Hire Truckers Podcast

00:00 - 00:18
Aaron Craddock: Welcome to the Hire Truckers podcast, where we interview experts in driver recruiting. We provide industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to help you level up your recruiting game. Welcome to the Hire Truckers podcast. I'm your host, Aaron Craddock. And today, we have Luke Wimberly with McElroy Truck Lines.

00:18 - 00:43
Aaron Craddock: I'm super excited to have Luke on today. He's got 18 years in the transportation industry, and just a lot of different experience in different departments, heading up different operational roles. Right now, he's the director of operations at McElroy Truck Lines. And, they have a little over 500 trucks or closer to 600 trucks, and, and they're predominantly flatbed. And so, Luke, thank you for joining us today.

00:43 - 00:46
Luke Wimberly: Thanks, Aaron. Glad to be here.

00:47 - 00:57
Aaron Craddock: Yeah. So the first thing I wanted to start talk about like, we're talking about a little bit on our pre call because you're like, I love transportation. So walk me through that. Like, why do you like, what's exciting about transportation? Why you love transportation?

00:58 - 01:10
Luke Wimberly: You know, I I try to figure out that answer, and it's it's kinda hard to put a finger on it. Something different every day. There's not one particular reason I can't point to and say, oh, I like it because of this. I just like it. It's something different.

01:11 - 01:31
Luke Wimberly: And, you know, when you when you pass a truck on the road and that truck, you know, it has freight on it. Everybody's pretty aware of that. That goes up and down the road. You don't really realize what all it takes to move that freight from point a to point b. And there's so much that goes on behind the scenes of this, you know, other than just what's behind the steering wheel.

01:32 - 01:51
Luke Wimberly: And that makes it exciting. So, you know, the safety aspect, maintenance, recruiting, and you go into operations, the dispatch, the loading, the planning, the the rates, the contracts. It's it's amazing. You get in their assurance and excuse me. Insurance, accounting, the whole kit and kaboodle.

01:51 - 01:56
Luke Wimberly: It's just so many aspects of it, and it's I just find it fun.

01:57 - 01:59
Aaron Craddock: Mhmm. So you like the challenge of it?

02:00 - 02:15
Luke Wimberly: Love the challenge of it, from anything. And I've worked in a lot of departments throughout the years, but anything that I can get my hands on is a challenge that I consider to be a challenge. That's what I like about it, and it's always it's pretty much never the same challenge.

02:16 - 02:27
Aaron Craddock: Mhmm. Yeah. That that's why I've enjoyed it as well. I have an industry, not not quite as long. I've been in it 14 years, and it's always, yeah, just always a unique challenge.

02:27 - 03:03
Aaron Craddock: And I'm not even dealing with that many different departments. Like, I'm just on, like, the marketing and advertising side primarily. And, yeah, just the cycles, just even the complexity of the cycles, that we've been through and the the cycle we're going through right now and then how it's different by freight type type. So I say cycle, like flatbeds is gonna feel it differently. So the next question I wanted to dive into is can you, like, working in operations, multiple different groups and departments that you're involved with, like, can you control turnover, or is that kinda out of your control?

03:04 - 03:43
Luke Wimberly: No. It's very much so in my control. It's very much an operational control. You know, I will I will tell you and and share with you the turnover to control turnover or to control retention, either way, whichever way you choose to look at it, whether you wanna retain over, whether you wanna turn them over, all that starts in the beginning in the recruiting process. So you so you need a good recruiting process, I will tell you that, but I will also share with you operations is a huge part of turnover.

03:44 - 04:17
Luke Wimberly: Let me explain why. If retention or turnover starts in your recruiting department, then you have to look at it that everybody in your organization, whether it's a recruiter, so when safety, maintenance, dispatch, load planners, whatever the case may be, payroll, benefits, doesn't matter. Everybody that picks up the phone for your organization is a recruiter at the end of the day. Doesn't matter. When you pick that phone up and you say, hey, Aaron.

04:17 - 04:42
Luke Wimberly: How may I help you? I'm in such and such department with x y z company. You're recruiting that person every time. And I say that because we're in the people business before we're in the freight business, And that's the way I view the whole organization. Before we can haul any freight, before we can do anything, my job is dependent on what on how I treat you as a person.

04:42 - 05:18
Luke Wimberly: I don't care if you're in recruiting and you're talking to advertisers, if you're in maintenance and you're talking to mechanics or you're talking to vendors, if you're in dispatch and you're talking to drivers, wherever you are, your job is dependent upon someone else and how you treat that person and the relationship you build with that person. So having said that, dealing with a driver is no different. And at the end of the day, it's kinda like this. An industry pays when an industry pays. And let me explain that a little bit.

05:18 - 05:29
Luke Wimberly: So that matter what you go into. My wife has been a nurse. My wife is now a teacher. She's a 1st grade teacher. And I just look at at her jobs that I have I know nothing about those jobs.

05:29 - 05:57
Luke Wimberly: I'm not good at either one of them. But if she wants to do just regular general nursing, then she's gonna make so much money. If she wants to make more money in that field, then she has to do something special. So if she wants to make more money in the medical field, then she has to do something. She has to go into a nurse and at this, or she has to go into, you know, a specialized nurse, a pediatric nurse, or whatever the case may be.

05:57 - 06:08
Luke Wimberly: But if she doesn't, if she just stays in general nursing, it doesn't matter where she goes. It's only gonna pay so much. Truck driving is no different. Drivers are no different. We're a flatbed company.

06:09 - 06:21
Luke Wimberly: Flatbed is gonna pay what flatbed pays. Same for van, reefer, tanker. If you wanna do something different, you gotta go somewhere and do something different. You got a whole OD. You got a whole, you know, permitted loads.

06:21 - 06:40
Luke Wimberly: You gotta just whatever the case may be. So at the end of the day, a flatbed driver is gonna make what a flatbed driver makes. Right? If McElroy is paying less or paying more than the industry standard, then why do we have turnover to begin with? Right?

06:41 - 06:54
Luke Wimberly: If if a driver moves from us to a company that's lateral to us, there's a reason behind that. It's not pay. The driver may ultimately believe it's pay. People believe it's pay. People chalk it up to pay.

06:55 - 07:09
Luke Wimberly: But people need people. They only jobs. Right? So if I'm gonna be I'm gonna be a flatbed driver, I'm gonna drive for McElroy or PNS or TMC or Montgomery or whoever, doesn't matter. All gonna pay about the same.

07:09 - 07:27
Luke Wimberly: It may be a few pennies, couple bucks more, but they offer different things. One company may offer to stay out more. One company may offer to be home more. Right? But at the end of the day, what can you truly offer a driver that nobody else offers you?

07:31 - 08:03
Luke Wimberly: And to offer them a personal relationship is hard to find. And if you can offer a driver a personal relationship with the dispatcher, personal relationship with operations manager, personal relationship with load planner, with the safety guy, everywhere he goes or she goes, they have a personal relationship that is gold. Because how many of us wake up every day, doesn't matter what industry you're in, they don't like their job. Why don't you like your job? You don't like the people you work with.

08:03 - 08:31
Luke Wimberly: You don't like just one person in the office. You don't like just one person on the field. Right? So operationally, when I speak operationally, the whole operation, recruiting safety, everything. If I can get people to believe to build relationships, if I build relationships with my people, with the people that are that report to me, the dispatchers, the recruiters, everybody.

08:32 - 08:50
Luke Wimberly: If they realize they have a relationship to me and I make it enjoyable place to work, that goes out into the fleet. They then treat their drivers better. You treat your drivers better. It's like, you know what? My buddy over there at x y z trucking company, man, he's making a little bit more than me.

08:51 - 09:05
Luke Wimberly: But, you know, I'm kinda loyal to Luke there. You know? So when we go to build loyalty, people don't wanna leave. I don't wanna leave I don't wanna leave someone I have a personal relationship with. It'd be like me saying I wanna leave my marriage.

09:05 - 09:16
Luke Wimberly: You know, I have a perfectly happy marriage, 14 years. No issues. We have 2 beautiful kids. I'm just gonna leave my marriage for what? I gotta have a reason to leave.

09:16 - 09:30
Luke Wimberly: I wanna leave. I have a personal relationship with my wife. Same thing here. If I can get you to believe that you have a personal relationship with me and truly mean it because it can't be fake, you're not gonna wanna leave. Therefore, your turnover stays lower.

09:31 - 09:36
Aaron Craddock: Mhmm. Have you been able to lower turnover, like, over the course of being at McElroy?

09:37 - 09:45
Luke Wimberly: I've been in director of operations role. April was a year, so what? Year and a half? We've lowered turnover 5%.

09:46 - 09:46
Aaron Craddock: Awesome.

09:46 - 09:59
Luke Wimberly: Now I would like to choke that up. So, well, freight's been different. I hear a lot of things. You know, freight's slower, drivers don't move, whatever caption you wanna put on this. Right?

10:00 - 10:14
Luke Wimberly: But at the end of the day, we've been fighting the same freight market for the last 2 years. Rate decreases, volume decreases. Not a lot's changed. Right? We're when we freight some market, so it's gonna have its peaks and valleys just like any market.

10:15 - 10:24
Luke Wimberly: We're not at a peak. We're far from a peak. Right? Interest rates are sky high. The whole kit and caboodle, so things continue to be on a decline.

10:25 - 10:43
Luke Wimberly: But for the most part, over the last year, year and a half, things have kinda remained stagnant. I tell everybody it's like 2 years ago, we went into a slow time of the year. We're going to the New Year, Christmas, New Year's, all that. It's like we'd never ever come out of it. It's been we've been fighting it for 2 years.

10:44 - 11:02
Luke Wimberly: So we've been doing a lot of changing of culture at McElroy. We're just kinda getting rid of the the old mentality of hearing this is trucking, man. If you don't like it, hit the open road. We'll find another one. Drivers are the most important asset your company has.

11:03 - 11:25
Luke Wimberly: Hands down. The most important comp most most important asset. And if you don't take care of that asset, at the end of the day, nobody I mean, nobody gets a paycheck. Book all the freight you want, fix all the trucks, train all the people, recruit all the people, spend all the advertising money, doesn't matter. At the end of the day, if that freight doesn't get delivered, there's only one person that can deliver it.

11:25 - 11:47
Luke Wimberly: It's the person that holds the license, the federal license to deliver the freight. They don't deliver that freight. Nobody draws a paycheck. That includes your owners, include your operations managers, everybody else is nothing more than a cost to the company. And until you get that mindset, till you get that right, you're gonna have high turnover.

11:47 - 12:02
Luke Wimberly: If you look at as a driver, a driver as an expendable asset, you're done. Turnover is gonna be high. But when you get what you realize, you truly realize that's the person that makes the money. Hey. And I've heard that look.

12:02 - 12:12
Luke Wimberly: I've heard that argued for many different views. Right? So for many different points, many different people have argued that. Well, you know, the most important thing is when the customer pays you. Okay?

12:12 - 12:28
Luke Wimberly: Well, I agree with that. But you gotta get the freight there first before they pay you. Well, most important person is the mechanic because he fixes the truck. Well, I agree with that. But we can't give any money to the mechanic, and he's not gonna work for free till we deliver the freight.

12:28 - 12:42
Luke Wimberly: So however you wanna look at it. When the person with the license delivers the freight, then everybody gets paid. So you operate on whatever it or what other means you need to, but that that's how it works. And you gotta realize that.

12:43 - 12:52
Aaron Craddock: So how do you incorporate that driver first just mentality with everybody having a conversation with a driver on the phone across all these departments?

12:54 - 13:16
Luke Wimberly: You have to have conversations with people, and it all starts internally. It all starts it all starts with leadership. Right? I mean, the first thing we have to do is we have to get everybody to buy in that everybody here is a leader. You can put whatever title you want on me, on a McElroy, on the owner of the company, it doesn't matter.

13:16 - 13:30
Luke Wimberly: Dispatcher, the the maintenance person. What are we doing at the end of the day? What is our number one job? At the end of the day, let's let's take away all the fluff. It's your number one job.

13:30 - 13:46
Luke Wimberly: What are you here to do? When you walk in these doors every morning, you park your car, walk in the doors, you sit down, you boot your computer up, put your headset on, whatever the case may be. What's your ultimate goal? What's your job? To find your job in just a few words.

13:46 - 13:55
Luke Wimberly: Take care of the driver. Driver support. Driver support. We're here to support a driver at the end of the day. That's what we're doing.

13:55 - 14:08
Luke Wimberly: Because let's be honest. If I booked this freight, I'm not gonna do anything with the freight. I mean, I can't take my Toyota and do something with it. Right? If you're safe to you, who who are you keeping safe?

14:08 - 14:25
Luke Wimberly: Yourself? You scared you're gonna fall out of your chair? What what's our job? It's your driver support. And you have to have conversations with people and and, you know, would would would you run across someone and they say, well, you know, I told that driver off.

14:25 - 14:37
Luke Wimberly: I told him how it was gonna be. He told me he wasn't gonna go with that load. You know? I love running across situations like that because I like to ask a person, well, tell me more about that. Why why is that?

14:38 - 14:45
Luke Wimberly: You know? And then we keep talking and we have those kinds of conversations. Well, tell me more about that. Okay. Now we got that driver.

14:45 - 14:53
Luke Wimberly: You got him to go deliver that load. Now how do you feel? Oh, man. It made me feel great. You know?

14:53 - 15:07
Luke Wimberly: And you you really dive into it. You just you question me. Ultimately, you turn around, you say, now the driver quit a week later. Did you really accomplish your goal? Did you really support the driver?

15:08 - 15:22
Luke Wimberly: Or did you just make the driver do what you wanted to? Now you gotta replace that driver. And we can get into those conversations in a minute or however you wanna do it. But, you know, now we have to replace that driver. What did you just cost the company?

15:22 - 15:38
Luke Wimberly: And, you know, you share information. And that's one of the things that I like to do is I like to have meetings every week. I try to do it without fail. I don't always get through, but I like to host meetings every week and include all team members. And we talk about these things and we share.

15:38 - 15:56
Luke Wimberly: We've been we're open. We're open with the information, and I think that's the number one key is being open and honest with the people. I'm saying, hey. This is how much money we spent. This is where our missed opportunities were, and we're not putting this out there to bash anyone.

15:56 - 16:11
Luke Wimberly: We're not putting this we're not dropping names and saying Aaron did this, Luke did that. Whatever. We're just sharing information. Hey. There's so much revenue we made this month, so much money we spent this month, that was Deadhead was this month.

16:11 - 16:40
Luke Wimberly: When I started bringing metrics to the table at McElroy, the mouse that dropped open and the eyes that opened up, like, people really started caring about how they treat their job because they realized, okay. What I'm doing, it's really affected the bottom line here. Ultimately, what I'm doing is really affecting what I get paid at the end of the day. Because if the company doesn't make money, then I can't get paid. But in order for everybody to get paid, what do we have to do?

16:40 - 16:42
Luke Wimberly: We have to take care of the driver.

16:43 - 16:43
Aaron Craddock: Mhmm.

16:43 - 16:45
Luke Wimberly: So it's that simple.

16:45 - 16:58
Aaron Craddock: Yeah. You started getting into it, but what what's the cost of, like, losing a driver? Let's say you do, you know, dispatch just says, hey. You have to do that no matter what. I don't care about your family, that problem you're having.

16:58 - 17:05
Aaron Craddock: Get the load done, and then you lose that driver. Like, what like, does that impact other drivers? Like, what's the cost of that?

17:06 - 17:30
Luke Wimberly: You know, I I had someone with a light bulb moment several months ago. She said, well, the the story goes like this. Like, the driver was gonna quit, and the person called me and they said, I got that driver to bring that truck over here. And I said, that's about 500 miles. She's, yeah.

17:30 - 17:39
Luke Wimberly: That's right. Can't bring it over here. And, I said, okay. And, you know, they they won the victory. This person won the victory.

17:40 - 18:06
Luke Wimberly: At the end of the day, the driver abandoned the truck because there was a place he could've took the truck about a 100 miles from their home. And, you know, I let I let the the situation kinda play out. I said, so tell me more about this driver that you got them to bring the truck over here. How did that work for you? Well, we had to go get the truck because the driver abandoned the truck.

18:07 - 18:14
Luke Wimberly: K? What what did what did it take to do that? Well, we had to get 2 people in the car. They had to go down there. That's okay.

18:14 - 18:30
Luke Wimberly: So we had to pay 2 people to go on a company car down there. We lost 2 days of driver revenue. So we lost a $1,000 per driver for 2 drivers. So that's $2,000. We lost a tank of gas in the car.

18:31 - 18:41
Luke Wimberly: Now where did the truck wind up? Was did it come back over here 500 miles? Well, no. We took it to our other terminal a 100 miles from there. So wind up going a 100 miles back.

18:41 - 19:01
Luke Wimberly: So we'll just put the cost of the truck at $2 a mile just for easy math. So now we spent $200. So we're now up to about $25100 to recover this truck. What if we gotten the driver to take the truck up there? What would that have cost us?

19:02 - 19:18
Luke Wimberly: Oh, about about $200. Okay. Wouldn't we have saved the drivers having to we would've we would've lost revenue on 2 more trucks. We would've lost revenue on having to pay the drivers to go get the truck. And that the driver that quit coulda helped us out.

19:19 - 19:27
Luke Wimberly: So that's money lost. Do you see where I'm going with this? They were like, yeah. I do. I said, so wouldn't it behoove us to say, hey, driver.

19:27 - 19:40
Luke Wimberly: If you're quitting, why don't you just take it right up here, You know? Instead of trying to win the situation. Alright. You if you wanna win, then try to keep the driver on board. Don't try to force the driver to take the truck where you want it.

19:41 - 20:05
Luke Wimberly: You know? Let's get the truck as close as we can. Let the driver help us if they're gonna quit anyway. But to answer your question about hiring a driver, for easy math, let's do it like this. If your truck's making a $1,000 a day, that's $5,000 a week on one truck.

20:06 - 20:27
Luke Wimberly: Now keep in mind, I know trucks are not making that right now. I get it, but we're just doing easy math so we can understand how it works. Whether a truck makes $600 a day or $800 a day, that's neither here nor there. $1,000 a day, $5,000 a week. If I lose a driver and I sit a truck for 1 week, that's $5,000.

20:28 - 20:46
Luke Wimberly: So let's do the math real quick. $5,000 for 1 week. If I lose a 100 drivers in a year and every one of those trucks sits for 1 week. This is all hypothetical. I get it.

20:47 - 21:19
Luke Wimberly: That's $500,000 in lost revenue for that truck to sit 1 week. Now if I have to replace that driver depending on your structure and whatever, if I have to replace that driver, If I get an experienced driver, I'm gonna probably get 1 cost per hire, let's just put $1,000 on it. Right? I think cost per hire right now is pretty low, due to the market. Let's just put $1,000 on it.

21:19 - 21:36
Luke Wimberly: Or during COVID, we're just paying $23,000 per hire. But so we already have $500,000 for a 100 drivers. If I'm hiring experienced drivers, I'm getting a $1,000 calls per hire. We got orientation in this. We have hotels.

21:36 - 21:51
Luke Wimberly: We have travel expenses. All these different things sort of really get this driver back on the road. To get a driver back on the road, probably gonna be around $2,000. Right? If you're training students, it could get more than that.

21:51 - 22:12
Luke Wimberly: Likes to train, but if you're training students, it could be more than that. It could be $10,000 by the time you put someone through training. You pay a mentor, you do all these different things. But just for ease, let's go $2,000 per hire. $2,000 $2,000 per hire, we had to get a 100 of them.

22:12 - 22:38
Luke Wimberly: That's $200,000 just right there. That's $700,000. I mean, in no time. In 1 year, assuming you only lose a 100 drivers, assuming they only sit for 1 week, and assuming your cost per hire is only $2,000 That's assuming you get a driver to get in the truck and be within the in the truck within a week. That's best case scenario, in my opinion.

22:39 - 22:39
Aaron Craddock: Mhmm.

22:40 - 23:04
Luke Wimberly: So what about now let me ask you this. And when we have your when we have these meetings once a week, these are the kinds of things we I like to talk about. I like to discuss because now you say, well, I told that driver and I made him go get that load because we're a force dispatch company. Okay. Great.

23:04 - 23:41
Luke Wimberly: But if that load only paid $1,000 and you would have made $1,000 total revenue, and I'll I allow a driver to sit or miss a load, I lost $1,000. If I lose a driver and the old truck sits for a week and I replace him because I forced him to go get a load instead of losing it Instead of only losing $1,000, now I'm losing $7,000. Now I'm not saying let the understand me. There's a difference. I'm not saying let the tail wag the dog.

23:42 - 23:50
Luke Wimberly: Right? We're gonna we're gonna run into the problem children. That's what I I I share with everyone. Look. We're gonna have problem children, and we're gonna deal with those.

23:50 - 24:08
Luke Wimberly: That's why we're here. But if the if a driver's legitimately got a concern or has a legitimately has an issue, help the driver with the issue. That's what I'm saying. Not force everybody's hand just because you wanna be right. You have to let your pride down.

24:08 - 24:16
Luke Wimberly: You have to let the need to be right down. Let it go. It's okay. You know? Well, that driver wasn't there at 7 o'clock.

24:16 - 24:26
Luke Wimberly: He was there at 8 o'clock. Does it matter? If you didn't have a hard appointment, does it matter at the end of the day? Could you say, man, look, Aaron, I understand you had some some hard times. Hey.

24:26 - 24:37
Luke Wimberly: Tell me what's going on. Why why why don't you show up at 8 this morning instead of 7? Well, Luke, you know, me and wife had some trouble last night. I didn't get no sleep. I woke up a little late this morning.

24:38 - 24:43
Luke Wimberly: Okay. Well, hey, Aaron. Look, man. If I can help you with anything, let me know. I hate to hear that about you and your wife.

24:44 - 24:52
Luke Wimberly: You know? Look. While we're talking, I need you to understand delivery times are are important. I need you to be there at 7 o'clock on Monday morning. You think you could help me out with?

24:52 - 24:55
Luke Wimberly: Absolutely, Luke. Okay. Appreciate it, Aaron.

24:55 - 24:55
Aaron Craddock: You

24:55 - 25:21
Luke Wimberly: know, instead of having to be right and bull you know, bulldog these guys into into doing what you want them to do, taking care of the driver, building relationships, having someone that thinks and believes they can depend on you as a person. And, man, I really have that relationship with Aaron, and he doesn't force me to do anything, and he helps me whenever I have a problem. That retains drivers.

25:22 - 25:30
Aaron Craddock: Mhmm. Yeah. Something as simple as, like, you're getting to the same thing. Like, you're still you're still able in that scenario to ask for what you need. Like, hey.

25:30 - 25:36
Aaron Craddock: Next time, can you make sure you get here at 7? But you're assuming positive intent. That's the phrase I like there.

25:36 - 25:37
Luke Wimberly: Very good.

25:37 - 26:03
Aaron Craddock: Like, assuming that they had something come up that something's going on. Like, I had a, like, a couple things come up in the last couple days with different, people on our team that, like, may not have, like, assumed positive intent. And and so I am constantly, like, coaching on that of, like, hey. If somebody, you know, doesn't show up on time or doesn't get you a deliverable on time or anything like that, it's just, like like, hey. What did you have going on?

26:03 - 26:25
Aaron Craddock: Like, I know you said you were gonna get to me at this time, but just assuming because I find that almost anytime somebody has, like, a work performance issue, there's, like, 10 things going on. It's not just the factors you see. Like, there's a lot of times personal stuff going on, challenges. Like, there's other work challenges. They may have just gotten in an argument, and and you never know what people have going on.

26:25 - 26:33
Aaron Craddock: So so I love that. That's what I hear in that is, like, assuming positive intent, like, framing that conversation with that person that showed up late.

26:34 - 26:51
Luke Wimberly: You know, it's kinda like this to me. I think about it like this. It's easy to tell a driver you've gotta do this or you you need to do that. You use the harsh language on that's easy to do because you don't have a personal touch. So I'm sitting here looking at you right now.

26:52 - 27:24
Luke Wimberly: Looking at you in the eye and I'm saying, you know, if I had to tell you and be something and be mean to you, right now it's really hard to do. But if we if we put a divider between us, be it a computer screen, a phone, or whatever the case may be, you know, it's a whole lot easier for me to say, look, man. You need to go do this right now, you know, versus looking at you in the eye. I tend to not be that aggressive. If you don't believe it, just, you know, look at all your socials on your social media.

27:24 - 27:36
Luke Wimberly: Right? All these keyboard warriors. Right? I mean, I've never I mean, there's so many people. They wouldn't say half of what they say on the Internet if they had to look that person face to face.

27:37 - 27:56
Luke Wimberly: Mhmm. And stand there right there in front of them. They would not say it. And I think a lot of times in trucking, we get that way because the people we manage, the people we lead are masked by a phone and a computer screen. And if that driver was standing there in front of us, we wouldn't say half of what we say.

27:56 - 28:19
Luke Wimberly: So we have to try to add a personal touch that's very hard to add. And people need to be coached on that. People need to understand that. If we can do that, if you can add that in there, like, I'm gonna treat this person like they're standing here with me and, like, I have to face them face to face. How would I get this person to do what I need them to do and not be harsh?

28:20 - 28:33
Luke Wimberly: Because I know if I'm harsh, it could create some bad reactions for me. Right? Like I'm not a tough guy. I'm not a fighter. So if this guy wants to punch me in the face, I'm not gonna let that happen and be nice to me.

28:34 - 28:38
Luke Wimberly: So that's kind of the way I think about it, and it's easy to do. It's easy for people to do.

28:39 - 28:51
Aaron Craddock: Mhmm. Yeah. I find it's most often in, like, my written communication or a quick call, like, when I'm impatient that I don't do that framing of even like, hey. I hope your week's going well. And then, like, here's the update.

28:52 - 29:11
Aaron Craddock: That just goes straight for the kill of, like, here's my issue. You should do this differently or yeah. Just it's so funny. Like, even when I type an email, like, like, internal to our team, just like I always have to go back and add at the beginning, like, like, I hope your week's going well. Like, just some positive, like, soften it like we're having a conversation.

29:12 - 29:31
Aaron Craddock: And and just that that written. And so, like, if your dispatchers are texting the drivers or, I mean, the different, like, when they're stopped and yeah. It's just always you have to be cognizant of that. Today's sponsor. Do you hire truck drivers in hard to fill areas, or do you need help creating efficiency in your recruiting department?

29:32 - 29:56
Aaron Craddock: You're not alone. With 50 plus years experience, Trucking Clix specializes in data driven strategies, industry leading customer experience, and custom solutions that'll get you to your goal. Trucking Clix is your go to place for high quality direct leads at scale. Visit trucking clicks.com or call 512-982-0816 today. What drives you to improve things?

29:56 - 30:04
Aaron Craddock: Because I hear a lot of things about, like, improvement and and culture. Like, what what drives you to improve things at Michael Roy?

30:05 - 30:19
Luke Wimberly: You know, I'm a result driven person. I don't know. Maybe it was the right way I was raised. You know, you don't halfway do anything. If you're gonna sweep, then you sweep with all your might, and you get every little piece of dirt that you can.

30:19 - 30:30
Luke Wimberly: If you're gonna sweep, then, you know, move things out of the way and sweep under and around. Don't sweep around things. You sweep under things and you move things. Right? And I I was raised that way.

30:30 - 30:40
Luke Wimberly: So result driven is what drives me. It's not money. It's not tangible things. It's really not. It is strictly results.

30:41 - 31:10
Luke Wimberly: When I do something, I wanna be the best at it. I wanna do the best job that I can do. And for me to have to go in somewhere and make a change really drives me. And just to see the results, you know, so how do I go into a situation and change it altogether? You know, what's the ultimate goal?

31:10 - 31:15
Luke Wimberly: Okay. How do I achieve that ultimate goal? Well, let's set a lot of little goals. Okay? And then we start seeing results.

31:15 - 31:46
Luke Wimberly: So I get a little a little result, I get a little result, I get a little result. And before you know it, you you look back 3, 5 years, and you have a huge change all because of little results. So that that's that's what drives me is all the small little bitty results along the way. You know? If I can get someone to answer the phone different, if I can get someone to smile when they're talking on the phone.

31:46 - 32:01
Luke Wimberly: Right? So if I sit here and and I really sound like this and, you know, you're looking at me. Right? I'm I'm not smiling, you know, but when I smile, my voice picks up. You can really hear a smile.

32:01 - 32:29
Luke Wimberly: So if I can get someone and coach them along and say, hey. Smile when you're on the phone because you can hear that. And I prove it to them and I show them and I share with them All these different things, then it makes a difference, and that one person's turnover goes down over time, because they're smiling on the phone, they're building relationships. Let's get another one, you know. So it's all the little results for me because I'm a result driven person.

32:30 - 32:40
Luke Wimberly: I don't have to have the major change overnight. I want small changes along the way because eventually you're gonna have a big change.

32:42 - 32:48
Aaron Craddock: Mhmm. I love that. You can hear a smile. But you a 100% can. And it's just crazy.

32:48 - 33:05
Aaron Craddock: Like, it also just smiling changes the way you feel. Like, if you even, like, force a smile when you don't feel good, and you're having a hard day or a hard moment, like, it just yeah. But I don't think I've ever heard it phrased exactly like that. Like, I really like that. Like, you can you can hear a person smile.

33:05 - 33:09
Luke Wimberly: That's right. You can hear them frown just as much as you can hear them smile.

33:10 - 33:10
Aaron Craddock: Mhmm.

33:10 - 33:17
Luke Wimberly: Yeah. If you don't believe it, talk to you talk to your loved ones on the phone. Right? You can call my wife. Hey.

33:17 - 33:25
Luke Wimberly: How are you doing, baby? I'm fine. What's wrong with you? I mean, you can hear it. You know when that person's down and out.

33:26 - 33:34
Luke Wimberly: Mhmm. Or they call you and they, hey, let me tell you something. Oh, I get the greatest news today. Oh, really? What well, share that with me.

33:34 - 33:40
Luke Wimberly: Tell me about that because sounds like your day went really well. Because you can hear it.

33:42 - 33:51
Aaron Craddock: Mhmm. I love it. Is there as we kinda wrap up, is there anything else, Luke, that I should have asked or we should have dove into a little bit deeper?

33:51 - 34:11
Luke Wimberly: I don't think so. You know, turnover, culture change, I will say is big in the industry. I've heard a lot of things being in the industry. I started out working shipping docks and loading trucks and whatever the case may be there. So I started out physically touching a truck, you know.

34:11 - 34:36
Luke Wimberly: Now here I am in the office behind a computer and a phone every day, you know, leading people to ultimately achieve whatever goal you wanna set for a company. But, you know, over the years, I've noticed a lot of things, you know, I I hear a lot of excuses. And, you know, well, we have a driver shortage. Well, we have, you know, it's the quality of the driver. Right?

34:37 - 35:01
Luke Wimberly: It's, just whatever the reason, whatever the case may be, why turnover's up, why turnover's down, you know, why drivers are quitting or why drivers are saying things about companies. And at the end of the day, I think it's all hogwash. I really do, and I'm gonna tell you why. Because when I was coming up, go ask my dad. My generation was the worst generation to walk the face of there.

35:02 - 35:20
Luke Wimberly: And I bet his generation was to his dad, and his generation was to his dad. People don't change. You have to adapt with times. You have to change with times. If your organization is not constantly striving to get better, to make those changes.

35:20 - 35:40
Luke Wimberly: Remember, it's done differently. It's not the end of the world. It's just done differently. So how we do something today is different from what we used to do way back when. Prime example, I'm just I'm just thinking, you know, today we use phones without cords.

35:41 - 35:52
Luke Wimberly: Right? Because it's better. It's more efficient. It's easier. You You know, when I was a kid, man, you walk from the from the kitchen to the living room and in the hallway, you try not to get wrapped up in the cord.

35:53 - 35:59
Luke Wimberly: Same thing's happening. We're still communicating. We're just doing it better. We're doing it more efficiently. Right?

35:59 - 36:13
Luke Wimberly: So if someone comes in and pitches an idea, you have to be open to ideas because it may be something a little better and a little more efficient. We've got it. We can't get stuck in those ways. If you do, then you will surely fall. Your company will surely fail.

36:14 - 36:33
Luke Wimberly: The companies that stood the test of time, any product in America, it doesn't matter, any product in the world, has evolved over time. They've taken new ideas, innovative ideas, they stayed with the ways, and they grew through time. Trucking is no different. Trucking is no different. You have to evolve with time.

36:33 - 36:49
Luke Wimberly: Just because someone didn't walk uphill to school both ways in the snow like you did, doesn't mean they're any less of a person than you are. It just means they do things a little different. They found out how to use a snowmobile instead. Right? So Mhmm.

36:49 - 37:05
Luke Wimberly: Don't don't bash them for it. That's just the way it is. But, you know, companies need to be, they need they need to be constantly evolving, constantly changing, constantly seeking out new ways. You do that, you'll be in business a long time. You know?

37:05 - 37:08
Luke Wimberly: You ever get stagnant, it's a kiss of death, man.

37:09 - 37:37
Aaron Craddock: Mhmm. I love that. We have we have as one of our core values, like a growth mindset and incorporate that in everything we do. One of the things I was thinking about as you're talking about that, the no excuses part is, I I had the opportunity to hear Craig Groeschel, speak to a small group of us out in Colorado a couple weeks ago, and and he runs that leadership podcast. And I wish I I can't remember the exact quote now, but it was like like, suck it up, fix it.

37:37 - 38:08
Aaron Craddock: Like, we expected, like, this encouraging, like, message, like, rah rah. There's, like, no. Like, if things are hard, like, you are equipped, like, go fix it. Like, if the industry's hard, you can still grow, like, fix it, own it. Like, don't and and that's, you know, even even in the marketing industry with budgets being down across the board, and and I'm on the marketing side, like, we've we've still grown the past couple of years, not as fast as I would like, based on our goals and and however we've grown.

38:08 - 38:28
Aaron Craddock: And and even when we don't, like, grow relative to our goals. And, I I still think, like, when I'm talking with the team, I'm like, look. Somebody's gonna figure it out. Somebody's gonna innovate and grow and gain market share. Like like, we just if we haven't done it yet and grown as fast as we would like, we, like, we just gotta continue to do things differently.

38:28 - 38:46
Aaron Craddock: Like, there is a way. And so just having that there always is a way mentality. Now that doesn't, you know, that doesn't negate that market conditions like we've been in a down market for 2 years. Like, I'm not not negating that. I'm not saying we're falsely positive, but I'm just saying, like, sure.

38:46 - 39:05
Aaron Craddock: The conditions are that, but what are we gonna do about it? How do we innovate? And but I agree. I think in any industry and I think even more so with the, you know, AI and all the different technological advancements. Like, if you don't implement things and adapt, like, your company is gonna be obsolete, your services.

39:05 - 39:22
Aaron Craddock: And and that's gonna continue to happen faster and faster. And so it's picking the right things to adapt and and tracking and but, yeah. Anyway, I love it. Like, no excuses fix it. That's kind of been the message I've had, like, for the last 2 or 3 weeks is, like, let's let's just let's go.

39:22 - 39:27
Aaron Craddock: Like, it's okay. Like, the market market's tight. Market's hard. But let's just go. Let's serve.

39:27 - 39:31
Aaron Craddock: Let's make our culture better like you were saying. Think about all the improvements y'all have made in the last 2 years.

39:31 - 39:53
Luke Wimberly: That's right. If I can get it right, let me think about this. How did I say this or who someone said this to me the other day that was so true. You know, it's all my AI, you know, and I was talking about you gotta continuously look at different ways and try to get better. You know, I hear a lot of people say, I'm in my mid forties, and I hear a lot of people say my age and older than me.

39:53 - 39:59
Luke Wimberly: Man, AI is such a scary thing. Oh my gosh. You can do so much. Like, I'm not touching that. Okay.

39:59 - 40:30
Luke Wimberly: Well, look, you've got one of 2 choices right now. You can either choose to get on board and learn how to use it, or you can choose to not use it. If you choose to not use it, you can't get mad when someone does things more efficiently and better than you because they chose to use it. So the person that chooses to use AI and innovate their business and innovate their ways, you can't get mad at them. You know, those that choose not to use it, AI is gonna overtake you.

40:30 - 40:38
Luke Wimberly: Sorry. You may not agree with it. You may not like it, but you're you're at a crossword in your life. You're gonna have to learn to either use it or not. You know?

40:38 - 40:43
Luke Wimberly: It's those that use it that are gonna succeed. It's just the way it is.

40:44 - 40:49
Aaron Craddock: Yep. Keeps the field keeps changing and we have to adapt with it.

40:49 - 40:50
Luke Wimberly: Yes. It is.

40:50 - 41:01
Aaron Craddock: Well, thank you so much, Luke, for your time today. Really appreciate you jumping on. And then when I chat with my wife later on the phone, I'm gonna, like, have a smile. Just think about, like, smiling through the phone. I love it.

41:01 - 41:13
Luke Wimberly: You can hear a smile, man. You can hear a smile. If you don't believe it, talk to yourself, frown, and say something and say, now how did that sound? Did that sound happy? It won't.

41:14 - 41:15
Luke Wimberly: Mhmm.

41:15 - 41:21
Aaron Craddock: I haven't heard the light. You can hear a frown too. I'm gonna have to try that. I've already done frowning, but I'll try it.

41:21 - 41:26
Luke Wimberly: I challenge you. I challenge you. You can try it. It's pretty interesting. Alright.

41:26 - 41:40
Aaron Craddock: Well, Luke, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for joining us today. Our goal with the Hire Truckers podcast is to provide industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to level up your recruiting game. If we added value, take a few seconds to share this with your network. Have a great week.