Blue Ribbon Podcast

Larry was in Chicago over the weekend and Chris had a new driver orientation, so there wasn’t a specific topic or theme for this show. We answered some questions from the live audience. Here is a little bit of what we covered:

Leasing a truck to a carrier (not just Landstar)

Emphasis on knowing your numbers

A conversation Chris had with TA/Petro corporate

Having an attitude of service

Finding a lunatic truck

Random strangers are more reliable than established shops.

We don't live in "The Good Ole Days" anymore when drivers could operate trucks without Air Conditioning. A properly functioning A/C System has become just as important as any other system that keeps the truck running.

As we have said over and over again, you cannot trust shops and mechanics to know what they are doing. YOU have to become the expert that, even though you may not have the tools or the "certification" you can be knowledgable enough to know when someone is feeding you a line of BS or recommending a course of action that is unnecessary or incorrect.

Larry happens to be an ASE Certified A/C technician from his days in the car business. The fundamentals of A/C are the same today as they have ever been. All A/C systems function in the same basic way - your house, your car, your refrigerator - all have the same components.

We hope this episode will arm you with the basic information you need to understand this important system as you prepare to got to battle in the shop when it's time for a repair.

With 14 trucks in the Landstar system, we are well-versed on what it takes to get a truck leased on. We have it down to about a two-day process. But what if you have one truck and you want to lease on a second? Where do you begin? What is required? How can you be prepared to make the process as smooth as possible?

We will answer all these questions, plus we will give you some information on things you probably aren’t thinking about as you prepare to add a truck.

In this episode we will talk about what you missed by not being at the “Reset Your Mindset” event last weekend and why you shouldn’t miss the next one, assuming you survive the “Great Purge."

This one is going to be a LOT of fun!

We are broadcasting LIVE from the Wingate by Windham in Hurricane, West Virginia in “The Lunatic Lounge” of the Blue Ribbon Bar. We are going to have lots of guests. This is the first time EVER that all of the Blue Ribbon trucks, drivers, and mentoring clients have all been in one location at the same time. You’ll get to meet most of them as we prepare for the “Reset Your Mindset” live event.

The official Blue Ribbon Bartender, Nick Stamper, will have the libations flowing so it’s hard to tell what you’ll hear on this episode. Buckle up! This is gonna be a wild ride!

The Live Event in Hurricane, WV is only five days away. We will preview the event and what you can expect to learn from two days with the Lunatics.

The irony of this episode being on “Independence Day” is rich. The US Supreme Court, aka The Black Robed Wizards, refused to hear the California Trucking Association’s suit to end the AB5 contractor law. It’s being reported that 70,000 owner operators in California will now be classified as “employees” now that the injunction is gone. What will they do? What will you do when the Feds soon try the same thing? You need to prepare to save yourself, because help is not coming.

We don't have a special topic for tonight's episode. We're live from the Wingate where we are doing a new driver orientation.

In this episode, we're going to talk to John Rennoldson. He started his journey as a Landstar BCO from day one with Blue Ribbon. Chris is his dispatcher and Larry helps him with running his business. We'll talk with John about his decision to use this service, and what led him to renew the contract for another six months.

One of our drivers pointed me to an Asian Mai video where a truck driver said “Drivers need to grow and pair and shutdown, or get out.” Video here: https://youtu.be/b7BsWcOsT9A

This driver spends a lot of time virtue signaling about how good he is and how important “we” are as drivers. His selfish, ignorant attitude ignores the reason he even has a job to be proud of - the customers and the free market.

Obviously, we won’t be shutting down or stopping.

We’ve seen plenty of the posts about people who are claiming to go home and sit rather than pay for the fuel and “be robbed by the brokers.”

This episode is going to be about math, ethics, and economics. Things aren’t anywhere near as bad as these idiots claim they are.