Episode #8 - Mission, Vision, & Values

Joining us on this episode is Tyler Howell, director of Safety, and Troy Jensen, driver of truck #684.

Transcript

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0:11

Welcome to driver, to driver, a Stokes trucking podcast on driver to driver. We will discuss everything related to trucking. And put a stokes trucking spin on it stokes trucking doing the right thing since 1979.

Mark 0:33

Welcome

Intro to Episode #8

Mark 0:34

everybody to episode eight of Driver to driver a Stokes trucking podcast I'm your host Mark lava And I am joined again for this episode by my cohost

Grace 0:48

gray slobber

Mark 0:49

this whole episode is centered around our mission vision and values we talked about that and then we talked to one of our drivers and your cat is looking out the door Like there is Somebody has there because I think our basement is haunted

Grace 1:07

He just leaped out to something like he he was chasing something If you all want to know

Mark 1:13

there's nobody else out there

Grace 1:14

Yeah It's an old house on old land

Mark 1:18

If you ever watched the movie Poltergeist You developed an Indian burial ground That's the whole gist of the movie

Grace 1:26

I've told you about the weird paranormal experiences I've had down here

Mark 1:31

Don't it It freaks me out

Grace 1:33

You said it was the air circulating from when you shut the door it's not It was too violent and too harsh to just be air shut like slamming my door

Mark 1:45

Okay You're creeping me

Grace 1:46

So my cat everyone body slams my door It doesn't have like a handle on it because

Mark 1:52

it's the worst story ever

Grace 1:54

It's not really a door It's a false it's a false shelf

Mark 1:59

Maybe there's mice down here He's Jason

Grace 2:01

No He sees things

Mark 2:04

that one time And it was like six months ago He was laying in the middle of the hallway He likes to lay down in front of me when I walked down here So I've been over to give him a little scratch on his belly and he's enjoying it And all of a sudden he just turned his head like looking at somebody standing over my shoulder and he took off the other direction And it I don't think I came down here for a week after that It

Grace 2:26

I sleep down here

Mark 2:28

Yeah But you probably talked to the

Grace 2:31

The spirits Ah yeah We're friends We have bridge every Sunday

Mark 2:37

All right So the first segment grace who we talk to

Grace 2:40

the first segment is with a discussion between you Tyler Howe and Becky Lobber who's my Tyler Howell is Stokes safety director And you guys talk about how you developed the Stokes mission values

Mark 2:56

mission vision and

Grace 2:57

and values

Mark 2:59

Yeah I'm actually really excited to get this episode out I'm a little upset that we're delayed was out trucking for a couple of days

Grace 3:06

That's almost like part of your job tracking That's like the whole thing This is the whole thing about the pockets

Mark 3:16

Yeah. But that's technically like Tyler is the director of safety. I'm the operations manager. My job is actually to manage the operation. But I've both me and Val have been pressed into service quite frequently lately because we've been so busy and we're a little short on help. So podcast had to take a back seat to delivering some freight for our customers, but we're back. I'm really excited for it. I was really excited for us to do the mission, vision and values. When, when the idea was, was kind of hatched, I Don't feel like anybody is going to be surprised by what we came up with for our mission, vision, and values. It's exactly what Stokes has always been about. But now we can say we've gone through the exercise, we've written it down and we have something to point to. I think it's so perfect for us as a company. I'm so happy with what we came up with and I just can't wait to get this episode out and have our drivers start seeing the mission on all the equipment. I think without any further ado,

Grace 4:21

let's roll.

Stokes Trucking MVV (Mission, Vision, & Values

Mark 4:31

We're joined today by Tyler Howell who is our have we ever decided on a title for you

Tyler 4:36

We haven't I don't I go by whatever I typically just go by director of safety

Mark 4:42

Yeah So

Tyler 4:43

we don't know what else to call me

Mark 4:44

Ty Walker manages our safety and you're sorta his Boss

Tyler 4:49

Yeah essentially oversee what he does

Mark 4:52

Yeah and then you take care of our payables receivables So you're not our accountant but you take care of our accounting and make sure everybody gets paid human resources things like that And we're also joined again by my wife

Becki 5:08

Hi everybody

Mark 5:08

Becky law over the reason I needed both of them with me today are our subject is going to be our mission vision and values And Tyler can you walk us through how this all came about and what we've done to come up with those

Tyler 5:27

let's see I Guess to start this all came about several months ago as we were trying to Look at our driver pool the drivers that we currently have what makes them great drivers and how do we get more drivers like that W what attracts them to Stokes trucking and what can we do to keep them here And we had always had I guess you could say values nothing really written down though Nothing that we had up on the wall that we followed And I say that loosely because we did live them We followed them It's a part of the business but it wasn't something that we read every day or was reminded of so several months ago we did a I guess you'd call it a blind survey of our drivers to see what they thought about Stokes trucking from everything from The dispatch department operations to safety to home time to runs to pay benefits and with this we could really see How everything was rated how did they feel about it What things were the most important to our drivers

Mark 6:31

what we were doing good at but we need to improve

Tyler 6:34

Exactly Exactly So it was pretty interesting getting the results from it I wouldn't say I was surprised by what we saw I think we expected Kind of the comments and I think we expected it I I think those things were always important to us and we always tried to drive that and I don't know if you want me to go into those now as far as the findings or if we're going to go into the

Mark 6:57

you can talk a little bit about kind of the give us the overall I think we've talked to a lot of the drivers about what we gleaned from that but give us I guess you know you said You weren't necessarily surprised neither was I one thing I was a little surprised by was one how many of our drivers returned the survey that was the first thing was our response rate was higher than we help We had Becky help us with it She's done tons of surveys and how much higher

Becki 7:28

Oh on my surveys that I do I usually get a 20 to 25% response rate And you guys had a 95% response rate So it was really good

Mark 7:36

W which tells me everybody was really excited to help us get this information The other thing was there weren't like there were so few negative things that I almost In hindsight I wonder if we worried too much about the few negative things you know we didn't spend I don't feel like we spend enough time Sometimes we're not good at self praise right And somehow we need to get the message out that 95% of our drivers thought enough to return the survey number one and everything they said on there was good But if you want to go through just a few of the highlights of some of their responses

Tyler 8:16

Yeah So a few of them and again I don't think we were really surprised but I think you're right I think it's you're just expecting the negative But a few of them that that came through were things like treated with respect family home time keeping their promises Shows up shows appreciation for their efforts providing them with the resources the equipment is a big one and I think a lot of them all came back really to kind of family and home time just a family feel feeling like they're part of the Stokes family and knowing Valin Julie That was always the way they operated that was just I think that's why I wasn't really surprised because that's what's kept me here at Stokes trucking for 14 years was because of the way they treated me let's see I was just looking at this list here to see if again known by a name rather than a truck number Just feeling valued I think a lot of these remarks and comments that they had just really leads to that another one that I like in here too is the freedom to do your job and we hire experienced truck drivers And I guess when we hire a truck driver we always expect we have this expectation that they're gonna be able to get into a truck They know how to plan their trip and really do their job themselves without being micromanaged told what to do where to fuel how long to take a break for they're the captain of their own ship as Val has always had And I think that's something we've always done And sometimes drivers don't stick around because they are used to being micromanaged And I guess they I'd say they're not really a good fit for Stokes trucking because we're looking for truck drivers that want to do their job take pride in their job and can plan and manage their own time Yeah

Mark 9:55

We don't want to give them a fuel solution telling them exactly how many gallons to get at each stop along the way when they start we might help them a little bit but Within a month or two we expect them to make their own decisions and make the proper decisions you know not just the right decision for themselves but also the right decision for the company so all these recurring themes showed up in our driver satisfaction survey which led us to say maybe we need to start saying these things out loud and put them on the wall for everyone to see Which led us to how do we do that And luckily we have a surveyor that works free a researcher sorry who also has a lot of leadership training and background which led us into coming up with our mission vision and values So Becky could you talk to us a little bit about why Any organization should have those three things and what they mean

Becki 10:56

Absolutely I think a lot of people ask why it's important for a company to have a mission statement And I think the simplest answer to that is that it really provides a co a clear goal for your employees to know what you stand for know where you're going and work towards that common good for the company the that vision piece is important because sometimes as an organization and I'm seeing this a little bit where I work we get so bogged down in Doing what we have to do right now And we're holding things together with bailing wire and duct tape and we don't ever look towards the future or anticipate how we might need to change and grow And so that vision just provides you and the employees with an opportunity to see where that might take you see what your needs might be in the future

Mark 11:48

so the mission is what we do correct Right And the vision is

Becki 11:54

what you hope the future of Stokes trucking to

Mark 11:56

where we're headed and the bedrock for both of those are the

Becki 11:59

the values

Mark 12:00

So let's talk about who we decided that we took this information from the drivers and we used a lot of that to build our values our value statement and our values Tyler can you talk about who is involved in this process and how we arrived at where we're at

Tyler 12:19

Yeah So there was of course you MI Val Stokes Ty Walker Mike Larson And of course Becky who lead it she was really the leader in asking the questions what do we want to be What do we see the future being for Stokes trucking and really just guiding us in being able to come up with these values and what we want for our mission and our vision so that's who was involved and we spent I guess you could say a few had a few different meetings in which we went over these and then would go back and think and decide if we were happy with what we came up with or if we needed to make some changes but after doing that for a few times I think we came up with Really what Stokes is all about and what Val's always been trying to do with the company

Mark 13:06

So do you have the list of the values with you that we came up with

Tyler 13:11

All right So the values we've we came up with were safety servant leadership integrity family relationships and sustainability

Mark 13:20

So safety applies to everything that drivers do day in and day out and us in the office and dusty in the shop w we that's our that's number one And it's number one for a reason

Becki 13:32

Absolutely

Tyler 13:33

it starts from the top down safety is has to be everybody's priority from dusty making sure the equipment's safe to drive looked over and maintained to operations Making sure they're dispatching in a way that drivers can safely make their run do haul their load and drivers and the way they're planning their trip managing their time following the hours of service regulations doing their pre-trip inspections you name it we not just because we want to follow regulation but because we truly want the drivers to be safe out there on the road Their families want them to be safe And we're not the only ones on the road there's a lot of other people out there and we're the ones in the big 80,000 gross trot so we're doing it for them as well to keep the motoring public safe

Mark 14:19

I think one of the best examples of that value Happened just yesterday with Preston When he got held up in Los Angeles at one of our shippers detained for who was he ended up being there for nine hours something like that us MI operations I went to you and Ty Walker and said what can he do and the first thing was we want him to sleep tonight You know what he could do and what he should do aren't necessarily the same thing So let's figure out what's reasonable for Preston and then make the operations work around it And that's I went back to Jimmy and said here's what we can do and it was a great Really good teamwork There is four of us involved in two different drivers and I think Preston's back in LA tonight and hopefully with good rest I believe he had

Tyler 15:09

And hopefully he took that away too as being You know what They didn't push me They didn't try to just make me drive all through the night but they allowed me to get some rest found a way to get me turned and I think hopefully he sees that but the fact that Jimmy was okay with it you tie that's really What has to happen otherwise No one's going to be safe

Mark 15:30

Yeah So number two on the list was servant leadership and Becky you've got a lot of leadership training what does servant leadership mean

Becki 15:38

Boiled down to its core servant leaders servant leadership is being of service to others

Mark 15:44

Us as a company say one of our values is being of service to others And I we I've seen this in the 10 years I've been almost 11 I've been around Stokes I know you've seen it as Val is like the epitome of a servant leader Oh you need somebody to go deliver that load Okay it yeah all the time That's just it's just him and that's come through the rest of the company to a lot of our drivers I think have seen that and have taken that on from him that's where it came from It started with bell

Tyler 16:14

third was integrity

Mark 16:16

So we don't want to speak a little bit on

Tyler 16:17

Yeah So integrity is essentially being honest but not only honest others but honest yourself and in what you're doing and this really fits with the mission because it's if you have that integrity And you're doing the right thing You're being honest to yourself and to others You're going to do the right thing No matter who's watching And even if no one's watching so we felt like integrity was a big part of the values that we wanted here at Stokes trucking because we want somebody Who's out on the road and we're not paying attention to is going to make that right decision If there's getting fatigued that they make that right decision and get off the road rather than trying to push through They have to be able to make those decisions on their own fourth was family and this is a big one

Mark 17:01

this is new for you

Tyler 17:02

New for me

Mark 17:04

I got to meet baby today

Tyler 17:06

Yeah

Becki 17:06

super jealous by the

Tyler 17:07

come over I'll have to bring him out but yeah so new for me that way But as far

Becki 17:12

as

Tyler 17:12

the company goes I've always felt like a part of the family Yeah I mentioned that's what's really kept me was no struggling for 14 years but even today Julie said as soon as she held the baby was like Oh here's the newest member of the Stokes family And that's just how it is

Mark 17:28

Yeah absolutely Yeah I heard her today We had a little lunch at the office and some of the drivers always end up There you can get a meal And as soon as she saw Brad long it was like Oh how's your sister I mean you know the every all the owners and all of us we know all of the drivers in their families And so there it's almost cult-like All the drivers wave at each other I mean it's special To be a Stokes driver in Northern Utah And it's big There's a lot of I think there's a lot of companies I know there's some companies in Northern Utah that are envious of the Stokes family and how close everybody is

Tyler 18:13

I think

Becki 18:13

it just

Tyler 18:13

Valen Julie being so generous and kind they're just the kind of people that invite others in to be a part of it And it makes a big difference for me so I've now got the family but before it just being a single guy and even at that I'd go on trips with Valen Julie Like we did a trip Val Julie and Lincoln and me the horror of it If that doesn't seem odd we went and did a trip to Chicago for a weekend and I think it was just I've always felt like I've been a part So after family is relationships this I think there's several parts to to this one relationships A lot of it ties into that family Cause we talked about the relationships we have with each other It Stokes the relationship we have with our drivers which is a very family oriented relationship but another thing that's always been important for Stokes And I've seen this with Val is the relationships with your customers And your vendors right Anybody you're doing business with he he's always gone the extra mile to cultivate that relationship and to really get to know them beyond just the business

Mark 19:20

Yeah And that shows with our you know our Two biggest customers continued to want us to grow with them every year and the vendors I don't think it can be understated with the vendor or overstated with the vendors Jack's tire and oil carrier utility Freightliner They just go above and beyond trying to take care of us when we have some issue And that is due to The relationship that Val and Julie and me and you and our drivers have all built with them and our loyalty to them also you know th this year Freightliner canceled 2000 truck orders They didn't cancel any of ours but they canceled 2000 and we've already been told We're in line for next year's order too and not everybody's going to get their trucks next year So I think that loyalty has in that relationship has really gotten us

Tyler 20:12

Absolutely And Val's always been that way we

Becki 20:15

look at

Tyler 20:15

different services or products that we use and you'll always get guys coming in trying to get your business but there's that because of those relationships you could come in a little lower but that was not just going to ruin that relationship And that's always been the

Mark 20:28

case Yeah We're pretty slow to change If there's a vendor change it takes a long time And then sustainability is the last one Ever since I've been

Becki 20:39

you guys have been working on have had sustainability as a goal for as long as

Mark 20:43

yeah Forever fuel mileage You know we were buying trailers with ferrings before ferrings were We're mandated running low rolling resistance tires trying to you know it's a benefit for us in high fuel mileage but also the big thing is the benefit to the environment

Tyler 21:02

And the interesting thing

Becki 21:03

is

Tyler 21:03

we were like Becky said we were doing sustainability Long before anybody else long before it was popular now it's almost standard to get those aluminum wheels and the ferrings and you name it But back when we were doing this there weren't very many other carriers and yes it was a smart business decision as far as fuel savings and what not but also I think It was done just because we truly care about the environment and we want to be as responsible as possible with how we're operating our business and what we're putting out there

Mark 21:37

for the family Yeah absolutely The kids

Tyler 21:40

I mean we've got to have a safe place Right

Mark 21:45

All right That's great So on the values we came up with the vision You want to just go ahead and read the vision to us

Tyler 21:53

Yeah So our vision that we came up with is we strive to be the premier carrier in the transportation industry by providing indispensable service to our current and future customers and team members

Becki 22:04

That connects back to the servant leadership piece and that family and relationships and it really the your vision that you all came up with really connects back to your values and then propels you forward to your mission statement

Mark 22:17

So to come up with the vision didn't you have each one of us write down how do we do that Do we just write down words And then we put it all together

Becki 22:25

I asked you a couple of different questions why would people like working here What do you hope to achieve What's your direction And I think I may have given you some sticky notes and had you guys like put these words down on sticky notes answering those questions and then we put it up on the big whiteboard and we started moving things around until we can And I had an idea of what that looked like

Mark 22:45

All right So then at the end my favorite part of this whole exercise was coming up with the mission because we talked about it extensively And then Tyler what did we end up coming up with

Tyler 22:57

So the mission we came up with is do the right thing in every situation

Mark 23:01

which sums up to me everything every interaction I've ever had with Val and Julie Stokes From the first time I met him I mean that's just that's them in a in one sentence

Tyler 23:14

Absolutely And I think that and that's why I said earlier we didn't have it written down but this was clearly the way that the the way Valerie's always did business it didn't matter what it was you know it could be a driver asking about a pay item extra pay item or what have you And The answer And I don't even know why I keep asking kept asking bell Cause you always know what the answer is going to

Mark 23:35

be

Tyler 23:37

do Whatever's fair W do whatever's right that was always the response and so that was just always the way he did business He wasn't ever looking to take advantage of anybody or to have power over someone It was just he wanted to do the right thing You wanted to be fair He wanted to show he cared

Becki 23:54

about

Mark 23:54

Yeah The extra pay items I've worked at a few other carriers you've worked a little bit with a couple of other carriers but not full time Like detention I never worked anywhere where the driver would get paid detention unless they were collecting from the customer So it might be months before And then you'd magically get $20 on your settlement And it was detention from a load four months ago And you'd been sitting there for eight hours and you got 20 like seriously nobody does that It's so different here It's just so different

Tyler 24:28

Yeah W whether we collect or

Becki 24:30

not

Mark 24:30

Yeah

Tyler 24:31

We if that's what's fair we're going to pay the driver

Mark 24:34

Yeah and then so we've shortened that a little bit to do the right thing we're going we've got a bunch of stick Val's got a whole bunch of stickers at his desk We're going to be putting those on a couple of different places on the trailers They're going to be on the truck by the door handle So everybody sees that every time they get in a truck or shut a door or crank a Dolly they'll see do the right thing

Tyler 24:58

And I

Becki 24:58

love that

Tyler 24:59

And I hope it's big enough not just so the driver sees it but so that other vehicles and cars passing can read

Becki 25:06

it

Mark 25:06

Yeah it's awesome I'm really excited about it I'm really happy what we came up with in the end It's what we knew I think we all knew where we were headed when we started the exercise but we needed to have the conversations and build it out the proper way instead of just say yeah this is it

Tyler 25:24

Yeah absolutely

Becki 25:25

I was going to say it really just it takes that team and that collaborative spirit too For everybody and to have some input And I don't know if you know this but Val emailed me yesterday

Mark 25:37

He mentioned that he did because he lost that again

Becki 25:41

that word cloud

Mark 25:44

So he emailed you to get the word cloud which came out of the driver satisfaction

Becki 25:49

it did It didn't it it was just something that I had developed to put in my PowerPoint to make it look fancy And Val really liked it Tai

Mark 25:59

why did he email for the word cloud

Tyler 26:02

So here's why and I think what Val really loves about this is It shows those words So earlier we talked about the survey results some of the words that we gained from that from the drivers and the what the word cloud does is it really shows how many times those words are being used for example family or home time right The more that's used in these results the bigger that's going to be in that world work cloud And it really shows you what's important to the drivers and how it fits in with our values And so what we're wanting to do is on the back wall in the training area in the training room Rick slash break room is put up the word cloud on that back wall So we'll have our values And then those words that are Important to the drivers right from these results are going to be put up there in similar fashion With those that are more important or used more a little bigger So

Mark 27:00

And then we're going to have our Mission vision and values several places around the office in our conference room where we meet with our vendors and customers when they come to visit it's going to be very prominent in the dispatch office The dispatchers have reminder every day of what the what are you here for What's your mission today is to do the right thing No matter what every interaction you have

Becki 27:21

It is quite important too for your stakeholders for your customers for those people that you do business with to know what your mission vision and values are too because if they align with them they're yours forever right

Mark 27:33

Yeah And we have had customers come and go at times that didn't align with those that mission and values that we have That we're not doing business with today I we're as picky with our customers as we are with our vendors and our drivers So if they don't treat our drivers properly or with respect they don't treat us properly we just don't do business with those people Long-term

Tyler 27:58

And the interesting thing with that is our biggest customer We do a survey every year with them because they're the same way they want to see that the individuals they use that are hauling their products align with their values and they ask on those same things like sustainability safety you name it so it's nice to see that we're well for them and for us that we Aren't aligned with alignment with that

Mark 28:21

Yeah that's wonderful That's a great way to wrap it up I really appreciate you both joining me Tyler I'm really happy to finally get you on the podcast it Episode eight you made it And Becky thank you for joining me again Now get upstairs and maybe some dinner No

Tyler 28:43

We'll have to cut that

Becki 28:45

You're lucky that I'm not asking you to fix dinner tonight which would be pizza or McDonald's right

Tyler 28:53

Yeah

Mark 28:53

What's the golden Jade in golden Jade's good Yeah

Becki 28:57

It's our favorite around here Cause it's close

Mark 29:00

All right Thanks Both of you

Troy Jensen

Mark 29:11

now everybody knows what our mission, vision, and values are, and I hope it matches with what you thought they were going to be mission, vision and values was a lot of fun to put together. I'm glad we got to record that segment. I'm really glad what we came up with. We're going to have it up several places in the office for all the office employees to see everyday drivers to see when they come through there. We're going to have the mission on. Several different places on the trucks and trailers. So the drivers are reminded of it on it every day while they're working. it was, it was, it was awesome going through that and what we came up with. what's next on the podcast, grace,

Grace 29:53

you have a conversation with Troy Jensen and his kind of story and history of how he started trucking and how he feels about Stokes.

Mark 30:04

Yeah. Troy has been with us, uh, right, right around seven years, he drives truck six 84. He is a, listener to the podcast. We talk about that a little bit. I got some, some feedback from him and, it was a really nice conversation with Troy. I have gotten to know Troy pretty well. I dispatched him when I first. came back. I was dispatching the flatbeds. Troy was pulling flatbed full-time so I've gotten to know him pretty well over the last six, seven years he's been on Stokes and he's, he's just a great guy. So here we go with our segment with Troy Jensen. So Troy Jensen tell us a little bit about yourself when did you start trucking and what have you done

Troy 30:59

I started a month out of high school I was 18 years old my brothers and me are fourth generation in our family Built call them business my great grandpa started the business I'm not even sure probably like thirties or forties Baby Holland milk in cans into the cheese plant And my grandpa and his brother bought the business from him And when they bought it it was a 1936 Chevy Cooten Dooley with a steak side bed on it And in the winter or when the snow was high they would have to hitch up a team to a sleigh and haul it And grandpa's brother decided he didn't want to do that So grandpa bought his share out And so then dad grew up helping grandpa milk dad he graduated from high school 61 Him and mom got married their senior year in high school so he started working his way through college hauling milk and Surveying for the state when he finally graduated from college that was right toward the end of the Vietnam war He had a bachelor's degree in hydrology wanting to go to work for the forest service and they wouldn't give government jobs to anybody but veterans So he came home we spent one summer going all over looking for a job and he come home and there was a milk round available for grandpa's home for cache Valley dairy at the time So he bought him a truck and started hauling milk So we all grew up riding in the trucks And I always knew I didn't want to I'd never wanted to help or drive a truck I grew up seeing my dad worked in holidays and weekends and I didn't want to do that But when we all started graduate from high school my oldest brother was always the one that was going to take over grandpa's business That and that's what he wanted to do But I had one other older brother and when he graduated dad hired him and trained him but he didn't want to stay there By the time I graduated he'd went to work construction So dad says do you want to come and drive a truck I saw Oh okay this will pay for my college It will be it That was the one thing I kept thinking I didn't take college scholarship play football So this is a way I can get myself through college is good money So it was a month out of high school I started driving that had a 1971 Kenworth at a a four and three 35 Cummins in it And a 5,000 gallon tank mounted on it with a third tag axle to help with the weight no power steering Rattletrap 62 miles an hour max

Mark 33:53

And that was a little questionable little hairy at

Troy 33:56

Oh yeah you were hanging on trying to make your eight second ride at 62 miles an hour Especially by the time I started driving dad dad bought that I was his first truck was a cab over white and then he bought that one and I was still fairly young So he had probably had that truck 12 years And so it was showing some where there was a three quarter inch gap between the door and the frame on the driver's side But you learned how to drive a truck in that thing Let me tell you you had a Ford you had to stick shifts no power steering You learned to double clutch and you learned to fix stuff on the side of the road So you could keep all in milk

Mark 34:40

so this was in the Late eighties 84 you

Troy 34:49

and then

Mark 34:50

football Did you have a scholarship to go play or you didn't you needed one

Troy 34:55

I did

Mark 34:56

You did

Troy 34:58

I decided I didn't want to play college ball I was sick of school and sick of football And so when it came right down to sign the letter of intent I decided no I I still have the option I was I wanted to go to school in automotive engineering down to Weaver state They at that time they were the number one school in the nation I had I changed my mind my senior year I'd always wanted to play for Utah state and go get a degree in forestry And then we went down our auto mechanics class went down and went through their automotive engineering program and decided that's what I was going to do And they actually offered me a scholarship And but I just decided I didn't want to but he did tell me that was when Mike Price was the coach there And he says if you just change your mind come in and try out If you walk on and make it we'll give you your scholarship But I just I didn't enjoy football that much So I just I really didn't Didn't want to do it

Mark 36:02

Do you go to high school in bear river Is that where you're going to school

Troy 36:06

Box elder bite your tongue bear river

Mark 36:12

Oh rivalry Huh

Troy 36:14

There is it's that's like BYU Utah only up North

Mark 36:20

so did you ever go to college at all or just right into

Troy 36:25

I did

Mark 36:26

you did

Troy 36:26

I started yeah I got married see I was 20 and my wife is 19 I had been driving for a couple of years when we got married I worked three days a week So I had I went to school Monday through Thursday and I would have to arrange all my classes late fit there And I was trying to load up my quarters the course was a five-year pores and I wanted to finish it for and they kept us at 17 to 19 credit hours each quarter And I Took it up to 27 to 31 And so it was a pretty heavy load but a lot of that I'd have three lab labs plus classes And the two quarters that I went I was in in class from seven o'clock in the morning till 10 o'clock at night with anywhere from an hour to two hour break in the

Mark 37:22

you mentioned automotive Was this you were you going to school for automotive

Troy 37:26

Yeah And in that course they would we took all the same classes that the auto mechanics classes and the diesel mechanics classes went through but they would go in and teach them say they were doing an engine rebuild You'd teach you an engine rebuild And then they had to keep doing it until they could do it flat rate time where we would learn how to do it And then we would study The theory in it and the design And so we followed the same thing It was just a little bit different than if you were going to be like a mechanic And then we got all the computer computers were just starting my left on my last quarter that I signed up for was my first CAD cam class I still had drafting classes where you draft where you did it all by hand back then they don't even know how to do that now But my grandpa had they got some extra milk and grandpa had bought a second truck And my brother that had quit come back and work full time And then FICO had just ramped up after the challenger disaster my sister-in-law brought me and my brother Application to five call and like an idiot I threw mine away and my brother went to work at the psycho So I went and read writing grandpa's second truck for him And I had a full-time job And that was in the spring And so I had that spring and that summer of full-time work And so I'd saved up enough money for another quarter So I signed up for that fall quarter and paid my tuition and we had just arranged the loads on all the trucks And so the one truck at grandpa's we only had to run every other day And so that helped me So I could go back to school And the week before school started my brother and my oldest brother went climbing in the Tetons and he fell and died And so guess who got to be the next in line to be there So I paid my tuition for that quarter and I really didn't have any choice I had to stay at home and haul milk grandpa He was too old He couldn't come and do it and we didn't have any enough drivers We had a couple of guys that would come and help but do it full-time they couldn't do it So that was when I decided we I did I ran grandpa's trucks for a year then after it was just over a year after my brother died WGCI fired us And so I thought I'll go find me another job and then go back to school But it was like three days after that magic Valley milk producers up in Jerome Idaho called us up and offered us a contract to haul all their Utah milk They needed help with the Idaho milk So dad and I Went to work right then Holland for them that was brutal if I got eight to 10 hours of sleep a week I was feeling really good it was a bad winter that year and they were shipping milk to Denver and they weren't getting back And so we were trying to be the cleanup guys up there hauling it back to Utah I got inspected up there One time I got so sick and tired of working all the time I just did my log book like I was supposed to and I got inspected I ran out of my 70 hours in just over four he was not happy but he didn't shut me down And he says you better tell them you need some time off and let me go

Mark 40:56

I can remember a time or two back in the old days on paper where my log book was not going to pass but I was so tired and I'm going towards the scale I was like I need an app Anyway I hope they inspect me and they'll give me an excuse to go to sleep

Troy 41:12

that's the way I was I needed to get my truck into the shop and have some stuff fixed and I just needed a little bit of sleep to try and catch up on And so I put that exactly everything I did on there And I might have 23 hours on one day and he counted through that and he gets to three days and he looks at me and he says you're almost there he flips the page over There you go 76 hours and four days You're not even you're just starting your fourth day

Mark 41:41

Oh my

Troy 41:43

they didn't care yeah he says when you get home tonight would you tell them let you get I said I wish just laughed

Mark 41:52

What were the family operation Three trucks four trucks How much where are you running

Troy 41:56

We just had to then this company that we're working for they wouldn't hire grandpa as a contractor and he was old enough it was time for him to be done So I bought one of his trucks and dad had his truck and then dad bought grandpa's second truck as a spare so when we first started doing it it was just the two of us we started picking up milk and Utah and it got to where by about that that first summer dad had enough work in Utah And so I was going to Idaho and coming back I did that up and up until October of that year And then they called me up says Hey we can handle this all go back and help your dad And they're just Wasn't quite enough yet for both of us to do it So I went to work for a guy I knew that had a flat bed and for a little over a year I pulled the flat bed two or three trips a week to California for him until we got enough up by then I didn't want to go back call and milk And so every time dad asked me him no when I finally decided cause I I didn't like California and I didn't want to be on the road So I finally decided okay I will And he had four trucks Then I got on the fourth truck there the milk had come up enough and it just climbed We got more and more milk at our high point I think we had 12 trucks going We were probably hauling 500,000 pounds of milk a day And we would go Denver Phoenix Las Vegas a lot most in the salt Lake Up to Idaho star Valley That was pretty much everywhere that co-op was a milk supplier They didn't have their own plant so they would sell milk to different plants and whoever needed it they one week they'd call us up and say Hey we need four loads a day in Denver and that might go for a month And then they'd call us up and say Hey we need four loads a day or three loads whatever in Phoenix And that it was always worked out We went to Denver in the winter and Phoenix and Vegas in the summer

Mark 43:52

Of course why wouldn't you

Troy 43:55

No kidding As soon as the weather got good out and Denver we started heading South

Mark 43:59

So I guess was that take us through into the nineties here

Troy 44:03

Yeah when I came back to work for that it was 92 And we did that for it was 10 years ago when I finally got rid of my truck I that was the last of my mail call They were there had been about a year and a half in between there What I wear I bought a flat bed and had done some flatbed and also

Mark 44:27

So you did know Collin almost 20 years huh

Troy 44:30

28 with say three years in there without that was milk column and flatbed then we finally all of our producers went somewhere else or went broke and went out of business and my truck was rough shape and I had paid all my bills Finally had paid all my bills off and I was able to sell that truck and walk away without debt And so I thought I'd be crazy To try and sink a bunch of money in that truck and get a flat bed again and start doing it So I thought no I'm not going to do it I'm tired of laying there in bed at night trying to figure out how am I going to get enough fuel in my truck the next day to finish the day after day I just it wasn't worth it And so I sold it and walked away with a little bit of money in my pocket and no debt no truck debt no business related debt And that was a good feeling But after 28 years of work for and I literally there was most of those years that I was doing that I could count my days off on it was So it wasn't worth it

Mark 45:33

no over that 28 years you and your wife had several children right

Troy 45:38

Five kids and there was times when I'd get home but it would be midnight And then I'd get up at four o'clock in the morning and leave so that my first new truck that I bought was the international It was a 94 And that thing was the guy that was working for me rolled it one month after I paid it also five years and one month but it had 1.2 6 million miles on it And that was mostly in-state I was running like crazy a lot of the times all I'd get to do is stop by home is stop and take a shower and pick off

Mark 46:17

So you came to work for Stokes in 2015

Troy 46:20

the seven years in on June 1st

Mark 46:25

2014 So he only spent three years between mill Collin NUS

Troy 46:32

I worked for a couple of guys hauling milk and I worked for Navajo for six months before I came here I could not wait to get here after driving for six months for Navajo that was the first job that wasn't hauling milk that I took I'd met J D Holland milk We were both driving for his brother-in-law that's where I met And then when he came to work for Val we still talked three or four times a week regularly And so he was telling me all about what he was doing And after he got into it for awhile I quit working for his brother and went to work for Navajo And he kept saying Hey we might I think I've got enough work Valid bought him a new trailer and he had ordered him a new truck and he says I'm going to talk to Val and see if we can't keep this truck not traded in and hire you because I got too much work he says are you interested And I said Oh hell yeah get me away from this place when his truck came in he talked about and bow says okay if you need another driver So I came in and met with Alan give my two weeks notice to Navajo and glad to be added

Mark 47:43

And JD is JD Huggins that you're talking of who still is here and is still pulling flatbed Most of the time I guilt him into pulling a van or a reefer every now and again

Troy 47:55

I know I get to make fun of him every once in a while

Mark 48:01

So you came here to pull a flatbed and that business has waned a little bit for us

Troy 48:10

COVID killed us honestly so right now he's got enough for him and I think we're doing tires and that stuff that's great But to go out gypsy truck and with the flatbed let's pull a reefer

Mark 48:24

Yeah and

Troy 48:25

easier

Mark 48:25

we do have a boatload of reefer and van freight and w in in 2014 2015 2016 when the flatbed was going really hot and heavy the difference in rates between what the flats were doing and vans and reefers w was it was a pretty big gap That's closed up a bit the oversize over with stuff is still pays substantially more but just legal flatbed freight is very similar to our vans and reefers at this point

Troy 48:58

Why go through the extra work of Tarpon and throw in chains

Mark 49:01

yeah some guys JD is one of them He doesn't like doesn't love hitting docs maybe ended up at a grocery warehouse or like this week you're going to be delivering to us cold in Fort worth one evening probably at 10 or 11:00 PM He JD doesn't like it I get it too I've done both I totally understand the mindset of not wanting to do that But one thing with

Troy 49:23

we were going in

Mark 49:24

usually what the flatbed whenever you show up people are happy to see you They want whatever you've got or they want to get loaded whatever You're there to pick up It isn't always that way with the van or a reefer But luckily most of our customers it is we don't I don't know we don't pay out detention very often to any of our drivers It happens once in a while but it's rare

Troy 49:47

I still especially going to Canada I loved That's that's just so nice trucking And and When we were doing in and out of the mines I would rather do that but a lot of that other stuff I would just assume to as that the mind stuff the oversize overweight stuff was great And I'd go to Canada in a heartbeat over anything else But outside of that

Mark 50:14

So you've been here for seven years which is quite a while I guess other you were in a family business for 28 years essentially hon milk but we've certainly outlasted a couple of your other Stops along the way what do you like so well about working here

Troy 50:30

After I started working well even in a FA family businesses are I'll say that But the

Mark 50:37

Good good way to break up a family is for the family to get in business

Troy 50:42

absolutely If you want to quit having family reunions and family parties start a business although me and my brothers got along really good that we could fight like cats and dogs over there to cache Valley dairy and we'd go home park the trucks and head to the gym or get on our motorcycles it was done and forgotten with so we did get along good that way but Dad and grandpa and that it wasn't it didn't work out that so much But one thing that I did find out working for other companies and that little three year stint is that most companies out there don't care about the driver They will lie cheat steal throw you under the bus It doesn't matter that driver out there is theirs And I've heard it said out of driver manager's mouth and owner's mouth There are a hundred drivers They come a dime a dozen So I don't care about you And it was just unreal the way I saw And the way I was treated at other places And so that for me is one of the biggest things right there that Stokes is you guys are I know you're always honest with me I know that you guys care about all of us drivers out there I know you guys appreciate us for doing the job we're doing and that's that little bit right There is hard to find that a lot of these places they just they don't get it It's the drivers make the companies whether they like it or not And why treat them like garbage when you got when driver retention is the thing to do so

Mark 52:24

Honest even when we don't when we shouldn't be honest even when it's bad news How many times have I called you with what's bad news Hey this is going to suck but I just want to let you know

Troy 52:37

And what's my answer Okay Are you going to let me use some lube or are you to me

Mark 52:45

I always figure it's better to just rip the bandaid off I dunno

Troy 52:52

that's the way this business is it's not always running smooth and everything's not always perfect So you have to take when things go to hell you have to just deal with it and keep on going It's just the way it is

Mark 53:07

So I'm sure you participated in the driver satisfaction survey We had think it ended up being all but one or two that were turned back in what do we need to improve What needs to be better I'm surely you had to answer something on there where it was Okay But you want it better This really needs to change

Troy 53:30

The two things that I want or are really unrealistic and that's more hard home time and what everybody wants is more money Yeah Honestly outside of that this is a great job or I guess I could have put down I don't want to go to California ever

Mark 53:45

again sorta almost unrealistic for us

Troy 53:49

Those are just but other than that as far as the job goes I've had a lot of people When I got rid of my truck I had a lot of people calling me wanting me to come to work for them And after I finally came to work for vow They would say what do I got what do I got to do to get you to work for me And I would just lay out what valgus gives me and my bare minimum when we were home flatbed J D would try to make sure that we grow so much a week So we had that was the least amount of money we were going to make each week pulling a reefer It's that's usually the least amount And if I make less than that I usually have a three-day weekend and I would lay it out to him I said look this is the least amount of money that I make Plus Val pays 100% of my benefits I don't pay any money up front on that until I go to a doctor that's health dental vision he gives me paid vacation He gives me quality or safety bonuses He gives me What did I forget I told them I don't work weekends That's a big thing I don't work weekends now that was

Mark 55:03

Yeah well

Troy 55:05

and be before when this was all going on we didn't have electronic logs So everybody come in on Friday night and I so I told him that was the one thing especially like the milk callers at wanted me to come to work for him I wouldn't work weekends I told them that's a deal breaker right there And I said we get holidays off and we get holiday vacation paid or payment on the major holidays whether we worked or not And and once you laid that out for them nobody can touch that Everybody has says I'd go broke if I had to give you just all the benefits and everything that you guys give us as far as that goes I don't know of anybody that can do it Or will is willing to

Mark 55:45

So that's been a big debate for us because when when when a driver calls in looking for a job man they want to hear what do you pay per mile And it needs to be a big number right Like a big number And it is a big number If we take into account all those things you just listed off The benefits and the holiday paid holidays and paid to chain and get your detention and get your stop pay And all these other things It's a pretty big number per mile but that's not how we pay you know all those things are actually paid extra over and above the pay per mile So we've struggled We've struggled to grow We've struggled to grow for a long time but it seems like it's worse today

Troy 56:31

There's been a couple of guys that I've run into and have asked me about it And so I started saying what do you take home every and then I would say okay this is what you'll make per mile And you'll eat easily get at least 3000 miles a And you can get as many as much as four but at the end but you won't have any deductions for your insurance or any of this other stuff So you will take home more money and it still doesn't compute with them it just will not compete with them And so I ran into one guy and he was asking me and I said look this is what every time somebody offers me a job this is what I tell them I Demand because this is what I get and I lay it all out for them They say that sounds pretty good And I says then why don't you call the office And it always comes back to what did they pay per mile

Mark 57:22

It is I w that's well that's the predominant theme in the industry And so that's what everybody pays including us We pay by the mile but like the big thing with us which is different from I don't know anybody who does is off pan off the hub paying off the odometer Nobody pays off the odometer Everybody's just paying book miles

Troy 57:45

Yeah And there's a lot of companies that really screw you on that because I don't know where the what route they figure that they're taken but there's no way in hell you take make that turn in the miles They say

Mark 58:00

Is there anything you want to ask me Anything at all Nothing

Troy 58:07

I've thought about since I've been listening to your podcast and you've ask let's ask Mark a question I don't come up with anything yet

Mark 58:15

you're going to come up with it after we get done you'll be laying in bed tonight You'll be like Oh I should have

Troy 58:22

all right I can shoot you a text if I up with something like that

Mark 58:27

I'm glad to hear you've been listening we've

Troy 58:29

I enjoy it I was wondering how it would turn out and I I really enjoy them You guys are doing a good job

Mark 58:35

We're me and my daughter having a lot of fun putting them together And I feel like I've gotten to know a few of our drivers a little bit better and some of the folks that work in the office and I hope are Drivers have gotten to know us a little bit better too through them So it's it's a neat little thing we started doing here for kind of the small investment big investment in time That's the big investment Every one of those episodes There's a For every minute there's 10 minutes put into it every minute that ends up Yeah It's it's pretty labor-intensive putting it together but I every time when I listen after we're done I'm like man that was so much better than the last one and it's so much it's weird because it's a lot better to listen to in the truck as we're editing and we're putting it all together I've got a good nice headphones here at home that I'm that we use and we get it all put together and publish it But then I always download it and listen to it I try to listen to it driving in a semi whenever I listen to it so I can hear it Like our listeners would hear it It always sounds better than a semi than it does in my headphones So

Troy 59:47

well there's a lot of those podcasts out there that you listen to and it's hard to keep your attention for an hour And that's the one thing I've always found listening to the yours for that hour or hour however long it is completely glued to what's going on And it it makes that time go by faster while you're driving down the road There's not a lot of those podcasts that don't do that You get sick of them after a little bit And maybe it's cause that the people involved that

Mark 1:00:15

sure that's for me too I've had a little bit of trouble deciding what's good and what's bad what we should put out and what we shouldn't put out because I'm the one who's doing the interview and all the time I feel like it's all good Cause like when we started I said we went on for 10 minutes and this isn't even going to be on the pod Like I could talk to you for two or three hours I can just bullshit with you for two or three hours And it's the same

Troy 1:00:40

I bet you we could make up a lot of stories

Mark 1:00:42

yeah it's the same way with Mike Roberts and Scott Olson and Dale Swenson and a bunch of our drivers I can just talk to them for a long time We're not necessarily saying anything constructive but we're but it is constructive in the end You guys the drivers know me better and know Stokes a little bit better through those conversations So I hate to say it's wasted time I don't really feel like it is gets I think it's valuable especially if we spread it out you and all of our drivers spread that message that you can have conversations with these guys but it takes awhile to get there It took you a little while to get to know me So

Troy 1:01:25

It does Of course you had just quit when I came here and all I heard was about this tire Nazi guy and so when I heard the tire Nazi was coming back I'm like Oh shit everything was going so good here And now they're bringing this And I part of that might've been before I quit Navajo they hired us We called them a fuel Nazi and beef Each one of our trips he would give us a fuel solution and he would want us to stop At one place and put 29 gallons on and he would then stop at another put 50 gallons and stop it And they w they would give us places we could fuel And they says as long as you hit those fuel stops you get your bonus But this guy made he wanted you to stop at every stop He told you to stop by even if he made you stop four times from salt Lake to billings that was okay with him And so he and I butted heads for that last little bit that I was there I didn't like him And he didn't like

Mark 1:02:33

he was there's optimization software You can buy that'll tell you things like that Stop here and get 29 gallons and stop there and get 55 gallon yeah I get it And by the way I'm not just the tire Nazi these days I'm the fuel Nazi And I'm the mile per gallon Nazi I'm the idle time Nazi I got all the Nazi hats is what I wear

Troy 1:02:57

we'll just call you the Nazi

Mark 1:03:01

Just I'm just missing the little mustache That's all I'm missing

Troy 1:03:04

Cut your down a little bit

Mark 1:03:08

all right Troy man it was great talking to you Thanks so much for taking time and I'm going to try and use as much of this as I can

Troy 1:03:15

I can't wait to hear what it turns out

Mark 1:03:18

all right, buddy. I'll have you on again too. I, like I said, I could talk, go on with you for hours. But I'm sure not everybody wants to listen to us ramble for two or three hours.

Troy 1:03:29

All right. You never know. Maybe we're entertaining and we don't know it.

Mark 1:03:34

Oh, thanks. Thanks again, Troy. We'll we'll talk to you soon.

QFR - Trailer Wraps

Mark 1:03:48

Well, that was a great segment with Troy Jensen. We're back. And it's time for our question from the road, grace. What's on QFR this week. Well, that's what I name it when I w when we're putting the,

Grace 1:04:05

The question this week is from Matt McLaren He is the transportation coordinator at Amy's kitchen in Pocatello Idaho And this is what he said Hi cool New armed forces trailers will all your new trailers have the same graphics

Mark 1:04:21

Okay So Matt had seen one of our rapt trailers We just took delivery on 18 new utility trailers six drive ans 14 foot tall with wide base tires and they have the regular Stokes trucking graphics on them We also got 12 brand new utility reefers Six of them have the normal graphics but there's six of those trailers that we put a special wraps on There's three different types of wraps There are two that he was referring to that are our armed forces appreciation They say I think it's like thank you us military or

Grace 1:05:01

Thank you us armed forces and it lists

Mark 1:05:05

Yeah it lists six different

Grace 1:05:06

have the space force on there

Mark 1:05:09

No but that was talked about we ended up putting national guards emblem on there but I

Grace 1:05:17

of the space

Mark 1:05:17

I did point out that technically

Grace 1:05:21

there is a

Mark 1:05:21

if you get on like the us armed forces website According to the website One of the branches is the space force It was debated Val decided to put on the national guard

Grace 1:05:38

which is probably for right now a better

Mark 1:05:42

I'd call it it's as much for veteran appreciation as active duty Yeah So and I don't think there's too many space force veterans

Grace 1:05:53

Or

Mark 1:05:54

There probably isn't Okay So we've got two armed forces appreciation trailers We have two first responder appreciation trailers which are really cool They got a thin blue line flag on them a graphic with some some first And then last but not least we have two that are Truck driver appreciation They say thank you truckers I like the whole side of the trailer Thank you truck drivers And I think it says you bring us everything

Grace 1:06:24

which is true

Mark 1:06:25

Absolutely and they've been very well-received lots of people have been commenting on them Most of the time many of those trailers are running North and South between Logan and Southern California One of the specs we got on new trailers the front axle lifts If the trailer is empty or loaded light enough that it doesn't need both axles on the ground the side benefit of that is those appreciation trailers tend to go through salt Lake city Quite often So there's we've had a lot of not just from our own drivers and people that know our company but also outside folks they've been very popular it obviously didn't come free it was it cost us more than our usual graphics but the management team felt very strongly that after the last year we really wanted to point Military first responders and truck

Grace 1:07:21

Drivers

Mark 1:07:22

the frontline people that didn't get to work from home through COVID so glad we did that We've got some new trucks coming too that have patriotic logos on them red white and blue So there all the new trucks are white and instead of the usual burgundy and silver graphics that we'd usually put on a white truck they're red white and blue are really really I can't wait until those trucks get here and we get them stickered and we can get some pictures with the military appreciation trailers in hopefully in the next couple of weeks we'll have some of those and we get them posted up on social media for everybody to see So I think that about wraps it up for this episode episode eight and upcoming episodes I think episode nine is going to be Kind of based around mental health I think I've we've got to do some editing on a segment I recorded with Charles I'm also going to be interviewing our salesmen from Freightliner tomorrow we're probably going to do an episode on equipment here pretty quick him Kimmer Cron quest or tire and oil And we're also going to do I am going to have one of the drivers interview me and we're going to do a whole episode based fuel I know riveting right thank you all for tuning in download another episode of driver to driver make sure to rate and review us It'll help more people find our podcast and the more listens we get the more chances there are that we can hire truck drivers and I can stay home for a weekend That would be wonderful Some fleas If you care about my mental health rate and review our podcast

Grace 1:09:16

Okay Okay Right review Yes Talk about it with your friends

Mark 1:09:23

All right, everybody, we will see you in a couple of weeks with our next episode. Have a great time and drive safe

1:09:41

Thank you for listening to driver to driver. Uh, Stokes trucking podcast. For more information on Stokes trucking, please visit our website Stokes trucking.com. You can also learn more about us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at Stokes trucking. The intro and outro music is I can't keep still. The bumper music between segments is fetch me another one, Both performed by the caffeine creek band Driver to driver is a frankfurter studios production