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Troy: Alright hello and welcome truckers. The date is May 6 and you’re listening to the 53rd episode of Big Rig Banter. I’m your co-host Troy Diffenderfer
Lenay: And I’m your favorite co-host, Lenay Ruhl
Troy: And before we get things started, I just wanted to again take a minute and give a special shout out to all the professional drivers out there, especially during this tough time. You’re the ones keeping America moving during this challenging time.
Lenay: And Pilot Flying J wants to say thank you as well. To show their gratitude for all you do, they want to give you more rewards and more points. It’s called Push4Points and it can get you to four points faster while you’re racking up those hard-earned miles. That’s right. You can reach four points per gallon after only six qualifying fills. Push4Points is available only in the Pilot Flying J app for a limited time only.
Troy: And it’s as easy as one, two three. Here’s how it works: Step 1 – push the activate button on the app at the beginning of each month. Step 2 – fill your tank with at least 75 gallons of diesel. Step 3 – sit back and watch your point balance grow faster than ever before. You’ll increase your earning level after each commercial diesel fill over 75 gallons, from one, to one and a half, to two, to two and a half, and so on. You’ll be earning four points per gallon for the rest of the month after six qualifying fills.
Lenay: And what can you do with all these points? Well, your rig’s not the only thing that needs a fill up, right? When you get hungry or you need a tasty beverage, you can redeem points for in store savings on the essentials as well as merchandise for you and your rig. And when you pull into park for a while, you can redeem points for a reserved parking spot and Wi-Fi credits at participating Pilot and Flying J locations.
Troy: And again, from Pilot Flying J, thank you for all you do, drivers, and stay safe on the road. See terms and conditions at PilotFlyingJ.com/app.
Lenay: Alright Troy, how are you today? What is this… like, week six in quarantine? (laughing)
Troy: I know, and this weather’s not making it any better. I’m like, going crazy in here with all this like rainy-ness. It’s going to rain all day today and I’m struggling. I can’t believe you were so chipper this morning and I was like, not having that.
Lenay: (laughing) I woke up wide awake at 7:30. I was like, I’m going for a long walk before the rain comes, and I did. And they’ve been trying to put inspirational mural art all throughout the city, so I got to see some of the murals but they’re slowly putting them up, so that’s been kind of cool.
Troy: Well I woke up at 8:20, and then I went downstairs and took the dog out and then starred at my phone for 20 minutes and made coffee, so that was my thrilling morning.
Lenay: Well, you should have gone for a walk.
Troy: I know.
Lenay: Tomorrow, if I wake up early, I’ll call you (laughing) yeah right.
Troy: No thank you.
Lenay: Oh, I was going to say I’m really excited because I don’t know if you remember but a few weeks ago when we did the podcast, I said that I was going to challenge you to a trivia question.
Troy: Ok
Lenay: So, I don’t know if you’re up for some quarantine trivia?
Troy: Of course, but I feel like it’s going to be awkward when I nail any question you throw at me.
Troy: And then like, I’m impossible to be stumped.
Lenay: Yeah, yeah. I feel that way too.
Troy: Alright, let’s have at it.
Lenay: Alright so my first question…
Troy: Wait, wait, is there like a category? Do I get any kind of hints? Do I get to phone a friend?
Lenay: I’m getting there. Ok! So, this is music related.
Troy: Ok
Lenay: And I know you’re a music buff, but I think this might stump you… but, this is the one I’m not so sure. Ok. Released as a single in 1982, “A Country Boy Can Survive” is a song written and recorded by which American Country music artist
Troy: Oh geez… it’s not even multiple choice or anything?
Lenay: (laughing) No, it’s trivia!
Troy: Alright, I’m gonna go probably with…
Lenay: Do you know the song?
Troy: Oh yeah, but I’m more of a modern country guy, not the Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams Jr type, but I’m gonna go with my first one that came to mind. I’m gonna go with Waylon Jennings.
Lenay: Hank Jr
Troy: Aww I was close though. I named him at least so, I’m proud of that.
Lenay: (laughing)
Troy: Ok, you got another one?
Lenay: Ok so I have one more. This is kind of, kind of COVID related. Kind of. Which I didn’t know this answer either, so I thought it was interesting. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is, so the CDC, is headquartered in which United States city?
Troy: Ooh, that’s a tough one
Lenay: Right
Troy: Hmm… I’m gonna say, Atlanta
Lenay: How do you know this? Did you Google it?
Troy: I did not! I’m just pretty smart.
Lenay: (Laughing)
Troy: Alright. I’m happy with one out of two, especially with the health-related one. So yeah, I had a feeling it was going to be Atlanta or Chicago, but I knew it wasn’t going to be like, New York City or somewhere in the north east. But I’m proud of myself for getting that one.
Lenay: Yeah, me too. That’s the one I thought for sure you wouldn’t know, but anyway.
Troy: Speaking of the CDC. you know, usually Lenay and I plan ahead for a lot of these podcast episodes. We have the topic in mind. We are getting these interviews ahead of time, and you know, we have a good idea of what we want to talk about for our next episode. With all the things going on, we had some different topics lined up for the upcoming episode, but we felt like we can’t ignore the coronavirus (COVID-19) and everything that’s going on. We feel like that’s going to be the information that you really care about. We mentioned the COVID-19 and coronavirus before on an episode not too long ago. We spoke to someone in the industry that owns a company, but we wanted to take a look at the driver shortage, and how COVID’s impacting that, so we actually sat down with the owner of a truck driving school whose been in charge of trying to fill rigs; trying to teach soon to be drivers. I thought it was a really, really interesting interview
Lenay: Yeah, I’m excited. I think it’s interesting which trucking schools stayed open and which ones had to close across the country and just how that’s going to affect training drivers and getting positions filled. So, I’m really excited to hear this interview.
Troy: Yeah, our guest Fred Hart from CDL Assist West Virginia, he had a lot of awesome information so let’s give that a listen.
Troy: Alright, I’m here with Fred Hart. He’s the owner of CDL Assist West Virginia and he’s also a CDL examiner for the state of West Virginia. Fred, how are you today?
Fred: I’m doing ok, thank you.
Troy: So, you know we’re talking about COVID and the driver shortage and we wanted to speak with someone who represents a lot of the CDL schools around here, because we know those are impacted. We’ve seen multiple articles about an upcoming driver shortage, or I guess you’d say a continuation of the driver shortage, within the next couple of months. Where do you think this is stemming from? I know you’re seeing it first-hand.
Fred: Well, I think you nailed it in the one word – a continuation of the driver shortage. There are, I guess, multiple reasons for that. Since President Trump has been in office there has been a lower amount of people coming through our program as well as in general CDL testing. It has been on the increase for about a year now. I feel like a part of that is because the economy was doing so good. What I have seen in the past, what my personal experience is… if there are good jobs that are available other than trucking jobs, people take those jobs. People in our area, the coal industry is really heavy. If people can get a coal mining job, that’s what they’ll do. And the economy has been so good that people have avoided the trucking industry, because of the availability of other jobs. I feel like another reason for that is there’s a shortage because of the retirees. I think that the true trucking blood in America is retiring. They’re at that age now where they’re getting to a point where they’re coming off the road and retiring. I have one more thing I’d like to add to that. It’s just, this generation. I deal with so many younger drivers, so many younger folks trying to get their CDL license both as an examiner and as a trainer, and boy oh boy… It amazes me how they just have such little understanding of the industry… of the equipment; they have very little understanding of really how life works, and it’s discouraging to see that. I believe that’s a multi-reason for that shortage to take place.
Troy: And have you currently seen a decrease in trucking students? I know you mentioned since Trump was in office and things like that, you’ve noticed the shortage, but I mean, specifically with the current, obviously the climate, and the economy, and what’s going on with the coronavirus, have you seen a decrease in trucking students or those looking to apply for CDL?
Fred: Well, again, that’s a two-phase question. You know, in general it has been down, again, because of the Trump administration. I was getting ready to take a different job. I almost didn’t go with CDL Assist. I almost put that aside simply because there was so little testing. As a CDL examiner, I’m able to have access to information, I guess, that others wouldn’t have. I just watched and I looked myself to see how busy our examiners were across the state and the position that I was being offered, I turned it down simply because I didn’t feel like there were enough students trying to come into the field… not enough interest in the trucking industry, and it scared me. But again, with the virus specifically, I think it’s just fear. Fear is a huge factor, I believe, that as a nation we have been gripped by fear when it comes to getting out now. I feel like our students are afraid of being exposed and I feel like there’s been so much caution that the students have stopped calling. There are some things that we’ve done to be able to keep the ball rolling, I guess you could say it that way, but yeah, fear of the virus, that’s definitely a major thing. And then, another thing is the job availability. We’ve had such a decrease in student enrollment, and again, repeating what I said earlier, and I apologize for that, but literally with this generation, if they can get a job working a fast food joint and they feel like that’s sufficient for them, they’d rather do that than get a job that has stability or whatever, and there’s so many jobs available now. Ultimately, and there’s still jobs available, even during the COVID-19. The pandemic is not slowing down the jobs to a crawl, I should say, here in the state of West Virginia. They’re still available.
Troy: That leads me to my next question. If there are students that still need to be trained, why are we seeing so many trucking schools shutting down? Do you think it’s because it’s more of a mandate thing or more of a coronavirus thing or do you think it’s more on the supply and demand side of their just being too many schools and not enough students to give these exams?
Fred: Well, let me say two things about that. Number one, we were not forced to shut down. As a trucking education center in the state of West Virginia, we were not shut down. It was exactly opposite. We were encouraged to stay open. I immediately began to make phone calls to Charleston and to the folks who run the DMV there, and the CDL division there, and they encouraged me to stay in because of the truck driver shortage. I also, the second part of that, is a lot of the truck driving schools in our area are tied to the board of education or the local education. For example, what would be considered Vo-Tech, that type of thing. And all those have closed down simply because they are attached to the other school systems, the elementary and secondary education schools. That type of thing. And with that, they were forced closed. But as far as independent truck driving schools, I don’t think that anyone is doing any training right now. There might be one other one in the state that I’ve heard of that is still in business, but for the most part everybody is just stopped because of the fear of the virus.
Troy: And I know this might be a silly question but has there been any talk about maybe trying to move some of these teachings online? Obviously, you still need to get in a rig and get that experience under your belt, but I know with the elementary schools and a lot of the education has moved to online. I know trucking’s a different ball game, but have you heard anyone talking or explored that possibility as well?
Fred: I read some things last week and someone sent me some emails about that. The federal people were considering some exemptions and that type of thing, where the administrator of the test did not have to be present. I just thought to myself, that is one of the most absurd things that I ever heard of in my life. You know, many times, even drivers coming out of 180-day programs, 160-180-day program, many of those – not everyone makes it to truck driver. Everyone in the industry understands that there’s a lot of them that, you know, you wish that they would never try, but unfortunately, they do. One of the great things about the DMV, and I didn’t understand this when I first got in it, but one of the great safety nets for our highways is the DMV. It keeps people off the road that don’t need to be behind the wheel, and I feel like that’s part of my job. There’s just certain people, they don’t have the mindset – they don’t have the mental capability – of driving a big truck, and keeping them from behind the wheel is such an important thing. Yes, certainly.
Troy: And just to circle back to the coronavirus and how it’s impacting a lot of things, what kind of health and safety precautions have you guys personally taken at the school to help prevent the spread of the virus and keep your students at ease during this time?
Fred: Well, we’ve done the most obvious. We sanitize our trucks. I purchased the sanitizing materials to keep the trucks clean, and we do it on a daily basis, sanitizing the trucks. I’ve also purchased Purell, the commercial dispensers, just like you’d see in a hospital or whatever, for my vehicles. When you get in there, we encourage that. We also purchased every thermometer we could purchase in Raleigh Country –  went to every place, bought all of them that we could find, and we use those – give them away for each class, until we ran out. Then I purchased some of the thermometers that you use on your forehead so that we could at least get the simple tests taken. We ask questions – how have you been feeling? Do you have any symptoms at all? Have you been exposed to anyone who has COVID-19? We have a questionnaire there for all the applicants as well.
Troy: And I just want to go back to something earlier you said. You’re definitely not the first one to say, you know, that a lot of this shortage is coming from attracting millennials and attracting the younger generation. Maybe, give me your elevator pitch. Why should millennials, the younger generation, consider trucking? I know you said that they could go out and get a fast food job pretty easily or something that’s going to be close to home or something simple. Why should this younger generation consider becoming a truck driver?
Fred: Well, I tell folks that your CDL license, if you’ll guard it, protect it, maintain it, keep up with it, is your golden ticket to a job for as long as you live. There’s a tremendous amount of job security that comes with your commercial driver’s license. There’s a tremendous amount of responsibility. Also, there’s great privileges to holding that, and that is, you can basically go to any state, any town, any city, any location, and find a job that suits you. And it’s different for everyone. Some folks like over the road, some folks like dedicated or local runs, but honestly the sky’s the limit when you hold your CDL license. You’ve got a good job. You’ve got a job that will have benefits. You have a job that you don’t have to worry about losing. If this pandemic has done anything, it has increased the stability and the job security of those that have a CDL license – no questions asked.
Troy: And Fred, I want to kind of wrap things up on a high note. It’s something I’ve been trying to do, especially lately during all the interviews I did. What’s one good thing you’ve seen come from all this? I know it’s been tough for everyone out there, especially the trucking industry, but you’re on the front lines there. What’s one good thing you’ve seen coming from all this turmoil and a lot of the coronavirus stuff going on?
Fred: Well, I like to try to see the good in everything, and you know I think there’s more than just one good thing. There’s multiple good things, but if I had to put the number one most important good thing, that’s what it would be. It’s increased the job security of those that hold a commercial driver’s license. The jobs are out there. They’re still available, even in the most difficult circumstances. It is just so evident – it should be to every American – that there’s such a drastic need for drivers, and there’s such an availability for drivers. The job security is there, and if you allow me, I have a couple other things that I just see as a tremendous result of that.
Troy: No, go for it. I think we all need to hear some positive things, especially during this time. You can name as many as you want.
Fred: Even if you look at the negative side of it… let’s just say that you were laid off, which I don’t know of any truck driver that has been. I’m sure there are, and I’m sure there’s families that are in need there, but you know this has been a time where things needed to slow down just awhile to catch a break with your family, spend some family time, get some much needed rest. I know drivers that are driving the wheels off their vehicles and they needed this – just a time to slow down. And you know, here’s the last thing I’ll say. Eventually, this is going to catch up. Eventually, America’s gonna see, the employers are going to see, the need for consistent truck drivers. It’s going to lead to increase in pay. It’s going to lead to increase in benefits, that type of thing. I feel like in the long term that, give it another six months or so, I believe that the truck driving industry is the place where people are going to head to for job security and for good, reliable, dependable, fair pay, and also the benefits that tag along with it.
Troy: Yeah, I 100 percent agree with you, and I think those are all great points and things to look forward to and keep in mind as we’re all trying to navigate this tough situation. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Fred: I’d just like to add that from my perspective, [as] someone on the beginning or the initial end of the CDL world, I appreciate the long term drivers, those that have the true grit, and again, I feel like that’s missing in the generation that follows you. I just want to express my appreciation for your consistence and steadfastness; the grit that you have to get the job done, to make America what it is. I have so many friends and so many people that I come across that tell me about the need – mind blowing – the need of drivers. I had one guy tell me just a couple weeks ago, he told me, he says for every one driver we got 96 to 98 loads waiting for them. I thought to myself, that’s no way! And he said, absolutely. 96 to 98 loads waiting for every driver, and I know some of you might be asking right now, who is that guy? I need a job!
Troy: (Laughing)
Fred: But they’re out there and, one of my dearest friends, just bought his own truck, just become an owner operator, and he’s telling me stories about nonstop hauling. The wheels [are] just continually moving, and I just want to say thank you to all those drivers who have the type of grit to get the job done that America needs. Thank you.
Troy: Yeah, I second all of that. Again, truckers out there listening, we really appreciate what you’re doing. You truly are keeping America running and we definitely appreciate all of that. Fred, thank you so much. That’s Fred Heart from CLD Assist West Virginia. Thank you so much for joining us.
Fred: Thank you
Lenay: Alright, awesome interview. Thank you to Fred for making time to chat with us, and thanks Troy for getting a hold of Fred like that at the last minute. That was awesome.
Troy: Yeah, and again truckers, if any of you are still trying to get your CDL, or just recently gone through the process, we would love to hear what that’s like. Obviously, these are tricky times going on. Feel free to reach out to us and use the#BigRigBanter. We love interacting with everyone, and we want to try to provide as much information as we possibly can.
Lenay: Yeah, we can always be reached direct message on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, so be sure to reach out to us. And if you have a free minute while you’re traveling, leave us a review and let us know what you think of the podcast.
Troy: And I almost forgot, we just released a video not too long ago, yours truly is highlighting five positive things we’re seeing in the trucking industry. A lot of the times we’re talking about so many negative things going on, especially with everything that’s happening, but we wanted to highlight some of the good things that are happening, because there are good things happening out there, and we think they deserve some recognition.
Lenay: Yes, absolutely.
Troy: Alright Lenay, I think that’s another one in the books, and I appreciate you recording with me again from afar. I can’t wait ‘til we’re back actually in the podcast studio across from each other.
Lenay: I know, I know, and then you can bring me my coffee and I can make fun of your messy hair.
Troy: Mmmhm, can’t wait.
Lenay: Alright well get ready for next week’s trivia question too
Troy: I will. One for two isn’t bad, so I’m going to do some studying.
Lenay: Ok (laughing)
Troy: Alright truckers. I’m your co-host Troy Diffenderfer
Lenay: And I’m your favorite co-host, Lenay Ruhl
Troy: And this has been Big Rig Banter
Music – Thanks for tuning into another edition of Big Rig Banter. For your next job check out AllTruckJobs.com, the premier online source for finding the best driver jobs in the country. Browse hundreds of positions by freight or driver type to get back on the road with confidence. Click subscribe to keep the conversations coming until next time on Big Rig Banter.
