The OuterBelt's Podcast
The OuterBelt's Podcast
Truck Tech That Keeps Drivers Rolling
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Trucking problems rarely show up with clean labels. A driver says “my box is broken” and what they really mean is a dead toll pass, a warning light they cannot name, or an APU that will not reset. We dig into how maintenance teams actually solve those issues remotely, and why the difference between chaos and clarity often comes down to better context, better tools, and better training.
We’re joined by Jimmy Mack from Hyfield's maintenance leadership and Eric B, who’s in the middle of onboarding and hands-on training in the yard. They share what changes when you stop relying on emails and guesswork and start climbing through real trucks, inspecting components, and learning the variations that matter. We talk APU troubleshooting across multiple brands, why “always off” is the rule for resets, and how short, truck-specific how-to videos can prevent repeat calls and prevent simple mistakes.
From there, we zoom out to the systems that keep drivers moving and reduce stress: Fleetio for preventive maintenance schedules, monthly VIR reporting, and catching small issues before they become DOT violations, plus Quo for recorded calls, searchable transcripts, and AI summaries that help with training, accountability, and staying aligned across maintenance, ops, and recruiting. We also cover driver quality-of-life tech like reliable Wi-Fi and internet-based TV, and we give a quick look at the Hyfield app features that centralize permits, settlements, accident reporting, document scanning, and referrals.
If you get value from practical fleet maintenance talk and real-world driver support systems, subscribe on your favorite podcast app, share this with a driver or fleet friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.
Email us: theouterbeltpodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.hyfieldtrucking.com
Interested in joining our team? Email us at info.hyfieldtrucking.com we have open trucks! You must be part of a team. No solo drivers.
Call us at 1-833-493-4353 Option 1
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Studio Roll Call And Setup
SPEAKER_06You're ready to go. Shall we go?
SPEAKER_05Hey everybody, welcome to the Underballot. I am Patrick, and you all know my friends. Chili.
SPEAKER_06Buttermilk. Zucchini bread.
SPEAKER_05Eric. Jimmy Mac. Eric B. And Jerry. And we're coming to you live uh I always want to say live there, don't I? Every single time. Well, we are alive. Yeah. This is live to tape. Live to tape. Live to tape. So coming to you live to tape. From tape. We're not even on tape. It's like live from memory card. Live from digital. Live from digital. Put out on the Ethernet by not Ethernet. Even got that wrong. Boy. I do use Ethernet. Okay. Well, I don't. What do you use Ethernet for?
SPEAKER_00I am hardwired so that I can get the fastest upload with my slow internet at home, remember?
SPEAKER_05With your antiquated dial up internet 1927. Anyways.
SPEAKER_07So uh you sitting between Eric uh Highfield and and myself. That threw me. I'm like this isn't normal. Who's supposed to do what?
SPEAKER_06I was gonna skip and see if he would go and then I could go, but it's gonna mess everybody up.
SPEAKER_05I feel like we need to explain because I know a lot of you out there are listening to us uh live from your uh YouTube channel. Uh no.
SPEAKER_01Podcast Podcast app. You know what? You take it. I will. So a lot of folks listen on our podcast app, they don't watch the video, may not even know we do a video on YouTube under the outer belt. Um so normally here in the studio, if you're watching the video straight ahead uh is Patrick, and then to Patrick's right, it's chili. And then to Chili's right, it's buttermilk. And then to buttermilk's right, it's usually Eric. And then across the table from Eric is zucchini bread, to zucchini bread's right is Jerry, and then we get right back around to Patrick. Well, today we mixed it up a little bit. We have a couple of special guests in the studio. So zucchini bread is sitting between buttermilk and Eric.
SPEAKER_07Yes.
SPEAKER_01And across the way from Eric is Jimmy and Eric B. So that's what we've done to change it up a little bit, so it might sound a little bit different, but it's gonna be fun.
SPEAKER_07Sounds like we're part of like a K-pop rock group or something, and these are all our names.
SPEAKER_01I'm going demon hunting later on tonight if anybody wants to go. Oh. I don't know what that means, but I've seen it on Amazon.
SPEAKER_06I just have purple hair, that's all I'm saying. That's it.
SPEAKER_01There you go.
SPEAKER_05Well, you know what? You can have purple hair for the rest of this podcast because the listener doesn't know any better. They have no idea. And the people watching on YouTube, Jerry's gonna color correct your hair only just the purple for the entire podcast.
SPEAKER_07Jerry's like, I need to find an app for that. You can do it.
SPEAKER_05Well, I mean, he is the best, right? I I heard someone once say he's the administrator extraordinaire or something like that. Most important super administrator, the best, most important person in all of Highfield trucking. So I'm sure you can figure that out.
SPEAKER_08No pressure.
SPEAKER_04No pressure. No pressure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I can do it. Here's a picture of Heather right here with purple hair.
Meet Maintenance Lead Jimmy Mack
SPEAKER_05Purple hair, purple hair. That's funny. Um, so yeah, we've got some fun times. So those of you who don't know, Jimmy Mack is uh over our maintenance department over at Highfield Trucking. He is the bomb.edu. Uh and uh he is uh the knowledge base for everything maintenance related. So when you call Jimmy Mack and you say Jimmy, Jimmy. Jimmy? Yes, sir. Yeah, okay. He uh you say I've got a Duma flitchy noise and it's just not right. He can go like, well, does it happen when you turn left or right and you go like only when I turn right? And then he automatically knows, of course, that means you've got a loose Duma flitchy. See? It's so easy. It's so easy vents. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Eric's like, I gotta write down what a flitchy is.
SPEAKER_02I was going with a broken flux capacitor.
SPEAKER_01No, that's only on acceleration when it stalls out for that quick second. Yeah. That's that's the flux capacitor. You have a lot to learn.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we'll work on that tomorrow. All of our we broke all of our flux capacitors intentionally. None of our trucks go 88.
SPEAKER_02So did you say Duma Flitchy?
Training By Seeing Trucks Up Close
SPEAKER_05Duma flitchy. Okay, so if I put that in a report, just make sure you spell it right. Understand. And we do use the old English spelling. We do. It's a weird quirk. It is. Uh H made us uh use that, but you know, it's fine. So uh Jimmy, you're in from Georgia, where you normally uh uh live. Yes. And uh work from. And then you brought up Eric B, and y'all have been hanging out uh the first part of this week with us. You're gonna be here for a few more days.
SPEAKER_03Uh why? Uh Eric's in training. Uh he's started March 1st, and I always try to make a couple trips up to Columbus to make visits to all our shops and uh make an appearance and continue networking and make develop all those relationships we have over the last several years. And yeah, it's always good for uh new people to put faces to names, and he's been emailing people already, and he got to meet a lot of them, and we got more to meet, and we'll be here all week.
SPEAKER_05Awesome. Awesome. I know uh Eric, you and I are talking earlier, and you were talking about uh climbing through the trucks and actually like uh playing with the the the different things and and and learning our procedures and all that stuff. Um and you said it was illuminating, so so to speak, is what you said, about um just being able to see all these trucks because we everything so far has been like emails, right?
SPEAKER_02And conversation and yeah, so when when drivers would call in and they would bring up anything that was wrong with the truck, I would do my best to try to help them out and I would look through Google and try to figure out what was on the truck. But with Google, you have 15 different brands or 15 different kinds of things. So I'd find something and I would think, okay, I'm gonna send this over to the driver, but if I send them the wrong thing, it doesn't help them at all. So putting eyes on the trucks, seeing what we're dealing with on a day-to-day basis, and then you know, also meeting operations and building that relationship and where I can reach out to them and say, hey, could you you know lend me a hand? It's been very beneficial.
SPEAKER_05Cool, cool. And how's it been uh so far? Because I know you spent some time with Vince in the yard, right? Like that's been y'all like one of the big projects you've been or or has that not happened yet?
APU Types And Reset Basics
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we went through um Eric and I did the the exterior and box on an initial inspection on um Monday morning, and then he spent time with Mel on the interior and cab on an interior on an initial inspection in the afternoon. So we still have to go over a couple of different components. Um we tried to show him an APU yesterday, but it wasn't working. So we're gonna go through all the different APUs uh tomorrow or Thursday and work on on what that looks like, what they look like, and how to some of the troubleshooting steps that we go through in the yard to get those working.
SPEAKER_05But don't you feel like showing him an APU that's not working is an accurate display of Oh sure. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, a very accurate display, sure.
SPEAKER_07Are we up to three APUs? I I know we just had a conversation maybe two months ago.
SPEAKER_05Four, four, up to four. And then do they five, five, five, we're up to five.
SPEAKER_07Oh my. Are you talking about the big one?
SPEAKER_05Big dynastys, little dynastys, Onan, Comfort Pro, Aspen. Yeah. Well, then I'm gonna do that.
SPEAKER_07So do they all reset differently? That's my quick question. Like if they trip? Because I'm only can familiar with the one with the big red button.
SPEAKER_01The comfort process.
SPEAKER_07But do they all reset differently now?
SPEAKER_01Well, the two dynastys are the only difference between them that we deal with is the fact that one is a lot larger output than the other. I see. As far as the controller and how they reset them, they work the same way. Nice.
SPEAKER_07So that's kind of the stuff you'll be showing here? That was my question. Exactly. Thanks.
SPEAKER_01Which we did talk about some of that yesterday afternoon, too, on the dynastys. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So between you and Mel, it was easy for me today when I ran a VIR on the truck because a lot of what we went through yesterday I was able to, you know, use it today. Sure. And understand what I was looking at to move through the truck. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So it it was it's it's good, it's good experience to have someone from maintenance in the yard going over this equipment with us. It really is.
SPEAKER_05Well, and it's it's such a crash course, right? Like we always talk about you get a brand new team in and we spend an hour or two hours, something like that with them going over the truck, depending on learning curve. If you have experience, it's a little faster. If you if you don't, it could take a little longer. Um, but you're not going over a truck that this that Eric's gonna drive for the next six months to a year to two years. You're going over uh fifteen different variations of trucks. And you know, you get uh 10 minutes with the dynastys, and then we have to go look at the own end, then we have to go at the comfort road, and then we have to go look at the aspen, and then we have to go figure out why the dynastys didn't work and you know, like all that stuff. Um whereas another like typically when a team comes in, they don't have to do that. They kind of like it.
SPEAKER_01The time that we spend with them on their truck, we give them so much information.
SPEAKER_05Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And that's really where the mentor program comes in, is because the our mentors have dealt with this equipment as well. And if you see it happen once when you have a question for your mentor on how to turn the APU on, because you can't forget. I remember the first our first night in the truck, I called you and asked you questions about the APU that you had shown us. So you you have so much going on that a team can call their mentor and the mentor can walk them through it. And when if you've seen it, you understand what they're talking about. It's not all foreign language to you, so it works out really well that way. But yeah, Eric is getting um just just thrown into the the frying pan.
SPEAKER_03And let me add something to that. I plan on spending some time in the trucks tomorrow. I live in North Georgia, I work remotely, I've been doing this for five years, but I need a refresher from time to time and go through everything again, see like the aspen. I've seen the aspen one time last time I came to Columbus. So you know it's like continuing education for me coming up here and going back through trucks.
SPEAKER_01I was thinking a minute ago, we don't have an aspen in the yard to show you, but we actually do have an aspen. It's over at Q Smart, but we can get it back for you. So we can go over there. We go over there, one of the two.
SPEAKER_07Do um so coming from the recruiting and our lovely new app, I know even prior to the app, Jerry has done a wonderful catalog of videos, have two videos uh designated for each truck. So when you come on board with Highfield, uh you would have this catalog in the Highfield app readily accessible to maybe assist you with the how to start the generator up.
SPEAKER_01And and clarify also that when you go into the Highfield app, you choose your truck and it's showing you just the equipment that's on your truck. Yes, it's truck specific to just APUs trying to figure out which one is yours, right?
SPEAKER_06No, so and real quick, I just want to add that that's not just for new drivers, that's for people who are already in the fleet. They download the app, their trucks in there, so yes, if they need a refresher too on how to do something.
SPEAKER_07So my question, I guess, now that we've sold the app, because if you don't have the app and you're with Highfield, I don't know, something like that. You're missing out.
SPEAKER_08Get it.
SPEAKER_07But anyway, do you do you all have you looked at some of Jerry's videos to go, oh, I kind of can understand now what the person on the other phone or whatever end is trying to say? Because sometimes you know having that visual, are his videos helpful?
SPEAKER_03Absolutely.
SPEAKER_07To maintenance, absolutely that's awesome.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you can try to explain to somebody what to do when they see it for themselves, it makes all the difference in the world.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Very helpful.
SPEAKER_05That catalog's been well it's kind of it's kind of what we just said. We talk about the big red button on the comfort pro, right? That you reset it of uh when you actually look at it, it's not that big. It's not that big. When you think of a big red button, I think of I think of like the this the uh trailer brake uh uh button on a on a truck. And when you get in there, it's this it's smaller than a dime. Like it is a tiny little button.
SPEAKER_03Um it's not like the the office depot.
SPEAKER_07Uh, it reminds me of the plug that pops out of the turkey, the little red stopper.
SPEAKER_05Yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, it's it's just this little stopper. Yep. It's not very big.
SPEAKER_05Well, I can imagine too, all of this experience, being in the yard, seeing all these different trucks, when you watch those videos, it's probably going to give you a better understanding of like where this is, how it's working, um, as opposed to like the way I process it is uh I I like boats and I like RVs, so I'll watch some like reviews of them occasionally on like uh different RVs and boats. And sometimes when you watch a video, you're like, oh, I think I realize how this works, whatever. And then if you go to a boat show and you actually get on the boat, you're like, oh, that's not at all what I thought it was gonna be like. It's totally different, or it's it's way bigger, way smaller, it's in a different spot, it's a little harder to get to. Like, you know, when Jerry goes there and films it, he's trying to get the best angles and everything so that you can see everything that's going on crystal clear. What they don't show you is that you are contorted in such a way to be able to get to something, right? Like that's not always caught on camera because we want you to see uh like what the like how to fix the issue, not necessarily where it is. So it it does get uh it definitely is illuminating when you're actually in the truck and looking at it.
SPEAKER_03It gives it context.
SPEAKER_05It does, absolutely. Sure. And then to know to physically press that button in like on a on a on a comfort pro and actually know, like, oh, I do feel that little snap or whatever, like it it I think all that helps.
SPEAKER_01I think in the video we did we talked about that button. So you can look in there and see it, but it's hard to see when you're trying to push the button. So if you go in blind and you don't feel that release, well, there's a screw on either side of that button, and you probably hit one of those screws.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Is that with the motor running or off? Always off. Always off.
SPEAKER_03Thank you.
SPEAKER_05Oh my gosh, the inside of a the inside of a comfort pro, like it's pretty it's pretty tight. It's very tight, and there's belts on both sides of it. So always turn it off. Always turn it off.
SPEAKER_07What do you think about the actual sleeper part?
SPEAKER_02Uh very pretty. Um coming from I used to have an RV. Yeah. It was obviously 34 feet. And then when you come to our sleepers, yes, they're smaller because it is attached to a semi-trunk, but it's spacious enough to move around. Yeah. You have the all the amenities of being at the house and what you were saying, being able to contort and everything. It's not really the case in our sleepers. Uh yeah, I'm six foot two, I can stand straight up in the back of it. The shower seems, you know. Sure. Yeah. So I I thought our sleepers were gorgeous. And from now that I've been here about a month and a half, I've told almost everybody I know about them. Yeah. I've shown them pictures, and uh, people are just like, I had no idea this truck was ever out on the road. I've never seen one before I started working here. And you know, yeah, y'all have done a great job designing these trucks.
SPEAKER_05It's funny. I I remember I've showed people like, here's what the inside of our trucks look like, or whatever. Like if Eric and I are traveling, inevitably we'll end up in a pub somewhere and conversational flow, and they'll kind of like, what do y'all do? We're trucking. Uh you tell someone in Australia you're in trucking, and you say, like, we have these teams, teams of trucks, they're like, Teams? What do you mean? Because every truck in Australia has a coffin sleeper, which is if you know what that means, it's basically a sleeper that is as wide as a single mattress. Not even a single mattress, actually, like a I would say cot size. Like they're very narrow, very narrow little mattresses, and that's all the space the truck has, period. Like if you remember um uh Matt's Medi Work Truck Show, uh the last one we did, which we just actually highlighted on our uh Facebook page as well, there was a scancia truck. Is it scania? Scania? Scania S-C-A-A. N-I-A? Yeah, N-I-A. However you pronounce that. Um that truck, same thing. Little tiny, you just like one person can lay in there, and that's it. Uh so when you say you've got husband and wife driving together, they're like, wait, what? How's that possible? That doesn't make any sense. And so you show them our trucks. I've had people go like, oh, I didn't know all the trucks in America were like this. That's great. And I'm like, not all the trucks in America. Like, we are in a boutique industry uh where we are enabled to have these luxuries. That is not the typical experience. Because the typical experience is like it was shocking to me when I started talking to people, because this is the only industry I've ever been in, that run for mega carriers, and they're like, wait, I'm sorry, you just said your your refrigerator is the size of an RV fridge? It's like, yeah, and they're like, Yeah. And I'm thinking like you're impressed by how big it is, and they're like, You you have a refrigerator in all your trucks? And I'm like, Well, doesn't Swift put a refrigerator on? And they're like, No. No, they don't. Uh, you know, maybe and and watch Swift does, and it's like JB Hunt or someone think it doesn't, but still, it's like uh the things that we take for granted, the refrigerators, the microwaves, the the full like uh 40-inch wide mattress, which two people can sleep on comfortably, like all that stuff is counter space to do meal prep. Yeah, uh hot and cold running water. Like that's not a given. That's not understood.
SPEAKER_03And it's to us, it is a it's our bare minimum. And don't forget about the satellite TV availability. You know, you can bring your own hopper, bring your own receiver or whatever. It's all connected. And uh yeah, that's what me and Kelly did. Uh for your downtime, it's nice to not only have all the amenities of home, but to have a TV and watch, you know, whatever you want. That sure helps when you're sitting. Absolutely.
Wi-Fi Plans And Internet TV
SPEAKER_00And if you don't have your own direct TV or dish network, then we do have the availability for you to purchase it. Uh, the service that we offer. We do not sell it, we do not have any gain in that or anything like that. So we do have a company that we work very closely with, and uh that is only seven dollars and fifty cents a week uh per team per truck.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, well, per truck. Like are you say they're gonna have two or three trucks?
SPEAKER_00Uh you know, they may have you maybe may want two units in one home. I don't know.
SPEAKER_07Well and then and then you can give it a lot. Here's the nice thing. You can do it in tandem with the Wi-Fi. So what's the Wi-Fi that we've got going on, Jared?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the Wi-Fi is uh runs on the T-Mobile network, and that is$15 per team. Um, and then you get uh 250 gigs uh per month to use out there on the road. And uh it's very, very fast.
SPEAKER_05Now, if I if I understand this correctly, it's unlimited data, but the first 250 gigabytes are high-speed data, correct?
SPEAKER_00That is correct. After that, it does slow you down, but it's still very usable to check email or go to a web page or something like that.
SPEAKER_05It's only slowing you down, if I'm not mistaken, and I could be mistaken, and I apologize if I am, but it only slows you down in like major cities, the hot spots. So like if you're over your 250 gigabyte cap and you end up at the loves in Houston, Texas, A, leave. B, it's not a good place to be. Uh, but B, there's so much going on that they may reduce your speeds. But if you're in uh Tucum Carrie, they may just not even bother and let you keep having the high speed, correct?
SPEAKER_00Correct. It depends on the congestion on the network. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Well, that's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_05It is. We've had people test it that said like, we'll test it and try it out for you because we wanted to vet it before we we we introduced it. And uh people say, Yeah, I'll try it, and then we'll give it back or whatever, because we have our own solution. And they just never gave it back. They're like, this actually works really good. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07So I have first of all for gamers too, right?
SPEAKER_00I have not had one team hit the 250 gig limit. And we do have people out there that are gaming on it with their PS5s and everything.
SPEAKER_05I remember back in my day when I was in high school, we got a 256 gigabyte hard drive on our computer. And we were like blown away. Like we will never, ever have this much space. Never touch it. Ever. Yeah. And that they can blow through that much internet in a month. Just think that's just it's so much information. Um, but it's cool, and I do like this. The thing I like most about this is uh if you do have like one of the complaints I've heard people say, if you have uh Dish Net uh Direct TV in particular, is when they work with our satellite, it they don't provide HD uh programming. Direct TV does. I'm sorry, Dish Network does. So the technology is there, but for some reason direct TV doesn't do it. Um and uh if you use the internet instead of that satellite, you can now stream HD content to your computer or to your TV. So that always bugged me when I'm like looking at a TV and I'm like, it's fuzzy, not because it's a bad signal, but because it's you're just used to high def. I'm just so used to high def, and we put high def TVs in all the trucks. So like the fact that it doesn't allow you to have that is always aggravating to me. But like when you're streaming off the internet, if it's available, you can do it.
SPEAKER_00To clarify, the direct TV service that we do partner with uh the company that is streamed over the internet, it does not go through the traditional satellite. So the nice thing about that as well is you don't have to worry about being parked underneath a tree or near tall buildings and things like that. Weather, uh as long as you have an internet signal, you have TV.
SPEAKER_07Wow, wow.
SPEAKER_05I do remember that. Uh I was uh might have been Kelly, no. Kelly is Jimmy's wife. Uh it was someone and they called and they said our satellite quit working. We're like, okay, what happened? They're like, well, we can't get it to work. And like, where are you? We're in Maine. And okay, I'm like, Where in Maine? And they told us, and they're like, they were directly like south of them was this giant oak tree, and they were parked under it. And I'm like, Well, from Maine, all of the satellites are south of you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So if you are parked and there's a giant oak tree between you and the satellite, uh, you know, with all those leaves, that's probably not going to uh it's not gonna allow that signal to work. And so they actually did they they pulled up and uh what like drove across the lot and backed in with The clear signal fried right up. Didn't y'all used to have that issue with the yard sometimes?
SPEAKER_01Sometimes, yeah. It would depend on where the satellite dish was placed on the truck. If we were next to the building, we couldn't get a signal.
SPEAKER_05Giant steel building, we keep that. Yeah. So no, I love the internet uh version of it now. It's it's so much better, and it was something that people kept asking us for. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, like, oh my gosh. Every time we get people together, they'd be like, You can also see that in the yard. The TV we have in the yard uses that direct TV, that Wi-Fi direct TV. It does.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And it uses a T-Mobile uh internet source. So it's it's basically the same. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07That's pretty cool.
Fleetio For PM Tracking And VIRs
SPEAKER_03Very cool. We're talking about like drivers being comfortable, things we offer in our trucks and this and that. And you know, drivers are frustrated enough. There's certain there's so many things that will frustrate drivers. I've been there, I've been a driver. I think we've all kind of been drivers. And you know, between issues with their carrier, between, you know, uh being away from home, missing their family and friends, maybe you're missing a funeral or a wedding because you're out on the road, uh, you know, people have all kinds of issues. The last thing we want to do is, you know, continue on with issues with maintenance problems on the truck. Yeah. If you're a frustrated driver and you got things, you know, kind of going on and you have a truck problem, that just compounds everything. Because you you can't roll, you can't make money. And so we do our best and uh to keep people up and rolling, you know, uh that minimizes that frustration. And I've been there, I've been down, and uh it's it's not fun. So we really, really work hard to make sure trucks are in good condition. Uh when something happens, we get them where they need to go if we can't troubleshoot it on the spot uh and do our best to get them up and running again.
SPEAKER_05Well, you know, one thing we talked about actually last week on the or two weeks ago on the podcast, I should say, last episode, was uh all the years of progress from um when we started the company to now of the technology side of how do we track maintenance and and everything we're doing. And uh Jimmy, since you came on board, we've changed that quite a bit over the years. Um with our new Fleto and the things that uh what's your name again? Jerry has helped set up. Um how do you feel about like the direction that from a technology side and being able to track and keep up with everything?
SPEAKER_03Uh having a maintenance management app not only helps us and helps us keep track of costs, it helps us know when things are due, things don't go past due. Uh, but it's it's easier for the driver. They just uh click on the app, uh they can see what's coming due, uh what might be past due. They get notices when things are past due. Uh nothing with we personally have to keep up with every truck. We know the notice will get sent out automatically. And uh having that technology, having that ability uh for everybody to be on the same page of you know what's due on your truck. You have APU PMs, you have truck PMs, you have TCU PMs. Um having that Fletio app where once a month the drivers report a bunch of stuff about their truck, their tires, the windshield, anything within the sleeper, their lighting, uh too many to mention. It literally goes on and on. Um they can submit that VIR once a month. It just comes to uh Highfield through the Fledio app. Uh we look at it, evaluate it when there's problems, we get them addressed when there's small problems so it doesn't become a big problem and people aren't rolling down the road with DOT violations. It's been absolutely a game changer.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, absolutely. And which brings me to this week's sponsor, Fletio. We want to thank you so much, Fletio, for all the support you've given us over the past couple years. Uh if you haven't had a chance to go online, check them out, Fletio. Uh Fleetio. Uh they do a wonderful. And I think they have a free service available, right? You can test them out, Jerry, something like that.
SPEAKER_00They'll set you up with like a 30-day trial, believe, if you want to test them out.
SPEAKER_07Does anybody else sing the bingo song when you say Fletio? Like in your head?
SPEAKER_05Fletio NGO.
SPEAKER_07Like I want to sing singing. We will now.
SPEAKER_05Not to earworm you for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_02Yep, that lives there now.
Quo Call Records For Shared Context
SPEAKER_05Oh, they've been great. And and you know, we talked about um the other day, we talked about, and and if we did talk about this, I'm curious because I I I've forgotten. Uh well, it's been so two weeks ago. It's been so two weeks ago. We talked about the Fletio app, and we talked about um the things that we were doing. We even talked about and and and Jimmy, you've been around long enough to remember the written, the the actual pen and paper VIR that we used to do. Yeah. Um, and just going to the smart sheet and then to um the the new Fletio and everything. But you know what I didn't think about was uh and and actually this is sparred from a conversation me and Jimmy had earlier, was the open phone slash quo quo. Q.
SPEAKER_04Quo quo.
SPEAKER_07They do advertising on my Pandora channel.
SPEAKER_05Quo uh that is our app that uh we do all of our phone calls through. So we have uh that's 833 High Feld. If you call us on that, you are getting uh quoted.
SPEAKER_07Um, that's for sure. Recorded quoted.
SPEAKER_05Uh yes, and so it it it it it uh records all of our calls. Um it has the text messaging features and all that stuff. So when you see like the stuff, if you'd like to not have your text messages or whatever, that's all that software program. It's it's genius. We actually got in when they were a fairly young company, and uh which was nice because their tech, from what I understand, uh Jerry, you can speak more on this if you want, but their tech department like it listens to our feedback, right?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. If we have a suggestion or something that can make better their all ears, yeah.
SPEAKER_05It's awesome. It's been a really good partnership to have. Um and we had some other ones, another one before that, which was a bigger company that was more popular, but really limited and could not care less about what we thought. Um but Quo really, really has done it uh a really wonderful job for us. And um I always thought of it as like, well, it's nice we have the phone calls recorded and yada yada. So if anybody says, well, you know, someone said this or whatever, we have it recorded. We can we can find that out. Um and then if we have an internal staff issue, we'll do it that way. If it's no, you remembered wrong, I can actually play the call back and you can hear it, right? Right. So so that's been a really cool feature. That's all I always thought about. Jimmy, you talked about how in in combination with Fleo, how much you like it uh because just the sharing of situational situations, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, there's three of us in the maintenance department from a maintenance standpoint. Uh if you know Don answers a call and I don't, or if I'm on vacation, if I'm take the day off or something, um, I can always go back to Quo and look at the phone call, see what the deal was. If I end up taking a call from that same driver regarding the same issue, I'm already up to speed on it. I don't have to call Don, ask him what it was about. Don doesn't have to call me and say, hey, by the way, in case you get a call from so-and-so, here's what happened, and you know, whatever. So I and I'll be the first to admit I was resistant. I was Mr. Resistance when it when this all first came out, and Kelly says, Patrick's gonna go to a phone system where you know we're all on the the same, you know, phone line and uh different numbers for different departments. I'm like, man, you know, I I just liked I knew what I knew, and what I knew was getting calls on my personal cell phone. Yeah. And having the ability to, number one, not have that on my personal cell phone. Sure.
SPEAKER_07Oh, isn't that a game changer?
SPEAKER_03You know, I didn't think at first it was gonna be that important, very important. Yep. Um, having the calls come into one phone line that you can look at, you can review. Um, the driver's called one number, they don't have to remember my number, Eric's number, Don's number. Uh, it's been beneficial in every respect, and I have to admit I was wrong. You're welcome. I didn't know it was going that way. I didn't know it was going that way. Thank you, Jerry.
SPEAKER_05Well, and the scheduling aspect of it too, right? Like, so when we first went to this, there was only two of you, so not much there to schedule, but now that there's three of you, uh, and it's been three of you for a while now, being able to actually go in and y'all broken up uh and and have a schedule and telling the phone system, hey, here's a schedule, who's gonna be on, here's gonna be who's on duty, here's the order in which to make phone calls. And so if uh you are are are really off for the day, or even if you're off for two hours, you've got to go do a doctor's appointment, or gotta go to the bank and and and and pull a heist or something, like the fact that you can actually schedule the phone system to where if I call in as a driver, or even in ops, if I call in because I have an issue, like I'm still uh getting someone in the maintenance department to talk to.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. Sometimes it's like I'm number one on the phone, Don's number two, he's number three, we can switch it up. Uh you know, I could be one, two, or three, but rest assured I'm still number one in your heart. So number three on quo, number one in your heart. That's how that works.
SPEAKER_02Eric was gonna say something about quo too. Yes, uh, from a learning standpoint, coming on with the company and not knowing everything, what to say to drivers, quo has definitely helped because I can go back on Jimmy's conversations, I can go to Don's, and I can read through everything that they've done and what they've already experienced. So it it it helps with the learning aspect to be able to pick up on that. And I still use it. Um, almost every single day I'll go back there and type in something and it'll pull up what they've done.
SPEAKER_03You can search if a driver sent in pictures of you know a tire issue they hadn't. Jeez, was that on email or was it on quo? You can just go to that driver's name and scroll back and boom, there it is. Yeah, very easy.
SPEAKER_07I think a lot maybe too, what I I I hear over here that they didn't mention, but they're kind of mentioning is quo does translate. True. Transcript. I'm sorry, transcript.
SPEAKER_04So it transcribes translated.
SPEAKER_07Sorry.
SPEAKER_04You'd be like, hey, Kayla. It's like, hey Kelly, call me on quo.
SPEAKER_07So it does transcribe.
SPEAKER_00Um you get an AI summary of the entire phone call. Then you can click on the transcript and see exactly word for word what each person said in the phone call.
SPEAKER_07Well, I've done that now with because word for word, can we say it is word for word, word for words.
SPEAKER_05Mostly word for word.
SPEAKER_07But it might come out Selena instead of Delena.
SPEAKER_02Exactly.
SPEAKER_07So she does her best. Yeah. I mean, come on, it's quo.
SPEAKER_02But playing the audio back is very so even or you can play audio back, yeah. So like even on a call I take, instead of sitting there and having to take notes during the entire call, I can go back and replay the call immediately following it while I'm working on finishing or helping that that driver.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_02And then so all that information is sitting right there for me.
SPEAKER_08Yep.
SPEAKER_03I think he just likes to listen to himself. I think so.
SPEAKER_05I love it from uh from like if I'm getting involved with the maintenance issue, it's uh one of two things have happened. Either uh one, it's a huge major issue, huge, and that's a huge. I mean, like we had a truck uh sleeper caught on fire. That's a huge issue, right? Like that's not a tiny little thing. Um so it's either a huge major issue, or um it's a driver who didn't like a policy or the uh way we do things or uh the answer they were given on something.
SPEAKER_07Sure.
SPEAKER_05And so, you know, it's not everyone's uh 100% truthful. Um so it is nice to be able to go back and listen to a call and hear exactly what was said.
SPEAKER_07Right.
SPEAKER_05And so if someone's getting me involved, I can listen to it and go like again, uh kind of what I said earlier. Like, hey, we actually messed up. Like, and then I can go have a conversation with Jimmy and say, hey, y'all said this and this call, and then the next call y'all y'all counteracted yourself, and maybe we need to fix that, right? If we if we have an operational inefficiency. And sometimes it's hey, what you remember the conversation going is not what happened. So let's talk about what actually happened. And uh those are super helpful because when you are like, especially if you're in the cab of the truck, you're broke down. Jimmy just talked about it a minute ago, you're frustrated, right? Like none of us like to be broke down. So you talk to maintenance, maybe you talk to Jimmy once, maybe talk to Don once, uh, and maybe soon Eric. Um, and then you're you're you're angry, and we're we've all been there and you're stewing, and and we've all been there. I've been so mad on the side of the road, broke down, and it's my truck. Uh and it's just like a frustrating situation. And and so you play back the events, and if you play back the events enough, you can start to skew what really happened.
SPEAKER_08Sure.
SPEAKER_05And so, like, it is nice to be able to go back and actually have a record of here's what happened. It's the court reporter thing, right? Like going back, and I remember you said this, and I go listen to the message, I'm like, oh, that's not that's not exactly what was said, or it's not what it was phrase. So it is super helpful for that. Uh and that's what I see on my end of it, because in general, I don't get involved because Jimmy and Eric and Don do such a great job of maining that department and keeping everything uh level. So that that part I I adore. And then I know just like maintenance, y'all love it. Uh recruiting, y'all have a whole nother world with it, right?
SPEAKER_07I love it. I so Jerry is doing his due diligence on getting me to use my laptop version of of Quo and my yeah. So I use my phone version, uh, but I do look at the app version as I'm answering, or or the desktop version as I'm answering my phone, right? Because how I use it is I see as soon as I've answered, it'll pull in any other calls and it'll show above. And so as I'm doing my greeting, I do a quick, you know, multitask and see who talked to him last, how long ago maybe it was, maybe a quick what talked about. This is all why I'm doing the greeting at the same time. My favorite thing is always to do that. Well, I see we talked to you back in yada yada. You said you needed XYZ or you had such and such and such. Uh, has something changed? Yes. Like, like and if no, then well, we still can't help you, or whatever it might look like. It just really nips a lot of our conversations, but it also, too, you know, um being on the same front. Yes. You know, that's really important. Um I feel like all of our departments are saying you know, unified things, but if if not, then you know Delena can say, Hey, can you check out this conversation, make sure whatever happened happened. And yeah, and so just kind of double checking each other or or listen, or did I say something wrong? Did I offend somebody, you know, just to kind of self-check each other. I think that's a really good thing.
Random Call Reviews And Burnout Clues
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. That's a thing that uh when I went up to Panther and and and hung out with them for a while, uh actually not up to there, I went down to Savannah, oddly enough, Eric. Your stopping grounds. Um when I went down to Savannah and uh actually got to meet with a bunch of the people from Panther, they were doing a big Panther fleet owner situation, and um I got to meet with a few uh people, one of the guys was director of quality. And I'm like, what does that mean? Right. And you know what it means? It means the guy listened to the phone calls. He would randomly select phone calls from everyone in Panther's building every day and listen to them. And it was purely random. And so he was able, and it obviously if there was a complaint, then he would listen to the complaint. But if there was not a complaint, he'd just do random calls and be able to listen to what was said, and um it keeps everyone honest because you never know when your call is going to be pulled, right? Sure. And when you have someone that is um that is saying something that it may not even be like crazy out of line, it may just be like a little bit of like, uh, there's a better way to phrase it.
SPEAKER_07Right.
SPEAKER_05You can address that and and you can be able to so that you do have a uniform front so that everyone is presenting the the way that the company wants to be presented.
SPEAKER_07We've used that a few times. So, you know, in your presence you've listened to because we we live together, so sometimes I'll work in your presence and you'll tweak sometimes how I say things, tweak after the call.
SPEAKER_05Like I wouldn't say we live together. I would say that we lived. I looked over at the same city.
SPEAKER_07That's not what I meant.
SPEAKER_01I looked over and watched talking about Patrick watching.
SPEAKER_07We live near each other. So but we've been together before. Oh, we got a hand raised over there.
SPEAKER_03No, I don't want to interrupt you.
SPEAKER_07I can really polished, you know, the whole times in the call answer. And usually it's when we're traveling somewhere. Because that's another nice thing about Quo is as long as you have some sort of cell service, uh it works and you can mm work what we call remotely. Um so you know, sometimes I'll I'll I'll share with Delina, hey, you know, Patrick tweaked XYZ. If you listen to call from area code 213, you know, you can hear and and then she tweaks verbiage. So it definitely works well for that as well. But yeah. Or or those infamous, you said I was gonna get a bathroom truck on move-in day.
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_07And that's not what we said.
SPEAKER_05Yep. That stuff happens. So it just it just helps, you know, it keeps drivers honest, it keeps my staff honest. Like I think both are important, right?
SPEAKER_07And then training. It works well for training.
SPEAKER_03It does. Very, very good. 100%. 100%.
SPEAKER_07All right, Jimmy had his hand raised.
SPEAKER_03You don't pull random calls and listen to them, do you?
SPEAKER_05Uh I don't have to. I just pull the ones where people complain about it for maintenance. So uh that keeps us pretty busy. Is that why you're so busy every day? It is, it is, it is. No, I I I kid. Uh do I pull random calls? Uh yes, we have random calls pulled. I don't pull them, but they get pulled and they get sent to me. And um that's one of the things we do. I think that's a great thing. I do. It is. It also helps gauge from my perspective a little bit of burnout. Like if I can tell that, hey, these conversations aren't going well, we might have a staff that's having burnout that we need to do a work on, right? Like there's there's there's multiple metrics that come out of that. Um so that's that's I think it's a really it's a great tool. It really is.
SPEAKER_07Again, more than the cell phone. More than I was gonna say, I still get people who call my cell phone because that's where things used to originate from back in the day. So go ahead.
SPEAKER_06I was just gonna say the company I worked for before we did they got three random calls picked a week. So and that also helped all the stuff we talked about, training, you know, say this differently. And it also helped when there was maybe something you weren't understanding, so the learning aspect of it all, too. Oh, okay, now we need to do more training with our team because people are just not understanding this new policy. Absolutely. Or whatever.
SPEAKER_05So you know where else it we've we've encountered this before. Um a driver will talk to maintenance and say, I'm having these issues, and then there'll be our response, and then there'll be like a little bit of a headbutt, because that happens. Maintenance is by far the most abused uh department because it just it happens that way.
SPEAKER_02That's okay, we like it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05We only hire a sadist. Um but they'll then they'll talk to someone in operations or someone in um fleet uh supervision or something like that. And um not supervision, what do we call it? Support support. Thank you. So they'll talk to someone in fleet support, and the person in fleet support is like, wait a second, that doesn't sound right. Like, why would maintenance have told you that? That didn't and then we'll realize maintenance maybe not didn't understand, and it could be just they weren't described it proper properly, or it could be just your head was in the wrong place and you just didn't understand what the person was saying. Sure. And so it's like, hey, the two of us can figure out like this is the actual issue, and it's like, oh, well, if that's the case, this is what we need to do. Sure. Like I understand it now. So it does all that happens because we are diagnosing so much stuff off the phone. Um, we're trusting, which is a big thing, local shops to be able to do repairs, do them properly, um, also not rip us off because if you've been in trucking long enough, you know that there's a lot of shops that have no issue ripping people off. Say they're gonna do work and they not do it. Um so all that stuff factors into it, and and that's one thing. Like I was it took me a second to step back and think about it when you brought up the other day just how much of a benefit that that that phone software gives us.
SPEAKER_01We we get that too in operations where a team will come through the yard for some reason and have a maintenance issue. Sure. And hey, you know, maintenance told me X, Y, and Z, and this is that, and this and that. And I'll reach out to maintenance before giving a response to find out, hey, do we have a record of this person calling? You're great at that by the way. So that we can be on the same page. You know, I see an issue and I might take it differently than what maintenance is looking at it as. So I want to make sure that I'm giving them the appropriate answer and not saying, oh, you need to go to this shop right now and get this done if maintenance has already addressed the issue in a different way. I don't want to be that person uh that that changes things. I also like to keep shops to myself if at all possible and not send a truck over that's gonna you know push one of mine out of the way. Now, if it has to happen that way, sure has to happen. But I want to make sure we're on the same page with something like that. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_06I think it also helps too that you're actually able to see or maybe physically hear sometimes if they do come to the yard. And then you can relay that to maintenance and say, okay, it's not what they told you. This is actually what's happening. Oh, that's nice. I'm on the phone. We're on the phone. Right.
SPEAKER_03We can only go by what the driver tells us. We can't, you know. Yep, sure. Other than them sending us pictures, we it's hard to diagnose over the phone sometimes.
SPEAKER_05And sometimes a driver doesn't know what to call something. So I think this is hysterical. We had this happen the other day. Eric reaches out to me, he sends me a uh Uh uh a transcript of a voicemail that was, hey Eric, uh I need to get with you.
SPEAKER_07Uh Eric Heifeld did?
SPEAKER_05Eric Heifeld. Uh maintenance uh couldn't fit this fixed and my my box is broken. And I'm like, he's like saying to me, I'm like, okay, so it's a complaint against maintenance. So let me dig into this and figure out what's going on. Like immediately it's where my head went. So I'm digging through, trying to find all this stuff, and um I'm reaching out to the fleet support that's over them, and then I'm trying to just trying to dig through what's going on, and I finally was able to get to the call, and I listened to it was Don. It was one of Don's calls. I know exactly what you're doing. And so I called, uh didn't call, I listened to the phone call and get through it, and 10 seconds in. 10 seconds in, I know exactly what it is. The pre-pass died and it needed to be replaced. Uh uh actually, I think it was just a battery needed to be replaced. Uh, and so if anytime there's issues with our pre-pass or best pass or easy pass, uh, Eric handles those. He has the the master login. And so Eric H. Eric Eric Hirch Highfeld. So he can actually do um uh like rehits. So like if your if your best pass goes dead, uh chances are it's battery. That's the best case scenario. That's easy, you just pop out. I think it's a double A or AAA.
SPEAKER_04Double A.
SPEAKER_05Double A battery, new double A battery, you're good to go again. Sometimes it loses sync with a satellite or something, and so Best Pass will actually just rehit it with a new signal and poof, it starts working again. And if none of those two work, then it is a replacement, and Eric handles with ops the coordination to get that replacement sent out to you. So again, we're it's a situation where it's like, oh, this sounds like we have a cargo box issue. Our main toolbox issue.
SPEAKER_07That's what I thought.
SPEAKER_05But it actually was uh a best pass situation. So I mean, like, that was a very easy thing, like because of that phone system.
SPEAKER_03It's just like the mill light or the check engine light, the malfunction indicator. Oh, yeah, totally different animal than a check engine light. If somebody says I got a check engine light, and we ask them, does it say check, or is it just an illuminated picture of the motor?
SPEAKER_05I would have called it a check engine light until I finally had the breakdown where I saw check engine light. Like the fact there's two, because most cars don't have two. No, most vehicles they have one.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, like I or you ask your situation what color is the light, and when they say green, you let them know, oh, your J Quake is on. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Oh, that's funny. That's funny. How do you use um Quo? Because I mean, do people call you an awful lot or more now that you're in the brick and mortar building since we moved, or I don't get a whole lot of phone calls on quo because my number's not published.
SPEAKER_01I'm I'm not much used to teams, honestly, once they leave the yard. If now that they were in the yard and they're trying to coordinate things with me in the yard, I I do a little bit more. Uh mostly text messages through quo. Um but I really don't have a lot of interaction with teams on quo. Nice.
SPEAKER_03Unless they're making arrangements to come to the yard for something, a carb test or something like that.
SPEAKER_01And then you guys maintenance usually schedules that lets us know when they're coming through.
SPEAKER_03Which by the way, we do carb tests and operations for any vehicle, any commercial vehicle that needs it. OTR.
SPEAKER_07Are we sponsoring and do another plug mid midway? We should.
SPEAKER_05Well, this segment is brought to you by OTR Services. If you need a carb test, you know those pesky carb tests that California requires. It's not legally allowed to require anymore, but they still do because what are laws? Yeah. Um What are laws? Then uh I recommend you reach out to OTR services. That's OTR-services.com. OTR-services.com. Now that's not Vince. You I know you're thinking OTR D-A-S-H services.com. No, no, no. No. That's OTR and the dash symbol. Or a hyphen. No, I call it a dash, you call it a dash. A hyphen. Um I call it a pound. You call it a kilo. Yes. No, I mean I just call it a key. A key, okay. So uh no, so it's otr-services.com, and you can actually go on there, you can see our pricing, you can schedule um your carb test. We uh do we still I'm sorry, not we. I have nothing to do with this. Do they still uh do the local like in the general area or is it strictly at the new office?
unknownNope.
SPEAKER_00Uh actually we only do OTR services at a few places around the Columbus area. We do not do it at our operations um just because a lot of big trucks it's difficult to get in there with parking and trailers and stuff like that. Um so we do have places that are set on our website that we do frequent uh truck stops in the area and things like that. Um but if you have a particular place in mind, like you're delivering somewhere just the other day. I did one myself uh where they delivered and they were still outside their facility, and I went there and did their test.
SPEAKER_03So you're saying you're mobile? It's a mobile service.
SPEAKER_05It is a mobile service, it's a mobile service.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_05As long as there's data, right? Like there's a couple places we know we can't do because there's no cell phone service. So the then the test won't connect to the California servers or whatever. But outside of that, yeah, it's it's pretty mobile, right?
SPEAKER_03Does the mill light have to mill light has to be off, right?
SPEAKER_00It has to be off.
SPEAKER_01I thought you were gonna say the mill. Mill light has to be off, they have to have the warm-up cycles or the engine run time, that type of thing.
SPEAKER_05But you're saying y'all treat both fleets equally.
SPEAKER_06Well, we have to, otherwise the test won't work.
SPEAKER_00The state of California says otherwise. You have to treat everybody equally. Yes.
SPEAKER_06And it's about 10 minutes. It's quick, easy.
SPEAKER_00The longest part is putting everything in the computer.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it is.
Highfield App Permits Scans Referrals
SPEAKER_05Yep. So it's a the it's a really cool service, and we are sponsored by them. We thank OTR Services for their support. So we've briefly mentioned it uh on here, and I think we mentioned it a few times in other podcasts, but um this Highfield app. This is something that we've been trying to get together for a long time and it's gone through a bunch of iterations. And uh I gotta say, this past weekend I had a a lesson in the Highfeld app. And let me tell you, when it's 75 degrees outside and you're standing in line for the bat roller coaster at King's Island, and there's nothing else to do, and you're with Jerry, he will absolutely pimp his uh new app to you and demand you update to the latest version of it, and uh which you should, and uh he'll walk through it and show you all the all the cool features it has. It is amazing. It is amazing.
SPEAKER_07So glad you had a long wait.
SPEAKER_05I'm like uh we had a few long waits, but yeah, I would.
SPEAKER_07Jerry, go, Jerry.
SPEAKER_05I like I've kept up-ish with the app and what we've been doing to it and what's happened to it. I was floored. I was floored. Jerry, can you please explain in 30 seconds or less everything the app does now?
SPEAKER_00And go, go. Um the biggest number one thing is all of our current contractors have the ability to log in and see all of their permits for the truck, their specific truck. Um, they are able to log in and see the how-to videos for maintenance and different things that apply to their truck. They're able to see all of their contractor settlements. Um, they are able to send documents to maintenance, pictures to maintenance, video now to maintenance. They can send documents and all of the same information to fleet support. All of that is built into the app.
SPEAKER_03Accident reporting?
SPEAKER_00Accident reporting has been huge.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_06What if they come across the team when they're out on the road that is interested in learning more about iField?
SPEAKER_00We now have a uh referral system built into the app. So as the contractor, you can open up the app, you go to the fleet support page, you click one button, it generates a QR code specifically geared to you. Uh that QR code is valid for 30 days. You let the other person scan that code. If they're not with you and you happen to have their contact information because you were passing them going to the restroom or something, you can hit share and text that off to them. You can email it to them. Um, and then they can go to uh that QR code, it takes them right to our website where they can fill out a short form, and then all of that is linked back to the person that referred them because we do have a referral system at Highfield to reward those contractors who help bring in new Highfield family.
SPEAKER_05And what I love so much about the app, I really do, is that it aesthetically it actually looks really pleasing. It is, it's it's comfortable on the eyes. Like I've looked at so many apps over the years, and I I don't mean to disparage Smartsheet. But like there are some apps that just kind of look okay, right? Like, okay. This one, it looks good. It it's it makes sense. There's uh some right as soon as you open it, there's some uh large uh icons, I don't know what you call them, that give you our thumbnails that give you a real quick picture of where you're at for the year. Quickly. Financially side, uh financial side. It uh it just it just flows so well and it's so well thought out. It's it's it's super easy to use. Uh I've been thoroughly impressed with it.
SPEAKER_03I wish they had it when I was driving. Right, seriously. I know. Or I mean I wish Kelly had it when we were driving. She'd have been the one on it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, maintenance has been promoting it too. Every time the driver says, How do I send this in? We always let them know, do you have the high feel that? And so we've been promoting it to the drivers and letting them know that it's out there.
SPEAKER_05And it costs nothing.
SPEAKER_07It's hard to get that change like Jimmy was sharing, you know, resisted uh Absolutely Quo formerly known as OpenFoam and Game Changer.
SPEAKER_05All change sucks a little bit, right? Like none of us really like change, it's just not it's not our nature. Like once we learn something, we kind of want to stick with that and that and then go from there. Um but this app, it's free. We've eaten all the development expenses. Um and it makes life so much simpler. It does. It clarifies uh, especially with pay, the fact that all the permits are per truck, so it makes it super easy to get the how-to videos. So we've been doing how-to videos for a few years now. Um, and uh the how-to videos, man, that was such a like, how do we put this together? Because I we've I've tried to build a uniform fleet, but that's not been possible. Like, we'll have a batch of trucks that are uniform, and then we'll go to order the next batch the exact same way, and something'll be different. Right.
SPEAKER_06Like, the five different APUs, and that's not uniform.
SPEAKER_05Exactly.
SPEAKER_06We have to get different systems.
SPEAKER_05100%. So we're trying to figure out how in the world do we do this because you could have a generator off an M2 classic that is now on a Cascadia, which has a Lithgate from a M2 Plus, which has a sleeper from a Western star, and you're like, huh? Yeah. Like it just it all the parts and pieces kind of blend together. So we're like, how do we pull this off? And Jerry was the one that came with the idea of I do each component separately, and then I can build these playlists and build these videos truck specific, and it it's just so awesome. And the fact my original idea was like you record the walk around, so you have an hour-long video, and you have to like scroll through the video to find the part of your truck that you're trying to figure out how to use. And Jerry's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We do individual videos that way you can just go straight to the comfort pro one. You don't have to drag the little cursor over and try to find where in the video did we talk about the APU. And um it's just so much better than what I even thought it was gonna be. And it's just yeah, I'm very, very happy with the APU.
SPEAKER_07Any feedback from anybody sitting here in the room about are people using those?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we we had documents all the time. Um, not as many as we'd like because it's I don't think drivers realize how easy it could be if they had the app. Yeah. And they're resistant like I was. It's um, but yeah, we've had people who have gotten in a minor fender bender, and we get one email that has their driver's statement, has the pictures of their damage to the truck, the other vehicle, the registration, license, insurance of the other driver, everything in one spot. We don't have to go hunting four different emails because the driver sent a couple emails at the scene after everything was done. They went and sat at the truck stop and then they sent their driver's statement an hour later. You know, so it's literally one email that comes in from Fletio on or from uh from the Highfield app that reports the incident and it's all right there in one place. And it works working really well in the apps.
SPEAKER_07How about the how to videos? Do people talk about using those too? Um, I mean, because those have been around a hot moment.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I haven't had any feedback, I haven't asked either.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, but when you go to the how to videos and you see the playlist count, you see that people are watching them, right? I think it's oh really?
SPEAKER_07No, I've not. Yeah, well, yes, some of us have access to that. What?
SPEAKER_05Should have access to that. Uh yeah, I mean, I think that's part of like you can see the counts go up. Sure. And and then a lot of people too, like, if I'm like, hey, how do I do this thing? And I know that I have those videos, or a mentor just told me, hey, you have a video, go watch it. I watch the video, I'm not gonna report back like hey, you're just gonna go fix it.
SPEAKER_03I'm just gonna go fix it or do it again. Yeah, while we're talking about this, Jerry, when someone uploads a picture, is it a s a scan type thing that does it, or is it taking a picture and sending in the picture?
SPEAKER_00So originally I did have it set up to take a picture and just send a uh the initial email that you get is a low quality image thumbnail, I guess you would say, and then you click on it and you get the full resolution. Um, I've actually the most recent update now does incorporate um actual scanning of the document or the picture uh that is built into the iPhone. Um Android doesn't do this, unfortunately. Come on, Android, get on the ball. Yeah um but iOS does have that built in now. So if you have a document, you literally can just hold your camera over the top of the document and it will know exactly where that document is. It detects the edges, it scans it all for you, auto-capture everything.
SPEAKER_03I've noticed it's uh the last several emails I've seen come in. People have sent in like documents of of an invoice, uh, of a work order, their TCU PM checklist that FedEx requires. It's neat, it's clean because when sometimes we get pictures, the resolution is such that you by the time you uh enlarge it enough to try to see it, it's all pixelated. Uh, we've seen personal items in the background of people's picture. And that's you know, so having that uh in and of itself is well I and talk about how talk about how nice that is too.
SPEAKER_05Like you uh the the frustrating thing of like I send you a picture of something, you get it, you can't read it. So now you have to come back and I have to go redo it. Now I gotta go redo it again, and then you say, like, yep, still can't do it, all right. Uh to be able to just like open the app, take a picture of it through the app, and submit it to you, it's done. I know it looked good because the app handles that and uh it's just so much like more streamlined.
SPEAKER_03It's less than. If the driver doesn't have genius scan or adobe scan and they send in a couple pictures, it's like, hey, do you have a scan app on your phone? No, what's that? And it's like you know, having the app, it's like cuts out all the the problematic parts of it.
SPEAKER_05And Jerry, if I'm not mistaken, what I'm hearing here is uh all uh uh all teams leasing a high field truck should should theoretically get an iPhone. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Y'all know me, I'm Team Apple. Come on now. Uh speaking of all new teams, that is a big portion that a lot of our current contractors don't see with the Highfield app, and that is the onboarding experiences now completely overhauled. Um whenever you come on with Highfield now, you are signing all of your documents, your lease, your everything that we have you do. You're doing all of that before you ever get to the truck. And then whenever you do get to the truck and you're working with operations or move-in day, and they go through and do your entire walk-around and show you the truck, um you're then taking the app and you're scanning the VIN. It matches you up in the database, pulls your information in, assigns you to that truck, automatically puts you in Fleo, assigns all of that information on the backside. So there's a lot of components that are built into the app that a lot of current contractors are not even seeing.
SPEAKER_05Sure, sure. But it but a lot of contractors will see it, right? Because we're doing swaps the same way.
SPEAKER_07So swaps and we're doing lease renewals. Yeah. Uh just did a lease renewal this last week. Um and I think they both were had used it, but maybe weren't very proficient. Like they had downloaded it. Um I do know they had to call Jerry for a little troubleshooting, but got it all figured out and super easy though. Yeah, you know, um, on how to do those. And then the way that it comes in on the back end um is is not you know, you don't it used to take me 15, 20 minutes to take care of all of onboarding paperwork, and now we're down to like maybe five to eight minutes. So super streamlined and easy.
Lease Renewals Shift To Manual
SPEAKER_05Oh yeah, and it so I mean eventually it'll affect, you know, anybody leasing a truck from us because at some point we will uh sell your equipment and so you'll have to move to something newer, right? Or uh some people will do the steps of getting DOD or uh clearance or getting uh whatever the other parameters are and they'll move into a bathroom truck, or they will like um we've had people switch even from a straight truck and they want to go tractor or whatever, like if people make those moves within our fleet. So uh now all that's gonna be handled. Uh and then the lease renewals you mentioned. I don't think we've really talked about that. Um, the lease renewals on the show yet. So that's one thing. If you're listening, you're like, what's a lease renewal? I don't know what you're talking about. Um, you know, every year Eric and I go through a long audit with our uh uh labor attorney, and they always look over all of our contracts, they look over our relationship with Panther, with FedEx, etc. It's annoying. It's usually a you're doing a great job, give me$1,500. It's normally what it is. It's not fun, just whatever. Uh I know uh Melissa uh Buttermilk and you and Delina. I've had y'all on conference calls with them before, and you have to walk through your spiel so that she hears everything, right? Uh, because we don't want to misrepresent what we're doing. So that's why it's it's super important we get everything correct. And um one of the feedbacks we got this last year was we have uh in our lease, and we've had for a decade now, an auto renewal, it's which is very normal industry-wide, it renews every 12 months. Um and if you don't want to renew that, you give us 30 days notice and it won't renew. Now we are being told we have to renew every year manually. So the auto renew is being pulled out of the has been pulled out of the lease. The verbiage the verbiage. And so now every 12 months we just have to renew it again, which is not unheard of. Like we Eric and I have to do the same thing with uh FedEx and with Panther. Like uh ever all those are manual renewals. It's just now finally stepped down to the lease operator uh of it. So that's coming up. So if you do get a call from one of us and you're or from it'll be from me, usually from Buttermilk, saying, Hey, um, here's what's changing, and you're like, Well, we've been driving this truck for three years. Why do we have to start doing this now? That's what it's about. Unfortunately, legal got in the way, and so we have to make that change. But um resistance. Yeah, I was gonna say it's most people are makes sense.
SPEAKER_07That's that's usually what I get. That oh, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. And we haven't changed any language in the contract. So if you pulled your old lease and compare it to the new one, there's not nothing there different. Um, it's just we've pulled that auto renew every 12 months out. So that was one thing we I when we first did the uh started doing this a few months ago, I was like, what are you talking about on the show? And we never did. Yeah, I just forgot about it.
SPEAKER_07So Jerry's got that set in. Um it notifies me on day nine uh out from when so cool by the way.
SPEAKER_05I love it.
SPEAKER_07It sends me an email uh on day nine says so-and-so's set to uh renew on whatever day. And so that gives me my prompt to call them. And so then I'll call and I'll have the conversation. And then um he's got it set for seven, three, and same day or one day, uh to f to notify me. They get notified daily starting at day seven.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and we get the same thing again from FedEx. They send us a hey, your one year's coming up. Would you like to extend this? Like it's just a it's very normal. Uh it's just it is a change from what we've traditionally done. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So I think the news are I was just gonna say the news are how to sing a song.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, yeah, I got something. Um I just wanted to thank everybody. You know, this is uh about a month and a half into the into the you know job, and everybody has been very, very, very welcoming and very educating. Any question that I have, everybody's there to help you. It really is a high-feel family, and it was something that Jimmy was telling me and and Kelly was telling me before I started in. They said this is a family, everybody takes care of everybody, everybody loves everybody, and it's something that once you start in with them, you just you feel at home, and that is what this experience has felt like. Coming up here and meeting everybody, it's it's just been a blessing. So thank you for having me. I appreciate it, and I can't wait to continue learning and to do a great job with you guys. Cool, awesome. Welcome aboard.
SPEAKER_05Welcome aboard, welcome to the team. Yep, we look forward to uh welcome to the family. I appreciate that. Welcome to the family.
SPEAKER_00He had to one up with all the time.
SPEAKER_02I've been quiet all night, I've been holding on to that one all night, Jerry. Well, I gotta throw a shout out, and uh, this is gonna go to Delena and to Jerry Kutch. And um, y'all are all very familiar with Mr. Jerry. Jerry was Jerry was family. And so coming from Jerry to coming into a new family, it's uh you know Jerry instilled that family right off the bat. I mean that that's my guy. So coming into a new one, it was it's absolutely amazing to find that for a second time because most people can go job to job, career to career, however many times, and they never find it once. So the fact that I was able to go twice is it's a blessing.
How To Reach Highfield Trucking
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. And if you don't know Jerry, then you're out there going like, are they talking about Jerry McAllister? Because that's no, not talking about him. Jerry is Delena's husband. Yes. And uh he is awesome. He uh works with another large company out of Georgia, and uh he's just a really good friend of uh Highfield. If you have been to our barbecues, you've probably met him. If you've um been to a mentor retreat, you've met him, if you've been to a truck show, you've met him. Uh he's the cool Italian dude, just like what's up, let's get some Portillios, you know. Like that's just his that's just his jam. But uh no, great uh friend of ours, and uh absolutely like he's just one of those people that embodies that whole family thing. And as soon as as soon as he's ready to quit his job, I will replace Jimmy so fast. Anyway, so uh if you are interested in uh seeing what this Highfield family is all about, and you're like, you know what, I team drive, I want to I want to experience this, what what's going on? You should absolutely go check out highfieldtrucking.com uh and see everything on our website. We got we've got a bunch of pictures up there you can see, uh the trucks, it's a little bit of descriptions. If you're like, I want to take the next step, what do we do? You can hit a contact us form on there, you can chat with someone if it's during business hours, or you can reach us at 833 Highfield.
SPEAKER_07I believe that is 833493 4353 option one Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. And uh we'd be happy to talk to you some more about it. You'll get to meet Mr. Jerry's wife, uh Delena, or possibly buttermilk, or possibly the Jerry Maxter over here.
SPEAKER_07Uh we can even Facebook message, insta m inst insta message, you can Instacart direct message.
SPEAKER_05Instagram message, you can get in our answer uh you know quite frequently.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely.
SPEAKER_07There's lots of ways.
SPEAKER_03Yes. Thanks for having us up this week. Thanks for letting me bring my guy up and go around all the shops and see our people. And uh yeah, it's been uh it's always great to come up here and get back with you guys.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. Well, thanks for coming up. I know it's uh it's a hassle leaving your family behind and getting up here and and and spending a week with us.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm sure Kelly probably will need some therapeutic services. I'm sure she misses me like probably really a lot.
SPEAKER_07She's starfishing in her own bed.
SPEAKER_03That was good. No, Gus won't allow that. Gus won't allow that. You've met Gus.
SPEAKER_06Oh, yeah, but Gus is happy that you're gone. He's star fishing in your own bed.
SPEAKER_05That bed's so much bigger with one less, you know, body. Uh no, but it's it's a pleasure having y'all up here. It's a pleasure hosting you. Eric, it's great. So, those of you who don't know, Eric and uh Eric Heifeld and myself actually got to meet you personally one-on-one uh just two days ago. Like um, we uh you were vouched for, we talked a bunch on the telephone, but we never actually get to meet face to face. And so it was actually kind of cool to get to know you, get to meet your wife. She's awesome. Um if she ever wants to leave, anyways, it doesn't matter. So we will uh You need a new labor attorney, maybe. Yeah, she's an attorney in-house.
SPEAKER_01We don't need an in-house attorney. Please don't do this. Let's buy a thousand more trucks than we'll consider it. I agree, but uh does she know app programming?
SPEAKER_05We'll talk about that later. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. Uh thank y'all so much for hanging out with us. We really do appreciate y'all, and we hope that by some miraculous uh situation we were able to knock another hour off your drive, uh, make you laugh a little bit along the way, make you question our sanity.
SPEAKER_01You know, one of those something too.
Likes Reviews And Listener Feedback
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's that's sometimes the goal. I'm not gonna say always. I'd be lying. We do believe in honesty. Right. I almost had that erased out of my brain. Uh if you uh can do us a favor, hit that like and subscribe button if you're not already. Uh it helps us out tremendously on the algorithm, and it will send more content to you from us. May or may not be a good thing. You decide. Um if you haven't been seeing us lately and you're like, wow, I haven't seen out of it. What are they doing? Sometimes uh unsubscribing and resubscribing and hitting that little bell will then tell the algorithm, give you more of our videos. Uh if you have a comment on what you on what you saw today, if you have anything that's like, hey, this stuck out, or why is Jimmy wearing a pink shirt? You know, anything like that, you can drop us a line on YouTube. If you can and you're listening to us podcast service, drop us a uh uh a review. Let us know uh what you liked about it, what you didn't like about it. Uh we love those reviews. Share us within your friends and family that maybe want to hear what we have to say. And lastly, from Vince.
SPEAKER_01I I think the burning question that we're gonna get lots of questions and comments about on this episode is do we make the rook the new guy wear white socks? We do. This was Black Sock night. It was Black Sock Night.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. So quick story about the sock thing. I was there. So I've never been on a podcast, and uh when I took this job, the last thing I thought I was gonna be doing was getting on a podcast. But here I am. I did give you a four-day notice. Yeah, he did. Yeah, four days. So I got I watched about three podcasts, and I and I started noticing everybody in the room there was like a no-shoe policy. Of course, Jimmy does there, but uh there was a no-shoe policy as what I can kind of put together. So I told my wife, I was like, hey, you gotta buy me some new socks. And she said, I just got you some in December. And I was like, Yeah, but I've walked in them. They need to be absolutely brand new. So if you can see the bottom of these things, new socks just where I feel.
SPEAKER_05I tell you what, when you put a bold color like this red and black uh rug on your studio floor, yeah, you learn real quick you don't wear shoes on them because they will show every speck of everything. So that's kind of how the no stock uh no shoe uh socks only rule got started. But you know, Jimmy, you just do your own.
SPEAKER_02I'm glad you can play along. That's good. Yes. Well, I took it seriously. I said, if I'm coming, I'm gonna I'm gonna dress the part.
SPEAKER_01Attention to detail.
SPEAKER_02We like that.
SPEAKER_05Yes, I try like that. And you listened. I can't tell you how many people we've had come on board uh and and and and show up and have an interview with, and they're like, now y'all play this for the public? And it's like, yeah, you could have listened before you it didn't matter.
SPEAKER_02It'd be a little weird if you weren't putting it out for the public if it was just in time. It sets the fourth five of us in us in the year ago.
Summer Hiatus Announcement
SPEAKER_05Yeah. That's awesome. Well, listen, everybody, until we meet again. Oh, no. Sorry. Woo! That was close. We have a little bit of an announcement.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Um, I it was close, wasn't it? I know. Boy, I almost pressed the button, and that would have been a mistake. Jerry, tell the people what they need to know.
SPEAKER_07It's going on break. We're on break. We're on hiatus. What do they call that? Summer break.
SPEAKER_00I'm the producer. I had no clue, y'all.
SPEAKER_07Hiatus break.
SPEAKER_00All right. Um summer season.
SPEAKER_07We're coming back out in the fall after Monday night football.
SPEAKER_05Okay, Melissa, tell the people what they need to hear.
SPEAKER_07That's me winging it, yo. Um apparently we're going on hiatus for summer.
SPEAKER_05Do we have to apparently?
SPEAKER_01All right, Vince, your turn. So I heard.
SPEAKER_07I was told.
SPEAKER_01So we are going on a hiatus summer break for us. We'll be back um in the fall with brand new episodes of the Outer Belt for you to enjoy on your favorite podcast app or on the YouTubes, whichever one you want to do. So uh y'all have a great summer. Enjoy yourselves, stay cool, stay warm, depending on where you're where you're at, and we will see you in the fall.
SPEAKER_03I think sabbatical sounds better than hiatus. Yeah. We're going on sabbatical.
SPEAKER_01Sabbaticals usually get our paid, though, right? No, well, well, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Can't you like to learn something? A hibatical. Well, that's not guaranteed to happen. There you go. It's not guaranteed. It's not guaranteed. It's like guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01We can't guarantee we'll come back better than we were before. I might come back 20 pounds heavier. Like that's yeah. I I I feel you, like the philosophical aspect there. Yeah. Uh Jimmy, but lofty, lofty goals. Yeah, we we are uh taking a break. We're taking a break, taking a vacation.
SPEAKER_05Uh, yeah, and so in the meantime, y'all all stay safe and make good decisions. And don't leave money on the table.
SPEAKER_00And keep those rules of turn.
SPEAKER_08Good night. Bye.
SPEAKER_00Bye.