team of people who say, no matter what happens today, no matter what happens in the next 10 minutes, on the next phone call, we're gonna be joyful in that. We're gonna get to a point of satisfaction. It just makes the road smoother.
Aaron Craddock:Mhmm. Yeah. Because and and there's been just a bunch of doom and gloom in the industry for the last couple years. Let me say it has been really hard on everybody in the industry. And yeah.
Aaron Craddock:So with that, it's just so refreshing. Like, just like I said, again, just coming into that room and just feeling it from everyone everyone on your team, like, from leadership to, just every every position, every role. And so that that's why I'm asking these questions around that. And, yeah, I was just super impressed by that. So what I have as the Tracy isms, which you started to touch on that, is which these are just kind of principles that that define who you are, is if I'm not going to have fun, I'm not going to do it, which I hope we have fun on the show today, and I'd always have fun just talking with you and learning and growing.
Aaron Craddock:And then, the second one is the best version of myself is joyful, and then the last is, like, the kinda happy versus joyful that you can just explain. So one of the things I noticed when we hopped on this call was there was, like, a little creature behind you with a hat on. Can you show us that and explain it? And for those of you on audio, we have a yellow little creature with a hat on. So Tracy's gonna explain what that is.
Tracy Rushing:Yeah. So our our fuzzy friend is Nugget. He is one of the mascots of LUMA, which is our learning management system. And I told Erin yesterday was my birthday and they had birthday hat. And I said, just to get a few more days of fun out of it, Nugget's gonna wear it for a few days.
Tracy Rushing:But this is, you know, this was one of the rate one of the major draws for me to LUMA was, that's fun. That learning management system is fun. And they're still gonna talk about get out and look. And they're still gonna talk about speed, and they're still gonna talk about, you know, lane departure. They're still gonna talk about all the things that that are safety driven, but it's fun.
Tracy Rushing:And it's they caught Gina Anderson's team does a good job about gamification, but we're just sucking a few more days of fun out of this birthday because it may age. They may be less fun, but we're having a good time. And, so Nugget Nugget's a win win for the birthday hat for the rest of the week.
Aaron Craddock:When did you get Nugget?
Tracy Rushing:Nugget has been with us. Nugget and Brush, his little blue friend over on this side, I guess, almost 2 years ago. And the funniest thing was we put Nugget in a truck with 1 of our drivers, and she was able to take pictures of him sitting out on the truck, sitting in the truck, sitting at the truck stop, everywhere she went. And I thought, you know, that's a good kickoff for something that's new. Right?
Tracy Rushing:Because we were switching learning management systems, and that's not always gonna be easy. But I thought, you know, let's make it fun. And so it was kinda like where the all where's Waldo, and it was like where's Nugget today? And, we had a Samsara tracker app, and it was with our childhood cancer awareness trucks because we had a couple of the kids who were featured on the truck say, I wanna know where my truck is. And so we put a number on the truck and let them track Samsara where they could see where the where their face was today and nugget little pictures of nuggets were coming in on social media, and it was a lot of fun.
Tracy Rushing:So it, it just kept us connected to those kids and their stories a little more intimately for a while. Those those tractors, I know your mom was was here with us and got to see one on the yard. They tell a great story and help us support those heroes, those those childhood cancer survivors on those tractors. And so we got to use Nugget in that way, and I think that really kind of, of, brought a new energy for our drivers to say, you know, it matters if I'm safe on the road or not because one of those kids could be en route to, you know, school or doctor's appointment or soccer practice or whatever, and it just humanizes. You know, we're not just shipping boxes of goods around.
Tracy Rushing:We're we're affecting the motoring public every day. And what impression we leave, you know, it can be a millisecond of an impression that we get to leave, but we want them to remember that. When they had an interaction with Ari Garrison, it was fun and it meant something and it was personal.
Aaron Craddock:Mhmm. So is that Ari Garrison Gives Hope They were talking about
Tracy Rushing:That our benefit fleet supports. Yes. So Garrison Gives Hope. We were talking a little bit before, but it was born from tragedy. Our own one of our owners files Griffith's father, and their family was affected by tragedy that was driven by a mental health issue.
Tracy Rushing:And it's a it's really a just a beautiful story of how there was beauty from the ashes of that. And Garrison Gives Hope, raises money to support the mental health initiatives and awarenesses in our community. 1 of our wrap trucks is the green and white Garrison Gives Hope mental health awareness truck. And so we've more or less branded that fleet for the benefit fleet, and they're not all around, mental health. We have an autism awareness truck, a back the blue truck.
Tracy Rushing:Our core values are on a truck. We have a military support truck, breast cancer awareness truck, 2 childhood cancer awareness trucks. And it's just about focusing on our core value of community and the things that affect the Ari Garrison family and, driving awareness and support to those initiatives. And so that koozie that you have was one of the, Garrison Gives Hope, golf tournament giveaways this year. And it's very hard to think about Garrison Gives Hope separate from Garrison Trucking for me now because it is so intertwined.
Tracy Rushing:I saw an email passed just a few seconds ago actually that says the Garrison Gives Hope Fundra Fundraiser this month is our customer service group is hosting the Ari Garrison Olympics and apparently it's Office Olympics. And, the ladies will be paying entry fees, I think, to to win cash and prizes. And then the benefits of that will support Garrison Gives Hope and, our employees, drivers included, have a Garrison Gives Hope benefit assigned to a different department for every month of the year, and it just doesn't. It the what it does for keeping our team engaged is huge because it's it's about serving. And that's when you feel your best is when you're serving others.
Tracy Rushing:And so I think that that that's married to to trucking is phenomenal for me. That Mhmm. You can take worker bees and marry them to a to a service organization like Garrison Gives Hope and move a mountain to have a trucking fund. You can move a mountain when when these trucks get, you know, millions of impressions. And there's a QR code on the truck at a passerby at a Walmart can, you know, support your initiative.
Tracy Rushing:It's it's huge.
Aaron Craddock:That's awesome. So you have cancer awareness, mental awareness, and then what other trucks do you have?
Tracy Rushing:We have the military truck. We have the back of the blue truck. We have, breast cancer awareness, autism, mental health awareness. I'll probably be missing one. I'm trying to think of what they all are.
Tracy Rushing:Mhmm. And then we have our childhood cancer awareness trucks, which are a set of sibling trucks because Bodie's transport is part of the Garrison family now, and so one of those trucks runs under their banner.
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Aaron Craddock:Visit truckingclix.com or call 512-982-0816 today. One of the things like, I met Clayton at the dinner, your driver onboarding manager. And, one of the things like like, he just touched on just that whole process, and I was just really impressed with it. I wanna hear a little bit about, like, just your thoughts around, like, a red carpet experience and unreasonable hospitality and, like like, what you guys do to go above and beyond with that driver onboarding, experience.
Tracy Rushing:So I think that, when Clayton took driver onboarding, which was not an easy sale. Clayton came from law enforcement. He's an Alabama before he was a former Alabama state trooper. And when I said, I want you to welcome our drivers and let's have fun, and he was going, we're gonna talk about safety. We're gonna talk about fuel management.
Tracy Rushing:We're gonna talk about all the things. And I and I said, we we can do it that way. It's effective. But wouldn't it be fun? Wouldn't it be fun if we did it this way?
Tracy Rushing:And I think the first thing that Clayton brought to me, he said, I wanna know these drivers. I want them to know when they leave and get on the road, I want them to remember my face, have my number, and call me, and then I can be the person that directs them where they need to go. Like, remember 1 guy. We can do that. But you're gonna see 20 people during orientation.
Tracy Rushing:Somebody from every department's coming through. And he said, I wanna break bread with the drivers. And I thought, how in the world? Like, what are we going to do? And so we got our driver engagement team together, and we were like, y'all, these drivers are gonna be on-site with us for 2 days, And we wanna break bread with them 3 meals a day while they're here.
Tracy Rushing:Can we do this? And a resounding, yes. We can do it. Whatever. And that's a core value at Garrison.
Tracy Rushing:Yes. We can. So immediately, it was like a little beehive, and the home started. And they got a local cafe on board that's friends with Garrison, and we bring in breakfast and lunch and then have dinner from, you know, any sometimes we're here, sometimes we're at the cafe, sometimes we're having sandwiches. But to break bread with them and then say, who are the people that you need to be intimate with?
Tracy Rushing:Like, by and large, you're not gonna be intimate with IT or or hopefully, you're not gonna be intimate with claims unless it's needed. But your driver manager needs to have an intimate relationship with you. And so the buy in from the other departments has been it's one of those things that you can just step back from and go, I never would have imagined that it would be that fun. But the operations team goes down and has breakfast with our drivers, and they get to know them and say, hey. Where are you from?
Tracy Rushing:How many kids you have? How long have you been driving? And then they go back to their boards when our drivers start the next session, and they go, I I think this personality aligns with this driver manager. I think that personality aligns with this driver manager. And what we've seen is the time that it takes to acclimate that driver to Garrison has significantly been reduced because we're taking that human and saying, we have a good human who does some things like you.
Tracy Rushing:Let's try that. Instead of just going, oh, well, you're from, you know, this town, USA, anywhere, USA, and this guy has freight in that part of the world. That still matters. But if we have 2 people who have freight in that area and one of them, you know, speaks kids baseball better than one who may speak, you know, church choir, then we mix those things around better. And, so that was the first thing that Clayton did.
Tracy Rushing:And so that really fell into place, and the Kings got worked out. It wasn't without obstacles like anything was to you know, sometimes we have 10 drivers here, sometimes we have 30 drivers here, depending on if we picked up a new lane or you know, you just never know. So getting those moving parts. And then we then I went back to to some things I had learned previously. I shared with you that several years ago, probably 15 years ago or more now, a friend of mine in the industry shared a book with me.
Tracy Rushing:And I just I thought about it after he Paula was an HR manager at another trucking company, and so she and I knew each other through through the trucking association, but her husband was a hospital administrator. And she said, he brought me this book. And that was how that so nine and a half things you would do differently if Disney ran your hospital. And she was like, you gotta read this book. It's gonna make a big difference.
Tracy Rushing:And so I was like, I can read a book about a hospital. So read the book about 9 and a half things that you would do differently if Disney ran your hospital, and I really started thinking about the anticipation that builds where you're going on a Disney vacation. And the things that you expect from a Disney vacation versus a, you know, a local fairground. And so I started sharing some of those things with Clayton and we've really he has done a really good job of turning our driver onboarding into what we call the red carpet event. Starts every Monday morning.
Tracy Rushing:We have a red carpet event, lasts for 2 days. And it's like, you know, this is when we bring our very best. Not that we all don't want to always bring our best, but on Monday mornings, that team is on. They are excited. And, you know, we could have a million things going on that are gonna negatively impact day 1, and they are still having that 9 AM parade, and they're still having fireworks today, and they're still you know, the things that you expect from Disney.
Tracy Rushing:And, it's it really has turned into a red carpet event, and the drivers leave orientation knowing, you know what? I'm gonna be on the road. It's the same road I've driven my entire career. The truck stops are gonna be the same truck stops. The trucks are the same.
Tracy Rushing:All those things are the same. But when they get to do the same thing again with a new level of excitement and a renewed passion for their for their choice, it seems to last longer when it's that fun. And we keep going back to fun, but when you have that much fun for 2 days, we see those classes of drivers, build camaraderie between themselves because they're immediately part of the Crown driver program then, and they're all marching towards the same goals. And they spur each other on to greatness, and it's a lot of fun to watch.
Aaron Craddock:Mhmm. That's awesome. I I I need to read that book. 9 and a half things to do differently. What was it?
Aaron Craddock:If the hospital Disney
Tracy Rushing:Disney ran your hospital.
Aaron Craddock:Disney ran your hospital. They, and then my dad is in hospital administration, so I wonder if he's in
Tracy Rushing:the I bet you can borrow you can borrow the book from him.
Aaron Craddock:The, yeah. I love that. And and what Tracy's saying, like, isn't just all talk. Like, again, like, I was in the room a few weeks ago with Ginger, and you could just feel all this with their team, that joy and excitement. One of the things, Tracy, like, that I heard come up a a few different times that you don't always hear in the corporate context was your faith.
Aaron Craddock:Like, you mentioned Jesus a couple times, or several times and, and, you know, Jesus is is really important to me and that's why I do all I do, is for him and his kingdom. So, yeah, I would love for you just to touch on that. Like, how does faith kinda impact your day to day work at Carson?
Tracy Rushing:I think that there is no separation. I say when you've been trucking this long, some things come natural. And when you've been walking with the Lord as long as I have, some things just in him, I live and move and have my being, and there's just no separating the 2. And I know that in today's age, it is it is very important to use the correct vocabulary because what we want is to love first. Right?
Tracy Rushing:No matter no matter what the task at hand is is is that I want to be sure that when you have spent time with me, that that I have done my service to my king and given you a glimpse of love, whatever that looks like. And sometimes it's tough love, sometimes it is. We want you to be part of our team, but these are these are this is how you can be successful in that. And then being stern enough in our faith and convictions to say and if we can't align, if we cannot meet your expectation, if you can't meet our expectation, then we want you to be successful. It's just gonna have to be somewhere else.
Tracy Rushing:And I think that, you know, getting to a place where you're comfortable enough in your team and your company and your leadership to say, it's okay to say, yes, we can, but should we? Should should we allow a driver to interact poorly at our customers' places of business? Should we allow our drivers to, be aggressive at a public place? Should we allow our office employees to be disrespectful to one another? The answer to that would be a resounding no.
Tracy Rushing:And I think that is because for me, in him I live, in him I move, and in him I have my being in. And I know that those uncomfortable conversations are gonna have have to happen where I say, you know, on this, I will be stoic. On on this, I will be immovable. On fair treatment of drivers, I will be immovable. And knowing that, I I have the privilege of being aligned with a company and a leadership team who says, good and right and true are good and right and true.
Tracy Rushing:And those things we don't get to vote about. Those are just you know, the truth is the truth. And I think that having to be in a place where I can be that free is a privilege and not taking it for granted, and not not walking around thinking that everybody has it like we have it at Garrison. You you you said it earlier. You know, you you have gone into many, carriers and industry partners where they not that their cultures are bad cultures, they're just not our culture.
Tracy Rushing:And we are very privileged to be not only allowed, but truly expected to thrive and to build those relationships. That's that's kingdom building, is to build those relationships and leave our mark, give glimpses of of love that a human couldn't generate on their own. And I think that's the place that, you know, Clayton, for example, that he serves from. And, you know, he's a joy to watch because, you know, I mean, full disclosure, the trucks aren't always ready. If we had trucks turned in on Saturday or Sunday, trucks aren't always ready.
Tracy Rushing:And to be able to say, you know, we offered you a position to drive. We're gonna make that happen. But in the meantime, there here's some things that we can do to ease this transition for you and to know that that is gonna be in full service to that human for those 2 days is that I'll take that job. That's huge. I think our operations team, our driver managers, it's it's a privilege to work alongside of that group of people who their job is to to move freight to generate revenue.
Tracy Rushing:But to watch them do it with such grace and to have those drivers feel truly appreciated, like, because our driver managers understand they're not gonna drive the tractor. They gotta support the person who drives the tractor. To watch those drivers outperform our expectations every time because they feel fully supported, that's a benefit of being in a place where your faith can grow.
Aaron Craddock:Mhmm. The, yeah, I love that. It's just to to love and and care deeply. And it you said that the drivers experience, like, appreciation, and they feel that. Well, that only starts, like, from a position of, like, you genuinely appreciate them and care about them as humans.
Aaron Craddock:Like, because that that because that's how in how to win friends and influence people is, like, express sincere or authentic appreciation or something like that. But it's basically just the premise of, like, it has to come like, never say something positive if it doesn't if you don't mean it. Like, because it you can read right through that. And so your your drivers are just feeling that in the people, just coming out that they they're not just saying I care, because because everyone says I care, I care, I care. And but it's their actions and just their their motive behind it and their joy behind it.
Aaron Craddock:What I've really enjoyed about this conversation, like, one of the many things is just that I didn't really think about it going into was the contrast between, like, joy and accountability. Right? Like, so you're simultaneously when you're explaining joy and excitement, which a lot of people I think is, like, in the absence of accountability and just complete freedom and no structure, where you're like, it's actually the opposite. Like, you're establishing clear expectations, like, super, super clear and addressing things head on. And then through that, having joy.
Aaron Craddock:So there's like there's like more accountability and more proactive communication of, like, ownership of I did this or confronting an issue you have with somebody by going directly to them. And it's just, yeah, it's just really cool. I haven't really thought about that contrast before because I haven't heard it so quickly tied from, like, joy to accountability. So that's something I'm gonna kinda ponder and think about even more just, because I think that it's just so important and it's working. Right?
Aaron Craddock:Because your your team all because it wasn't just you up there speaking the whole time at the some safety summit. It was vendors. It was partners that know your culture. It was all the people on your team, and they all echoed the same recurring principles, that they know just even your vendors and partners know that about you guys. And, yeah.
Aaron Craddock:So I was just
Tracy Rushing:When you think about if if I can be joyful in the times that I am joyful, it is when everybody wants to win. Right? Like, that that's born again regardless of your faith, regardless of everybody wants to win. And that I think that that only comes when you you there's a clear expectation set, and and we say as part of this expectation, there's gonna be a period of education, training. Alright?
Tracy Rushing:That's sports analogies, all kinds of things about what the ways to win in life. And and if you if we do a good job, even with me, if my leadership sets a clear expectation for me and then educates me, fills my toolbox with the things, and then I get to win, then then joy is born from that. Because, you know and I'm and I also am guilty of this of of not giving a task the weight that it deserves from if I set an expectation, I just send you out. Hey hey, Aaron. I want you to come recruit drivers for Garrison.
Tracy Rushing:And then I say, but I need to educate you on here's the platforms that we use and here's our timeline and here's our here's our pay and here here's what our levels of acceptability are. And I just send you out and expect you to win from that, I'm not gonna be joyful if you fail, and you're absolutely not gonna be joyful. So I think that in for me, there is like, I couldn't I couldn't separate the 2 anymore. That to know that education, that that's how leveling up and winning is born. And then I have to find joy in that too because the win.
Tracy Rushing:I want the win. And so can't just get to the end and do a happy dance because it's gonna end. Right? At some point, somebody's gonna say pack up and go home, and then the happy is over. But the joy will walk with you.
Tracy Rushing:Like, if you get to pocket that win as personal, it will go with you.
Aaron Craddock:Yeah. The when I started out this company, I was sharing with a mentor of mine, like, when I started Craddock Holdings 5 years ago before we got back into trucking, just the original company. And one of the things, like, I was talking about all my goals, like, I wanna build x size company and all these things. And he's like, what's your why? And I was like, what do you mean what do you mean what's your why?
Aaron Craddock:And so and he he's like, you have to have a why, like, sustain you, like, in the hard in the hard times. And, because there's gonna be a hard times building a business and, like, multiple more than you even think. And, yes, I did a exercise on the why. And then simultaneously, like, in that same season, I had several people read like, mentors and friends say, like, enjoy the journey, Aaron. Because I I'm just so serious about, like, okay.
Aaron Craddock:We got a 10 x again, and then we got a 10 x again, and I gotta do this. And feel like, Aaron, like, whenever you hit that goal, like, which you may or may not hit, you probably will. Like, that's gonna be a day. Like, a a moment, a fleeting moment. Like, you can't like, you have to enjoy the process.
Aaron Craddock:And so that's what I hear in you is, like, you're it's like through that expectation, education, winning, and joy. Like, it it's like through all of those things that you're you're able to just have this recurring environment of, yeah, just joy and education. Because I I mean, I literally saw it, like, joy in education, just as we're going through the safety and compliance. And then it yeah. It was it was fun.
Aaron Craddock:And, yeah, enjoyed hearing from the Luma crew too. And, I'm just really impressed with all the stuff they're coming out with all that educational resources and and just, yeah, the spirit they operate from as well. So, anything else, Tracy, that I should have touched on today that I have not touched on yet?
Tracy Rushing:Not not that I can think of, but it has been a lot of fun visiting with you today and and getting to share with you how great the Garrison team is. I couldn't say any more about them. I'm so glad that you and Ginger both got to be here with us for the safety summit. It was our first summit that we invited in, some of our vendors and industry partners, and I and I'm what I'm hearing with you is that knowing who Garrison is will help you serve us and our drivers better win. That's a win for me, and, I hope that, you know, us being able to partner with with you and Trucking Clicks and our friends over at LUMA, that we do continue to improve the driving job.
Tracy Rushing:That's our goal. You you you said, you know, what's your why? I was asked that many years ago, what was my why? Why would female from, you know, Central Mississippi wanna grow up and be a trucker. And I thought, you know, it really got planted in my heart early on that it's super fast to move the gospel in a truck and impact all the lives that that driver will touch along the way.
Tracy Rushing:And it's not always been easy, but it has been so fun, and it is a source of joy for me and my family. We're all part of the trucking community. And I think that, you know, that that's my why. And I think for you and your team and your listeners, you know, determine your why because it will be what drives you, to win. What and regardless of, you know I always get a lot of chastisement from from my family and my church family and saying, you say regardless of your faith.
Tracy Rushing:But the thing is is that there's not a faith that will drive you to not be a great person, to not be a good person. They're all driving towards goodness. And, I hope that, you know, you see Jesus' goodness and and get a glimpse of it in interaction with our team. And, you know, and me, it's it's a tough job, and you have to be careful with it. But, ultimately, you know, kingdom mark is the best work you can do.
Aaron Craddock:Mhmm. Well, thank you again so much for your time, Tracy, and, I will talk to you later. Thanks. Thank you for joining us today. Our goal with the Hire Truckers podcast is to provide industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to level up your recruiting game.
Aaron Craddock:If we added value, take a few seconds to share this with your network. Have a great week.