Unknown Speaker 0:00
Truck driving is a hard job in 2019. Right? I mean, it’s something that the people that do it largely choose to do it because they feel proud of it. They know that what they’re doing is essential. They know that whether you acknowledge it or not that without them there wouldn’t have been, you know, groceries in the grocery store. And so I hope that this service that they provide and the pride that they take in their job somehow resonates and that people are able to hold on to that beyond Coronavirus.

Unknown Speaker 0:28
Hey, it’s Nate Disarro and welcome to titans of industry the podcast where I talk to industry leaders and innovators who are at the top of their game and leading the pack in their fields uncovering some of the best stories in today’s business landscape. In this episode, I sit down with Shannon Newton the president of the Arkansas Trucking Association, which represents over 300 members ranging from independent owner operators to international companies like FedEx and JB Hunt. I talked to Shannon about the importance of the trucking industry amid the COVID-19 crisis. How great Leaders continue leading through hard times and how her woman led team is breaking down barriers left and right. And now let’s get to the episode. But before we do, it’s important to know that whether you’re a small business owner or the face of a multibillion dollar industry, your organization has a great story to tell, and Content Titan wants to help you tell it. We are a digital content creation powerhouse built for the 21st century, providing all in creative strategic production post production and distribution services for at 360 degree 24 seven world. In our world Titans are passionate, creative doers. They have the experience to take your project from start to finish, minimizing your involvement so you can focus on what matters most running your business. So if you’re ready to take your content, strategy and production to the next level, our Titans are ready to help.

Unknown Speaker 1:53
Now here’s my conversation with Shannon Newton.

Unknown Speaker 1:57
Well Shannon, thanks so much for joining us on podcast. Let’s jump right in and just tell me how did you end up in the trucking world.

Unknown Speaker 2:04
Thanks for having me, Nate. And my journey to be in trucking was purely an accident. I went to college at University of Central Arkansas. And I went knowing that I wanted a degree in accounting went all the way through graduate the accounting degree. And the opportunity that presented itself just happened to be with a trucking company in North Little Rock. So my first job was at Maverick transportation or Iraq. And at that time, it was really just, I saw a lot of value and opportunity within the company. And I didn’t really know that much about trucking. And so I kind of came in with a fresh perspective and no preconceived notions and haven’t looked back since then.

Unknown Speaker 2:40
So you essentially been in it your whole career. I won’t say you don’t know anything else, because you know a lot about a lot of things but talk us a little bit through where it was when you kind of got into it and then where it is now. I’m sure there’s been magnificent changes.

Unknown Speaker 2:55
Yeah, well, like I said, When as a you know, 23 year old going, you know, My first job, I don’t know that I had a lot of appreciation for where trucking was, quote, unquote, you know, I just I saw it and knew that it was an industry that was prevalent within the state, I thought that there would be a lot of opportunities for growth there with within the industry. And so, now looking back, knowing what I know, now looking back in the early 2000s, and where the industry was, you know, trucking as we know, it was really kind of Born in 1980 with deregulation, and, and mass, you know, entrance into the industry and just super growth in in the early 80s. And so, in when I came in this room, it was only like 20 years old. And so thinking obviously didn’t know that at the time. But if you roll that forward to now being you know, 18 years later, the industry is very different. I mean, at that time, you still had a lot of people kind of doing it their own way. And it was it was not a lot of sophistication in the enterprise of the trucking industry. You had, you know, people just find equipment in hauling loads and trying to make money. The the data revolution has happened in the last 18 years with just how much sophistication has come into ROI and pricing and the the details of the equipment and the mpg and aerodynamics, and just so much sophistication today, compared to where we were, you know, 20 years ago.

Unknown Speaker 4:21
So you’ve moved into a role that’s that you don’t directly affect one single company, talk a little bit about kind of what you do where you’re at now and what that role looks like day to day.

Unknown Speaker 4:30
Yeah, so I worked in the industry, quote, unquote, you know, in trucking for a year. So I was at Maverick for a little over a year, and then I came to the association, and kind of my, you know, concept of the association at that time, you know, Maverick was involved in the association. So I knew that, that there was this organization that was involved and advocating for, you know, the interest of the industry, but I really didn’t know what that meant. And, and so now, having been at the association And it’ll be 17 years, next month. And like just yesterday, it is one of those things that seems odd. But I will say that you know, Tom does file and you’re having fun and I don’t regret a minute of him I love being here and but the association represents the industry as a whole. So we have over 300 members and they span from, you know, individual operators who are in you know, South Arkansas and run seven trucks all the way up to, you know, international enterprises like JB Hunt and FedEx. And so we have a wide, fragmented industry and members all over the spectrum in the trucking space, but then also the service providers to the industry. So our membership also includes those who provide you know, insurance or trucks or service or all sorts of technology and safety equipment. So the membership is vast and in Arkansas, That, you know, because of the carriers that are located here because of the impact that the industry has on the economy here, representing them and working in the industry is certainly something that I take pride in and it makes it, it makes it more fun than perhaps representing trucking in some other parts of the country, or representing some other industry in Arkansas think the alignment of the industry. And the industry here certainly gives our organization a louder voice and a big platform to make an impact.

Unknown Speaker 6:33
I think a lot of people when they think of the trucking industry, they think the annoying Big Rigs on the highway that won’t let them pass or whatever they you know, we’re almost running off the road, talking about the importance of the industry as a whole especially and we can, you know, jump into this next but right now. And

Unknown Speaker 6:50
yeah, so, really, I mean, if you boil it down to the purpose of the association is to promote, protect and serve the trucking industry and so like the very core of reason that we exist is to help people understand the relationship between the standard of living that they enjoy and the service that the industry provides. And that it’s not just the truck that’s in front of you between here in Memphis, or the truck that didn’t negotiate the intersection in the way that you thought that it should. It’s actually your medicine or your milk or your couch, or the package that you would like delivered to your porch tomorrow. That is, you know, quote, unquote, in the way. So we’re constantly and always, even pre COVID, constantly trying to reinforce that connection to people and help them understand the sensuality of the industry and the hard work that the men and women in the industry do to make their lives more enjoyable. And then you as you alluded to, like certainly, over the last three months, what we have been harping on for years, has been under a big spotlight for the rest of the country to see.

Unknown Speaker 7:59
So there’s obviously no beating around the bush about it COVID-19 has caused such a dynamic shift in so many industries. But trucking has to continue. And and that’s been one of the number one conversations is, you know, how do we get groceries to the grocery store? How do we make sure people can still have the essential needs? So where does trucking fall in the essential category? And how is that? What challenges have you seen throughout this time?

Unknown Speaker 8:22
Yeah. So, like I said, we’ve always kind of marketed ourselves as being essential. And then that term kind of became in vogue and now everyone’s talking about what’s essential and essential and non essential became this differentiating factor before everyone. So, you know, we would say, you know, when the world stopped, trucking had to continue. So as, as you and I, you know, perhaps, withdrew and decided to stay home or particular employers or industries began to shut down and minimize interaction. You still needed water, he still needed gas. He’s still expected there to be, you know, medicine at the pharmacy. And then even to roll that into some, like more high impact, you know, the masks and the ventilators and the the hospital supplies, those are all delivered by truck as well. So definitely, as a community, as a state as a nation, we relied on trucking and expected them to continue to deliver and that was not without challenge.

Unknown Speaker 9:28
So talk talk through what’s been the biggest thing you’ve seen from your role and how have you kind of had to lead through that and communicate some of those.

Unknown Speaker 9:34
So I think the biggest challenge that that we as an industry saw or are dealing with in you know, the COVID-19 crisis is uncertainty. And and I don’t mean that to be like a cop out answer. But in anything, if you don’t know what the result is going to be, if you don’t know what the rules are, then that creates a degree of nx and so initially The uncertainty of just how, how are we going to be able to operate? The operational challenges of, you know, keeping rest areas open, keeping truckstops open? What were the rules for, you know, how can a truck driver use the bathroom? How did they renew their driver’s license when dmvs are shutting down? How do they maintain their, you know, medical cards if we’re discouraging going into, you know, medical settings. And so, all of those operational challenges initially, that was the biggest hurdle to overcome because, and initially, trucking continued to run. You know, during mid March whenever the initial stay at home orders or and, you know, States began to make decisions to encourage people to stay at home. Our industry was not affected by that in the first stages, and we continue to see delivery of essential consumer goods groceries, and if not, not only did we continue to deliver it, there was a surge in debt. And so we had more trucks on the road and increased demand for products. And then how do you do that in this environment where, you know, I’m driving from state to state to state, and I don’t know what the rules are from state to state. So that was a big initial challenge. And then you roll that forward about two or three weeks. And then it became the economic challenge. So we, you know, met that surge demand, we applied all the resources that we had to try to make sure that the supply chain was protected, and that people had the goods that they expected and the toilet paper was in the grocery store and kind of all those things. But then when you started to see the auto manufacturers close, and major retail outlets close and then institutions like colleges and cap, you know, you don’t think about all the food service that goes into those types of entities. And so when those major segments of our industry, you know, they’re hot, large carriers that dedicate themselves almost exclusively to those types of services. And when those disappear, you had this excess excess capacity in the market. So, while groceries continued to be delivered now you had everyone that used to be hauling car parts or used to be hauling, you know, clothing or used to be hauling, you know, dry goods to cafeterias and colleges. Now they all have that capacity, you know, went into whatever is still moving, which drove the rights down substantially for everyone. So really, no one was protected, even if you were in those protected sectors and the competition that came at you and really created an economic impact, if not crisis for our industry. Now, certainly. I’ve had this talk with some of our members. You know, they feel like it’s an economic crisis for them, you know, when things are down 1415 20% year over year, that feels really uncomfortable. But if you overlay that with Let’s look at the hospitality sector. Or if you happen to own a hotel or restaurant, you know, those those industries. So I have to kind of like reset, right? I have to kind of like remind them, like, I know that our industry is not performing at the capacity that you want it to, and that your numbers look, you know, unfavorable year over year. But compared to some other industries, it could be a lot worse. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 13:26
Well, and I think that’s, that’s an important parallel because I remember seeing a video that the CEO of Marriott put out to all of its people, and essentially talked about how devastating this was to the organization as a whole. I think they were down within two weeks 80% of revenue and think about that, how many companies can survive that? And so I know your members, like you said span from everybody from the independent owner operator to FedEx and JB Hunt and these massive international carriers and even in that light, there’s been a huge huge shift in because you know, we’ve all heard Amazon Walmart and all these big box and massive eecom sites search and there was a huge demand it still is. And everybody wants their goods, they don’t want to have to go out and get them. But that still affects the trucking industry in a different way. Right?

Unknown Speaker 14:17
Right, the supply chain looks different. Thank you know, you were all we already as an industry we were already trending towards more, you know, individual delivery more at how more ecommerce smaller packages with fewer miles, you know, distribution centers all over the contrary, that that was had already been a pretty significant trend in the industry over the last, you know, three or four years. But I think the COVID-19 crisis, certainly accelerated that. And I think perhaps we will, we will see some lasting impacts from consumer expectations on what that final mile delivery looks like. And so as an industry, we’ll have to continue to adapt To that, and, you know, how do you make money and what type of equipment and what type of drivers are necessary when the routes become smaller, and the delivery circle or just you know, everything’s more compact.

Unknown Speaker 15:15
You mentioned the industry really got started in the 80s, when deregulation happened, and then here we are a regulation or an industry that still has a significant amount of regulation to it, and it’s being shaken up just like everything else, but the importance of it is not going away. It’s increasing. Do you see additional regulations, different regulations? Do you see anything like that happening? Is that a state thing? Is that a federal thing?

Unknown Speaker 15:37
Yeah. So it’s funny, we say we’re the most regulated deregulated industry in the country. So there’s been a lot of activity and scrutiny forced upon the industry during this crisis, like I mentioned, if you start shutting down, DMV shut down, you know, access to local you know, health clinics or d o t physicals. So things like hours of service then Like, you know, CDL renewals, medical car renewals, hazmat certifications, all that stuff has kind of been shelved for the last 90 days. It’s been remarkable the number of federal regulations that have been either modified or extended or given some sort of grace to allow the industry to continue to operate. You know, certainly you’d be in a world of hurt if you were, you know, in early March. If your driver’s license was set to expire in late April, you would have had no foresight to think, well, I need to renew my driver’s license or my medical card 45 days early. But then when the time came, those services weren’t available. So a lot of that stuff has been relaxed. I anticipate them most of that stuff will come back online. And of course, we’re going to go back to renewing our driver’s license and medical cars on certain time frames. Cut unplanned there was actually a change in the hours of service rulemaking already started prior to Coronavirus pandemic. And so just last week, there was actually new hours of service. The final rule came out from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. It’s a rule that as an industry we advocated for it’s largely viewed as allowing more flexibility to the driver, it’s maintaining the same number of hours that they can work, but allowing them to be more flexible and how they use at rest when they’re tired or take a break when there’s traffic congestion or other some sort of adverse driving conditions. So that is something new that will kind of coincide with as we roll out of this, those new rules being in place. And there’s been some other maybe a little bit more nuanced things. Historically, states had been very territorial about their licensing procedures. And that’s been done on a state by state basis, as different states adapted to this or handle this crisis differently. Those regulations with regard to where you test and where you get So try to get a simple example. And let’s say you live in Arkansas, and you are choosing to to work for a carrier in Indiana. So they bring you to Indiana and they put you through their school, they’re on their campus for three weeks. Currently, you’d have to go back to Arkansas to test and get your CDL. Because that sort of state where you live, those rules were relaxed during this time, so that if you were already in Indiana, they let you go ahead and test there and then send you back home and reciprocate your CDL that’s something that the industry is kind of advocated as making sense for quite some time. And I think you’ll see some support for maybe that staying, you know, post COVID-19. And there’s some other little nuance things that you know, you’ve we do things because that’s why we’ve always done them, and then when we’re put into these extenuating circumstances, you think, oh, that really makes sense. Let’s just go ahead and, you know, make this allowance, and then allow that to roll forward.

Unknown Speaker 18:51
I heard an interesting perspective from a professor at Ohio State University in New York, recently talked about the shift in higher education. And how it’s gonna change because of course, the cost of higher ed has just skyrocketed. and the value is still about the same as it always has been, you haven’t necessarily gotten more value out of it, but the cost has gone up. And so what he was advocating was that online education is now going to become its COVID-19 has created an accelerant, as opposed to just an opportunity to pivot or innovation, like we’ve already been trending towards these things. This just accelerates it. Is that how you feel about a lot of these things in the industry?

Unknown Speaker 19:28
I do. I think that, you know, whether we’re talking about certainly the driver livability and some of the things that we had restricted and made their lives, perhaps a little bit more difficult than they needed to be. And their role and and highlighting the work that they’ve done throughout this crisis, has given a little bit of softer ear to some of those concerns. And so, I do hope that we’re able to utilize this and not, you know, we’re not asking for anything that would compromise you know, certainly the industry is dedicated to safety and all of all of those things. But some things that just kind of made sense that we were hesitant to change, because that’s the way we’ve always done it. And I think, certainly this, you know, circumstances, like you said, accelerated. And some things that probably would have happened eventually, should we, you know, once we’ve been able to articulate the argument and collect the data, but this was kind of you just collected the data because you had to. And so now the data shows that the world doesn’t, you know, in if we allow this process to continue, and so, yeah, definitely, there’ll be some things that are accelerated through that.

Unknown Speaker 20:35
So I’m curious from your perspective, along that same vein, we’re in a time where there’s been a lot of buzz lately about autonomous trucks, and which changes the nature of the conversation completely, because you’re not dealing as much with humans on the road. Where does that conversation pick up in light of all these events? And are we accelerating that side to or does it I don’t know where we’re at with that.

Unknown Speaker 21:00
Yeah, I think that the autonomous truck conversation is really attractive and sensational to people who are on the fringe of the industry. And I think when you talk to people who are in it all day, every day in irregular route planning, you know, the movement of freight, that autonomous tracking is a really really long ways away. And not necessarily because the technology doesn’t exist, but because the comfortability of the people who would be required to interact with it, the infrastructure that would be needed in order to communicate with it on a, you know, continuous basis. The liability concerns that, you know, the, the kind of the behind the scenes framework, that would need to be in place to allow that to be utilized on a large scale is a Really, really massive? And I don’t think that yes, can we put a truck on the road and automate it from, you know, middle America to middle America? Yes, we can do that. But not on a you know, you can’t just turn them all loose because the the infrastructure, the demand, and just the people in general are not comfortable with that just

Unknown Speaker 22:23
yet. So what do you see as kind of the next push into an innovative industry? Like how do we move the industry forward and what’s kind of on the fringe that’s ready to go, just

Unknown Speaker 22:33
staying saying in that vein, there’s certainly the technology that is in support of autonomous trucking. You know, when you say autonomous trucking, I hear driverless trucking, and those are not necessarily the same things. And so I think that there is all sorts of opportunities within creating the improving the job of the truck driver and utilizing that technology to make that job. less stressful, to maybe alleviate some of the constraints that are placed upon those types of injuries. I mean, there’s all sorts of, you know, health constraints and medicine and things of that nature that prohibit individuals from being truck drivers. But if you knew that technology was there to support them in the event that they did, you know, have some sort of health situation, perhaps we could open up the opportunity to more individuals or loosen the restrictions on the types of medicine, the types of health conditions. And I certainly think there’s a lot of opportunity to utilize that technology to make the trucks safer, more efficient and more autonomous. I just don’t think that he’ll see 80,000 pounds going 70 miles an hour down the interstate, you know, more than once.

Unknown Speaker 23:44
Understood when I think about, you know, airplanes, of course, have autopilot. You can take off land everything without a pilot, but we don’t want to put a plane without a pilot there and I think it kind of falls in the same vein kind of

Unknown Speaker 23:59
associated I think Yeah, the technology is there. But the the people’s desire to support it

Unknown Speaker 24:07
is lacking.

Unknown Speaker 24:08
Okay, so we talked a little bit about the economic impact. Do you think we rebound quickly? Does this? Is this something that we can come out of from a industry perspective without too much of an overall loss? I mean, a lot of people are saying it’ll be 2021 before you get back and you just, hopefully, like you’re saying accept the loss this year. Just stay in business.

Unknown Speaker 24:30
Yeah, I think certainly, you know, the members that I talked to, you now are still feeling very uncertain about what this recovery looks like. And I was just reading yesterday on some some April numbers that have come out that show that the drop in tonnage in April was the worst in truck tonnage. So the amount of freight being hauled by our industry dropped in April, greater than a head in 25 years. Well, so like we’re not talking about like an a recession we’re talking about, like 1994. And so just the huge, young just pulling that amount of activity out of the economy. And so the number of jobs, you know, just their recovery from everything that I’ve read and some of the, you know, industry experts that are advising now, our members, they liken it to, it’s not going to be flipping a switch, it’s going to be a series of switches that are flipped over a long period of time. And you never know, when you might flip a switch and the lights come on, you know, there’s certain segments of the industry like if you look at even food processing right now, like, despite their best efforts to continue to operate and continue to, you know, stay open and processed food in the event that there’s a virus outbreak but can’t Doesn’t matter how much you want to move that freight or you want to be open? You know, there are certain things that are out of our control. And so I think if you look at the economic recovery and the solution to the health crisis are related, and as we look forward, you know, I think we’re optimistic that, that there will be a recovery throughout you know, that that we’ve seen the worst step. I think that I do believe that that’s true. I think that just the the decisions that were made that halted the US economy. I think they were made with the best intentions, but the true cost of that wasn’t really known until that decision was already made. And so I don’t foresee that that decision will be revisited or they will try to that approach again. And so I think that we may, because of that the recovery maybe longer and maybe prolong to avoid some sort of health crisis that makes us feel like we need to shut down again. But we expect 2020 to be a slow recovery. Certainly the consumer demand is there. As you’ve seen, you know, continue, we continue to see that ecommerce, you continue to say people, you know, housing hasn’t really taken a hit automobiles for the ones that are available, you know, in the market hadn’t really taken that big of a hit. So if we can get Americans back to work slowly throughout the rest of the year, I think the economy, the fundamental, you know, the economy was so, so good, you know, six months ago. And I think if you look at you know, Wall Street, Wall Street thinks it’s going to come back and they’ve surged this week. And so I’m optimistic that we will recover in 2020. I just think it’ll be slower and then we desire for it to be

Unknown Speaker 27:54
absolutely I think, when when the conversation first started around the pandemic, The hashtag was flatten the curve, right? Everybody was about flattened curve was talking about the health care curve, you know, slow the spread of the virus so we don’t overwhelm the healthcare system. And I’ve talked about this a lot, but we only talked about one curve, it’s time. And really there’s a second curve, and that was the economy and the unemployment rate, and how dramatic that curve was overnight. Almost. And, and I think since like you’re saying, we’ve seen the worst of it that that curve has started to flatten. And but you’re right, it’s not just, we come right back to normal. It’s a slow drawn out recovery, for the safety and well being of everyone, but also because now we do have to do things differently have to figure that out before we can just put everybody back to work. So how does the ACA How does Arkansas Trucking Association play into that? I know, you know, obviously, from my perspective, a lot of this has to do with the stories we’re telling how do we get the stories out of what we’re going to do, how we’re going to do it, how it’s going to keep people And ultimately put people back to work.

Unknown Speaker 29:03
Yeah, so

Unknown Speaker 29:05
I mean, I think the fact that our industry never stopped, makes it a little bit more challenging thinking, how’s it gonna look different? Because we were kind of like doing it differently as we went. And you know, kind of we talked about earlier, like, the lifestyle of the driver and how do they find services and how do they find food and how do they keep themselves healthy? And how do they have access to mask and sanitizer, and that’s all been a really complicated thing to try to figure out while they continue to move. It’s not like we got to shut down and stock the, you know, trucks with hand sanitizer and you know, stock up on mask and then send them back out. It was trying to literally passing that stuff out at a rest area while they’re continuing to work. So that’s been a really weird thing to try to, you know, make sure that they were healthy and keep the industry moving. Maybe talk about, you know, what that looks like going forward. In the drive, the job of a truck driver is actually pretty safe. I mean, they think about this scenarios in which they have been identified as high risk. I mean, there’s they’re not engaged with a large quantity of people on a frequent basis. They do spend a lot of time on their own. But then you think about the things that they’re touching, or perhaps the scenarios in which they’re going into and those scenarios could potentially be high risk. If you’re delivering to a hospital in New Orleans, then all of a sudden, your low risk job just became, you know, a high risk exposure. And so we’ve been working on trying to make sure that drivers have access to testing. I think that’s been that’s something that we’ve been working on extremely recently just announced that yesterday, and we were able to make the argument that you know, the, again, the the position itself is not necessarily high risk that you don’t necessarily don’t know where they’re delivering to you don’t know where they’re going to continue. And move throughout the country and then return home to their families and their communities. And how can we help them do that and feel safe and feel valued and feel like they’re doing that with the best information available. And we think that is by allowing them if they so choose to have to, you know, be tested for COVID-19. And so, just yesterday, the Department of Health made being a commercial truck driver, kind of like a qualifying condition. So if a truck driver wants to be tested, they can go to their community health clinic and and get tested. So that’s something to help the drivers feel better about themselves and, you know, be conscious of not conscientious about their own health, but then also the communities that they’re returning to you don’t want, you know, the last thing that we want is for some community to have some negative perception of, you know, this truck driver went somewhere and brought, you know, COVID-19 back to our community. So, we’re doing everything that we can to try to make the drivers feel safe, but then also have the information access To protect themselves,

Unknown Speaker 32:01
that’s perfect. Because I think, you know, the reality is the whole travel industry shut down. Because we’re, that’s what we’re trying to do is avoid people having to go from one place to the other. But it’s the very nature of the job of a truck driver to go from one community to another, and like you said, put themselves in some sometimes fairly high risk areas. So it’s great that that you guys were able to help kind of push that along and allow the drivers to feel more at ease. And I think you’re right, the communities as a whole feel more at ease that they can have access to testing in the right gear. When we walked in here today, so boxes of mass and sanitize that you guys are passing out, I think that’s that’s all perfect,

Unknown Speaker 32:42
and all in kind of evolution of what our organization does, and and why and, you know, there’s certainly, you know, promote, protect and serve as a very broad umbrella for what should we you know, say that we do as an organization bet that has certainly taken on some some new meanings and, and new tasks over the last three months.

Unknown Speaker 33:09
Well, I want to shift gears a little bit. Because when the big conversations coming out of this whole thing as well is, you know, how are leaders leading through all of this? And so from a personal level, you know, when all this first happened, everybody sort of figured out are we going to work from home we’re gonna do we have to go to the office, whatever that looks like for each organization has been different based on your needs. But But as someone leading not only your own organization, but really kind of being a voice of an industry, what have you done to sort of, I mean, kind of keep yourself sane. Let’s be honest, everybody has to kind of figure out how to do that. Do I wake up every morning and get dressed like I always did, or do I do my zoom calls in, you know, but I slept in last night. I think I think that’s been a fun, interesting thing we’ve been seeing but but what does that look like for you?

Unknown Speaker 33:56
Yeah, so it is an interesting mix of You know, I don’t our association is not a trucking company. But we represent an industry that didn’t get to take a break. And so that was a very delicate balance. And you know, what, what’s safe and what makes sense for the actual type of work that our organization does? And then how do we reflect, you know, and be sensitive to the strains that our members are experiencing. And so we kind of split the baby on that. We had some members of the team and elect to work from home. I, you know, our offices, plenty spacious, and I have two kids, two dogs and two cats. And so working from home is not really that feasible for me. And so I continue to come into the office just because I felt like that’s how I identified or connected to the business owners that we were trying to serve. And it did feel like it really felt like a crisis. It did really feel like we were we were having not zoom calls, but conference calls on a regular basis to try to share as much information as possible. I felt like really, you know, in an uncertain time or in times where you feel like you don’t know, you know what to do, that the camaraderie of of knowing that everyone else felt the same way that there was value in that. And so we did have calls for our trucking executives, to just kind of have that community of this is what I’m experiencing, or this is what I’m in this part of the country, I’ve had this particular trouble. And so as an organization, we, we were doing everything that we could to advocate for, you know, the most consistent, operational, you know, groundwork, but then also just kind of being a facilitator and a counselor. You know, come together tell us what your challenges are, because that’s the only way that I’m going to know how to help you is if I know what’s you know, bothering you today?

Unknown Speaker 36:10
Sure, I think communication has been the key through all of this. If people aren’t communicating, if there’s not clear lines, then everybody’s guessing. And to your point, nobody feels like anybody else understands what they’re going through. This is just me, I’m dealing with it. Have you noticed that you’ve kind of taken on different personal daily habits or things? Or is it been pretty much business as usual, from your perspective?

Unknown Speaker 36:34
I have, I thrive on routine. And so for me, it has been as normal as possible, you know, continuing to get up every morning and get dressed and come to the office and turn the computer on and, you know, find out what the crisis of the day was for a while. That’s kind of what it felt like. And so, you know, my routine didn’t change that much. It’s different, it feels different. There’s no you know, you park in an empty parking deck and you ride the elevator alone. And you know, there’s no one here to answer the phone. And, and so it feels different. It did feel as though we were experiencing something that was unusual. But having that consistency for me it was it made me feel made me feel like there was something normal about navigating what was certainly not normal.

Unknown Speaker 37:27
Yeah. As I’ve talked to a lot of people as well, I think one of the interesting parallels is, you know, every organization wants to have a strong team, you want to bring in strong team members to get you through. But then when you’re faced with unique situations like this, the importance of that team becomes more and more paramount. So talk me through kind of your direction, how do you create a solid team and then how do they function and push forward on that vision and mission that you guys have created?

Unknown Speaker 37:59
Yeah, so I do think we’ve, you know, we do have a great team. And there are seven of us that work full time, at the association. And, and we each everybody’s different, you know, we have a small office environment, and everyone has their own roles and responsibilities. And it certainly works better. When we’re all here. It feels better when we’re all here. And we all are communicating regularly. And you know, you know, who’s pulling various ways, but in this particular case, like, as you mentioned, you know, communication, regulation, and being able to tell the story of the industry and what was happening were all really, really important. And we my communications directors, fantastic. And so she and I, I mean, we talked, you know, every day, she’s actually one of the ones that she has a health condition that made sense for her to work from home, but it really just kind of forced us to Be more communicative. I mean, I tend to I am an introvert like I, it’s easy for him, I’d rather just do it myself and I’d rather make a list and, and knock it out. But that wasn’t feasible. During this time we had to divide and conquer and we had to communicate and I had to, you know, delegate and rely on other people to be able to have the answers them, but I couldn’t give. And so it’s been I would say that probably most good teams would say this has been a good experience for them. I mean, like, no one would choose to or sign up to navigate through a health crisis and an economic crisis, but it has allowed us to know what we’re good at, and who to kind of rely on in those very in those different situations. And I think that will be better going forward because of this, you know, time of crisis that we live with very together.

Unknown Speaker 39:59
Is there anything About the industry as a whole that you feel like is often overlooked other than the industry. So what what do people need to know? Like, as they enter back into traveling more and things like that? I mean, what what’s something important for people to keep in mind?

Transcribed by https://otter.ai