Behind The Freight

In this episode of Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast, host Brent Hutto is joined by Joel Morrow, CEO of Alpha Drivers Testing & Consulting.

Join them as they explore:

• A new model for fair compensation and safer roads in the trucking space
• How efficiency challenges led to a breakthrough in fleet management
• Why the 6x2 axle configurations work better than the 6x4 ones
• Fuel efficiency strategies for fleet owners
• And much more!
  
  

Joel has been the Senior Driver and Head of Research and Development at Ploger Transportation since 1987. He brings over 30 years of experience in commercial vehicle specifications, fuel economy, and operational expertise, with a driving record surpassing 4 million miles. Joel is a two-time recipient of the Top 50 Green Fleet award and won the 2018 HDTX Innovators Award. Additionally, he led the ton-mile per gallon category in the 2017 NACFE Run on Less event.

Episode Highlights:
[03:23] A veteran driver with over 4 million miles and numerous awards, including the Top 50 Green Fleet award and the 2018 Heavy Duty Trucking Innovator of the Year, Joel's journey showcases how serious commitment can drive success. One of the most important things he learned early on was distinguishing the difference between gross and net in terms of financial and operational efficiency. The dedication to understanding and improving these metrics has been key to Joel's achievements. Reflecting on their personal experiences, Joel shares the challenges and rewards of transitioning from working in a family-run recycling business to pursuing his own path in the tracking world, driven by a desire to tackle challenging tasks and improve efficiency.

[16:17] Switching to a payment structure that values time, not just miles, could revolutionize the trucking industry and significantly enhance driver satisfaction and safety. Joel highlights this with his own successful model that combines hourly wages with mileage compensation, which not only rewards drivers fairly but also encourages safer driving practices. By valuing drivers' time, especially during delays at loading docks and other downtown time not accounted for in traditional pay-per-mile systems, Joel has improved job satisfaction while setting a benchmark for the industry to follow.

[21:15] As someone who values efficiency, Joel found it frustrating whenever his previous achievements were compromised. He remembers arguing against raising the speed limit on Ploger Transportation fleet's trucks as a solution for driver retention. It seemed reasonable at the time due to the economic conditions and low fuel costs. However, Joel foresaw long-term pain when the market shifted. This sparked Joel's decision to use his expertise to assist owner-operators and small fleets and collaborate with OEMs who could fund his consultancy, leveraging social media for dissemination. This approach has proven profitable for both the OEMs by boosting their product visibility and for the fleets by improving their operational efficiency.

[27:50] Joel believes a 6x2 axle configuration can significantly boost fuel efficiency compared to the more common 6x4 setup with two powered axles. While the 6x2 configuration enhances traction, it also allows for weight shifting, which improves overall vehicle efficiency on the road. Joel's experience and ongoing improvements to this system underline its potential to optimize performance and cost-effectiveness in the transport industry, making it a valuable consideration for those looking to maximize their operational efficiency.

[31:15] Regarding fuel efficiency on business profitability, while many focus on gross earnings, what truly matters is net earnings, which reflect actual take-home after expenses. Achieving over 10 miles per gallon, even in challenging terrains like the Pacific Northwest and Appalachia, showcases exceptional efficiency and significantly boosts the bottom line. This reduces both fuel and maintenance costs.
If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.Behind the Freight is Truckstop’s trucking and logistics podcast for carriers, owner operators, small fleets and freight brokers. Hosted by John Howland, with new episodes every other week on freight fraud prevention, compliance, trucking technology and the freight market.
Find loads, vet carriers and protect your business at Truckstop.com

Connect with John on LinkedIn
Behind The Freight is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode of Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast, host Brent Hutto is joined by Lee Klaskow, Senior Analyst of Freight Transportation and Logistics at Bloomberg Intelligence and Host of Talking Transports. 
Join them as they explore:

• How Lee moved from Wall Street to transportation
• The current state of the global markets
• How transportation and logistics have shifted over the past twenty years
• And much more!

Since 2010, Lee has been working as Sector Head and Senior Analyst of Freight Transportation and Logistics at Bloomberg Intelligence. There, he researches and analyzes all things freight. Since late 2023, he has also been the Host of Bloomberg’s Talking Transports podcast.


Episode Highlights:
[06:18] Lee’s career began on Wall Street, but he was looking to do something different, so he started a research job in property and casualty insurance. After working in the role for around a year, his boss said he was due a promotion and suggested he start covering transport. Wanting to be a casino analyst, Lee wasn’t convinced it was the right move, but his senior convinced him, and that’s how he started on the transportation side. Now, he’s been covering freight transportation and logistics as an analyst for nearly 19 years. 

[20:07] As well as covering trucking, Lee’s work looks at railroads and marine shipping. At the moment, you can’t really pay attention to the news without hearing about the Red Sea crisis, and that’s been one of the biggest changes heading into 2024 for the markets. Rates are going up by up to 300%, depending on the lane, due to ships having to avoid the Red Sea and Suez Canal, instead going to the southern tip of Africa, around Europe, and to the east coast of the USA, adding around twelve days to every journey. Couple this with the issues in the Panama Canal and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and everything’s complicated. There will likely be increased congestion at ports, with some shippers choosing to go to the west coast of the USA instead, which would be good for the trucking side of things. Ultimately, the global markets are in flux and will stay that way until the Red Sea conflict comes to a close. 


[38:36] In his two decades in the industry, the biggest change Lee has seen is how technology has created more efficient networks, allowing people to make better decisions. With a smartphone, owner-operators can now make very informed decisions about whether to take a load, allowing them to improve their ROI. To Lee, this benefits them and the big players like FedEx and CSX. While he doesn’t deem AI likely to be driving our trucks one day, its additive benefits will be, and already are, transformative in terms of our productivity. He’s also seen a distinct shift in portfolio management, with some companies diversifying into other businesses and others taking a U-turn and focusing more on their core strengths. 
If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.Behind the Freight is Truckstop’s trucking and logistics podcast for carriers, owner operators, small fleets and freight brokers. Hosted by John Howland, with new episodes every other week on freight fraud prevention, compliance, trucking technology and the freight market.
Find loads, vet carriers and protect your business at Truckstop.com

Connect with John on LinkedIn
Behind The Freight is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode of Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast, host Brent Hutto is joined by Alex Mai, Owner and voice of Mutha Trucker News.
Join them as they explore:

• The backstory of Mutha Trucker
• The importance of relationships and communication in the trucking industry
• What businesses are doing wrong on social media
• And much more!

Alex is the voice of Mutha Trucker News, and has been since he started the YouTube channel in 2012. The channel now has over 900,000 subscribers and followers who tune in to discover the latest industry news, advice, and stories. Alex also co-owns Big Rig Tees, a trucking apparel company.

Episode Highlights:
[08:11] Mutha Trucker initially began with Alex and his girlfriend vlogging their life on the road under the alias The Asian Mai Show. The show didn’t have much direction for six years, with the content essentially being a form of journaling for them. However, Alex rebranded the channel to Mutha Trucker News a few years ago. There was little interest when the content was just about Alex, but when he instead interviewed drivers, people loved it. As it picked up, he started to attend trucking shows to better understand the industry and work towards his goal of giving truck drivers, owner-operators, and fleet owners a better experience.

[18:59] Alex’s focus now is to help truck drivers with their pain points. Often, these stem from not understanding the business side of things, so Alex partially helps to educate on how to be a business owner. He further advises drivers to build relationships, using load boards to support this. It’s not enough just to use one because it might go down one day, and then they would hypothetically be left with no business. Instead, he recommends having as many tools in your toolbox as possible to maximize your efficiency and profits. Ultimately, trucking is an interpersonal industry, so communication, trust-building, and forming direct relationships are crucial to success.

[26:25] If social media is part of your business model, then you’re doing it right. It’s such a dynamic space that there is no one right way to go about it, and according to Alex, there are not many mistakes to be made. The biggest mistake he sees is businesses segmenting their content and only posting it on specific platforms. Instead, you should post everywhere and extend your reach to every possible part of your target audience. If you don’t, your competitor will. If you’ve already built up a following on one platform, then direct that audience to your new one — it’s an effective way to build an audience quickly. 
If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.Behind the Freight is Truckstop’s trucking and logistics podcast for carriers, owner operators, small fleets and freight brokers. Hosted by John Howland, with new episodes every other week on freight fraud prevention, compliance, trucking technology and the freight market.
Find loads, vet carriers and protect your business at Truckstop.com

Connect with John on LinkedIn
Behind The Freight is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode of Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast, host Brent Hutto is joined by Kevin Rutherford, Owner and Presenter of LetsTruck.
Join them as they explore:

• How few educational opportunities exist for owner-operators
• How Kevin got started in trucking, writing, and radio
• Turning four years of working through severe debt into a business opportunity
• And much more!

Having started as a Small Fleet Owner for FedEx Ground, Kevin Rutherford has built a name for himself in the logistics industry. Until 2022, he hosted Road Dog Trucking’s Trucking Business & Beyond for Sirius Satellite Radio. He is now the Owner and Presenter of LetsTruck, a call-in business advice show that has helped thousands of owner-operators and fleets improve their fuel efficiency and maintenance costs and increase their bottom line.

Episode Highlights:
[05:40] There is very little help out there for owner-operators and carriers in today’s market. If you look at other industries, there are all sorts of education opportunities for almost every role and guides on how to get started. For those of us in the trucking industry, there is very little. Kevin is one of the only sources for advice, so he hasn’t had much competition working his way up to the top. But he still had to build credibility, and he was able to do that with his own experience of being a Small Fleet Owner. Everything he learned along the way could help someone else, so he became the widely respected voice he is today.

[11:44] Trucking was in Kevin’s family, but they never had a family business. Almost everyone was an owner-operator at one point, doing their own thing. His father was somewhat of a reluctant owner-operator. He was more interested in the mechanical side of things than business. He kept going through cycles of going bust and having to get a union job until he earned enough money to start again. Seeing this, Kevin did not want to get into the trucking industry until he was 21, and it seemed like a good idea to bide time until he figured out what he wanted to do with his life. By his fourth year, he had 11 trucks. With each one, he was losing money, and he got to the point where attorneys recommended filing for bankruptcy. Having borrowed lots of money, he felt like filing for bankruptcy was morally wrong, so he started working off the debt and studying business more and more. Four years later, he was debt-free. 

[17:07] Through facing bankruptcy and the grueling process of paying back debts, Kevin learned how to run a successful small trucking company. Yet, he didn’t run one. Instead, he focussed on building a company that could help other people not go through the same stress he did and learn the right to do things from the very beginning. He wrote an accounting software, which eventually became ProfitGauges, and started writing articles for Overdrive magazine. From there, he was invited to speak on the Partners in Business panel, which he ended up presenting. It was intense with a fear of public speaking, but Kevin quickly realized he was good at answering questions, which started to pave the way for LetsTruck.


[24:25] Kevin’s transition from magazines to radio came from Dave Nemo. Having read his business columns in another magazine, Dave called him up and asked him to come on his show for an interview. After just 15 minutes of the interview, Dave stopped him talking, and they started taking listener’s questions due to the sheer volume of calls and texts the radio show received from listeners. Although it was meant to be a one-time thing, Dave asked him to make it a regular feature whenever his business column went out. Before even a week had passed, the schedule got bumped from monthly to biweekly and then up to weekly. From there, he became a guest on two other Sirius XM shows and eventually asked to start his own, which is how Trucking Business & Beyond was born. 
If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.Behind the Freight is Truckstop’s trucking and logistics podcast for carriers, owner operators, small fleets and freight brokers. Hosted by John Howland, with new episodes every other week on freight fraud prevention, compliance, trucking technology and the freight market.
Find loads, vet carriers and protect your business at Truckstop.com

Connect with John on LinkedIn
Behind The Freight is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode of Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast, host Brent Hutto is joined by Grace Sharkey, the host of FreightWaves Drive Time on SiriusXM.
Join them as they explore:

• The power of a scrappy attitude
• Why investments in people are more important than investments in tech
• Challenges of transitioning from a brokerage to journalism
• And much more!

Grace is a journalist, interviewer, and writer passionate about Freight Tech. She currently hosts FreightWaves Drive Time on SiriusXM alongside writing for FreightWaves. Prior to this, she was Chief Strategy Officer at Fifth Wheel Freight.

Episode Highlights:
[09:24] When she decided to go to college, Grace’s mom helped find her the right place but ensured Grace knew it was her responsibility to pay for it. Looking back, Grace is proud of herself for funding her own education and the planning that prepared her for the working world. She joined Fifth Wheel Freight in the start-up stage, so she needed to be scrappy and willing to just get things done. In the brokerage, she realized this approach was key to finding new opportunities and building skills. When it came time for her to leave Fifth Wheel, she was suddenly overwhelmed by her many choices after building up a wealth of knowledge. To anyone thinking of their next venture who is scared, she recommends just doing it. 

[13:46] At Fifth Wheel, Grace started out as an Account Representative and then moved up the ranks to Chief Strategy Officer. When she first started, they essentially acted from cradle to grave. They would buy shipments from their shippers and customers and sell them directly to Carriers. As they scaled, this quickly showed to be inefficient from all directions. Having to redesign the process was incredibly interesting for Grace, and she turned her focus to utilizing their tech to enhance what they were doing. They had to shift from scrappy start-up mode to strategic scale-up mode. It was all about investing in the people instead of the tech and ensuring they used it to the best of their ability.
[26:09] Since joining FreightWaves and transitioning her career to journalism, Grace has built a persona that is widely recognized, but as with any career change, there have been some challenges. The first one was the change in leadership style. The management was very hands-on at the brokerage, ensuring everyone was on track. In her first week at FreightWaves, it was evident that this was not the case in the company, with the Editor in Chief surprised she let them know she was leaving for the day. It’s a far more self-sufficient culture, which gave Grace more freedom in her work, but it was a tough transition to get used to.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.Behind the Freight is Truckstop’s trucking and logistics podcast for carriers, owner operators, small fleets and freight brokers. Hosted by John Howland, with new episodes every other week on freight fraud prevention, compliance, trucking technology and the freight market.
Find loads, vet carriers and protect your business at Truckstop.com

Connect with John on LinkedIn
Behind The Freight is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode of Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast, host Brent Hutto is joined by Toby Young, Show Manager for the Mid-America Trucking Show.
Join them as they explore:

• Handling conflict resolution in a family business
• How to lead by example
• How the Mid-America Trucking Show has changed its direction to reflect attendee feedback
• And much more!

A Chemistry graduate turned events pro, Toby Young is the Show Manager for the Mid-America Trucking Show, one of the biggest trucking events in the calendar. He is also President of Exhibit Management Associates, a results-driven event management agency.

Episode Highlights:
[10:35] The trucking industry is very family-oriented, and many professionals work with family members across the board. This can be difficult to navigate, especially when conflicts arise. Having worked with his family his entire professional life, Toby has seen conflict resolution go well and poorly. He reflects on the past and advises others in the same boat to remember that you are all working towards the same goal and not to get caught up in your passion. Sometimes, the best strategy is simply to take a step back, recognize this, and return to the conversation with a cooler head. Then, you can present your arguments, justify them, and listen to and understand the other person’s outlook. Of course, this doesn’t just apply to family businesses; this would work in any conflict.

[18:37] After graduating with a Chemistry degree and deciding to join the family business, Toby held various roles in Exhibit Management Associates, from sales to PR to the website. Working across all facets of the business gave him a unique perspective for transitioning into a leadership role. Experience allows you to understand how something truly operates so you have the full picture, allowing you to lead by example. Toby has never got anyone to do something he wouldn’t be willing to do himself. Even today, he’ll take out the trash, clean up the offices, and deliver packages to the post office when necessary. He doesn’t want to be the boss who cracks the whip from behind a desk; he wants to be the leader in the trenches.
[32:10] The Mid-America Trucking Show is unique; it focuses on bringing educational content to the industry to help everyone improve their businesses. Since its beginning in 1972, the show has involved different components, with the exhibition being the primary part. However, each year, the team interviews attendees, and they have discovered that most people come for the entertainment and view the exhibition as an added bonus. Because of this, Toby and his team are now focussing on almost rebranding the show, making it more apparent that they are there to help trucking businesses, make them more money, and increase their efficiency. They have introduced a seminar series and reached out to big-name companies and individuals to share their own experiences and expertise. It’s not about pitching products but about sharing what works for different people. Everyone wants to make the industry better, and this is one stepping stone on the way.
If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.Behind the Freight is Truckstop’s trucking and logistics podcast for carriers, owner operators, small fleets and freight brokers. Hosted by John Howland, with new episodes every other week on freight fraud prevention, compliance, trucking technology and the freight market.
Find loads, vet carriers and protect your business at Truckstop.com

Connect with John on LinkedIn
Behind The Freight is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode of Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast, host Brent Hutto is joined by Sam Watts, Owner of Wattsmen Diesel House and Safety Supervisor for Meiborg Brothers.
Join them as they explore:

• How to build out a safety program
• The seven safety categories everybody in trucking should know
• Why you should never ignore safety
• And much more!

The person in charge of safety procedures is rarely the most popular, but Sam is one of the industry leaders in sharing and educating others in the most important aspects of safety protocols in freight. He is the brains behind Wattsmen Diesel House, a website created for the purpose of educating and entertaining the industry. He also acts as Safety Supervisor at Meiborg Brothers, operating in Rockford, Illinois.

Episode Highlights:
[15:36] Before you start building out your safety program, Sam recommends being brutally honest with yourself about where you are currently sitting with everything. You need to learn exactly what you need to be following safety guidelines, and then bring yourself up to meet and exceed that. If you ignore the problem, it won’t go away, and frankly could cost you a lot of money. Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know or you don’t have something, that’s the only way a safety expert can help you. You wouldn’t lie to your doctor about your pain level, so don’t lie to your safety officer about your compliance. Once you’ve brought everything up to where it needs to be, then you can focus on maintaining your standards. 
[21:58] To be on top of safety, you need to be aware of the Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) uses to determine how you are ranking compared to others in safety. Ignorance is not an excuse for being unsafe, so this is imperative. You need to know the seven BASICs that a safety department is built off of: unsafe driving, crash indicator, hours-of-service compliance, vehicle maintenance, controlled substances, hazardous materials compliance, and driver fitness. Each of these has over 100 violations that the FMCSA could pull you up on and so you need to make sure you’re on top of them all.
[28:39] Safety is not worth ignoring. While it may not make you any money, and it may not be ‘cool’, it will cost you a lot of money if you ignore it. That’s what Sam says to brokers to get them to listen. Neglecting safety will come back to bite you, there are no ifs and buts. While the most common effects are tow-charges and late deliveries, if your safety score drops too low in an audit, you could lose your insurance and even your whole company. It;s not worth the risk.
If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.Behind the Freight is Truckstop’s trucking and logistics podcast for carriers, owner operators, small fleets and freight brokers. Hosted by John Howland, with new episodes every other week on freight fraud prevention, compliance, trucking technology and the freight market.
Find loads, vet carriers and protect your business at Truckstop.com

Connect with John on LinkedIn
Behind The Freight is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode of Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast, host Brent Hutto is joined by Rob Haddock, Transportation Consultant for Albedo Logistics.
Join them as they explore:

• How experience on the production line helped to shape Rob’s approach to supply chain management
• What it was like to be in charge of the supply chain for summer Olympic events
• Why shippers need to be more welcoming to drivers
• And much more!

Rob Haddock is a Strategic Senior Business Executive with extensive experience leading supply chain management organizations. He is currently a Transportation Consultant for Albedo Logistics, having recently finished a 40+ year tenure at the Coca-Cola Company, where he was most recently Group Director of Transportation Strategy.

Episode Highlights:
[10:44] In his early career, Rob spent two years working on the production line at the Coca-Cola manufacturing plant. He quickly learned the dynamic nature of the production schedule, which was in constant limbo based on the upstream forecast, the inventory, and the materials coming into the facility. When he moved up into the warehouse, where he spent a decade, he was effectively responsible for every part of the production scheduling, continually adjusting on the fly to parts of the equation dropping out. He has carried this experience throughout his entire supply chain management career.
[21:50] After ten years in the warehousing role, Rob moved further up in The Coca-Cola Company, heading to a larger facility in New Jersey where he did a lot of customer interfacing before being pulled into working on the summer Olympic games in 1996 and 2000. He had to plan inventory, secure products, get trucks, and set up all the supply lines, all with very little technology. He would track inventories at thirty venues, input them into spreadsheets, and manually figure out the replenishment needed, with all products getting where they needed to be on time. 
[28:59] Rob strongly believes shippers need to be welcoming to drivers as they are an integral part of logistics. So much energy goes into getting a product to a shipper’s warehouse that people almost forget it’s not yet with the customer. Who is crucial to finishing the journey? Drivers. They work nonstop and just need to be met with a smile and some efficiency. Rob advocates that every place you check in and out at a shipper receiver should essentially be a welcome center for the driver, eventually leading to greater efficiency across the whole transportation industry in the long run.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.Behind the Freight is Truckstop’s trucking and logistics podcast for carriers, owner operators, small fleets and freight brokers. Hosted by John Howland, with new episodes every other week on freight fraud prevention, compliance, trucking technology and the freight market.
Find loads, vet carriers and protect your business at Truckstop.com

Connect with John on LinkedIn
Behind The Freight is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode of Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast, host Brent Hutto is joined by Seretha Willingham, CEO and Founder of SJW Logistics.
Join them as they explore Seretha’s six pro tips for logistics entrepreneurship:

• Plan your work
• Be prepared to pivot off of a bad idea
• Use your market intelligence by leveraging data
• Do your homework
• Make sure you always have long-term relationships
• Always follow the process

Seretha is a seasoned Project Management Executive with extensive experience in financial data analysis, information systems technology, and strategic planning and execution. From a career start at The Coca-Cola Company to then Project Management at XPO Logistics before founding SJW Logistics in 2020, a third-party logistics company providing best-in-class solutions, Seretha has spent a lot of time in logistics, building up extensive knowledge of the sector.

Episode Highlights:
[09:37] In her work at Coca-Cola and XPO, Seretha was constantly researching. She wasn’t just researching her own company, but others too, such as JB Hunt. They all had similar stories: they started slowly and then grew everything. This research was her first step towards founding SJW Logistics. Having seen companies succeed through this approach, Seretha followed the same methods, doing what she knew best and creating a project plan. She advises always planning your work before you complete it, especially in entrepreneurial pursuits.


[15:40] Often, small business owners get so caught up in the passion of running a business and the small successes that they hold onto everything they are doing, even when it’s not working. This then means that when things don’t work out, they can feel like a failure. From her work in corporate America, Seretha learned that if things don’t work out, you need to move on and not waste money. There are so many other opportunities that you need to try until you find something that works. 

[22:05] SJW Logistics recently had some issues around double brokering in the marketplace. They did their due diligence in setting the carrier up, and it seemed to be checking all the boxes, but the company they were working with was a scam. This experience has taught them to be cautious of people who wanted quick pay or other slightly weird things from their loads. Now, they always do their homework before working with someone else; you cannot be overly cautious in checking that everything adds up.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.Behind the Freight is Truckstop’s trucking and logistics podcast for carriers, owner operators, small fleets and freight brokers. Hosted by John Howland, with new episodes every other week on freight fraud prevention, compliance, trucking technology and the freight market.
Find loads, vet carriers and protect your business at Truckstop.com

Connect with John on LinkedIn
Behind The Freight is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode of Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast, host Brent Hutto is joined by Rob Carpenter, President of Carpenter Compliance.
Join them as they:

• Explore what led Rob into compliance
• Explain why compliance doesn’t protect you from exposure
• Highlight the importance of explaining the why behind processes
• Discuss the biggest mistakes smaller companies make
• And more!

Rob Carpenter has devoted his work life to the Compliance side of transportation. He’s currently the President of his own business, Carpenter Compliance, and works with primary mega clients like Gallagher Bassett and TruckSafe Consulting. He also works with a number of haulage companies to ensure that everyone trucks safely and legally.

Episode Highlights:
[02:56] Rob started out as a driver, drawn in by the practical side of things. He then moved into managing companies and owning some, and even starting his own broker authority. He wanted to get involved in the operational side of things, wondering how the cash flow actually worked. So, how did he get into compliance? Well, it came from a tragic incident. He had always been a wild driver, and rules didn’t matter to him until he ended up getting hit by a truck, rendering him unable to walk for a while. This kickstarted his focus on safety, realizing how important it really was.


[14:28] Anybody who can read a book can grasp compliance at its most basic level, but you still have to be aware of exposure. You can be compliant and still face exposure, after all. Taking road tests as an example, you can use CDL in lieu of a road test and still be compliant. However, if your driver then gets in an accident, the plaintiff’s lawyer will say, “Yes, you were compliant, but how much time would it have taken to do a road test just to check if the guy could drive?” opening up a whole can of worms. Exposure is a huge part of the litigious society we are in today, and compliance leaves a lot of holes in your system. You’ve got to find those holes that a plaintiff’s attorney could extort and fill them, limiting your exposure. 

[27:15] No matter what, if you could have changed a process and didn’t, you’re liable for any accidents that happen as a result. Leaders should thus explain to their drivers why they are implementing new processes to keep them exposure-proof and incentivize them while they start actioning them. Giving them the knowledge behind it will make them more likely to appreciate and adhere to processes. 

[34:23] Quite often, small companies, including Rob’s own, miss the maintenance part of compliance. If you don’t upkeep your maintenance, it can cost you a huge expense and cause you to lose a lot of customers. Many people are also not aware of service hours regulations. Violating service hours can result in huge civil penalties and unsatisfactory safety ratings that can negatively affect your future business. You also need to be aware of driver fitness and ensure they are fully qualified for the seat. If your drivers aren’t right for the company, and don’t follow your processes, you can end up with violations that affect you all. 
If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.

Behind the Freight is Truckstop’s trucking and logistics podcast for carriers, owner operators, small fleets and freight brokers. Hosted by John Howland, with new episodes every other week on freight fraud prevention, compliance, trucking technology and the freight market.
Find loads, vet carriers and protect your business at Truckstop.com

Connect with John on LinkedIn
Behind The Freight is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so