From Birmingham, England — 3,500 miles from American trucking — Tony breaks down the word that explains so much industry nonsense: externalities. Costs they create but you pay. While recovering from shoulder surgery that would’ve been ~$30K in the U.S. (and £500 in the UK), Tony lays out how trucking’s “bad math” hides the real costs on drivers.
Using Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground as a backbone, we dig into the LinkedIn math circus, deferred-maintenance shell games, gig-economy exploitation, the coming Crystal Palace of automation/surveillance — and why drivers are treated as the externality in everyone else’s equation.
“Every question you ask is a nail driven up through their floorboards. Keep driving nails. Keep asking. Stay conscious, villains.”
00:00 – Intro from Birmingham
04:00 – Song: “Birmingham” – Broken Witt Rebels
06:00 – Quotes: Upton Sinclair & Socrates
11:00 – UK vs. US healthcare math (shoulder surgery)
14:00 – “Non-Domiciled CDL” emergency (and who really profited)
18:00 – LinkedIn Math Circus (Fuller/Miller/Miller)
27:00 – Drive Line: Externalities explained
30:00 – Notes from Underground (the consciousness problem)
33:00 – The Crystal Palace (autonomy, AI dispatch, surveillance)
36:00 – Socratic method as resistance: define your terms
41:00 – Post Trip: Villa train story & collective voice
47:00 – Next week preview (UK ride-along, Magna Carta, Kodiak)
• What externalities really mean (McDonald’s trash example)
• Underground Man’s “curse of knowing” vs. men of action
• Craig Fuller’s admission about deferred maintenance & what it hides
• The LinkedIn math circus: undefined terms everywhere
• How Uber perfected trucking’s exploitation model
• The Crystal Palace they’re building (and why we’re the support beams)
• Non-domiciled CDLs & chameleon carriers (features, not bugs)
• Birmingham train ride: collective voice vs. American isolation
• Kodiak IPO timing (
Diesel Damus called it)
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” — Upton Sinclair
“
I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.” — Socrates
Will Cook — A Driver’s Perspective
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61570019885862
TJ Graff — Star Behaviors Assessment
Star Behaviors → https://starbehaviors.com
Star Advisor (FREE self-assessments) → https://starbehaviors.com/staradvisor.html
“Big Cal” — Trucking with Coffee and Cal
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564967548222
Chris Barber — Fighting for Freedom
Website: https://cbtruckingltd.ca
Mike Ritzema — Superior Trucking Payroll Service
Website: https://truckingpayroll.com
Deb LaBree — A Woman Trucker
Website: https://awomantrucker.com
Bobbi McGee — A Hard Shell Life
Blog: https://hardshelllife.blogspot.com
• Barry Trahan’s Louisiana Truck Show — Rayne, LA — Oct 24–25
• Lee Owens’ American Truckers Jubilee — Searcy, AR — Oct 24–25
Full calendar: https://thetruckshowlist.com
Trucker’s Wealth — Financial strategies for drivers & owner-ops
https://truckers-wealth.com
Trans Carolina Permits — Permits, IFTA, compliance since 1977
https://transcarolinapermits.com
True TMS — Cloud TMS: planning, rating, invoicing, reporting
Email: https://channel19experience.com
“Birmingham” — Broken Witt Rebels (support the artists)
#Trucking #TruckingPodcast #Externalities #NotesFromUnderground #Dostoevsky #CrystalPalace #OwnerOperator #FreightWaves #CraigFuller #GigEconomy #Uber #SocraticMethod #DefineYourTerms #Channel19Experience #CDL #DriverShortage #NonDomiciledCDL #ChameleonCarriers #KodiakIPO #DieselDamus #Birmingham
