Hire Truckers Podcast

00:00 - 00:09
Ginger Craddock: Welcome to the Hire Truckers Podcast, the show for fleet executives, HR leaders, and recruiting professionals. I'm your host, Ginger Craddock.

00:09 - 00:33
Aaron Craddock: And I'm your host, Aaron Craddock. Each week we share actionable insights, market trends, and proven strategies to help you grow and thrive. Welcome to the Hire Truckers Podcast. I'm your host, Aaron Craddock, and super excited to have Kameel E Gaines on the podcast today. She's the CEO of Rig on Wheels, kind of a well known voice in the industry on LinkedIn and across other channels.

00:34 - 01:04
Aaron Craddock: She's been in the industry since 2010 and yeah, was just super excited to chat. Honestly, from Camille on the show today and and share like a little learn a little bit about her story and then also share just with the audience, just her wisdom, like in terms of what's working and recruiting, storytelling, personal development and growth like her journey. Excited to dive in. Thank you for coming on the show today, Camille.

01:04 - 01:11
Kameel E. Gaines: Thank you for having me. This is quite an honor to be honest with you. It's quite honest. So thanks for having me, Aaron.

01:11 - 01:27
Aaron Craddock: Yeah, excited. I wanted to make this happen for a while. I'm finally glad we could finally get calendars synced up. Yes. So how did you get into just, like driver recruiting and the trucking industry?

01:27 - 01:29
Aaron Craddock: I want to hear a little bit more about your story.

01:29 - 01:56
Kameel E. Gaines: Well, do come from a trucking family. My mother years ago, before I was born was in, worked for a shipper is what we call it. And I got uncles and brothers that are truckers, but in Chicago where I'm born and raised, you don't really talk about trucking like that to be honest with you. I live in Houston, Texas now. So if I was born and raised here, that would have been talk around the kitchen table, to be honest.

01:57 - 02:21
Kameel E. Gaines: But I was laid off. I've always been in sales and marketing my entire adult life, but I was laid off the job. I actually relocated, closed that campus, relocated to Arizona, to main headquarters. So I knew I still wanted to stay in recruiting and answer the ad. And here we are.

02:21 - 02:40
Kameel E. Gaines: I didn't know what the name of the company was gonna be or anything like that. I've heard that I'm creative but I don't look at myself as a creative. That doesn't make sense. I don't look at that. So my mom is the one that named the rig on wheels.

02:40 - 02:49
Kameel E. Gaines: I just started working. When I started in 2010 in January, I didn't have a name. I was just working.

02:49 - 02:51
Aaron Craddock: So that was when you got laid off 2010?

02:51 - 03:27
Kameel E. Gaines: Yeah, well really I got laid off in November 2009. I got laid off, but January 2010 is when rig on wheels, well, the no name company started, but I don't know when Ma actually named the company. So it may have been February or March when she named it because she was like, you can't go by no name. The mother is the one that's more creative and all of that type of thing. So she's the one that actually named the rig on wheels.

03:28 - 04:06
Aaron Craddock: That's so cool. So I don't know if you knew this, but my, so my start into the, like my own business was actually a layoff as well. And so seven years ago or so, like honestly lose track of time at this point, like it was a layoff. And then it's kind of funny too. So Craddock Holdings, like I had that to do some consulting and other stuff like I'd started a few months earlier just as a holding company kind of with the vision and then it got laid off And to start working in the co working space that I went and applied for to start working the next day after I got laid off.

04:06 - 04:40
Aaron Craddock: They're like, Hey, you need an LLC. And so that's honestly why Craddock Holdings exists was like consulting and coaching. Then the kind of the name we bought Trucking Clicks and built that brand out. But we're actually transitioning away from Trucking Clicks to just 100% Hire Truckers just cause there's a little bit of confusion because we have three brands, but mainly the hiretruckers.com name will be what we operate under, but still under Craddock Holdings, they're just DBAs. So yeah, anyway, it's crazy.

04:40 - 04:58
Aaron Craddock: It's like building a business, like my experiences, you just have to just do, you have to envision and take action. So you more of like a visionary or like, did you see the vision of what this was going to become like back in 02/2010 or you were just taking action?

04:58 - 05:39
Kameel E. Gaines: I was just taking action. Not only did I not see a vision, I didn't see a name or anything. I just saw that I'm a recruiter. This is a job, even though it's entrepreneurship, but it's a job that I do. And I was, I knew I enjoyed it, but I didn't even realize that I had passion for it until I actually moved to Houston Because just to give you a short story, I thought that once I moved to Houston, was going to go full time into selling hair extensions because I used to sell hair extensions part time many years ago.

05:39 - 05:47
Kameel E. Gaines: I thought I was gonna go full time into selling hair extension and maybe do this part time which you can't do truck driver and crew part time but that's a whole another

05:48 - 05:49
Aaron Craddock: It's like three full time jobs.

05:49 - 06:07
Kameel E. Gaines: Right, exactly. But I was gonna do that. And when I thought I was gonna do it, just a thought, not even start trying to do it, just a thought of it. I get sad. That's when I realized Camille, you love this industry.

06:08 - 06:42
Kameel E. Gaines: Because before I just thought I liked it. I liked it a lot, but I didn't realize that I loved it. And so once I realized that I loved it back in, towards the end of twenty twelve or the beginning of twenty thirteen, by so that time I had been in the industry either almost three years or at three years. That's when I started pouring myself all the way into the trucking transportation and logistics industry. Because before then I treated it as employment that I liked.

06:44 - 07:11
Kameel E. Gaines: So that's how bad, you know, that was. But when I get sad that I actually wasn't going to be working this job ten, eleven hours a day, six days a week, was like, okay, that's different. Cause I've always worked a lot in any, every job. I'm a Virgo, that's what we do. We work.

07:11 - 07:31
Kameel E. Gaines: That's what we do for fun. What do you like doing? I like working. But when I actually get sad about it, that's when I said, okay Camille, actually have found what you love to do. That's a difference because I've always been into sales and marketing and I thought that's what I love to do.

07:31 - 07:39
Kameel E. Gaines: No, it's the niche or the niche that I love. And that is the transportation and logistics side of things. So

07:39 - 07:47
Aaron Craddock: yeah, that's cool. The, yeah, love that story. So many similarities. And then my wife we were talking about is a Virgo as well.

07:48 - 07:50
Kameel E. Gaines: Well, good woman. She's a good woman.

07:50 - 08:07
Aaron Craddock: Yeah. And she's awesome. And so she's working, you know, she's launching her book, like coming up in a few days, it'll already be released for this episode. But yeah, I've seen her pour her, while working a teaching job and we have three boys, one, three and about to be six. Wow.

08:08 - 08:39
Aaron Craddock: And she's building this other business like coaching business and speaking business. And so, yeah, it's kind of cool. Like hearing you say that you just enjoy work, it's kind of that pull of, she wants to spend time with the boys and then wants to do this other stuff. And I feel the same way is just a push and a pull towards just because we've always enjoyed like Lauren enjoys what she does, and I enjoy what I do. And we enjoy time with family.

08:39 - 09:17
Aaron Craddock: And so it's just kind of a constant push pull and yeah, so And I get it a little then, my next question. So now we know a little bit about like your story, how you got into it and how you fell in love with trucking like back in 2012. And so like one of the things I hear a lot right now and it started like ACT Research pushed something out last week where we're entering a season of a driver shortage again. Like, is there a truck driver shortage?

09:18 - 10:21
Kameel E. Gaines: I definitely believe in a truck driver shortage. Now, when people say there is no truck driver shortage, I do understand where they're coming from but when they list all of the reasons why there's no shortage, they're not saying there's no shortage. They're listing the reasons why there is a shortage. When you go and look at that list and you go back to your school days, your grandma school days or your grade school days or your elementary school days, depending on where you went to school in The United States, we all were called a different, but anywhere from grade one through eight, when you list all of the things on LinkedIn as to the reason why the pay rate is bad. If carriers did this better, if they did this better, if the industry was like this, if you have this many people that have CDLs, they don't want to drive trucks.

10:21 - 10:41
Kameel E. Gaines: They can't drive trucks. Are the reasons why that's a cause and effect is what that's called. That's grade one through eight is where we learned that at. That's simple grade one through eight. So I'm not emotional about it.

10:42 - 11:05
Kameel E. Gaines: I wish there wasn't a driver shortage because drivers make our world go round. Know there to be a driver shortage because all carriers do not pay well. The number one thing is equipment issues. Then you have home time issues. Then you have benefits.

11:05 - 11:35
Kameel E. Gaines: And now this generation doesn't look at benefits like Blue Cross Blue Shield HMO and all that type of stuff. We're talking about other benefits, field touch type benefits type thing. And that just goes across all of industries is what's happening right then. Then like I said about pay and it's not always the amount of pay is the consistency of pay. So that's something different now than it was, generations before.

11:35 - 11:59
Kameel E. Gaines: Generations before it was, the amount of pay. So that's a generational change right there. So it's a cause and effect type thing. So that's the reason why, and I'm not trying to dumb things down. I'm just literally trying to give a real Buddha metric explanation.

11:59 - 12:31
Kameel E. Gaines: Grade one through eight is when we learned about cause and effects on different levels. And so when on LinkedIn, they list all of these things, they're listing the reason why it is a driver shortage. And now that things are, rates are going up. All of these things are ramping up now, whether we stay consistent with that or not. Now we're having supply and demand.

12:32 - 13:18
Kameel E. Gaines: And the reason why I know that is because carriers are reaching out to us and willing to pay a little bit more for us to find qualified drivers, not drivers that hold a CDL. That time passed before COVID knocked that out the door. Carriers are no longer looking for drivers that hold a CDL. They want quality drivers. So during pandemic time, there a new chief was in town and a lot of our major carriers or mid sized carriers were able to rebrand themselves.

13:19 - 13:58
Kameel E. Gaines: And instead of being your bottom type carrier or your second chance carrier, they were really able to come to the top, whether they're a cream of the top type carrier or they were able to come to the top and they did not have to take an unqualified driver anymore. So it was saying that they were able to get better rates with shippers. They were able to, a lot of things were able to be better. So they need more qualified drivers, which means they don't need someone just with a CDL. So when we say driver shortage, we mean professional driver shortage.

13:59 - 14:24
Kameel E. Gaines: So the reason why people are not saying professional driver shortage is because that is not an SEO key word. If professional driver shortage was an SEO keyword, we would say that, but it's not, it's not a long tail keyword. It's not any of those things. So everybody just says driver shortage, but that's really what it is.

14:25 - 14:45
Aaron Craddock: So right now we have, by having an increasing, it looks like we have an increasing need for these professional drivers. So we have a professional driver shortage, at least it seems to be emerging right now. Or do you think it's, you think it's present all the time or do you think it's just spiking right now?

14:45 - 15:19
Kameel E. Gaines: I don't know. Don't know if Craig Fuller can't say a definite and he is the man of the man, I definitely don't wanna say, but I know for right now and in trucking and logistics, are willing to take the right now because the last four years we have had no now. So, I do think for a while we will be spiking. Is that is?

15:20 - 15:25
Aaron Craddock: That there's just more and more need right now for those professional experienced drivers.

15:25 - 15:51
Kameel E. Gaines: Yes. And when there's less need for a lot of reasons, then you won't have so much of the driver shortage is literally just supply and demand. So now we're going into what our high school years call economics. Know, it's just your regular American studies. That's literally what it is.

15:52 - 16:43
Kameel E. Gaines: If we would just take the emotion out of it, then when you put everything and write it down, old school, write it down, not having it on the computer, but old school, write it down. I might be aging myself, even though I'm really into the whole computer life thing, but old school, it down. Then you'll be able to see that it is a driver shortage because it's a professional driver shortage for whatever reason. They could have had a DUI four years ago when prior to the pandemic that carrier could have taken the driver at three years. Now that carrier has rebranded himself and it's taken the, can't take a DUI for five years or seven years.

16:45 - 17:30
Kameel E. Gaines: So now the driver is out of commission. And now that we have the SAP is in the database a lot more uniformed and we understand the process better and all of that great stuff, those drivers are taken out of commission. And I don't wanna touch the other stuff for the drivers, you know, or anything like that because I don't really believe that that's taken much of anything because they're not supposed to be in anyway. That whole process, Yeah, you

17:30 - 18:08
Aaron Craddock: have supply increase, like decreasing just in terms of enforcement on the clearing house side, the FMCSA, enforcing laws that maybe should have been enforced in the past. And so you have just drivers exiting just because of rule enforcement, not new rules. And then simultaneously you have spot rates picking up, the data center build out across The US just kind of a mini re industrialization of America. And so that's what's causing this. I love the way you worded it professional driver shortage.

18:09 - 18:42
Kameel E. Gaines: That's literally what it is. And if that was an SEO word, then nobody would have a problem with saying, oh yeah, it is a job shortage. But because it's not an SEO word, they're just taking click clicks, you know, oh, what's the best click bite, you know, and things like that. And for me, that's too emotional and I don't, I'm not an emotional person like that. So I just write things down and say, what makes sense?

18:43 - 18:53
Kameel E. Gaines: And this makes sense, let's go with it. Let's not over complicate what we learned at seven years old.

18:54 - 19:12
Aaron Craddock: Yeah, love the way you simplify it. Yeah, there's just so much clarity that comes through that messaging. So the next thing I wanna talk about, so we talked a little bit about like industry insights. I wanted to go into marketing trends. That's one of the things we talk about a lot on this show.

19:14 - 19:34
Aaron Craddock: In that, one of the things I saw you posted a lot of content on TikTok and LinkedIn, like prior to the show when we were researching and it was around like storytelling. And so now going from the professional driver shortage to the importance of storytelling, Like why storytelling important today?

19:35 - 19:57
Kameel E. Gaines: Culture, that's one thing. Through storytelling, you yourself as a company will find out who you are. That's one thing. The next thing is you'll figure out what type of driver you are trying to attract. I believe sourcing and recruiting the driver is just like a marriage.

19:58 - 20:17
Kameel E. Gaines: So for me, that guy can be super fantastic. Steve can be one of the best guys, guy created. However, he's not for me, he's for Lisa. So it doesn't matter that he's a great guy. John is for me.

20:18 - 20:44
Kameel E. Gaines: So if I'm trying to make Steve for me, it's just gonna leave in chaos and disaster. We all know how that leads. So that's the same thing when it comes to truck driver recruiting. That's the reason why you do storytelling. You find out so much about yourself, so much about your culture.

20:44 - 21:05
Kameel E. Gaines: And then you also want to attract the right driver. And because it's professional drivers, we have to be honest. A lot of companies want them, not just you. Many companies are seeking that same driver. So you can't just throw out a net and think that you're going to get them.

21:05 - 21:34
Kameel E. Gaines: No, they have a lot of people that are trying to court them. So you need to make it be, what is it about you? Why should they put their mortgage, their rent, their family time, time away from their family into your hands? The trust that you're going to pay them every week, the benefits. And I'm not just talking about the insurance benefits.

21:34 - 21:55
Kameel E. Gaines: Why is it that they should put all of this trust in your hands? All of that is done through storytelling. You can't do it just through a job board or just through a regular post on social media. You have to do it through storytelling, almost like a book, just very condensed.

21:58 - 22:25
Aaron Craddock: So if you're advising fleets on that, do you like, or shippers, like, you interview them on just like, Hey, what's different about you? Or do you go kind of like do research on like driver reviews and things like that? Like how do you kind of come up? Because I know several marketing directors are listening now with 500 plus truck fleets like, so if they're thinking about this, what should they think about in terms of process?

22:25 - 22:47
Kameel E. Gaines: The first thing I do is go to look, well, first I go on SAFR. So let's start there because SAFR is gonna get the black and white does not lie. We lie, but it doesn't lie. Then another thing is I look at reviews. So even if you have some reviews that are untrue, perception is reality.

22:47 - 23:21
Kameel E. Gaines: So we need to clean up some of that. Some people are just gonna leave bad stuff because that's what it is. So we don't look at, I don't look at the horrible stuff because some people are just gonna be negative because they woke up and they've been negative for the last twenty five years. And then I don't look at the best reviews because some people just want to give you a great review because you have a wonderful haircut and they think you were raised well. I want to look at the middle reviews.

23:22 - 24:13
Kameel E. Gaines: What are they saying? Because a lot of times they're also giving you feedback as to what you're doing great and what you didn't do as well. And I bring that to the owner or even the marketing director because some carriers don't have marketing directors, Like even if they have 300, they really don't have marketing directors, but whoever is acting in the place of a marketing director, you want to bring that to their attention because this is part of your story as well. It doesn't matter what you're putting out if the middle of your reviews are doing this, because we don't realize this is what people are looking at. They're not really looking at the really bad stuff just innately as a human.

24:14 - 24:45
Kameel E. Gaines: We're looking at the middle ground stuff because that's where the most of the things are written is the middle of the road. And people really want to get a better idea of what your product or service is giving them. Just think about when you ban off of Amazon or anything like that, you want to get things that are more lengthy review. And it's typically gonna be your four stars, not your five stars. Stuff like that.

24:46 - 25:01
Kameel E. Gaines: So your three and four stars. So those are the things that I go with when we talking about story, but then I also want to ask them, what do you see versus what does your clients see?

25:03 - 25:14
Aaron Craddock: So you want to get their perspective on what they're good at to like what their strengths are and then get the two, three, four star reviews. And then just,

25:14 - 25:27
Kameel E. Gaines: Yeah, wouldn't take that out of there unless you have an overwhelming amount. If you have an overwhelming amount, then numbers don't lie. This is who you are now.

25:27 - 25:36
Aaron Craddock: Yeah, like if you're all like one stars, then maybe you have a true systemic And I'll say, so

25:38 - 26:32
Kameel E. Gaines: is this what you're telling me? Is this who you aspire to be? Now let's talk about how we can get you there because if not, let's talk about the type of driver you want because I can't put a certain type of driver at your company when he deserves to be at another company because as a third party truck driver recruiter, you also are competing with other companies. So I can't put a superstar recruiter, I mean, superstar truck driver at your company when you are a two rated company. That's not fair to our truck drivers and nor is it fair to a carrier to put a great four star rated carrier, even three and a half star, but a four star rated carrier.

26:32 - 26:48
Kameel E. Gaines: And I knowingly know that this driver is a two, Even if everything on paper makes him look like a five. There are things that you know when you're talking to a driver that notice drivers really two.

26:48 - 27:17
Ginger Craddock: Hiring CDL drivers isn't about more leads, it's about better ones. That's why serious carriers partner with Hire Truckers by Trucking Clicks. We don't sell ads. We bring clear strategy, straight talk, and a relentless focus on quality drivers. Even in a tough market, our clients see improved performance month over month by optimizing smarter and making every hiring dollar work harder.

27:17 - 27:36
Ginger Craddock: For honest insight, sharper targeting and results that you can trust. Visit truckingclicks.com or call (512) 982-0816. Hire Truckers by Trucking Clicks Clarity, courage, results.

27:36 - 28:12
Aaron Craddock: So continuing on that process to find the right marriage with that driver that I love that that marriage analogy. Like how do you then take those reviews and that like their positioning and what they share about what they're best at and what they struggle with? Like how do you take that full picture then then put that into a message, right? Like how does that translate to storytelling? Like from that part to then, because I know one of the things you say often on social media is the right ad, like good retention starts with the right ad Yeah, and

28:13 - 28:16
Kameel E. Gaines: it starts with the right ad. You need to tell the truth.

28:16 - 28:16
Ginger Craddock: So how

28:16 - 28:17
Aaron Craddock: do you get that right ad?

28:17 - 28:43
Kameel E. Gaines: You need to tell the truth. Tell who you are or who you aspire to be basically. So if you're not a four, you don't have to say that you're a crappy carrier but what we're not gonna say is that we are premium carrier. We're gonna say what we are, what is it that you can do? So let's look at what you do well and let's highlight that.

28:43 - 29:10
Kameel E. Gaines: But in the background, what we will do is work on and I'll work on this with you because I do consulting work. So I'll work on how we can get you to where you want to be. And it's not going to be overnight, but work on it. So on the ad, we're not gonna talk about, oh, we've been a crappy recruiter, carrier. No, we're not gonna say that at all.

29:12 - 29:12
Kameel E. Gaines: We will

29:12 - 29:18
Aaron Craddock: do is Look you, we're a two star looking for a two star. If you're moderately good at your job, come work with us.

29:18 - 29:20
Kameel E. Gaines: Come work with us because we

29:20 - 29:20
Aaron Craddock: are

29:20 - 29:36
Kameel E. Gaines: terrible. No, so we're not gonna do that at all but we're gonna talk about what is it that you do well. And those are the things that are going into ad and you need drivers that meet what it is you do well.

29:39 - 29:57
Aaron Craddock: It. Because there's always something like consistency, some might win on consistency of pay. Some might win on Absolutely. Culture, like in terms of it's just a homey feel, everybody knows everybody. What are some other kinds of categories that fleets went on?

29:58 - 30:17
Kameel E. Gaines: Lease trucks. And I don't mean lease to, you know, like you leasing on to these companies. I mean, such as they lease with Penske a rider. That is a huge one. Before this recording, I was just consulting with one of my smaller carriers.

30:17 - 30:42
Kameel E. Gaines: They have about 50 trucks and that's what they're starting to wean majority of their equipment over to leasing through Penske and Ryder because they realize their retention was tanking because of equipment. And they weren't

30:42 - 30:44
Aaron Craddock: having So that's a way they're fixing that pain point.

30:44 - 31:16
Kameel E. Gaines: Yes. And they weren't having a revenue issue, consistency and pay issue, a home time issue, none of it. And they were easily attracting very veteran drivers, five plus years or more, very professional drivers. But if you're gonna attract professional drivers, they expect professional premium situations. So that equipment needs to be good.

31:17 - 31:50
Kameel E. Gaines: And they're not gonna leave because the equipment is bad right now because they see that you are turning over and you're getting rid of those trucks and they're waiting on their newer truck and they know what they've been in the industry long enough to know if that rental truck or that leased truck is a better way to say it because it's not rental, but that lease truck through Penske or Ryder goes down. They immediately get another one when they are off on the road.

31:51 - 32:10
Aaron Craddock: And is equipment like, is that just a result of people slowing down on ordering equipment the last three years, like class eight trucks? Like is that where we're like seeing that pain point where more equipment's breaking down and it's a bigger pain in the industry or is it kind of always a pain in the industry? A Yeah, single

32:10 - 32:34
Kameel E. Gaines: it's always a pain in the industry. I think what happens is whatever is going on at that moment, we'll blame it on that. Like, oh, a few days ago and I'm exaggerating one a few days ago, but it was tariffs. Then before the end, it was the inflation. And then before then it was the pandemic.

32:34 - 33:07
Kameel E. Gaines: The truth of the matter is people have always had equipment issues. You've always had your set of carriers that did not take care of the equipment because they don't feel like it's a big deal. But as you think about it, those are the same ones that are gonna be slumlords. It's the same people. They're not thinking of the fact that, or they're not thinking, or they really don't care that these truck drivers are in these trucks.

33:07 - 33:23
Kameel E. Gaines: This is their office. So if I'm not saying it gotta be new, gotta be pristine, but it needs to be nice. The AC needs to work. Things need to work in these trucks. They need refrigerators.

33:23 - 33:35
Kameel E. Gaines: They need all of the stuff that they need because this is their office. So if you want to retain them, their office needs to be an office.

33:37 - 33:47
Aaron Craddock: Yeah, it's not just their office too, it's their living room, it's their bedroom, it's their, you know, for over the road drivers. Yeah, it's everything.

33:47 - 34:08
Kameel E. Gaines: It's everything. It's everything. And some that are not overworked roles still have sleepers because the wait time at some of the shippers, you know, might be extended. So they don't wanna sit right there in the cab. They'd rather be in a condo.

34:08 - 34:43
Aaron Craddock: I can't believe we're already running up on time. So I wanted to move because I know the other thing that we had wanted to make sure we talked about was AI and recruiting. And I just did a show because I did a presentation downtown, like co spoke with like George P. Bush on like the data center build out and how that's impacting freight. And then we had Austin AI come in and talk about how they're doing AI implementation for let's say a 100,000,000 to $2,000,000,000 businesses.

34:43 - 35:04
Aaron Craddock: I mean, 10,000,000,000 businesses. And so, but specifically you've implemented like helped fleets implement AI like in their businesses. And so walk me through like, because AI is such a broad term, like where fleets being successful with AI implementation right now and then where are they not being successful?

35:05 - 35:39
Kameel E. Gaines: I believe that you can't have AI on top of chaos. So when I come in, we first have to fix your chaos. So if you are the fleet that just adds different tech stacks just to add it, we have to trim some of that, get it out of the way, fix that and fix some of your foundation around period. It's not gonna fix your retention. It's not gonna fix your equipment.

35:39 - 35:53
Kameel E. Gaines: It's not gonna fix any of that. Right. It's just going to make all of that faster and make all of it worse. If you don't fix it. Faster, fast, worse.

35:53 - 35:53
Kameel E. Gaines: I

35:53 - 36:03
Aaron Craddock: don't didn't even think about that where AI can implement like, like increase problems when put on top of a bad recruiting system.

36:03 - 36:39
Kameel E. Gaines: Yes, it will increase it very fast because that's what it does. It automates and it increases whatever you are giving it, whatever you're telling it to do is gonna do it, but it's gonna do it fast. So the thing is you want to put it on top of a decent foundation so it can build from there. So I come in, I help you get your foundation together. And then we get AI stacks that work and systems that work for you.

36:39 - 37:19
Kameel E. Gaines: There are some that's gonna work across the board for, you know, all of our logistics and things like that, or majority of them. But then there are some that some that will attach to your CRM that won't work well with another because how you do different things are gonna be different. Some like Google type things better than others and vice versa. But we make sure of that. And then we make sure that the heads are decisive about their decisions on things because that brings less chaos as well.

37:20 - 38:06
Kameel E. Gaines: So when I come in, I don't want it to be where the heads or the marketing directors we're just throwing AI out there. I want it to be where it's not shrinking your workforce. That's not the purpose. Now it may do some for obvious reasons, but the entire purpose is for not to do that. The entire purpose is for it to educate and it do the work of Susie and Joseph that way Susie and Joseph can be educated so they can do more or other things and take your business to another level.

38:07 - 38:46
Aaron Craddock: Yeah, I was thinking about this yesterday, just in our own AI implementation in our business. Like we've been doing it on the code side and the tech side for a long time, but we're now doing it in every role. And I was thinking like, it's not eliminating jobs. Like for us, like I understand in some really large businesses and entities that may be, but for us, it's just, I think the standards of the industry of a marketing partner or a tech partner are just getting higher and speed is increasing. Like basically just standards are changing really fast.

38:46 - 39:21
Aaron Craddock: And so then if we're not using the new tools and systems and improving and building things faster, then we get behind. So it's not like we suddenly have less people on the payroll because we're implementing AI. It just means that we provide a better product and service to the industry. So it sounds like that's what you're seeing in recruiting teams and things like that is like, Hey, this isn't going to eliminate Susie. You don't need to be scared of this coming in, but it can just amplify a good process and make Susie better.

39:21 - 39:48
Kameel E. Gaines: Make Susie better. It almost like it promotes Susie, right? So they give Susie an agent or which yes, or an assistant. And then one thing I wanna say before, because I know you wanna move to something else is a big box store, Walmart. So this morning at 02:00, I posted a 01:00, 02:00.

39:48 - 40:16
Kameel E. Gaines: I think I posted on LinkedIn about, I couldn't even wait because I was like, is wonderful. So Walmart has been implementing all of this AI stuff, all of these things, right? They are the one place that you have not heard that's been laying off because what they're doing is re skilling their people.

40:17 - 40:17
Aaron Craddock: So

40:20 - 40:33
Kameel E. Gaines: that is what's happening. So they're doing AI, they're doing automation, they're doing all of that. And the people that are being replaced, they're not being replaced. They're being reskilled.

40:34 - 40:34
Aaron Craddock: That's good.

40:35 - 41:07
Kameel E. Gaines: So they're being trained, they're going through a whole university. So OpenAI has already been doing trainings just for Walmart, but now they're actually gonna have an official academy in, that we'll be launching in this year, 2026. That's just for That's the way you do it. And that's what I encourage. Now, if you have an employee that doesn't believe in AI or doesn't want to, then you're not replacing them.

41:07 - 41:10
Kameel E. Gaines: They have replaced themselves. That's how I feel about that.

41:10 - 41:57
Aaron Craddock: Yeah, I'm becoming more and more a firm believer of like, Hey, if you're not using just basic tools to speed up the process and improve your work like that, yeah, you'll just, again, it's not that the company's trying to displace anyone. It's just there are new tools. It's kinda like when email came out, like if you're just like, I'm not gonna use email, similar with some of these AI tools, like we just have to learn and integrate them and grow. Then I'm even thinking in the hiring process, like as our team's growing right now, we're adding more people. I want everybody to be native, like in certain LLMs and be testing things and playing with things and building things.

41:57 - 42:12
Aaron Craddock: Because I want anybody that comes in right now in this AI season to make everything better that we do. Just again, to provide a better product to the industry. So yeah, love hearing that about Walmart that they're implementing that in school.

42:12 - 42:15
Kameel E. Gaines: I love it. Walmart.

42:15 - 42:30
Aaron Craddock: Well, I can't believe we're already up on time. Well, you so much. Thank you so much for carving out the time today and coming on Camille. Really appreciate just the positivity and energy you add to the industry. And it's just been so fun catching up with you today.

42:30 - 42:32
Kameel E. Gaines: Thank you. Thank you for having me on.

42:32 - 42:41
Ginger Craddock: Thank you for listening to the Hire Truckers Podcast, the show for fleet executives, HR leaders, and recruiting professionals. I'm your host, Ginger Kratock.

42:41 - 42:53
Aaron Craddock: And I'm your host, Erin Kratock. Each week we share insights, trends, and strategies to help you grow and thrive. If you found value today, please share the show and leave a review. Until next time, keep building top performing teams.