That’s Delivered Podcast
Welcome to “That’s Delivered” – your ultimate destination for all things trucking and beyond! Here, we take you behind the wheel and dive deep into the world of trucking, delivering stories, insights, and experiences designed to inspire, educate, and entertain.
Our podcast isn’t just about transportation; it’s about reliability, accomplishment, and fulfillment. “That’s Delivered” reflects the sense of completion that comes with meeting promises and exceeding expectations—whether on the road or in life.
Whether you’re a seasoned trucker, a logistics enthusiast, or just curious about the backbone of our economy, this is the place for you. We’ll explore life on the road, uncover how technology is reshaping the industry, and break down the latest regulations impacting drivers and businesses alike.
So buckle up, hit the road with us, and join a community that understands the journey is just as important as the destination. From personal stories to industry insights, “That’s Delivered” brings the best of trucking straight to your ears, promising every mile together will be worth the ride!
That’s Delivered Podcast
Scaling Without Buying: Jeff Resch and Uber Freight's Powerloop Changes the Game
The landscape of trucking is changing rapidly, but one constant remains—the need for practical solutions that help carriers succeed. In this conversation with Jeff Resch, Operations Lead for Uber Freight’s Powerloop division, we explore how innovation is reshaping opportunities for owner-operators and small fleets.
Key Takeaways:
✅ Powerloop eliminates barriers – Carriers gain access to premium drop-and-hook freight without the heavy cost of trailer ownership.
✅ Leveling the playing field – Small fleets and owner-operators can now compete for efficient freight opportunities that were once reserved for big players.
✅ Flexibility at the core – Use Powerloop trailers for Uber Freight loads, your own shippers, or other brokers—putting carrier choice first.
✅ No competing with company trucks – Unlike asset-heavy models, Powerloop prioritizes carriers rather than protecting its own fleet.
✅ Nationwide expansion – What started regionally is now available across the U.S., with exciting new dedicated tour options in Texas offering consistent schedules and income stability.
✅ Future-focused partnership – Jeff’s advice: “Partner with someone that has a future for you in mind.” Powerloop is designed to grow with carriers, not just use them.
✅ Adapting to industry changes – From AI tools to market shifts, carriers must “look 300 yards down the road” to anticipate what’s next.
✅ Strategic positioning – Success comes from aligning with partners building meaningful opportunities for carriers, not just themselves.
Ready to explore how drop-and-hook opportunities could transform your operation? 👉 Download the Uber Freight app today or visit uberfreight.com to learn more about Powerloop.
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Welcome to another episode of that's Delivered. I'm your host, trucking Ray, and today we have a special guest with us. Today, you know there's going to be a lot of things that carriers are taking control of, want more consistency and opportunities to grow. I'm joined by Jeff Resch of Uber Freight, and we're talking about Powerloop. This is a drop-and-hook trailer pool program that's expanding in a big way With the launch of a dedicated tour. Carriers now can access more predictable lanes and the ability to scale without taking on more equipment. So, whether you're an owner-operator or a small fleet, or just trying to stay ahead of the industry, this episode is all about practical innovation that meets drivers where they are. Practical innovation that meets drivers where they are All right. So welcome you to the show, jeff. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm doing well, ray, thank you. Thanks for having me. It's always a little bit exciting when I've got a little technical issue to get off the ledge, but we're ready to rock and roll. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks for hanging in there.
Speaker 2:Hey Ray real quick. I was just kind of doing a download on you and I see that you're from Minnesota. I'm a Minnesota guy as well.
Speaker 1:Excellent, yeah. When I saw that, I was like hey, somebody else local, I mean that's great to be able to talk to you. So yeah, I'm right here on the South Metro. Yeah, so St Paul side, yeah.
Speaker 2:On the east side. So, yeah, great meeting you and thanks for having us on the podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're going to be able to do more of these in the area. Focus on the local area. I mean, there's a lot of things that Minnesota has to offer and you're one of them, so let's tell us about yourself. Um, you know, welcome you to the show. Share a little bit about the audience so they can understand what uber freight and how you got involved in that yeah, yeah, sounds good.
Speaker 2:Um, again, my name is jeff fresh. Um, I run operations for a division at uber freight called power loop, and power loop is essentially you, essentially like we own the trailers and we find carriers to pull the trailer, so it's a power-only solution kind of like others in the marketplace. My background basically grew up in the Minnesota area, so definitely surrounded by some big logistics companies, whether it be trucking or, you know, like the CH Robinsons of the world, my background since 1996 has been on the trucking side. Basically, I cut my teeth in the trucking space and was in that for I don't know, 20, 25 years or so, um, before coming over, uh, to Uber freight. So, um, big difference from going from running assets, you know, trucks, working with drivers on a continual basis or daily basis and troubleshooting the problems, um, to you know, coming over to Uber, right, um, pretty big, pretty big difference. Um. But the reason I came is there is innovation, you know, disruption, um, there is a future in in the logistics space and it's kind of an interesting time, you know, over the years, you know being on the trucking side, it was okay show up to work, pick up a load on time, deliver it on time, rinse, repeat, right, and get as many miles for the driver as humanly possible. I think all of those things remain true. Right, that's the essence of trucking service and providing a lot of livelihood for the drivers.
Speaker 2:Right, the difference is there's all this AI stuff and machine learning and automated systems and the internet and all these technologies that have kind of been fostered over the last really, you know 25 years. You know it went from just you know kind of an ordinary tms to now you got these automated load boards and freight matching, you know systems, and now ai is coming into play and, and you know, it was just time for me. I was like, okay, I want to be, you know, looking more forward and contribute to something that is going to, you know, kind of lead and change the industry versus just doing the you know, kind of the mundane right kind of the mundane right. But again, with all these technological advances, we have to get to the point where we're mundane again. Right, we have to get to the part where we're boring, where it's here's the process and rinse, repeat, and with all these new technologies coming in and machine learning and the AI, it's changing, the environment's changing exceptionally fast and it's just exciting being with a company like Uber Freight that is on the forefront of trying to make those changes.
Speaker 2:It doesn't come easy. It doesn't come like, hey, you just flip a switch and everything's automated and life is happy, right, and integrate AI and all these things happen. You know, and there's euphoria, right, it doesn't work that way In the real world. It's still a people business, right? Whether it be picking up the load and delivering it with a driver, a dispatcher helping a driver, you know, make sure that they have a livelihood. An owner of a trucking company making sure that the resources are there, whether it be trucks, that the resources are there, whether it be trucks, fuel drivers, trailers, you name it in order to create this vision of, you know, building a trucking company.
Speaker 2:And then over to the logistics side. You know it's having a sales effort that provides value to not only the shipper but, you know, to the carrier partners. You know this whole thing is kind of intertwined and you know we all have to use this new technology to. You know, figure it out right, and I think it's going to be interesting in the next few years, especially to see you know how we can use these new innovations to be tools in order to kind of help.
Speaker 2:You know, really, there's two customers in the world, you know, there's the shipper and there's the driver, right, and this technology has to kind of glue the two pieces together, right? And it's a very imperfect world, right? If it was easy, you just, you know, like I said, push a button and everything would connect. There's just so many things that make it dynamic. So, creating a tool belt and allowing drivers, in this case, to maximize their earnings, get home when they need to have a lifestyle, make enough money to pay the bills, it's going to be very interesting to see how it plays out, and I'm part of the technology team at Uber Freight and the solutioning team at Uber Freight that is trying to help kind of bridge that gap.
Speaker 1:Nice. I think that's great. I mean, it's something to be excited about. You think about all the AI stuff that's coming out and, like you said, eventually it's going to be the norm. It's not going to be this new thing all the time. So great to touch on that. I like that. Uber Freight is also the Power Loop one of the programs. Can you explain some of that for our listeners as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, powerloop. So let's, this is kind of the main reason I came over. So Powerloop, imagine, you know, like one of the challenges, especially for owner operators in small companies, right, is the simple fact that it's really expensive to operate. It's super expensive to operate. Trailers can range anywhere from $35,000 to $50,000 just on the dry van side, depending on the specs. And if you can imagine doing drop-and-hook scenarios with the large retailers of the world or these large shippers that have tens of thousands of loads but require a drop trailer, if, if you got 10 trucks or you got five trucks or maybe even have 30 trucks, yeah, you might, you're gonna have a trailer behind your truck, typically, but you need economies of scale in order to tap into those shippers, because it's expensive to do it and it's very complicated because you've got these dynamic networks that you have to deal with. So what we're doing is we're saying, hey, mr and Mrs Owner Operator, we'll supply the trailer, right, we'll put in 50 trailers at a particular location or 75 at a drop location. And what we're looking to do is you know, obviously we have to capture that cost, right? But the advantage for a normal wrapper, there's an efficiency gain, right? And, ray, I think I believe you've driven for or drive for UPS so that drop and hook capability, where it's like you go from location to location, you don't have to wait two, three, four, five hours to unload, you drop it and you go right, the driver doesn't become a truck driver to sit in a dock. Right, running trucking companies over the years and working with drivers, the number one complaint is fine, right, you know running trucking companies, you know over the years and working with drivers. The number one complaint is I'm right, don't waste my time. If I'm going to get, if I'm going to be on the road away from my family, away from all these different things, don't waste my time. Right, so this helps us get there.
Speaker 2:The challenge is, um, you know, because we're using our trailers, it's like how do you like, what do you do when you get to the end? Right? So if you go from dallas into atlanta, now what? Right? So there's two different ways you can do it. So you know, imagine, you know, ray, you're, you're behind the wheel of a truck and you're pulling one of our trailers from Dallas to Atlanta. The first thing you do like in a route to Atlanta is you can go into our app, our app, the Uber Freight app, and you can look and say, ok, you know, there's nothing quite ready yet. And then, three hours later, you know, you take your you know stop, for, you know to grab a bite to eat. Then you look, oh, here's an Atlanta load going, you know, to St Louis, missouri, great. And then there's the St Louis back down to Texas. Now I just completed that loop and we give the owner-operator the ability to go on our system and book their own backhauls, right. So that's one thing In some cases, right.
Speaker 2:And this is a marketplace and you know, one of the things that for us to be successful in this program is we have to give an owner operator choice. Right, it's not, it's, there's nothing forced behind it. It's like, hey, I want this load from dallas, atlanta, great, book it now. If we're not gonna I'm not gonna force them to take something, um, from atlanta going anywhere. We're just there to provide options and if, for whatever reason, we don't have an option which we hope we typically do, but if we don't, they can go to the open marketplace. Maybe they have their own shipper, maybe they have another broker that they work with and they can use our trailer for a given period of time to get it back to Dallas.
Speaker 2:Now it doesn't come. You know the way. The way that we do it is you get this free amount of time from once. The moment you pick up from Dallas going to Atlanta, you get some free time to get the trailer back right to Dallas so we can do it all over again. In the event, it takes longer because maybe he went to St Louis and then down to Dallas. Well, we have a trailer charge that we apply.
Speaker 2:Everyone knows what the cost is up front. Hey, it's going to be X amount of dollars per day to use the trailer, greater than this free allotment of time, and it's very reasonable. It's very within market and the owner-operator can use that, take the trailer for a few more days and then get very reasonable. It's very within market and the owner-operator can use that, take the trailer for a few more days and then get it back. So it gives you options, especially, you know like the one thing about you know this market is we all know the rates are quite awful If you're running in the over-the-road. You know non-dedicated space, the rates are garbage at best.
Speaker 2:I think we all know that Trucking companies are going out of business. So what needs to happen is the owner-operator has to have some choice and when the market does start turning, well, hey, we're not going to force them onto something to lose money. They have to be able to make the money, otherwise they won't come back right, they're going to leave the uh, leave the, the space and or go to some other outfit, and then our trailers don't move. So it's, it's a true partnership. Like we're making the investment in trailers, we're making the investment in sales, um, we're not making the investment in truck, but we're making an investment in relationships.
Speaker 2:So we're we're doing so and, um, you know dedicated lanes, um, you don't have to have a dedicated lane. You can just come in and do one load and do a turn and come back and turn it in and be on your merry way, like whatever you want. Um, but for an example, like I've got um a new um piece of business that's going to be starting in Dallas, kind of going all over the country, for that matter, and we're going to need uh to cover about 55 loads a day. So imagine being 10 trucks. You know you're not going to get 55 loads a day, right, you're not going to have 200 trailers to apply to get that. So we're on the hunt right now. We need as many owner-oppers looking to use this platform in the state of Texas in the next three weeks. Oh wow, just to put a plug right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, great opportunity for a lot of people to make that part of their network. Like you said, as a broker, you're trying to get people connected. You're trying to get those loads delivered. I mean that's a huge task that you guys are accomplishing with trailers and no power units. I mean that's amazing. I know you do probably have power units, but just not enough to do that lift, like you're saying. You need help with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we don't have any power units, none Zero.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:It's all trailers.
Speaker 1:Hey, how about that? That's amazing how far you guys have come and accomplished without that. I mean, how long have you guys been doing this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, great question. So PowerLoop started back in 2018. And much of the freight that we did um during that moment in time was really kind of short haul, you know, like less than a hundred mile um radius around a couple of key points one in Southern California, one in Dallas and business grew Um. But one of the challenges is when, when you have like trailer drop pools, um, there just isn't enough money in some of these short loads to pay for the cost of the trailers unless you have really old, dilapidated trailers, which we don't. So, fast forward from 2018, the business kind of grew incrementally, year over year, and about two years back we said, you know what, let's make a change and let's start attacking number one, the broader market, meaning the lower 48, and, more specifically, let's start expanding our length of haul. Right, let's start, you know, catering to not only, you know, these short haul local drivers, but let's also start catering to um some of the long haul um shippers that you know might have a thousand 1500 miles, you know, shipments. So since then, um, since we started that, we, we, we started that kind of transition about two years ago and through the RFP season, you know the bid, have the bid cycle, um season, which is typically starting about now, right. So last year we aggressively attacked that freight and, as a result, we've doubled in size year over year. So um expanding exceptionally fast.
Speaker 2:The customers have a want and a need and they're willing to take action, to kind of invest in this kind of network, and it's it's grown fast. It's it's just a matter of um. You need economies of scale to to drive maintenance costs, to make sure that you're getting the inspections done in a timely fashion, and all these kind of fun things. So we've invested a ton of money to do this and it's working. And now it's just a matter of how do we get this out to the masses?
Speaker 2:Like, how do we, you know, show the owner operator community that, hey, you can, you can, you can do a lot of this on a regular basis. Or you can just do one right, like if, for whatever reason, you know, you're in Dallas and you can't find the perfect load, or maybe you just need to get out and back because your kid's got a football game on Friday night. So what you do is you come onto our platform, you go bobtail in to a particular shipper that we have designated, you pull the load, make the delivery let's say the delivery is 500 miles away and then start looking for a backhaul right, just like you normally would, and the difference is you're using our trailer but you're able to get access to a load that you didn't see on the load board or maybe it didn't pay the same. So it gives you kind of an opportunity to, you know, to get going.
Speaker 1:I think that's great man. You know, yeah, people bob hit bob telling you know deadhead going around. You know they could just look on your app see if there's something they can do in the area. It gives a lot more options. So big ups to you guys doing that, providing that service for the industry, not shying away and tackling it head on. So that's good. Is there a way that it says here recently you expanded and you got these dedicated tours. Can you explain what that means and why it's a big step forward for carriers? Sure?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you know, like I said back in 2018, you know, we really just started in. You know two markets. So we got the Dallas market and the Southern California market and with that being shorter length of haul, it just didn't get to many carriers. Right, it was a very select few in both those markets. In both those markets.
Speaker 2:Now that we're doing long haul, like I said, it kind of opened up and expanded this broader ability of ours. So now we have Southern California, we're doing business in Dallas, houston, san Antonio, chicago, columbus, cincinnati, cleveland, atlanta, charlotte, south Carolina, florida, new Jersey, maryland, pennsylvania I'm sure I missed a few states. Indiana is another one. So now just about anyone has access to this kind of freight as we go forward. So what's significant is the growth that we've made and now we have options. Now we're growing. So not all options are perfect. Right, we don't have 10,000 loads in Atlanta, right for everyone to kind of snack on, but it's growing and I think over a period of time, you'll see further expansion. Over a period of time, you'll see further expansion.
Speaker 2:And one thing that I would kind of call out to owner-operators and small trucking companies is take a look and then, if you see a lane or a group of lanes that makes sense for you, let us know, give us a buzz and you can just call through the booking of the load and they'll get to one of our reps and talk about hey, do you have this one on a regular basis? The vast majority of the business that we're hauling today is contracted freight and you can ask, hey, could I get this on a regular basis? Maybe you know someone, a shipper or a broker, that has a backhaul right. Hey, if I can get the same load every single day? Well, guess what? Now I can make my kids a football game, now I can make the dance recital. Now I can hang out with my buddies on the weekend. Whatever is important to you, we're here to kind of help you build a business around our network Nice.
Speaker 1:So you got some drivers that are cautious about adopting adapting to new tools. What would you say to some of those people to ensure that they can rely on this newer system like this, like the Powerloop, that is easy to use?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say this. I would say that, yeah, there should be some apprehension with some new tools. And you know, here's the deal Like, we're in it to win it, right, we're all in, we're going down the path. Like I said, we doubled our business year over year. Leadership is looking for us to expand even further, right, and the thing about it is, if you're looking for a partner that has this type of solution, I would highly recommend thinking about what does it mean for me, right? There's others that have these programs, that have their own trucks, right? Well, what does that mean? Does that mean that their trucks are going to move first and I'm going to move second? Right, maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but you know, being a trucking operator in my past, our trucks always move first, right, because we're paying the note on the truck, right? So that's one thing to consider. Another thing to consider is, because we're expanding, there's going to be more and more and more and more opportunities over a period of time. So, partner with someone that's growing. You know, don't partner with an idea, right, an idea is good and sometimes ideas turn out to be fantastic, but we're beyond the idea stage, we're in the acceleration of growth stage. So what does that mean? What does that mean for an owner-operator? Well, you're going to have consistent lanes. You know what you're going to be able to get. You know the shippers that you're going to be able to work with.
Speaker 2:The other thing it gets is or the other consideration that one should take a look at sometimes these other organizations don't allow you to use the trailer on other freight. It has to be within their ecosystem or nothing. Well, we're setting this system up so that you have the flexibility. You're an owner operator, we're just. We're just a conduit to helping you find lanes and providing access via our trailer network into shippers that you normally wouldn't have access to. However, in this case, you can use our freight or you can use your own right, whatever works and, at the end of the day, right, you're building a business around your truck. If we give you a lane from Dells to Atlanta and you find another outfit that gives you from Atlanta back to Dallas, we'll high five right, we'll put you on a contracted land and go right. So make sure that the partner that you're choosing to go with has a future for you in mind.
Speaker 2:It doesn't always mean that, hey, you come haul a load out of North Carolina for Uber Freight tomorrow. We're going to have it all figured out for you, but we have some. So take figured out for you. We, you know, but we have some. So take a look at what we have and then, over a period of time, you know, as we expand, you have your pulse, your ear to the pulse of uber freight and then we, you know, have further conversations. So I think, yeah, yeah, I think I think it's just a little bit.
Speaker 2:You know, you have to look internally and have a strategy of what you know like why are you doing business with Uber Freight? Why are you doing business with this broker or this shipper? Right, there has to be purpose, and if there's no purpose or strategy behind it, you're just a transaction. Now, yes, are some of the drivers and the freight that we, you know, execute on a high degree of transaction. But if I have, again, if I have committed long-term, year-long, multi-year-long deals, do you think I want a transaction you know to deal with, you know, 365 days a year? No, we want. We want to find carrier partners that want to carve out their niche and we want to help them get there.
Speaker 1:I like that. Uh, it's almost like you're building community with trailers. Um, you're building relationships to know that you can grow with a company like this, that they have the resources available to expand, versus you looking into your own pocket but yet all you need to do is maintain that relationship, versus um going to the bank, back and forth to the mechanic or trying to get those trailers, because there's a lot of junky trailers out there. So we see uber freight trailers there. They look pretty good. So nice job with that, nice job yeah, it's not.
Speaker 2:It doesn't come without its own challenges. I get a phone call. Everyone oh, this trailer is the worst trailer of all time, blah, blah, blah. You know it. I, I had that when I was on the trucking side. Uh, it's it just, it is what it is, right. So we're going to deal with some trailer issues.
Speaker 2:But your point, your point, is valid, like I'm. In aggregate, our trailers are decent, right, they're no different than any pool of trailers you know in the open. You know trucking space. Um, yeah, it could always be worse too, right, it could be worse. But to your point, you're like, all of our inspections get done in a regular amount of time. Um, there's a problem. We take care of it, right? Um, we're going to be.
Speaker 2:We're in the process of rolling out in-app inspections, so, like, um, you'll be able to like take pictures of the tires and you know the landing gear and the side sides of the trailers, and really it's it's to make sure that the trailers are maintained. At the end of the day. Yeah, maybe there's some bad actors out there that are abusing the trailers. It helps with that as well. Um, but at the end of the day, we're not, we're not here to like, just catch bad actors. That's not what we're trying to do. We're. We're here to make sure that the driving public has a trailer that they can feel good about hauling and, more importantly, feel safe um hauling down the road. To make sure that the public is also taken care of.
Speaker 1:I like that. That's a great concept. I think it's a great business plan. I think you guys are going to do a lot of great things for the industry, helping it grow, especially when there's time, like right now, where it's really rough and the rates are where they're at. Like you said, you're in the toilet for a lot of the spot markets and the rates are where they're at. Like you said, they're in the toilet for a lot of the spot market. So great job for providing that relationship that drivers can tap into and give them resources that they can grow. I think that's huge. Keep up the great work.
Speaker 1:You know you guys have been doing it for some time. I think it's going to be more to come.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's exciting Big, big, big open space in front of us here.
Speaker 1:Nice, all right, so you know you were talking about the power loop or we talked about expanding. And looking at those trailers Before we go. What's one thing that you think drivers should keep in mind?
Speaker 2:What's one of the trends, or anything like that, that carriers need to start preparing for within the next three to five years? Man, that is a good, a good, really good question. Um, sorry, I, I would say I would say this um, from a, you know, from a, from a trucking standpoint, just the basic blocking tackling still matters, right, um, relationships still matter. So if, if you don't have them, make sure you're developing them right. I think they they do matter. It's easy for all of us to get caught up in some of this automation, but a phone call periodically, I think, is an important thing. Picking up and delivering on time, I think in this market, the transparency with some of this technology, with on-time pickup and delivery, is key. So just make sure you're communicating to whoever provider that you're working with. Communication is key, and so those are the basic things. Now, like the next three to five years, there's a lot of stuff, you know, going on. Um, there's autonomous trucks that are that are happening. They're happening today in the state of Texas. We'll see how it plays out Right. Um, I think we're all kind of we don't know, like we don't know what we don't know. There there's some really cool technologies that are taking place. You're, you're, don't avoid it, be prepared and understand it. Right, the people that say, well, it's never going to happen to me or it's never going to happen, those are the people that get left on the side, right? So, just if anything, understand the technology. These technologies are being released in trucks today, you know, like collision avoidance systems, lane detractions. Those are all elements of this AI kind of change. So, get to know them, understand them, be an influencer in them. Right? That's going to be key. I think you know like this AI outside of autonomous trucks is going to be key.
Speaker 2:Um, I think you know like this AI, um, outside of autonomous trucks is going to be interesting and I think and I don't know, this is just my personal opinion, but it's going to be a tool, right, like I use AI. You know stuff every day with looking at a spreadsheet or looking at, like, an email or thinking through something. Hey, if we did X, y and Z, am I thinking about this, right? No, you should think of A and B as well. You know, use some of these technologies to broaden your understanding of a problem Because, let's face it, you know, like we're very like many of us, we're very linear thinkers.
Speaker 2:Right, we see what's in front of us, but we got these blinders right. So this AI can open us up a little bit. Right, it doesn't have to open you up a ton, right, but, like fuel economy, if I'm an owner-operator, hey, I run XYZ truck, I've got this axle ratio, I drive these tires. This is how heavy it is. Start asking questions about how it can help you improve your fuel economy, how it can help you. You know what are the best markets to drive rate per mile? Right, it's there. Use it.
Speaker 2:And I think the the drivers and the trucking companies and the logistics companies that can use these tools to make them smarter. Right, that, like one of the things I was talking to someone the other day. I've got a lot of experience in the trucking world, right, and the one thing that I would say that like AI does in like the operational world is it can take the experience that I've learned over many years and accelerate the person that just got into the industry and close that gap quicker. Now, execution and implementation and working with people that's more an art where you have to get good at it over a period of time, but that gap of knowledge is closing fast. So use the tools. I'm telling you. I use them every day and they're fantastic. So that's the word of advice I would give to your audience Awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean people. You know they get the fear-driven stuff on social media or whatever. I mean. It does promote people to click on it. It gets people to get interested. However, the reality of it can be a lot different. Like you said, many people are using AI every day. I use it for the podcast. I use it a lot in my life. I think the only thing they want to make sure is that they're not going to be replaced for the human factor, and that's all that I think people really want is to want to keep providing for the family. Uh, seeing the foresight out there, what does it look like? You know, what is? What is this actually going to do for the industry? And I think a lot of people are a little apprehensive when it comes to some of that stuff.
Speaker 1:They're like hey what's going to happen? What's it going to look like?
Speaker 2:yeah, just know it's. It's that's not just a driver thing. In fact, it's going to happen in the office quicker than it's going to happen with drivers. Like, you know, there's automated, you know AI bots that you're talking to and you have no idea that you're talking to them, right, so that person there's no longer a person, right, like people in the office. You know we talk all the time. It's like, okay, it's a matter of. It's not a matter of if, it's a of when.
Speaker 2:I think I think right now, in the logistics space, the driver is probably the safest position for now, right. But again, you know, like, if, if I know that ai is going to take my job in operations, like, am I smart just holding myself down into this chair and saying this is all I'm going to do the rest of my life? Right, again, you got to start expanding your vision. You got to look downstream a little bit. You got to look at where you're going. You know, like, when driving a truck, right, one of the first rules you know look, look what 300 yards down.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right Look ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, not not in front of the, not in front of the hood. And if and if you do that, what happens?
Speaker 1:Uh, yeah, you drive a lot better, you keep it in the center of the road a lot better. You um out for dangers, you can see a lot more. I mean it opens up a perspective on the road where you can feel more comfortable, um, because a lot of times if you look straight ahead at the bumper ahead of you, that could be like looking at a billboard and you can't see much. So back off a little bit and get that side of view right, increase that, so you're speaking my language there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, drivers out there that you got to listen to trucking right man, that's, uh, that's if the same, that same exact number. One rule in trucking right Applies to technology right, look ahead and think ahead where is it going. And then you know like when, when you're looking ahead, there might be a turn, right, okay, you turn with it. There might be an accident, there might be a construction zone, the road might be blocked, right. What do you do then?
Speaker 2:You alter course, right, but I'd rather, I'd rather alter course, looking a mile down the road and seeing the problem, versus waiting until I get to the construction zone only to find out that the road is shut down and I have no place to go. Right. So I think that's the best way to kind of think of tech now can you use it as a tool? And then, if you can use it as a tool, how do you help other people? Then the next thing you know it's like oh, what if I did this? Or what if I started a company that does this? Or you know this carrier or this broker is doing something that you know.
Speaker 2:Hey, uber Freight's got these trailers. That's really interesting. And oh, they're doing some of this. Okay, that's interesting. Maybe I'm not ready to jump in and do business with Uber Freight today because I've just got this. My old mentality is kind of like I just want, I don't want to deal with technology companies. I hate technology. Okay, that's fine, but watch it, download the app, look at the loads, think about the problems and then start taking that eyesight and move it up and look down the road a little bit. That's good.
Speaker 1:I like how you were looking at your cell phone. So a lot of people do need to lift their heads up and stop being in the cell phone space and look at the real life and great, great analogy. I like that. And so how easy is it to download the app? Let's talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 2:It takes seconds, right. The only. If you're currently not um set up with uber freight, it's, it's you. We need the mc number, the dot number. So we've run all that stuff through, all that.
Speaker 2:You know there's so much fraud out there. You know the system has to like, make sure everything is vetted right and then once you're vetted, you're in the door right and it's pretty quick. So there's not a big barrier to entry. With some brokers. There is With Uber Freight, there isn't. So that's not going to be your barrier of entry. If you did some shady things like double broker and there's a record of problems, it might be a little bit harder to get in, not always impossible, right. It's really. We're looking to kind of vet out bad actors, right. But once you're in, it's like everyone wants to talk to you, right. Everyone wants to figure out how to help you specifically. You just have to make the decision of okay, am I willing to talk to somebody? Number one and number two does it work for the business that I'm operating? Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't, and I think that's going to be up to you and how you run a business, but we want to help.
Speaker 1:What about flatbeds? I know flatbeds are paying pretty good right now. Are you guys looking at anything like that?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. We do have a flatbed brokerage. If you're a flatbedder, we've got some refer. Happy to have you guys join on the app. We also are one of the largest 3PLs in the entire country where we manage the freight for shippers. So if you're a small trucking company and you're looking to get in with XYZ account, we can help you with that and get that freight through the RFP system. In fact people don't know that's.
Speaker 2:It's a huge aspect of uber freight we have a huge, huge intermodal department, I think, if not the largest non-asset um. We're very close to that. Um, so that's huge. It's like oh, I didn't know that, right, I didn't know that. It's like all these things you can kind of uncover and we're trying to get better about making sure that the message is more clear, um, to everyone.
Speaker 2:But it's, it's easy. You know we're huge and we're only, we're only going to get bigger and you know the the connection with uber is huge. You know we're uber freight, just like there's uber eats and there's. You know there's uber rides, like it all. It's all connected too, right it's? You know, like we could deliver something and it can get end up the one package, end up going into a car to make make a delivery, right. So it's, if you look at the whole logistics space and again kind of going back to like who are you going to partner with? Are you going to partner with someone that is really building something for me, or are you going to partner with somebody that's building something for them and I'm just a byproduct of whatever they're building, right, well, we're building for you. Whether you feel it or not. That's truly what's happening.
Speaker 1:All right, Okay, I like that. That's a strong statement. I like to help out individuals that are curious about a career and when they want to say, hey, what do I want to do? Do I want to get into logistics truck drivers? Let's say I'm a company driver and I just got laid off and my mind's I got some money saved up and my mind's thinking, what can I do? Maybe you can paint a picture for these individuals to say, hey, I can reach out to Uber Freight and they can give me some ideas as to how I can get into the space.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's more of like networking, right? Um, with people like you. Guys can look me up on linkedin jeff rash, um with uber freight. Um, happy to connect with anybody um that sends a message. I'm usually pretty good about responding. People are trying to sell me. You know the moon like I'm Some of those people I don't respond to as quickly.
Speaker 2:But if someone's asking a question, hey, how would you do this? Right, Send me a message. I'm happy to help. Right. And you know, I think you know, Trucking Ray. He's a resource. There's many.
Speaker 2:You know Ray knows a lot of people through, you know, through through the, through the podcast, and it's once you get this kind of web of connectivity, you know one person. Next thing, you know you're um in touch with 5,000 people and if you do, you know it's the seven degrees of Kevin Bacon. I don't know if you guys ever played that as a kid, but like um. But you know that everyone knows seven people and seven times, seven times seven times seven it's. It's everybody. Right, it's impossible not to like, have a connection. So the only the only way that you're not going to figure it out is if you don't connect.
Speaker 2:Now. The other thing I would say is use these AI tools, chat, GPTs, the Groks, whatever you use, like Facebook's, Google's got one right and tell it exactly what you want to do. Right, and ask. Just be very deliberate on what you ask it and it'll tell you some pretty interesting thoughts and ideas and what to think about. Right, well, I haven't thought about that. Okay, good, now you can't right what is the legal ramifications? If we did, you know, like whatever, whatever it is, and then take that information and then you know, network it, because I'm telling you that the networking is going to get, is going to help you, and there's options for you and what you'll find. When you start networking and you do it consistently, you get lucky, right, I don't know what the saying is, but like luck is earned, it doesn't just magically appear.
Speaker 1:Hard work pays off.
Speaker 2:You don't win the lottery unless you buy a ticket you got to show up and you got to bring the ticket in. Yeah, you got to bring the ticket in. You're not going to get a job unless you pick up the phone and start networking. Networking speeds things up because now you know, and it takes time to do it that's what I would say. I don't want to give like there's no, like silver bullet, but effort and commitment is key, and those kind of equate to doing the work yeah, so they could go out.
Speaker 1:they could buy a truck day cab sleeper, what have you? And start networking. It is possible to get your own contracts and your own relationships built. You don't have to just stay on the spot board and look at that and say, man, how do I make it work? Those numbers look crazy. It's also contacting these companies like yourself and reaching out to them is going to help them create stronger lanes for themselves. I think it's going to be good for a lot of individuals that want to get away from. Hey, I'm working for a company, I can do this myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the one thing I would just to add to that if thing I would just to add to that if you're getting into space, don't think about it from just a pure money play, right? Hey, what is going to make me the most money, right? Well, it's going to be hauling hazardous material running anywhere in Mexico, north America, and you've got to stay out for a year at a time. Okay, okay, that's your most money. Well, I don't want to do that, okay, so then let's be a little bit more specific. How often do you want to get home? I want to get home every night, or I want to get home once a week? Okay, start with that. I don't want to run at night.
Speaker 1:Okay, you know, I don't ray, that's probably what ups is like running at night.
Speaker 2:I would imagine right, yeah, that's what we'll do tonight. Yeah, so, yeah, so that's so, scratch that one off the list, right? So figure out what you're trying to accomplish and then go backwards from that. You know, go up and go, you know, break it down to exactly what you want. Right, backwards engineering. Yeah, reverse engineering right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean there's a lot of UPSers that are retiring. I mean there's going to be a huge amount of you would think they might just want to take it easy, but they may be so in the groove of driving a truck. They just want to, you know, dabble in the market and see what's out there. Some of these guys are in pretty good financial spots right now so they can make choices like help out with Uber Freight, so you never know where that could lead. These individuals just want people to feel emboldened, to be able to do something instead of feeling defeated, and I think that's great for helping the economy. That's great for helping morale in these individuals to know that hey, there's people out here, there's a network. People can go back and look at my episodes and all those individuals that I talk to are open to network. They're great people, everyone that comes on the show.
Speaker 1:I love my guests. I think they're the star of the show. So thank you so much, jeff, for being on here talking about Uber Freight. I can't thank you enough for sharing about. What is Uber Freight? What are they doing? You keep saying these trailers. There's a lot going on.
Speaker 2:As long as the trailers are behind trucks, then we're doing our job.
Speaker 1:I see them.
Speaker 2:They're out there.
Speaker 1:I drive 48 states sometimes, so I don't always just do local work. I get to go out and see quite a bit.
Speaker 2:That's good you'll see more. We're planning. You've seen a lot more of those. But yeah, um, just one last kind of you know thought again. You know, from a network standpoint. I'm on linkedin. Jeff rush r-e-s-c-h is my last name. You know they used to joke with me back in the day. It's the first five letters of reschedule. So, jeff reschedule.
Speaker 2:I was a planner back in the day so I covered all my freight, so just to be clear. But when I didn't, they would pull that. So hit me up on LinkedIn, happy to help you think through problems, give you advice. At the end of the day, this is a pretty small community right In the trucking and logistics space and you know you might. I'm going to help you today and you might be able to help me three years from now, or help my kid or help my friend or whatever the case might be. So I think it's really important that we stay connected, especially through these hard times. The driving job is the most difficult job in the industry right now and nothing would be in my house or Uber Freight wouldn't exist, ups wouldn't exist. None of this podcast wouldn't exist without the commitment and the sacrifice that drivers make every day. So really appreciate you guys Awesome.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much and likewise appreciate the brains behind the operation keeping it going, like you said, thinking of new ways to help keep people working, keep people feeling like, hey, there's more to the industry you can tap into. Uber Freight, get started, sign up today. Like you said, there's a big need coming in three weeks. Be sure to help these guys out and they can help you as well. Grow and you don't have to take on all that expense of buying the equipment and things like that. Work with Uber Freight. Great job. Thanks for coming on the show For those listening.
Speaker 1:If you're looking to move more effectively, cut down on idle time and access more consistent freight, think of Powerloop. Effectively cut down on idle time and access more consistent freight Think of power loop might be a serious look that's worth the wait, worth the need to look into. So when you're out there and you're waiting for your load, you can download this and get this started right there in your cab. So find more information, go to uberfreightcom. And thanks again for tuning in and also getting to know Jeff Resch. So stay safe, stay sharp and keep delivering. Thank you again. No-transcript.
