The OuterBelt's Podcast
The OuterBelt's Podcast
USPS, Non-Domiciled CDLs, And Capacity Crunch Explained
A windy hop to Fort Wayne set the stage, but the real turbulence hit when USPS clamped down on non-domiciled CDL drivers and watched service clog almost overnight. We walk through the ban, the backlash, and the DOT’s emergency interim rule, then connect the dots to capacity, safety, and why a slow correction might finally nudge rates higher after a grinding freight slump.
We break the jargon into real-world choices: how lowest-bid USPS contracts implode when diesel spikes, why CDL mills and lax English proficiency testing create safety and fairness gaps, and what happens when visa timelines don’t match CDL validity. You’ll hear how states with friendlier rules amplified the problem and why contractors leaned on non-domiciled license holders to make thin margins work. It’s not a blame game aimed at drivers; it’s a look at the systems that pushed many into bad deals and how enforcement could rebalance the market.
Then we zoom out. Three forces are shrinking capacity even without a demand boom: tighter English-proficiency enforcement, the non-domiciled CDL crackdown, and a major pullback in new truck builds as OEMs cut shifts and big fleets delay refresh cycles. That combination retires older equipment faster than it’s replaced and pushes out noncompliant operators, setting the stage for a gradual lift in rates. Expect a slow burn, not fireworks—more like an instrument approach than a sprint to the runway.
Along the way, we keep it human: instrument training with foggles and 200-foot minimums, the surreal sight of wind turbines from 4,000 feet, and the eternal truck-stop coffee debate that every driver holds strong opinions about. If you care about safety, compliance, and getting paid fairly for the miles you run, this conversation gives you both the story and the strategy. Subscribe, share with a driver who needs the update, and drop your take: will tighter rules help or hurt your lanes this quarter?
Email us: theouterbeltpodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.hyfieldtrucking.com
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I don't think it's professional. Just my opinion.
SPEAKER_03:You think this is professional? Without cursing.
SPEAKER_02:This is totally professional. Without cursing this podcast is professional. It's not like we're all sitting around drinking whiskey having conversations about things we don't know about. Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Outer Belt Podcast Show. What are we calling it?
SPEAKER_00:Just the Outer Belt. Just the Outer Belt.
SPEAKER_02:Welcome back to the Outer Belt. We hope you are enjoying your time on 270. And um That's the end, isn't it? It is the end.
SPEAKER_00:It is the end.
SPEAKER_02:It's been a wonderful night. Y'all have a good one.
SPEAKER_03:It's reverse night.
SPEAKER_02:It's reversed night.
SPEAKER_06:It's dyslexia.
SPEAKER_05:Reverse it. What's that song? Reverse it. Yeah, I don't know the words.
SPEAKER_04:Flip it. Flip it and reverse it.
SPEAKER_05:There we go.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, we'll try one more time. Yes?
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Hey everybody, welcome to the Outer Belt. I'm Patrick, and you know I'm my friend. Chili.
SPEAKER_06:Buttermilk.
SPEAKER_02:Derek.
SPEAKER_06:Zoo, Kini Brad.
SPEAKER_02:And Jerry. Oh, I'm so glad to be here. It has been a day. It has been a day. It's been it's been a very long week, and it's only Monday.
SPEAKER_05:No.
SPEAKER_00:No, we've got past Monday.
SPEAKER_03:We're past Monday?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Today was second Monday. Stop it. Oh, well, today was a Mondayest Tuesday, wasn't it? And tomorrow's gonna be the Mondayest Wednesday, I bet you.
SPEAKER_06:Yes. I don't think so. I think it's gonna be the Monday as Thursday.
SPEAKER_02:No, no, that's where you're wrong. I'm telling you right now, I've already checked. Thursday, it's gonna be a great day.
SPEAKER_07:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:The weather is gonna be beautiful. Uh I plan on going frying. I almost said frying. I was like, frying.
SPEAKER_00:We're doing a good old-fashioned fresh frying.
SPEAKER_02:We're doing a fresh fry. It's gonna be a beautiful day. I don't care who you are. Uh so no, but today, in all seriousness, though, today was a pretty rough day for uh some of us, but just work was very worky. Yeah, you know, the sun was out. But it was a beautiful day. Yeah, it was freaking gorgeous. Yep. I at one point I was I had to go down to the yard uh and I grabbed my jacket and I put it on, I got ready to leave, and I was like, I'm just curious, did I get the heavy the appropriate weight jacket? I thought it might have been colder, and I looked at my watch and it was 59 degrees, and I'm like, oh, that's no jacket weather.
SPEAKER_00:What your watch doesn't tell you is the wind. Or it's I took I took mine off weather with the wind and went to repair a windshield, and the wind was like, no, we need a jacket.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah, well, I told you, so today I uh uh as most of y'all know I'm a uh I already have my private pilot's license. Um I don't drink and fly. Uh, but I uh am working now on my instrument uh license or our our uh endorsement. So that means I can fly in the clouds at night. Or not at night, but in the clouds, and when you can't see, right? You're just strictly going off your control panel on the airplane. So to do this, you literally put on these glasses that like gray everything out except for your uh instruments, yeah, your panels, and uh and you do your flights. And you have uh a pilot with you called a safety pilot, and what they're doing is looking for other airplanes. Because when it is a beautiful clear day and you're flying, especially at the levels we're flying, uh you don't have to have any of that stuff. I mean, you can literally be a 1918 Piper Cub with no electricity, like literally no electricity. You got out and you cranked the engine by spinning the prop, and then you pulled the uh chalks out and then jumped on the plane and took off. Like that's totally legal and totally fine. Um and so they wouldn't obviously show up on the on my dash uh on the on the little panel that sees the other airplanes. So you have to have someone in the airplane actually looking out for people like that. And uh so today we did fly to Fort Wayne, and I I told Vince, I told you this earlier, but I haven't told y'all yet. So to get out to Fort Wayne was like 46 minutes, I think it was, and it was 32 minutes to get from Fort Wayne to uh back to uh Columbus.
SPEAKER_05:36 minutes.
SPEAKER_02:46 minutes and 32. The wind. That's how strong the wind was blowing. So on the way up there, the wind was just fighting us, right? So the plane thought it was going fast, but actually over the ground we were going pretty slow, and then flip around the other way, the plane thinks we're going fast, and over the ground we're fly flying. So uh yeah, that was pretty fun because Fort Wayne is a place we go to frequently a lot. That is one of the perks of being able to fly, is that uh I'll be able to take us to Fort Wayne, pick up trucks or whatever for when they have to be extended stays. You know, sometimes it's an in and out in one day, but sometimes you go out there and it's gotta be dropped off, and a week later we go pick it up, uh, depending on the nature of what needs to be done. It's pretty cool to actually fly out there and kind of know, like, oh, this is what I'll be doing. This is the route, this is whatever. But the other thing that sucked about it is it was a beautiful, gorgeous day, and for two hours in the air I couldn't see how the airplane. So, like, there was one point where we were passing uh something and uh it was unique. So my flight instructor was like, okay, real quick, take a look. So I did take a look, and it was cool to see. Uh what it is, and you know this, when you're going um to Fort Wayne from Columbus, there is a windmill farm. Yeah. Is that the right way to put it? It's like hundreds of windmills. And so we flew right over that. And so he was like, look out. And I looked out, and it's just windmills as far as you could see underneath us. It was crazy. They look like toothpicks. I'm just curious. Tiny. What were they milling?
SPEAKER_03:They were milling, oh is it not windmills? Wind turbines. Wind turbines.
SPEAKER_00:Someone's gonna put in the comments, they're typing it right now. Oh yeah. They're called wind turbines.
SPEAKER_02:Someone's like, I thought there were fans. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Uh pulling off the uh the corn. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02:But get the corn sweats out of there. Yeah. Well, they're they're built by this company OnlyFans. Oh, um, so they're interesting. No, that's electric. So uh, but no, they are uh it was it was cool to see them from that perspective because I'm so used to seeing them from the ground.
SPEAKER_04:Uh and then it was like right back on uh with the cool to see the ones like out in New Mexico, Texas, California. That'd be awesome.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I'm thinking of like the that one spot. Uh is it on I-10? Uh you're better at California interstates than I am. I already know what you're talking about. Will you go between Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and uh uh if you're going up uh 58 to Palm? No.
SPEAKER_00:No, if you're going east or east on 110 either way on 110, Palm Springs. Palm Springs, thank you. I was gonna say Desert Springs, but that's all right.
SPEAKER_01:There's so many out there, not all of them work.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I is that it's I always assumed it was a windmill testing place. Or I'm sorry, a wind turbine testing place. Because if you haven't been out there, uh there's a thousand.
SPEAKER_05:And some of them aren't even moving. I'm like broken.
SPEAKER_02:And they have like all different styles and types, and like they have little bitty ones that look like they're about to spin off the thing. They're going a thousand miles an hour in a circle, and then they have the gigantic ones that are barely moving, but they're the ones that are producing the most electricity, you know? And and everything in between, it is a trip. It's so weird. And then it looks like they get built, they do their experiment, and they just leave them.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:They don't ever like it looks like they don't ever do anything with them.
SPEAKER_05:Like a wind turbine cemetery.
SPEAKER_06:I think the little ones are to test the speed. They're just for wind speed.
SPEAKER_02:Usually they need one of those.
SPEAKER_06:But I don't I don't know. I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_02:A winds in the wind speed too, like, okay, um, have y'all ever seen like on the top of a cellboat or something, they have uh a little thing that spins around in circles and it looks like it has like spoons almost coming off little cups off it. That's a wind speed meter. So that's how they typically do it.
SPEAKER_00:It's weird why they only use teaspoons on there though.
SPEAKER_02:Well, because if it's tailspoons, it'll it's too much air, so then you get a false reading. You don't want a false reading. No. That'd be terrible. Horrible.
SPEAKER_05:That's cool that you got to see that though. Like you gotta sneak a peek with your goggles off.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. That's the worst part of this this type of flying is that I can't see anything.
SPEAKER_05:Do the goggles make you motion sick?
SPEAKER_02:They don't me, but I could see how someone could. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Of course you're all you're you're in motion, plus you're I don't know. Yeah, I could see that.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and I mean like so leaving out of uh uh OSU's airport, which is what I fly out of, and heading to Fort Wayne today, the way the wind was blowing, it was like straight there. So we like took off, we barely turned the airplane a little bit to head a little north uh west, and you just fly straight there and then you land. And so we had the initial climb out, we climbed to 4,000 feet, flew straight there, and then landed. So I mean, for a long, like for 40 of those 46 minutes, you're just flat and level and kind.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, like so are you doing the takeoff and landing also with the goggles on?
SPEAKER_02:So no, no uh no, you have to have visibility to uh to land. You don't actually have to have visibility to take off. Okay. Um, but you do have to be able to see the runway to land. Okay. Um but I mean we're getting down to 200 feet on s depending on the airport and what instrumentation they have. Right. Um, like radar and and all that stuff. Sometimes it's 200 feet is how close you get to the runway, which is like nothing. I mean, that's like you're on it. Right. So it's crazy to see how close you can get to the runway before you peel the goggles off? So yes, that literally, uh so right now with the with the with the safety pilot, I'll be flying down, and then at some point they will say, All right, the clouds just cleared, you can take your they're called foggles, so you can take your foggles off. So you take them off and then you do your landing. Um But it's it's crazy because I mean if it is 200 feet, you're taking your goggles off, and we just landed. Like it's that quick.
SPEAKER_05:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:Um I'm sure if it's any worse than that, you're not gonna land. You're either gonna go to another airport or do a loop until you can see close enough to land.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. So they it's called uh uh like an approach, which makes sense. You're approaching the runway. Um so you follow that down, and then when you get it's specified by the FAA. You don't get to make your decision on this. The FAA actually has printed for every single airport, every single runway in the country. There's thousands of them. They tell you exactly based on the instrumentation that's there, how low you can get. And they even have redundancies. So they're like, if this, you know, like say this instrument will let you get down to 200 feet, if that's out of service and not working, well then we have to back up to this instrument, so now you can only get down to 500 feet. If that's not working, this one will let you get down to 600 feet. And once you hit those those uh elevations, those altitudes, if you can't see the runway, they give you so much distance to go, and then you go missed approach, which means you you didn't make it, you couldn't see it. And then they tell you, they actually tell you exactly what to do, where to go, and um where to hold to be able to make your next move. Because again, when you're doing all that, I'm doing it, I'm faking it, right? But if I was really doing it in real life, I'd be in clouds. So if I couldn't see the runway, and I was like, all right, well, obviously I'm gonna miss it, I gotta go somewhere else, I still can't see. So you do a set published missed approach that way you don't accidentally run into another airplane. Wow. Uh and then once you get to that uh area where you're holding, and we've all I think been in an airplane with a hold, right? Jetliners do it all the time. Sure. You get somewhere and all of a sudden you're doing donuts and you're like, why are we just circling? A racetrack, right? It's that's it. Usually it's for weather or in this case, if you couldn't make the runway. Uh because sometimes with weather, it's blowing through. If they know that, hey, in five minutes, you'll be fine, you'll be able to see the runway, you just hold there and then go do it again. But if it's like, no, it's not getting any better, they'll tell you to go to a different runway or a different airport. So it's uh it's very interesting what I'm doing. But again, the downside is it's beautiful. We're having great pretty days, and I can't look outside the airplane.
SPEAKER_05:That stinks.
SPEAKER_02:That's what's frustrating. So that stinks. And everybody at home and are on the road listening, it's like, we don't really care that you're like but anyways, um I opened up the back door for about an hour.
SPEAKER_05:Turn the heater off.
SPEAKER_04:And then still haven't turned my heat on.
SPEAKER_05:No. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Don did when we were no. We're we're pushing it. We're we're trying to. I got a feeling this coming Monday that's gonna change. Because we're yeah, the high's supposed to be like 38 with a low in the 20s. But but it's a dry cold. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Okay. Keep telling yourself that.
SPEAKER_04:But yeah, we've been holding off as long as we can.
SPEAKER_05:Not us.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we caved pretty quick.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I got uh my own private heater in my office. Yeah, and I've used it more than once.
SPEAKER_05:I feel like our leaves are holding on longer this year.
SPEAKER_02:I I agree. And I didn't know like around my house, I haven't noticed it too much, but driving up and down Riverside, yeah, uh, which is a road we take to get to the yard all the time, you can definitely see because there's still like bright red and bright yellow trees.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, very pretty.
SPEAKER_02:I feel like by this time last year it was a barren wasteland.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, yeah. I thought the last little bit of windstorm, what day was that? Halloween? I thought for sure they were all gonna come down, but it didn't happen. And I know our big tree in the back that it's it's holding on for dear life with its leaves too. I have a feeling it's all just gonna go poof one morning.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_05:You know, take off.
SPEAKER_02:Well, leaves, I mean, like at some point we do want the leaves to come off, right? Because they hold ice. And so if we don't if they don't shed their leaves, then they could potentially pull the tree or the limb down, right? Sure, sure, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:So ice is very heavy.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That's why I'm a fan of vanilla ice. Maybe it's been a day. Uh but we're here now, and we're here to talk about things that impact others.
SPEAKER_05:All right. What are you going with?
SPEAKER_02:I am going with Evans. Where are we going?
SPEAKER_00:Uh Fort Wayne.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00:I'm not flying with you to Fort Wayne though. Why not? I'm not flying with you to Fort Wayne.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you.
SPEAKER_06:Why not?
SPEAKER_02:I would too.
SPEAKER_06:I would hope if you're flying the plane that you would go.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I'll fly with you anywhere else, just not Fort Wayne. Just not Fort Wayne.
SPEAKER_03:Have you ever been to Fort Wayne?
SPEAKER_02:I have been to Fort Wayne. The the sprawling metropolis. Have you been to the airport in Fort Wayne? I've I've been to both yes, I've been to both airports, and now I can officially say I've floated to both airports. Do they have a uh commercial airport?
SPEAKER_05:Thank you. In a small international airport or whatever they call them. Yes. Regional? A regional airport.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. So Fort Wayne, I think it might even be international because I think they do get like an Air Canada flight.
SPEAKER_05:Oh.
SPEAKER_02:I know, right? They get to fly all the way to Toronto. It's about a 17-minute flight from Fort Wayne. Yeah, they have that. It's way south of town, though. I think that airport's like 45 minutes from actually being in Fortnite.
SPEAKER_05:Are you sure it's not just Indianapolis at that point?
SPEAKER_02:No, I don't think so. No, that's too far. Um, but this one's cool. It's up kind of near where uh your bolt used to be. Yeah. It's up by the little b thing, it's adorable.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Fort Wayne International Airport lies eight miles southwest of Fort Wayne. Yeah. Allen County, Indiana.
SPEAKER_02:The problem is there's no quick way to get there to from Fort Wayne. Like if you're in downtown Fort Wayne and you have to get to the airport, it's all like little 30 mile an hour roads together.
SPEAKER_05:It feels like it feels like a long drive.
SPEAKER_02:It feels like a long drive, or you have to get to the interstate, which from downtown to the interstate is a drive. It's a drive. They did not put their downtown anywhere near their interstate, or vice versa.
SPEAKER_05:Makes sense.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, it's uh it's strange. It's adorable. I've gotten so many rental cars there.
SPEAKER_04:That's what I was about to say. There's been multiple times we've driven in there with the truck because it's one of those that doesn't have low clearances or anything. So you can pull it right up. Don can hop out, run in, grab a rental car, and we're good for the weekend.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah, like they don't even have a gate on the rental car like thing. You just walk across the road to what looks like a parking lot, yeah, and uh randomly pick a car and just drive off.
SPEAKER_00:We did that in Peoria, I think, too.
SPEAKER_05:Was it Peoria? I was just gonna say we did it somewhere.
SPEAKER_00:We weren't in the van, we were in the RV, and we pulled around to the to the departures slash arrivals gate because it's just one little thing, you know. She went inside and I met her in the parking lot. We grabbed a car and left. And left the RV there. I don't even know why back the RV in that spot. I don't even know why she went inside. The keys were in the car. Yeah, it's like why even bother? Just go get a car and we'll have it back in a couple days. They don't even know.
SPEAKER_05:I could see Peoria being a place where you could take a straight truck, though.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_05:I'm sure thinking back now.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:I want to say Arkansas was almost the same way. Uh Fayetteville, you know, home of Walmart.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, they had the parking garage there. Well, I don't know.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I don't know either. It's been a while.
SPEAKER_02:Columbus is not. Columbus is 12 foot 10 inches, something like that. So can't bring our trucks there. You can get close.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you used to have the turnout by the McDonald's right by the car center.
SPEAKER_05:I think you could have done it.
SPEAKER_00:That McDonald's is gone and the turnout thing is gone too.
SPEAKER_02:I just thought about that. The rental car center there now. So that actually might be easier. You'd have to throw your Fourier flashers on and stop in the middle of the road, but you could, and someone could jump out because you're right there at the rental car center.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, you can't? No. You have to move around the airport, I think. When when the McDonald's was there, before they started redoing redoing the report for the terminal, you had the left turn. Yeah, I don't think it's there anymore.
unknown:Dang.
SPEAKER_02:Dang. That terminal's coming along fast too. It is. That's impressive what they can do with no money. I know uh Memphis is like that. Memphis you can't do. I have had to walk, had Eric drop me off.
SPEAKER_05:As close as you can get.
SPEAKER_02:As close as you can get, which is um what's the Airways Boulevard or something like that. And then I've walked down to uh the rental car facility, and it's a hike.
SPEAKER_04:We did that in Louisville. I dropped Don off and bless his heart. He calls me like 10 minutes later. He got picked up by security. And they're like, you can't be walking through the airport. Like they were, they they were not happy. Well, at all.
SPEAKER_02:It was when he ran across the runway. They're like, that's an issue. You can't be running across. Yeah. Did you get permission from tower? You know?
SPEAKER_04:They were not happy with him.
SPEAKER_02:Did they at least drop him off like at the rental corporation?
SPEAKER_04:Uh no, they brought him back to the truck. Oh, we had to get an Uber and ride in and lose.
SPEAKER_05:That's crazy.
SPEAKER_04:They would not let him continue on. They were not happy.
SPEAKER_05:I think we've done that somewhere else. We do that in Savannah.
SPEAKER_00:We did it in Savannah where I got as close as I could and you had to walk out because you you took the car in. We got an Uber to the airport, I think.
SPEAKER_05:I want to say though that we got as close as we felt we could get.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:And then we called an Uber from where we were. It was like for the last 500 feet, but like we didn't want to risk that walking. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So we did call an Uber and and did a little Columbus is very walkable, I feel like. If you actually got to Columbus's airport, I feel like all that you could walk pretty easily. But I have been to like the the Memphis one I'm thinking of, because we've actually done that a few times with FedEx and ES and everybody being there. But that, I mean, you're walking on a pretty steep grass berm and it's like it's doesn't feel safe.
SPEAKER_05:We rented a couple times from one in Jacksonville, Florida. So there's the loves in Jacksonville. It's actually north of Jacksonville. Um and if you take their like little back road turnpike kind of thing, do you remember that? That's where we got the red flashy car. And um, but it was a tuck and roll kind of place. Like Vince would would could do a loop around the building. But there was a but he would like come to the stop at a stop sign and then I would like there was a closed restaurant next door.
SPEAKER_00:That's what it was.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. But we've done a couple of those. One in Dallas, I think, was the same thing. There was like a larger parking lot, maybe three blocks down. And he'd he'd pull in there and then he'd wait until I actually went and got the car and made a good transaction, and then it was like, okay, we'll meet you at the truck stop.
SPEAKER_02:Was that Love Field or DFW?
SPEAKER_05:It might have been Fort Wayne. No, no, this was a uh one of the standalones. It wasn't an airport. Oh, okay, okay. So it was a standalone. We usually typically try to do that.
SPEAKER_07:Because typically you could get a better deal.
SPEAKER_05:That plus you can get a truck somewhere. Or again, you could do a loop around the block, and again, when you come to a stop sign, somebody can hop out and go get the rental car. Yeah. Um and try instead of trying to navigate. But those were our tips and tricks. I don't know. What are y'all doing nowadays out there, tips and tricks?
SPEAKER_02:I think we had the we had the glory days because we had the uh we were driving during the$9.99 a day uh enterprise deal. Oh yeah. So you could rent a car for$10 a day. You only got 200 miles per day.
SPEAKER_05:Which is nothing. Which is not a lot, but but if you're never gonna use that much, is what I mean. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02:I was gonna say we get a three-day rental, pick it up Friday, Saturday, Sunday, that's 600 miles. Like, where am I going 600 miles? Right. You know? Um, and then for$20 a day, it was unlimited. So if we did know, like, okay, well, I think in Vegas, it's like, all right, we're gonna head out to wherever and see this canyon, and then we're gonna go over Hoover Dam, and then we're gonna do this, and it's like, uh, let's opt for the unlimited miles to make sure we're fine. But no, it was um the the$10 day deal. That was great. I love that, and it's that's been gone for pretty much COVID. I think COVID killed that deal.
SPEAKER_05:We started getting the let us choose your vehicle and it'll be yeah, manager's choice, it'll be cheaper. And I told Vince, I'm like, it's cheaper. Who cares what it is at this point?
SPEAKER_00:It was a it was a name your own price kind of thing.
SPEAKER_05:Tell us what that was that was a different company.
SPEAKER_00:It was a different company, okay.
SPEAKER_05:That was with the red car where we got the great deal. But eventually Enterprise was manager's choice.
SPEAKER_00:We got a Mini Cooper, we got it wasn't just it was a Mini Cooper Clubman, so a little bigger. Yeah. It's a nice little car.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, for the cheapest of the prices, the Jeep and and Lexington.
SPEAKER_00:Uh and the little fancy red car stole it was a convertible Mustang.
SPEAKER_05:That was that was the choose your own price.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they offered a price, and the guy was like, okay.
SPEAKER_02:I like the uh I I we used to do those, anything like that to get save a deal. Now I've gotten all bougie, so I like I like renting and knowing what I'm gonna get. But I have I've showed up many times and I like I paid for a Nissan Versa, and that's what I want. And they're like, oh, the Versa's gonna be a little while, and I'm like, I'll take anything. Like, what what do you got?
SPEAKER_05:They're like, Do you want an expedition?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and like you know, I'll make you a Yukon XL. We go to San Francisco, that's the rice rooni treat. Yes, and uh we were parked outside of Gilroy, I think, over the hill. There's a dam, and then there's a big giant uh petro.
SPEAKER_07:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:And we're parked there, and we're like, hey, let's go in and and go in the city. Still a couple hours away from San Francisco at that point, but we're like, we have a long time, let's go. So we drove into the town on the other side of the interstate, so we're getting further away from the five.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Over to Gilroy, which is on the other side of 138.
SPEAKER_02:So we were on, so we're at the Petro.
SPEAKER_00:Uh in Los Banos, in five.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and then across the interstate is the town part of it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And so they had an enterprise there, got their rental car, bought the truck back to Petro, jumped it. But my point is, we ordered the Economy Special because we're driving into San Francisco. Sure. I want a small car. Like if I'm going to New York City, I want a small car. And so we go to get that, and they give us a Honda Hyundai, largest car they make. Full size. It was like driving a grand marquee, huge car. And I'm like, but I wanted a small. They're like, that's all we have. I mean, we can wait here if you want and see if another one shows up. And I'm like, no, I'm not doing that. So we take this giant Lincoln-sized car, you know, town car into San Francisco, which the whole trip over there is great. Oh, it's so comfortable. As soon as we get in the city, it's like, oof, this is a lot. Going down Lombard Street. Oh my gosh, you should have seen the faces. They were like, that car does not belong here.
SPEAKER_07:Um that yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So sometimes it, you know, that bites you a little bit. Like, but yeah, it was uh, but we have I've many times been like they've we don't have what you want, and it's like whatever. Yeah. One time, Eric, didn't you get a 15-passenger van once out of San Francisco out of Sacramento?
SPEAKER_01:Um I was up in Oregon, and I had to get a vehicle to go back to Las Vegas. Yes. Wow. All they had was a 15-passenger van. So I'm driving a 15-passen van the West Coast. And that was a it was a one-way rental, too.
SPEAKER_06:But there were probably people that you could have picked up along the way. Yeah, probably.
SPEAKER_02:And I had to drive back to Columbus because I was picking up another truck. So we'd been driving together, and then we uh had enough of each other. No, the truck broke down. Um, and and we had to go here and he was going there, and uh yeah, it was I think we took off from Spokane. Was Spokane? Might have been.
SPEAKER_01:Might have been. And then when we got down to like the gorge, you had to take the gorge going east, and I kept going south.
SPEAKER_02:All I remember is It was more than I needed. It was excessive for you. And I think I did get an Ison Versa. And driving back, just not realizing like how far Washington is from Columbus.
SPEAKER_00:Speed of a drive.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, because I I'm thinking to myself, like, uh, you know, I'll get a I'll get uh one hotel stay. No, no. Three hotels.
SPEAKER_05:With one person driving?
SPEAKER_01:I know, yeah, and out there, even the 80-mile-an hour speed limits don't help. It's still it's just that's where I got picture evidence that onans are not the best.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah, well, that's you know, we're not we're not trying to start controversy here. Uh so, anyways, I'd heard that the uh that we have an emergency room coming. Emergency room, emergency rule coming for uh non-domiciled uh uh CDL holders, and I I I don't know what this means. So I was reading an article the other day because I think we've already talked about this whole uh uh the uh non-domiciled CDL holders, and it's kind of been something we've been tracking as we go. It started out with the English language proficiency, and then it kind of developed into this non-domiciled uh US truck driver CDL holders. And I was reading an article the other day that said uh the USPS, that's the United States Post Service, these are uh the mail, they carry the mail, right? They uh not UPS, not to be confused with uh what can brown do for you. Um they uh banned, I believe it was in when was it? Yeah, it was a while back. Um they banned, it says a few weeks ago, whatever that means. Uh they banned um non-domiciled CDL holders from uh working for them. So what they told their uh warehouses and all their places to do was when a uh mail carrier or one of these big trucks shows up with uh the mail, if they're a non-domiciled CDL holder, do not unload them. I believe correct, Drake?
SPEAKER_00:That's well, it was not to load them.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, not to load them, sorry.
SPEAKER_00:Not to load them.
SPEAKER_02:So uh they weren't allowed to load the trailers and and would send them away or whatever. And immediately, immediately they had widespread cancellations, uh, the mail set, they filled up their warehouses immediately. It was bad. And even the US Post Service was like, we didn't realize how many they had how many they had.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Um now these weren't USPS employees, correct. These were contractors, yes, or companies that USPS contracts with, they weren't allowing their drivers that were non-domicidal to tall their loads.
SPEAKER_02:And so what USPS does, the the the person that comes to your um house and delivers your mail, if they're in the AM General UPS USPS, USPS, thank you, uh vehicle, the the classic mail truck, um then they are a US Postal Service employee. They work for the federal government. Um there's a bunch of other vehicles they're using now as well. Um and those people that for the most Most part that deliver mail to your house if you are in a metropolitan area are post office employees. Right. If you go to um if you're like out rural areas, they will contract with people to haul the mail. And so that's when you see people showing up like in Dodge caravans or um in trail. Yeah, I've seen some people even they have the uh a regular Jeep. Yeah. And it's kind of like a throwback to the 80s when they had the mail jeeps. Right. Um, that they have those that they're delivering mail in. Or I we knew one guy out in Missouri, he was doing it in a Ford Taurus. And he removed takes he removed his seats, he put in professional brakes, like they had to he stripped his car down and and like literally put in a high performance braking system because we think about it as a mail carrier, you're on your brakes all day long. All day long. That is the part that gets abused the most on those vehicles. Um, so those people are contractors, so they are hauling the mail uh for uh local delivery, but they also to get their deliveries done uh across state lines. So if you are mailing something that's not staying in your hometown, um those primarily are contractors. Yes. So most of your mail, if it's not staying in your local area, is getting put on an 18-wheeler and shipped across state lines or to warehouse to warehouse or what have you. Uh that's all being done by contractors. Yes. And um this is the people that they are primarily dealing with, right? That the issues happening with, it sounds like right.
SPEAKER_00:So what they were doing is they they implemented a policy where contractors couldn't use non-dom drivers with non-domicile CDLs. Now, this policy didn't say anything about immigration or anything. It was strictly if you were had a non-domicile CDL, meaning you got your CDL in a state that you didn't live in, that's a non-domicile CDL. Yes. You could not deliver USPS freight from one USPS terminal to another.
SPEAKER_05:How do they know? I'm sorry, but how do we know?
SPEAKER_00:I don't know how they don't know. Um because you're I guess because maybe your CDL has your out-of-state address on it. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:I actually think if, and I could be wrong, but if I'm not mistaken, I do think uh it actually says non-domiciled on the actual CDL. Interesting. Okay. I believe it does because we've had situations we don't currently, but we have had situations in the past where people are in America on a visa, and so they have they can legally have a CDL and they can drive for us, and they do have a CDL that is issued by a state, and it's non-domiciled because they're not here permanently. Sure. Right. So we've seen that it's not been illegal, right? And the USPS isn't even saying we're saying no because of uh legal or illegal, it's because of abuses that have been happening from that. Sure. So they took kind of what was intended to be a really good thing. I think I think it was like 2017, this even became an option.
SPEAKER_00:Uh the non-domicide CDL did in 2017, yeah. So there there is a possibility where you can be a U.S. citizen and have a non-domicide CEO CDL. Uh if you live in California, let's say, yes, and you go to school with Prime, yes, based out of Missouri, and Prime School is in Missouri, you can get your license in Missouri being a California residence. Your CDL. So that that's another uh way you can have a non-domical CDO.
SPEAKER_02:Very common. You see that all the time with like Swift and Knight and any of those training schools. Uh I mean Swift has locations all across America, but they don't have them in every state. Right. So yeah, that's a common thing. Because they also have the testers.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, they have the testers as well.
SPEAKER_02:And the tester can only do the test for his state. Or his state. Or for her state. And so that's kind of how that happens.
SPEAKER_05:Um so what happened with all this mail? I feel like that's a whole sleuthy mystery in itself.
SPEAKER_00:So Well, so the well just did get delivered. Because you could they couldn't load a truck. It sat in that warehouse until they could get a truck to load it that had had a domiciled uh CDL holder.
SPEAKER_02:But was there like weeks worth of uh so it doesn't uh it doesn't say that, but here's what's interesting. Um USPS had planned to start that ban uh in January 1st. So they they'd already discussed it a year ago, and they said, all right, January 1st, we're going to do this, right? And they kept getting so much pushback from their their suppliers, from the the carriers that are hauling their mail, that they delayed it, delayed it, delayed it, and they delayed it, and they finally rolled it out. And so they thought, hey, this is gonna be fine, but Pete I'm gonna mess this up, wrote Soleus.
SPEAKER_00:Uh, who is I need to back you up a little bit. Go ahead. So they had they they planned a delayed ban until January 1st. So after the the Yes. When they said, okay, we're we're gonna initial immediately stop this and you can do it. Then they plan to delay the ban until January 1st of 2026. Oh that's the way I'm reading this.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, you might be right. I I might have missed that. Okay, I follow what you're saying. I follow what you're saying. Okay, so uh what you're asking what happened to backed up mail. Yes. They they actually were pretty quick to respond. Um so I don't think there was that much backed up mail from what I can understand. Uh, so we're going back to uh Pete uh who is the USPS uh senior VP of logistics. He uh talked to all the suppliers on a call and said, quote, we did not understand the magnitude of how many people were using non-domicile CDLs. And quite honestly, the amount of omens was astronomical. And right now I am not willing to impact service that bad. He then said, We are uh announcing what we're announcing as of right now is you can go back to using non-domiciled CDL holders. And then and then that's okay, that's when they planned the delay until January 1st. Now I follow what you're saying. Okay, okay. Uh however, that's now I believe, even though it was what their initial plan was, that's not what they're following because those suppliers pushed back and said, uh no, I can't, that's not gonna work.
SPEAKER_03:I don't think that's what they said.
SPEAKER_02:I think that our good friend Sean P. Duffy has implemented an emergency interim rule on non-domicid commercial driver's license. Am I misreading that?
SPEAKER_05:They took their people out, but then they realized the magnitude of their errors. So then they said, let's have these people anyway. Yes. But then the carriers that had hired these people said, No, you did the dirty deed already, so we're gonna still stick it to you.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, no, no. The carriers said, Hey, uh the the post office said we're missing too much, too many things. We're we're we're not getting freight picked up. So we're gonna take a look you back, yes. With the idea that they were gonna then, okay, so we're we're let's say October 1st, they said, Oh, we're reversing our policy, bring on your drivers, non-domicile, domicile, we don't care. Bring them on, we gotta get this this mail delivered. We're gonna implement this though on January 1st. We will no longer allow non-domicile CDL drivers to haul our freight.
SPEAKER_05:So they'll be better prepared, they think.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, and the suppliers were like, we can't do that. We still can't do that by January. We still can't do that by January 1st. We can't hire enough drivers for this. Oh, yeah. And the USPS said, okay, well, we're gonna do this. We don't know when yet. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:I see. So the big thing So everybody's on the same page.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Uh, I don't think they like it. So, yes, so because so as you may have noticed in the news, mail carriers are falling left and right. It's a it the so the mail uh runs, USPS absolutely runs on the lowest bidwinds. So um the lane between uh Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis opens up. And they say, hey, we have 10 trucks worth of mail that goes between these two every day. Who wants to do it? Vince says, I'll do it for$100,000 a month. I don't know if that really comes out to, but let's just say$100,000 a month. And I say, I'll do it for$90,000 a month. Eric over there has a fleet of non-domiciled workers who will work for pennies because they are living in the trucks, they're not, don't have a home to support, yada yada yada. Whatever reason, he can do it very cheap. Um, he says, I'll do it for$75,000. So he undercuts it, he gets the he gets the contract. What you've seen lately with mail carriers going out of business is that the mail requires you to negotiate those prices, including fuel. You're you there's no plus a fuel surcharge. So a lot of mail carriers did exactly what we just talked about, but Eric said, and fuel right now is three dollars and eighty six cents a gallon. So he's fine when fuel's that price are lower. Even he buffered a little bit, so if fuel goes to$4 a gallon, he's cool. Well, fuel went to$4.20,$4.30 a gallon. Now all of a sudden, he can't pay his employees and covers fuel bill and pay all the notes of the trucks. And so after so long, the cash is gone, the company goes out of business. That's what's happened with mail carers all over America, is when fuel is high, they die. They just can't make any money. And then when fuel is low, they make really good money. But the USPS, because they're saying lowest bid wins, they are getting really what some people call bottom feeders. Just the people that are sure getting, they're doing it as cheaply as they can. So as cheaply as they can means if you're a non-domiciled CDL holder, even if you're a uh non-domiciled CD holder that is uh a US citizen, you probably are living in the truck. You're probably not going home. And so they take advantage of that, right? And so it's it's it's really not a good thing. These people are uh some people are I'm sure I'm running great, honest, good companies. I I don't want to say hashtag everybody, but it does create an environment that is very easy for predators to pray. Sure. And so that's kind of been the problem. And that really is the problem with the entire non-domincial CDL holders, is you can work with people who are um in various life situations and sometimes are not in the best of life situations, right? Be it home life domestically in America or be it that you're working in America under a visa. And sometimes you were working under visa and that visa's expired, but they don't care, they'll just keep working you. So that does create a really bad situation, you know.
SPEAKER_00:And that's a part of why they came up with the emergency rule, which leads into the next article um about capacity. You know, the emergency rule was put in into place because people were taking advantage of not loopholes, but but just failures of the non-domicile C DL CDL system, yes, where someone could come in to the country legally, get a non-domicile CDL legally, but their their visa expires in a year, but their CDL is good for four. Or six in some cases. Or yeah, or longer. So now after that year and their visas expired, well, their CDL is still valid, and that's what they've been running on, and that's been the big big issue, is those types of things where they're not lining up in the immigration cases, the the exp expiration of the visa does not line up with the CDL. So gyros have been able to continue working even though they're not necessarily legal residents in the country, but they have the CDL that's still good. And there there's there haven't been checks and balances there. Yes. So uh on the 29th of September, the Department of Transportation announced an emergency interim final rule to restrict non-domicile CDL licenses. CDLs, excuse me. This action aims to address the widespread abuse in issuing these licenses to immigrants, which has caused substantial disruptions in truck and supply chain industries. The findings from an audit that was done by DOT revealed that at least 200 such licenses have been issued nationwide. 200,000. 200,000, excuse me. Yeah. Um with high concentrations in certain states. California emerged as a significant problem area where the audit found that over 25% of non-domicide CDLs were granted improperly. That's quite a bit. It is. That's a lot of people that are on the road um with an improper license.
SPEAKER_02:And it gets it gets blurry because as a state, they can um give whoever they want a license based on whatever their criteria is. Sure. But then they cross interstate lines, and then it's like, well, now you're not you're not uh, you know, an approved driver in Arizona because you don't meet the criteria, but the states have gen have normally have reciproc reciprocity reciprocity, so they are able to do that. So, you know, in a lot of cases, like maybe you're a 15-year-old uh driver in a car, like in your state it's it's legal, and in my state it's not. If you drive over and you have the chaperone or whatever, like you're supposed to have, then they will generally allow it. It's fine. Um, and that's kind of what's been happening here is that it's been allowed. What they're finding is that uh other people have learned, hey, these are the states that are very friendly to this, and let's really use them. And states like California in particular are very lax when it comes to the English proficiency rule. Um, you don't necessarily have to speak English to get a CDL there. Right. Um, so even though it's a requirement federally, you can locally get it and it's fine. Um and I mean there's a whole thing that goes into CDL mills have have popped up in these states, and they are making it super easy for people to get CDLs that are not qualified.
SPEAKER_05:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:And again, that's not everybody. Sure. There are some people that go through these CDM mills that are perfectly fine, great CDL drivers. Um, they're looking to crack down on the CDL mills as well.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_05:Is it like a turbine though, or is it really a mill?
SPEAKER_00:It's oh, it's a it's a mill. Okay, yeah. It's a mill. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So this is an article in freight waves. Uh, our friend, uh friend of the podcast, X Dire Boogie. Yes, did a video on this. If you want more information, go check out Boogie's uh video on um the tightening, the possible tightening of capacity because of the non-domicile CDLs, the new rules on non-domicile CDLs.
SPEAKER_05:It was a great article. He did a good job.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:It's a good video. Well, and then there's so many things right now going on with capacity. So I know we are in what feels like the never-ending freight recession of I think in 2023 or four, I said, hey, this thing's coming, but it's not gonna be a recession. It's just a softening of the market, and I have never been more proven wrong in all of my life. Um, it just feels like this like is it ever gonna end, right? So two things it's it's supply and demand, right? So you can do two things. You can either boost the economy, which is what we saw in 2022, 2021, 2022, right, when the economy went crazy, and so the uh demand was so high for stuff that uh we were able to really get record um rates per mile and and and and it was a boom for trekking, like it's never existed before, it will never probably exist again. That was insane. If you got in during that time and you're just waiting for that to happen again, you may go your whole life and never see it. Yeah, that was a crazy bloop. But uh what we're in so so you can have that by creating crazy supply. What happened is so many people got in the business during that time because they wanted a piece of that pie, that now we have crazy. I'm sorry, that was crazy demand. It was so many people got in the business that now we have crazy supply. There's way too many companies, way too many people bought trucks. Daimler, which owns Freightliner Western Star, Volvo Trucks, which owns Volvo and Mac, uh, Pac Carr, which is Peter Built and Kenworth, they were making as many trucks as they possibly could. They couldn't sell, like if you wanted a truck, you had to wait in line to get one. It was craziness because they're selling so many trucks. So there's so many trucks, so many operators, so many drivers out there on the market that that it just pushed rates to the floor because now a shipper doesn't have to pay you in your high rate, they can just go to the next person and get a lower rate. And so they're saying two things are gonna happen that that that we're gonna see over the next year. This is a long time out, this is year 18 months, that is gonna kind of help us out, regardless if the economy picks up or not. Because we're taking that out of the picture because the economy could pick up and freight could pick up naturally, sure. But let's ignore that aspect for a second. You've got this English proficiency standard that's come out, that's weeding out tons of drivers. I think the last thing I saw was 25,000 drivers, something like that. Yep, and then you've got the non-domicile CDL emergency rule, which that's getting rid of a lot of drivers. Uh now, granted, some of those drivers will just relocate and then get a domiciled CDL and they'll be fine, but it's gonna push a good number of them out of the business. Like all the ones that are doing it unethically, it's gonna push them out. Yes. And then you've also got a situation where trucks haven't been built over the past year, two years, the truck purchases, the amount of trucks that are being built are way, way down. So, like uh PAC car, so again, Kenworth Peter built, they are now running, you know, a morning and afternoon shift. They're not running an overnight shift. Same with Freightliner. Um, they've laid off quite a few people, so has Volvo and Mac trucks. They are literally just not building many trucks at all. If you look at your majorly huge carriers, your Covenants, your your Swift, your Knight, your um Warner, your JB Hunt, they're not buying trucks. They're literally sitting back going, like, we're gonna see what happens. Yeah. And a lot of their used trucks go into the market that feed on the secondary on the on all this. So they're holding on to those trucks, they're not selling them. And so you do have literally just old equipment that's aging out, and there's nothing replacing it. So you've got an equipment side of it as well that's disappearing. So now you've got this thing where we're losing uh drivers for three different reasons, and now we don't have the trucks we had before. And so that's why they're saying, hey, it's gonna get it, there's gonna be this uprising, this this things are getting better, not necessarily because the economy's growing, right, but because the ability to move the freight is decreasing, and as the ability decreases, the cost per mile goes up. The what it costs a shipper goes up, what it cost a freight broker goes up, because now you're more in demand than you ever have been. So it's it's good news. Um, and there's no way to do it, fix it quickly. It's not like tomorrow, you know, uh Freightliner can pop out 10,000 trucks. Right.
SPEAKER_00:It takes time to ramp back up.
SPEAKER_02:It takes time to ramp back up. They got to hire all those employees back, they gotta go through and teach people, they gotta get their supply chains because you know, if they speculate this year we're buying, we're building, I don't know, 20,000 trucks. Right. They're only buying 40,000 headlights. You know what I mean? Like, and so they've they've told their suppliers only build us 40,000 headlights. Right. 20,000 left, 20,000 right. And so if now they're like, oh my gosh, there's so much demand, we need we could build 30 or 40,000 trucks, their suppliers can't keep up. They haven't ordered enough aluminum and they haven't ordered enough steel because they're ordering all that stuff a year in advance. They're not ordering it month by month. I mean, there's some room there obviously for a little bit of growth, but not substantially. So I think that's the that's the silver lining, and that's kind of what the article was going to was especially with this non-domiciled CDL emergency rule, that the the capacity is diminishing quite a bit, and that is uh hugely good for us. So one one thing that I like as expediting specifically that we see uh is you know the the the the the the 20,000 pound monkey in the room that we don't talk about, or elephant in the room or gorilla in the room, whatever you're gonna call it, is that um there are a lot of companies that have bought these used Pinski trucks. We've all seen them, 24-foot Pinski trucks, and they will either build a sleeper into the back of the truck, so literally put a little partition up, they'll put a uh carve a hole in the back of the sleeper, the back of the truck, and that will be the sleepers. They actually crawl into the into what used to be the cargo box, and there's a wall there, so they don't they're not with the cargo, but they have their own sleeper, or um, there's a company that puts those big fiberglass dome-looking things over the cabs, and they can climb in the cabin sleep. That is primarily, not completely. So if you're listening, you're going, hey, I'm doing that. I'm not talking about everybody, but that is a huge push on rates that are pushing rates down, is that has made the ability to get into a truck and get to expediting easy, very easy. So companies are now doing that. Most of them are not following ELD uh compliance, and so a lot of them are um either using AOBRs or they're using ELDs. You you keep seeing online that ELDs news article comes out every like every couple months. This these LDs are no longer allowed on the market, right? Yeah, so it's just new companies putting ELDs out that can be edited. That's the big issue, is they can be edited because you like the companies we use, you can't edit them. Uh they can be edited, so they're going through and they're changing drive time. It's the modern day electronic version of running with three log books. You remember that, Jerry? Um and so um so that's you know killing us. They're buying cheap trucks, they are having solo drivers operate uh as teams, and they're fixing their logs in the backside to make it work. Well, most of us say, well, who would go do that? That's crazy. I'm not gonna go do that. But if you have come to America and you have uh legally gotten here and you've gone to a CDL school, and it your cost of living is not the same as it is for the average American, you can take less money, and that's just driving those rates down, down, down. So there's I the CDL drivers, a lot of them are victims. They're not the enemy here. It's these companies that are starting that are preying on these people. That's the problem. And so going after those companies is difficult, killing their suppliers by making it to where you can't work with these people anymore, to have officers checking can you speak English or not, to have um shippers are now gonna be, they said recently uh just came out a couple days ago that they're gonna start holding shippers responsible. So if you as a shipper are using someone who can't speak English or you're using someone who um is a non-resident CDO holder with limitations, because there's some big asterisks with that one right now, um, then we will uh hold you accountable for it as well. So all of that is kind of crushing those companies that are taking advantage of people. So I think it's a good thing. I do like I I know there's problems, it's not nothing that's gonna be simple, nothing's gonna be easy, right? But it it it's a major crackdown on some on some really bad fraud that's been plaguing the industry and some some some bad business practices, and it's only going to help everyone that's out here doing it legally. Everyone that's out here, so if you are in your Penske truck that has that thing that you made that you paid for and that you're out here doing, it's only gonna help you out. You know what I mean? Like yeah, it's only gonna help out the owner operator who has saved his whole life or her whole life to run that truck. It's only gonna lift all that stuff up, right? Sure. And so um I I'm I'm excited about it. It's gonna be a slow burn, though. It takes a slow burn, it takes a long time to weed this out.
SPEAKER_00:It will not happen quickly, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_05:Slow burn.
SPEAKER_02:But that's fine. I d I you know was it a um old old friend of mine, um he was uh he was actually a pastor of a church. And it was a big church, and they had uh some unique policies and procedures inside of how they do business. And he said the whole purpose of it was think of a ship. A ship is moving, it takes a lot to stop a ship, and if you want to make change, it's very slow, it's very gradual, and the whole ship moves together. And I it kinda I think about that when it comes to big changes. Like being nimble is super helpful in some circumstances, but in others, we saw what Nimble did when uh in 22. Nimble brought a ton of people in the industry that really killed rates and and actually ended up backfiring and killing the industry, or not killing it, but really hurting it.
SPEAKER_00:Really hurting it, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um, so having this become a slow-moving ship that slowly gets better, I think, is more sustainable and uh is better for longevity. It's very interesting to see what's happening. I mean, honestly, when this all first, if you go back and listen, because it's all recorded, but it's all out there, when this all first started happening, we were talking about how this feels somewhat racist, right? Yeah, like we were talking about, hey, this this is justn't seem right, this whatever. Now that so many facts have come out and so much information's gotten out, I think we're realizing that hey, no, this is actually a big part of fraud that most of us didn't know existed. Yeah, I had no idea.
SPEAKER_06:Levels of safety.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, safety. That's a big one.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. And then just unfairly hurting Americans. There's a part of that too, right? So I don't know. It's very interesting. I can't wait to see how this plays out even more. I'm sure we'll keep y'all informed as we go.
SPEAKER_05:Come next one.
SPEAKER_02:I can only imagine.
SPEAKER_05:Keeps unfolding quickly.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. And we're, as y'all can tell, we're a little behind the eight ball on this. Uh if you really want to keep up with this, I highly encourage y'all check out Expediter Boogie. Uh, that's him right here. It's a good picture. It's a good picture of him. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Friend of the podcast.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Uh, friend of the podcast. He does some great work and he is way more up to date than we are. He is at when news breaks, he's like on it. Uh, so uh check him out. And also, he's just a funny, likable person.
unknown:I like it.
SPEAKER_00:Are we on the same X Bider Boogie?
SPEAKER_02:I was gonna say that's what the coffee said to say.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that's what the book is. I wonder who wrote it.
SPEAKER_02:No, we're not.
SPEAKER_00:I wonder who wrote that.
SPEAKER_02:Today we are sponsored by X Bider Boogie. Did you not know that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, oh I didn't know that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:He does some great videos, some great content. It does not cook.
SPEAKER_05:Coffee and cookies.
SPEAKER_02:If you show up at his house, from what I understand, he will provide you cookies and coffee. He will.
SPEAKER_05:I only got coffee. I got cinnamon rolls and coffee. What the?
SPEAKER_04:What you did.
SPEAKER_05:It's been a hot moment though.
SPEAKER_04:That was a long time ago.
SPEAKER_05:I'm about to say I should come over again.
SPEAKER_04:I don't want to say anything, but no, you shouldn't.
SPEAKER_05:I can Uber. Oh.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:When the time's right, we'll Uber over. All I'm saying, I'll eat them for you.
SPEAKER_02:Is I got wine and lasagna.
SPEAKER_05:Oh.
SPEAKER_02:Oh. Oh.
SPEAKER_00:When I go over there, he just hands me a computer through the car window and says I'm my way. Well, that's because you're his enemy. You got an espresso. I did get an espresso. He's right. I did.
SPEAKER_05:I think you got like a chork, chorkata. Or cortado.
SPEAKER_00:I did get a cortado, yes. That's not a coffee though. It is a coffee. Oh. It's espresso and and and and cream.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know why you gotta mess up espresso with anything. It's so warm and comfortable. Really good espresso is water, pressure, bean.
SPEAKER_00:Well, he was working on getting the machine work just right. Just right? Just right. He still experimented at the time.
SPEAKER_05:I've not yet experienced your just rightness with your coffee machine.
SPEAKER_02:She said it was bad last time she was there. That's what I just heard. Is that what you just heard? I have yet to experience your goodness with your coffee. I heard that's bad.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, I've yet I've yet to experience your new machine, period.
SPEAKER_02:Oh.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know if we can still recall new.
SPEAKER_03:He's had it for like nine months now.
SPEAKER_05:Okay, I've yet to practically the new machine from nine months ago.
SPEAKER_02:You want to experience it? Go to like an old school coffee shop, and when you see that gigantic like uh looks like a beetle size thing, that's it.
SPEAKER_05:Does it take up the whole kitchen?
SPEAKER_02:No. No, it just happens.
SPEAKER_05:I need to come over and just have a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_04:I'm actually gonna have to buy. A new one. Um, not express not espresso. Wow. No. Okay. Not espresso. Nine months. I'm good. My rebel drip machine. It's it's malfunctioning. How old is it? Oh my goodness. It's over three years. How much coffee do you need a bun. We probably yeah, we're easily making three pots a day minimal.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, it's time for it's time for so much coffee. It's time for a bun. You can buy them at uh what's the restaurant supply store here? Restaurant depot. Restaurant de restaurant depot. You don't need bougie, you need bun.
SPEAKER_05:We don't need a new one, but our hot plate on ours is corroded already. We've had ours maybe a year and a half.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, maybe a year and a half.
SPEAKER_05:But it works perfect, but it's ugly looking.
SPEAKER_02:It's not a brevil. I don't want to brag, but our Mr. Coffee, it's like eight years old.
SPEAKER_04:I know Don looked at me and he's like, Don't we still have a warranty? And I'm like, just because it's Breville, no, it still comes with just a one-year limited warranty.
SPEAKER_02:See, that's what stinks about Bed, Bath, and Beyond being out of business, is they warrantied their products for life. Did y'all know that? Unlimited return policy. So it yep. If you had something and you five years old and it's like it could work, and put it back in a box, bring it over to them, and they would return it.
SPEAKER_05:I do.
SPEAKER_02:I do. Oh, under our steps, uh it's like a total fire hazard.
SPEAKER_06:I've moved so many times. If I get rid of a box, then for some reason I need it again to move.
SPEAKER_04:We keep some of our boxes.
SPEAKER_05:Are we doing things wrong in our house, Luke?
SPEAKER_02:Actually, you know that thing about it? Bedbath and Beyond doesn't require you to actually have the box.
SPEAKER_05:Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02:You just had to bring it back. There, I don't think you had to have a box. A receipt, that was it.
SPEAKER_05:Who keeps receipts?
SPEAKER_02:And if you didn't have the receipt, they can check your credit card.
SPEAKER_05:All right.
SPEAKER_02:Well, uh we don't have to worry about that because we used to take pictures and just throw it on online and save, but saving boxes. It doesn't matter. They're they're gone.
SPEAKER_05:All right.
SPEAKER_02:They're a Barnes and Noble now. At least in our community.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I think it's the heating element though. It it's whenever it makes the coffee, like it comes out just barely warm. It's not hot anymore.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, Jared can replace it for you. That's what a microwave is for. Jared can fix that for you.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, Jared, just bring it to ELW and he'll pop that thing out, I'll put a new one in.
SPEAKER_05:You can't do one yourself? Come on.
SPEAKER_02:I thought brevels were supposed to be so good you could just repair them.
SPEAKER_00:It seems like you're talking too much.
SPEAKER_05:The money you pay for it, it seems like 89 cent parts.
SPEAKER_00:See, see if you can get parts for it, heating element for it. And if you can, order it, and I'll send Heather over to fix it for you.
unknown:Yes.
SPEAKER_06:I'd be happy to help you with that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Or let's rephrase that. You'd be happy to do that for me. Maybe not help. I don't do that stuff.
SPEAKER_00:And then you just you take it. I just take it. I take care of recycling for you.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's right. We're heading down to the other. I'll recycle it for you. And then I'll have a brevel. Yeah. That's a good idea. You'll never know. It never comes to the house. So well, end up with he doesn't want glitter. I get that. That's true. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um a bun. My grandmother had a bun for years. It was a big thing in the back of her hair. No. My grandma had an actual bun coffee maker, but she had like the actual like one that they from the from the restaurant. Plum plumbed and everything.
SPEAKER_04:The problem is they all have hot plates.
SPEAKER_02:No. Well, yes, they do. But the nice thing about the bun is it keeps the water hot. So like your reservoir is always hot. So as soon as you want coffee, you put your scoops in there, you press the button, and it's immediately making coffee. It's super nice. Now you are running away.
SPEAKER_05:So you are running away.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:If you don't want it to burn on a plate. So right now his isn't on a plate.
SPEAKER_00:Why don't you take it off the plate? Your brevel doesn't have a hot plate?
SPEAKER_05:No. His goes in a thermos.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, the thermos thing. You can't watch how easy this is. Solve it.
SPEAKER_04:But then it doesn't. It's not in a thermos, though, unless you're going to be able to do it. Use your brevel.
SPEAKER_02:Use your brevel thermos. Does your brevel thermos not work on anything but a brevel?
SPEAKER_04:Who wants to make coffee and then transfer it to another?
SPEAKER_02:No, I'm saying go drip right into the brevel.
SPEAKER_06:It'll be on a hot plate. There's so many people here to help me.
SPEAKER_02:Go to McDonald's and get coffee from the red one. McDonald's coffee's delicious. Really good coffee. Such good coffee.
SPEAKER_04:That's coming from the person who likes pilot coffee.
SPEAKER_05:Ew.
SPEAKER_03:Pilot house has really good.
SPEAKER_02:Pilot house blend. Pilot house blend, three cubes of ice, because it is approximately hot. Three cubes of ice and the chill, they have chilled the name rated.
SPEAKER_04:I had to bring a truck back last week. I tried it because I was like, okay, Patrick and Vince, and everybody says that they got really, really good coffee. I was at a pilot. I went in. They even had the machine that like brewed it all, ground the beans and it's a little bit. Oh, that's right.
SPEAKER_02:No, no. I do the Sumatra from there. Oh, but you can't do the one that brews it. You got to do the one that's like the standard.
SPEAKER_00:Sumatra from the fresh rind and brew. Oh, you do. Oh, I don't. I do fresh.
SPEAKER_04:I tried their brewed. It was disgusting. I poured it out. I tried the grind the beans and brew. I couldn't even. I I got in the truck and it was like three sips in. It was just disgusting. I had to pour it out.
SPEAKER_00:I've never had a talk to a lot of drivers when they come in through the yard and coffee, best coffee on the road is a common topic with veteran drivers. And I would say 8.5 out of 10 say pilot has the best coffee on the road.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I I I agree with you. I think your tastes are just messed up. I mean, they even say so. When you're driving down the interstate behind a pilot in a truck, it says best coffee on the interstate.
SPEAKER_05:So do you like loves better? I do not either trucks.
SPEAKER_02:I've never I've never seen I've never seen Loves haul an 18 Wheeler full of coffee the way pilot does. I haven't either.
SPEAKER_05:So so Jerry, let's let's get real here. One moment.
SPEAKER_06:It's all about what you put in the coffee.
SPEAKER_05:If if there were no such thing as your own coffee maker in your own truck or your own home, and you were forced to drink a truck stop coffee, is there a preference? Or you would just go all water.
SPEAKER_04:He's like pilot house blend. If I was forced, I would be stopping at Starbucks every chance I got Starbucks. I will drink Starbucks, but it's not my favorite. They've pulled those out of most of the TAs. I you could still park and walk. I would get Starbucks.
SPEAKER_05:So just no truck stop.
SPEAKER_02:It's just horrible. I get it.
SPEAKER_05:No, and I do. I agree.
SPEAKER_02:Can I bring all of us together?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Absolute worst truck stop coffee on the entire interstate is TA. TA. Period. Period. Hands down. Hands down.
SPEAKER_03:16 out of 10 drivers agree. Hate it's god awful.
SPEAKER_02:It's like they're they're like they're like, we'll raise you one pilot, and we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna claim that number one spot. Yes, we are. We will we will claim that number one spot. We will not be number two. No. It is it is number one worst coffee by far, which is crazy because if you go to an iron skillet or a country pride, different coffee delicious coffee. Oh, it's great. Well, they know you're captive. They not captive, they know you're gonna be there and they want a tip. Right. So it's good coffee. Yeah, save good coffee.
SPEAKER_06:It's actually brewed nicely, but yeah. You go to somewhere that doesn't have good coffee, that's when I would get the cool burrata fridge, pre-made crap.
SPEAKER_00:I would just grab a cocaine and be done with it.
SPEAKER_02:I traveled five hours. I don't know if y'all know that or not. I didn't know that. I wasn't aware. Tell you what, been doing this Alani thing recently. That's really too sweet. It's way too sweet.
SPEAKER_04:There was a survey that came they were talking about on Good More in America the other day, and they were saying that more and more like the younger generation now is going, you know, foregoing the coffee shops and everything, and they're actually like going out of business and stuff because more and more young people are just going straight to the energy drinks.
SPEAKER_00:Interesting.
SPEAKER_02:It makes sense. My energy drink, I buy them in bulk because they're like a dollar eighty a piece.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but if you're buying once at one at a time in the retail store, it's like four bucks. So it's not you're not saving money over a coffee.
SPEAKER_02:I get that. But if I if I buy them in bulk, yeah,$1.80 a piece. If I go to Starbucks, I'm six dollars.
SPEAKER_04:Easy. Easy$378 for a large.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's coffee.
SPEAKER_04:That's coffee, but I want is coffee.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but I would get a latte or something.
SPEAKER_06:Espresso rebe.
SPEAKER_02:Dirty tray latte. It's good.
SPEAKER_03:So Jerry. Kit it. Gotta get it warm. Yes, definitely. Jerry, what have we missed?
SPEAKER_04:So if you've enjoyed everything that you have heard today, and if you would like to learn more about high field trucking, check us out at highfieldtrucking.com. Or I've totally lost my train of thought. Hey, if you've enjoyed the show, we would love to hear your thoughts and comments on the show. Please leave them down in the comment section. We do read all of those, or send us an email over at the outerbeltpodcast at gmail.com. If you're interested in highfield trucking and everything that we have to offer over here or learn more about the expediting industry, check us out over at highfieldtrucking.com. Give our recruiting department a call at 833 Highfield. That's 833-493-4353 option one, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. We do have a live chat function on our website as well if you'd like to reach out to us that way.
SPEAKER_05:Um that's only that only happens if I've had enough coffee. Wink, week. I'm kidding.
SPEAKER_04:Make sure you hit that thumbs up button and the subscribe button. We see a lot of you out there that are watching the show, uh, but you're not hitting the subscribe button. It really does help us out with the YouTube algorithm and uh really does help the channel out.
SPEAKER_02:Well, but what's the subscription fees?
SPEAKER_04:Zero. Oh. It is completely free.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. So introductory price, like free for the first three episodes or free forever. Wow.
SPEAKER_06:Well, that they'll be for a while. For the foreseeable future.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know about it. Okay, we'll see. All right, well, I can charge a coffee tax. We could.
SPEAKER_05:No, no, not you. They give us money. Just me.
SPEAKER_01:That's how we ended up in America. Tax the tea, tax the coffee. Taxica? What's the worst that can happen in a rebellion?
SPEAKER_05:I mean, the jerky was nice. I wasn't a tax, but the jerky was a nice little extra extra. I could go for a little coffee for extra extra. Just saying.
SPEAKER_02:I give you K cup on the way out.
unknown:Nice.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, it'll brew it for you. You have to go to Jerry's and use his blue.
SPEAKER_07:Can't get it there either. I have.
SPEAKER_01:No, we don't. We don't. Are we the only ones that have K cup? I guess so. But you couldn't find the insert.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, you found the insert machine.
SPEAKER_07:She's like, huh? Yeah, she found the insert.
SPEAKER_02:She's just not telling you about it. She's not. It's her private stash cake. So uh also if you can uh or if you don't hit that uh bell. That way it'll let you know anytime we are uh dropping a new episode, although we try to do it every couple weeks on uh the YouTube.
SPEAKER_05:I'm excited to see where these articles go. Again, like you said, we've been following them for a hot moment, so I'm excited. It's like truck stopgate. I don't know what to say. Yeah, I'm something.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm intrigued. I I just we've see we've seen and heard so much positive optimism over the past couple years that we're all kind of sick of it. And this is the first one that's not a gut feeling of someone. This is like, hey, no, here's action that's happening and here's the numbers to back it up. Yeah. So I'm I that part I'm excited about. So I think it's the uplifting news we've needed for a while. So uh in the meantime, until we see you again, do me a favor and stay safe and make good decisions. And don't leave money on the table and keep those turn on. That's the wrong button. Good night.
SPEAKER_07:Next week, I'm not sure.