$1 Million Meth Cabbages and Cartel Trucking Brokerages

0:27Welcome to the podcast.

0:30Malcolm: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a Friday edition of What the Drug. I'm your host, the Uncle Ben Harris. And we are back as better than ever. You see the guy in red. He needs no introduction, but I'm going to make it anyway. It's Michael Vincent. Mean, lean, machine. Mike, what's up, brother? I am lean, dude. I'm down to 232, baby. We weigh the exact same thing. My fighting weight. We weigh the exact same thing. This was like a month ago you weighed 432, didn't you? I mean, listen, GOP is a... Wasn't that big, dude, but you were pushing maximum density there for a little while. I was very dense.

1:10Malcolm: I was a fat, bald eagle. Now I'm flying, man. I'm a peacock, baby. All I want to do is fly. You are a peacock. I want to fly like an eagle to the sea. Hey, man. Yeah, I mean, that's great. Come on now. Awesome. I love it, bro. I love you, man. How did you check out the Rams and the 49ers over there in Australia? Over in Australia, mate. Throw another shrimp on the barbie. Yeah, man. I have a horrible Australian accent. I didn't. I didn't. You didn't miss mine. Yeah, no. Tuesdays and Thursdays is like my daughters are in ballet on one side of the city. My other daughter's in hip-hop on the other side of the city, so we're driving around trying to pick up girls from dance classes and get them to the next one and shit.

2:03You're being a good father. You're being a good father. Being a good father, yes. Being a good father. Being a good father. But I did do my homework because I want to highlight two massive, massive college football games coming up this weekend, bro. Come on. Bring it to me. I'm all ears. Okay. Check it out. Mercyhurst University. The Lakers of Mercyhurst University are playing New Mexico. All right. And this is a big game because New Mexico may score 100 points for the first time ever.

2:39No, seriously, I put in UTC, right? And University of Tennessee at Januga, for those who don't know. And Mercyhurst University, because those are kind of our two schools. even though you went to UTK, which I know it bothers you that somebody would say UTK because obviously it is the University of Tennessee, but you get it. Come on, I got you. And I compared the two games with Claude, and Claude said, the bottom line, if you want an actual game, watch UTC at Eastern Kentucky at 6 p.m. If you want to watch an FCS team get obliterated on national TV, Mercer's New Mexico is the game for you.

3:15Malcolm: Shout out to Claude with some inside ballpark information. We'll be ready to go, Claude. I tell you, man, I just had to bring that up. It's pretty funny, bro. There's some sicko out there that was watching the Miami and Florida A &M University football game. If Miami left their starters in, they might have scored 125 points last night. I mean, I've never... For safety reasons, we got to stop these games. We got to stop doing this. Well, it's stupid. It's stupid that you... We could go on for hours and hours and hours and hours, but we wouldn't do that. We'd have to bring in Zach Strickland. Yeah, no, no, no.

3:54Malcolm: Shout out to Zach Strickland, man. We were on Freight Waves today, yesterday. Had a great segment with him talking Freightonomics, talking all that. We got some great stuff today too, bro. I mean, we got some articles. We got three great guests. It is going to be a beautiful one. Here's the thing. I'm going to bring, I'm going to revive this. Zach and I built an algorithm and we could probably do it a lot better now that we have like actual better computer power. But 20 years ago, we built one that truly says who's the best in the country in college football, right? And so we're going to have to bring that back.

4:31We're going to have to bring that back. I'm ready. I'm not going to talk. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll talk about it again. It's a long drawn out thing. And we got bills to pay and people to bring it. We got Johannes. Yeah. Is he on? Yeah, we do. And Diane Hutzel. I mean, we got, say Christopher's fun to talk about. We got important shit to talk about, bro.

4:48Malcolm: We got important stuff to talk about. Let's lead it off right now. Johannes Arians, all right? He is the CEO at Range Zero Emissions. He's joining us to break down a major move in the commercial EV space, combining EtherO trucks and Energy's West Coast operations. All right, so the Ziegler Truck Group's zero emission business and a new Hyundai TransLead partnership to build the largest commercial zero emission group in the country. All right, so we're going to get into that partnership. shit. Yeah, this is crazy. This is going to take a little time to kind of break down. And then Diane Hutzel, of course, the executive director and director of philanthropy at the St.

5:25Malcolm: Christopher Truckers Relief Fund is joining the show, officially stepping into her role after serving as interim director. All right. So we have a lot to talk about, obviously, with Trucker Appreciation Week and much more. I'm excited to speak with her about what the wonderful work her organization is doing. And then the boss lady is in the building. All right. Ms. Hannah Hurks is going to be here. She is a founder and CEO of Boss Lady Logistics. She's joining us to talk about the safe act, chameleon carriers and companies with bad safety records that essentially are reinventing themselves under a new identity.

5:57Malcolm: So we're getting to how they're spotted, how they're flagged, and what it costs legitimate carriers and what brokers and shippers need to be doing right now. So between Hannah, Diane, and Johannes is going to be an awesome, awesome show. But before we get to them. You guys, we are presented by one of the best companies in supply chain, and that is Descartes. The wonderful team at Descartes. Cannot thank them enough. Again, we're introducing Descartes MacroPoint ELD+. It's a new dual source tracking capability that combines ELD as well as a mobile app tracking all in one session. All right, you can spot discrepancy sooner, capture proof of delivery, and gain greater confidence within every single load.

6:39Malcolm: Learn more right now, of course, at Descartes.com. Again, that is our presenting sponsor. And our supporting sponsor is none other than... Kooner! Kooner! Kooner Fleet Management Solutions. Guys, you guys are an amazing partner as well. Again, a truck that's not moving isn't making any money. Every breakdown means lost revenue, misloads, driver downtime, and added pressure on your business. And that's why fleets across North America trust Kooner Fleet Management Solutions for mobile maintenance, preventative service, DOT inspections, and nationwide repair support. Cooner's tailored services help maximize revenue by keeping trucks moving, drivers earning, and freight right on time and on schedule.

7:17Malcolm: Visit coonerfms.com slash whatthetruck for your complimentary fleet maintenance review. Again, that is Cooner Fleet Management Solutions. And you guys know the event that's coming up here in about, I don't know, six weeks time. But if you've been under a rock, that is the future of Freight Festival. We got an event. U. What is it? It's called F3, the Future of Freight Festival. It is going to be live here in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the heart of the city at The Signal. You guys see the venue right there. It is going to be a fantastic time. Tickets are on sale right now. Make sure that you guys are coming out.

7:54Malcolm: There's going to be so much happening, whether it's the Freight Tech 100, whether it's brokerage conversations, whether it's technology conversations, obviously talking about all the latest when it comes to our headlines. We're going to dive into sonar data with Zach Strickland and do a bunch of different things. Of course, we're going to have all types of different vendors that are going to be in attendance. Hope to see some folks from Truck Stop there. You're going to see some merch. You're going to see all that and more. Adam Wingfield, I'm sure, is going to be there. I'm excited to see him.

8:24Malcolm: TPC is probably going to be in the house. We're going to have some live music, some trucks. You name it. We got it. We got the lizard, a.k.a. Craig Fuller, is going to be in the building. Yeah, you know what time it is. Look at that man. That man is handsome. All right. The armchair attorney is going to be in the building. Matthew Leffler, Dale Prax, my man, is going to be in the building. Make sure that you guys are, again, getting your tickets right now. They are coming to you right now. And there's a promo code, TAKE20, T-A-K-E-2-0. That is the promo code for you to get 20 % off of admission.

8:54Malcolm: Thank you guys so much for putting that on the screen for me. And we're excited. This is going to be a good time. Again, October 27th and the 28th at The Signal. Tickets are on. sale right now at freightwaves.com. All right. Thank y 'all so much. That is, uh, that's all for the future of freight. And, uh, we paid the bills. We got what we got. And, uh, I'm excited to get into the lights will be on for one more week. Listen, we had to get the lights on. Um, and this came at the tail end of yesterday, and this is a pretty significant one. This from John out of Colorado. And we are not talking about the Colorado Buffaloes led by coach Deion Sanders.

9:39Malcolm: All right. We're talking about this case with T.Q. Well, all right. They've officially been tossed as a defendant in their Colorado liability trial. All right. They had its request to be dismissed again from a case in the Colorado federal court granted on Tuesday by Judge Nina Wang. All right. The facts of the case filed by Deanne Miller are that her husband, Scott Miller, was driving on US 285 in the Centennial State in June 2024 when steel beams fell off of the truck onto the pickup truck Miller was driving, killing him, which is crazy. I mean, that's horrific. Look, my number one fear, and I've said this before on what the truck, my number one fear is those big coils would roll off and just crush my car or some shit like that.

10:21I mean, this is like my worst fear ever.

10:22Malcolm: No, absolutely. And I saw this with Final Destination, and it was like the steel beams and they like weren't strapped properly. It's terrifying. And that actually came true for the North family. Judge Wang said it was unclear who the driver was actually driving for when the metal on his truck fell off his vehicle. I could help her up. But he may have been delivering the cargo on behalf of another company, which was Monique Trucking. Therefore, TQL was dismissed from this. All right, so Mike, when you saw this, what were your thoughts about this one, man? my thoughts were again gosh i wish kingston were allowed to actually do journalism because he is so freaking awesome and this is this this whole article if you read it this is this is not my man john kingston is i i would love for him to be on here because we could talk about this forever right yeah i mean this article says tql was was tossed they weren't tossed they were dismissed that's come on let's let's stop with the grandiose crap they were dismissed on on stupidity on uh letter of law not spirit of law which is bs so look the the the article is focusing on the fact that tql was dismissed what they're missing is that this judge wang has totally missed what is going on here, right?

11:49Yes. Look, shipper pays TQL to move steel. TQL selects Monique Trucking to do the job. TQL controls the rate, the timeline, the route, and the equipment requirements. TQL controls all of that. Monique sends a driver, right, who loads and carries it improperly. Driver crosses the cash. Did TQL have duty to vet Monique Trucking's safety record before hiring him. That's the question, period, the end. Did the driver drive for TQL? Hell no. I mean, what kind of an argument? That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. It's a cop-out. TQL will be back in here as a defendant, and they should be. This is the part of the Montgomery decision that I like, is that, yes, there should be due diligence.

12:43Chasing the lowest rate is not ethical business. It is not responsible capitalism. It is not what you should be doing. And if that's what you're doing, then you're clapping because TQL was dismissed on bullshit. If you're an ethical, actual business person who gives a rat's ass about people, then you're going, what? That's ridiculous. There you go. There's my take.

13:07Malcolm: There's your take. I could not agree more. I do think that TQL will ultimately find themselves back. Of course they're responsible. because I mean you got to think with the nuclear verdict I mean if CH and they they've also spoken out on this you guys can read up on this in its entirety and I'm sure we're going to touch on it more on different shows here at Freight Waves but for time's sake just know that it is a robust one so this is uh it is oh god yeah I wish it's your point too I wish that JK John Kingston I wish he was able to truly I think say what he wants to say but I think if you really read between the lines.

13:43Malcolm: There's a lot that you can uncover. Oh, he's saying it. He's saying it. And by no means do my comments, do I want them to be like anything degrading John? No, of course. Of course. No, no, no. Dude, he's the best, man. He's one of the best riders we have. Do you know a man named Roberto Lopez? I was hoping you weren't going to ask me that. Can I plead the fifth? I plead the fifth. That's all for the show. Dude, he owns that. Does he own that pizza shop down in Fort Lauderdale? Nah, but I mean, he might know him. He might know him because my man is going away for some time and some time is about 19 years.

14:21Malcolm: Did you see what I did there? Oh, I saw what you did there and I loved every moment of it. Roberto Lopez is going to be in timeout for a little bit, all right, because he got nearly 19 years moving cocaine and cash through a trucking network. Let me break it down for you guys. All right. So this network involving truckers sent cash loads carrying at least a million apiece back into Mexico. All right. It was quite a few trucks that were into motion and the operation in terms of supplying Atlanta and Memphis, as well as other cities within the southeast. All right, so what would happen is the trucking businessman, his name was Carlos Montemeyer.

14:59Malcolm: He partnered with enforcer Edgar Valdez Valerio, who then went by the name La Barbie during the early 2000s. All right, so they served the Sinaloa. This is a lot. They served the Sinaloa cartel. I saw that movie. Yeah, me too. This feels like a movie. They served the Sinaloa cartel as well as the Beltran cartel leaders. All right. So they acted as the primary lieutenants. Within six months, they distributed about 1 ,500 kilos in just Atlanta alone. All right. So Lopez, he fled after investigators disrupted the operations. His indictment dates to December of 2009. And then they arrested him in Mexico City on June 27, 2024.

15:49Malcolm: So he used aliases like NWA and Shrek. That's crazy. I got to respect that. LaBarbie, NWA, Shrek. LaBarbie, NWA. You think he was like walking down Mexico that looked 15 years later, damn, it feels good to be a gangster. And then they popped his ass. I mean, it's wild. I mean, the other is accomplished. Got 49 years and one month behind bars. So then, yeah, this is crazy. There's a bunch of - And then they have like, afterwards, they have like 10 years of supervised living or some shit like that too, right? It's like an add-on at the end of that, right? You've done your time, you're out, but we're going to still watch you two for a little while.

16:32Malcolm: It is crazy. I mean, he literally basically was called by the U.S. Attorney's Office. Can you pull that up, please? I plead the fifth. Look at you, Mr. Michael Vincent. That is - You are hilarious. You see this on the screen right now? fifth i plead the fifth i plead the fifth i plead the fifth what's the other one 83 what's the 83 points or whatever yeah no no these guys are dropping 83 years but they're not coming home anytime soon so i thought nothing there it is with my sublime shirt i love that shirt my sublime shirt you know when you have that you I have that one t-shirt that's just like so comfortable.

17:17You're just like, damn, I love that t-shirt.

17:19Malcolm: I have a Bob Marley t-shirt that's my t-shirt. Like I make bacon with. You have a shirt that you cook in. Yeah, I don't make bacon with Bob Marley, dude. But I do have a favorite Bob Marley. It's one of him playing soccer in Kingston. He has a joint in his mouth and I couldn't wear it to school. So I just kind of made it. Well, that's odd. Yeah. That's odd. Yeah. Marley with a joint in his mouth. Yeah. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know he smoked pot. Me neither. So here's my thing about this article. Talk to me. Before you read it and start picking nits, because in the article, no truckers or anything are named or anything like that.

17:57I wish that Phil would have put in there, look, the DOJ says, look, because I think they specifically says he was handling various logistics, including payments to truck drivers and stash house operators. That was not in the article and it should have been, right? And repackaging and transportation of money over the border. That's what the DOJ says. The DOJ says that payments were made to truck drivers. Fox Atlanta said they intercepted Lopez on wiretaps, arranging payments to truck drivers. federal law enforcement's head also intercepted lopez on wiretaps arranging payments for truck drivers who are these who are these who are they questions i need answers because obviously what

18:53Malcolm: was happening is that this guy essentially had i hate to say a brokerage for drugs but that's what it was 100 did his warehouses were stash houses he had drivers he had online payments He had an AP team, an AR team. Like, it was, you know, Lover hated it. It was actually very creative. Now, he's not going to see the light of death. Where's my man Sherman Barnes? Where's my man Sherman Barnes? Look, Sherman Barnes, my man, he and I, we come from old school where you drove around an industrial park, looked for a loading dock, and then climbed up the back in an open dock door and found the shipping manager and said, hey, you're using these carriers?

19:32My carriers are better, right? Who's the guy who walked into one of his and went, oh, shit, look at all this drugs?

19:37Malcolm: That is insane, dude. You know what I'm saying? Holy cow. We got two more headlines to get to. I'll go through them real quick. Two more? Yeah. The first thing that we'll talk through is obviously it's just horrific news. And I wanted to bring this to you guys. All right. So 25 folks have unfortunately lost their lives. All right. We saw this yesterday come through from Stuart Truist. All right. So a fire aboard a foreign flag cargo ship undergoing repairs at a state-owned shipyard in the eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao killed 25 people, injured five others on Thursday. According to Chinese state media, the blaze broke out at around 11.15 a.m.

20:14Malcolm: local time within the Qingdao Belhai Shipment Company yard, which is, of course, part of the Chinese state building, ship building, rather, corporation. And it was extinguished for around 2.30. So you guys see this B-roll right here. This was a blaze that lasted about three hours, according to local authorities. The vessel, identified as the Liberia flagged dry bulk carrier Ocean Melody, had 42 people on board at the time of the incident. All right, so again, 42 folks on board, 20 have been confirmed dead. Well, now 25 officially, and then five missing, five hospitalized, and then 12 total escaped safely.

20:53Malcolm: So some awful news coming out of China. Mike, you saw this one, and I wanted to get your— I mean, obviously, I know your thoughts. this is horrific but i wonder how this could have been avoided yeah people dying is is not a good thing here's here's i don't think it could have been avoided maybe if chinese security was better because here's my take here's my take okay quingdao shipbuilding isn't just quingdao shipbuilding yeah it is the primary military ship building in china this is where they build all of their military navy. This is where they ship all of their munitions around the world. This is where possible shipments from and to Iran might be happening.

21:38That's the significance that was completely missed by this article. Just blew right through the actual importance here. A huge, very, very important military installation in China blew up. And here's the other thing. Imagine if there was a warehouse fire that killed 25 people somewhere in the United States, which probably happened seven or eight times over the last couple months. And immediately afterwards, Trump was ongoing. Everything's cool, people. Don't worry about it. The whole nation just calmed down. Everything's good. That's what happened in China. Xi immediately, right? Look, 20 ,000 people die of whatever in China, and Xi will look the other way because it ain't no big deal.

22:2425 people blow up at their major military at this shipbuilding thing, and he's immediately on the air with his people saying everybody calm down, and you don't think that's significant in some way? Yeah, yeah. This is way more than 25 people accidentally dying in a fire. There was no accident here, bro. This was no boating accident, to coin a phrase. No, no, no. It wasn't at all. It's horrific that 25 people die. I'm with you 100%, but you ain't... Pull my other leg. It plays jingle bells. B.S. This was not...

22:53Malcolm: come on man open your eyes open your eyes yeah yeah specifically in the statement on that there's my take there's my take the statement on the back end too was kind of weird it was like well emergency crews were immediately deployed as well as you know fire it just it seemed a bit off to me so that again well the location the significance of location g immediately coming out and all that kind come up no no no no no cannot agree more cannot agree more another one last one i'm not sure i got this one in uh dropped this morning so we probably don't have a graphic for it but wow you are crazy fast cody go ahead and throw that up there real quick all right so um michael vincent is responsible for 2 000 pounds of meth uh how happening in south texas all right so i saw this one and i was like michael's been busy i live in north texas bro nowhere near this shit oh you are a mess man all right so this is from the dea houston office this morning all right so according to the dea alan mcallen uh the office in rio grande valley the major seizure is part of homeland security task force investigation uh conducted jointly with the hsi all right so it was hsi fbi and customs border patrol as well uh they saw 2 000 pounds of meth hidden inside a cabbage shipment.

24:18Malcolm: Authorities have not disclosed exactly where agents discovered the drugs. Officials have not identified anyone connected with the load. Somebody is going to get a slap on the wrist in some organization or is probably no longer with this because this is a significant, a significant amount of cabbage. People, I implore you, rinse your fruits and vegetables when you bring them home from the supermarket. it. I'm just telling you. Just run them under the water a little bit here. That's all. That's the takeaway from this story. Make sure you wash your fruits and vegetables when you come home before you cook them and eat them.

24:55Malcolm: I don't want cocaine and meth on my strawberries and asparagus. All right, man. I just want a sober life. I'm telling you, man. I'm telling you, man. When's the last time you ate cabbage? When's the last time you ate cabbage? I'm not a cabbage guy, man. It kind of gives me diarrhea. I know that's kind of TMI for this program, but. Not a big cabbage guy. Not a big cabbage guy, man. Not a big cabbage guy. I got you. One time, my mom sent me to the store to get cabbage, and I got some lettuce because I don't have good attention to detail. It looks like that. And yeah, she was very upset with me. So we got Diane waiting in the wings.

25:30Malcolm: We're going to get to Diane here in a moment. But Johans has been patiently waiting, so we're going to get to Mr. Arians. He is the CEO of Range Zero Emissions, and he is now going to join us officially here on what the truck yo huns you have me in the headphones can you hear me loud and clear i can hear you loud and clear what's going on how's it going good good how you guys doing this morning we're doing well man we're really happy you're here man happy friday thank you appreciate that of course the show you know what i started doing bro yeah yeah you know what i've been doing like look i just been taking like your linkedin profile i just took it and i threw it in a claw and i said describe this guy oh okay what did we get what did we get i don't know if cody's cody got did we get something out of it because i never doubt cody dollars so let's see there it is this is not bad not bad i don't like specialized bikes but otherwise yeah i mean it's make him an eagle in a ball cap drinking espresso while playing a piano with one hand and steering an electric truck and the other pedaling a mountain bike with a surfboard tied to his back with kurt cobain there you go that's you i'm heading to kurt cobain's hometown hometown today to go surfing see it's so close pretty damn accurate there it is that's pretty good that's pretty good dude that's that's legendary so you you just kind of drop that in here i mean before we get to like the logistics and things people care about why are you going to kurt cobain's hometown to go surf wow how did you get on that so so so yeah kurt cobain's from aberdeen washington um which there's songs about that as you may know and and the muddy banks of wichita which is one of their kind of like the famous songs is the river that kind of runs out in the ocean and washington state's number one kind of surf spot is in west which is maybe 30 minutes.

27:27You go right through Aberdeen on your way to Westport, about 30 minutes down the road. And that's where you go surfing in Washington state. Yeah. So. And you were like, where you, did you start, or you were involved with some type of surfing organization? Weren't you? Yeah. Yeah. One of my, one of my past companies was a, was a hotel company that, that, you know, did like outdoorsy. Oh, that's what it was. Yeah. And one of them was out in, in Westport, Washington, which was a surf place. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Old motels. Used to renovate old motels and like near camping grounds and state parks and that type.

28:03Yeah.

28:04Malcolm: Yeah. So I want to talk about this with range because you guys are very, very, very busy. All right. So you guys are combining West Coast operations, obviously, with a bunch of different business entities. But specifically, there's what this Hyundai Translite partnership. ship, what's the largest strategy behind bringing all of these different pieces together? Because it's what, three total entities or even four maybe, right? Yeah, yeah. So, so, so Hyundai, right, we're just, we're basically coming on as a dealer to support their North American fuel cell, their Class A Exeunt truck release, which is our hydrogen truck.

28:40And so, you know, as a, as a dealer, that looks relatively straightforward. The entities we've combined recently were Range Zero Emissions, which is based, you know, has been operating primarily out of the Pacific Northwest. An organization called Ziggler Truck Group, which was based in Minnesota, in Minneapolis. And then an organization called Ethero Truck and Energy, their West Coast operations. So these are all zero emission commercial truck dealers exclusively. So focused on medium and heavy duty, class four through eight. And really what we're doing with those is bringing them all together.

29:11And with that, our OEM stables from each. And so that equals up to, I think it's eight OEMs right now, with all primary focus, again, on commercial, exclusively zero-tail pipe emission stuff. So it's primarily battery electric with the introduction of Hyundai, Hyundai, excuse me, that brings Class A fuel cell into into our mix, which is as you know, coming back from Nicole, all that kind of stuff. A lot of a lot of folks believe in hydrogen as an energy, you know, a future energy for heavy, heavy applications specifically. So that's kind of what we're doing. That's what we're up to. And really the impetus behind that is we got to aggregate as much as possible in one spot because somebody on the distribution side needs to be able to make this be a viable business model for adoption to actually continue to grow.

30:08Nice. Yeah, because individually the density is not there, but aggregated it is. That's the play, right? But that's the basic, yeah, if you were just to break it down, no one dealer in one spot, right, with one brand is going to put enough demand into place when total adoption is sub 1 % to make any money. And until someone can make money doing this stuff, it's not going to take off, right? And that remains, you know, I always say it's like, it's not a product problem, it's a distribution problem. why we're sitting where we're sitting today as it relates to current adoption rates when we think back to 2019 and what people where people thought we would be right yeah gotcha there's got to be strategy around where the geographic location of these things are right so i mean you you're in tacoma i mean is it just convenient that you happen to be in what i would consider without doing any research probably ground zero or one of the ground zeros of where to try and do this right Is that accurate to say?

31:13I mean, Atlanta, Georgia, probably not so much, right? Or Dallas. You'd be surprised. You'd be surprised. And Texas, I'll push back hard on Texas. Yeah, I regret that. It was halfway out of my mouth. And I was like, wait a minute. It is. It actually is. You're right. It is. So West Coast, no doubt, right? So West Coast is easy, right? You go, okay, where should we be? there's like you know socal norcal and and the pacific northwest you have you have an incentive density perspective you're the two three four you know kind of one through five largest incentives in the country live in washington and california right and and they're continuing to get refunded you have renewable energy blah blah blah like like you know the the no those are sort of the easy button ones so our location in tacoma which is just adjacent to seattle we're a couple minutes from the Port of Tacoma, which is part of the Northwest Seaport Alliance, which is a partner with the Seattle, Port of Seattle.

32:13You know, none of this stuff is surprising. And yes, it is strategic. It is not a coincidence. And then similar, we just picked up our location in Stockton right over the hill from Oakland. Port of Oakland is one of the only places on the West Coast you can currently get hydrogen, not to mention the extreme density in the Greater Bay Area. And then obviously you drop down to long beach socal orange county and density like crazy right so so none of that's surprising where i what i would say is look out texas is next right unequivocally like what people overlook as it relates to texas and you guys can appreciate this more than us west coast folks is texas might not be like politically viewed as a as a super progressive or innovative place It is the unequivocal headquarters and, you know, like ground zero for energy, right?

33:07And what we're talking about is energy transition and energy independence. And there is no way Texas is going to miss out on that. And no one is better equipped to innovate energy like Texas. And so, you know, they're going to be a major player in this. and then just talk about unbelievable amounts of demand and density across the greater metros in

33:28Malcolm: texas so there's that as well as yeah i think i think you're right no no i was gonna i was gonna say with the the dealership model the goal because i i kind of want some clarity on this for myself is it to to make buying and operating an electric commercial vehicle more like traditional truck buying or is it just to kind of have like a one-stop shop whether it's sales service support all the things what is that model needing to look like if that makes sense yeah yeah i mean so so so a lot of it breaks down to and this this gets into where a newcomer can come in and really take a lot of market share and and really develop themselves around a new technology because that's what this is right um you know you're not necessarily trying to replace a you know like for like um with a gas because like it's like well if i can charge my truck at my shop for a quarter of the price or less than gas, why would I want to go and replicate that?

34:25It costs me money to have one of my drivers put gas in a truck, all these kinds of things. And keep in mind, 95 % of commercial fleets nationwide are five vehicles or less. So they are not fueling up at their shop. They are parking at their garage, maybe they're parked at their home, that kind of thing where like one or two trucks, pretty easy to charge. But when you get into macros, all those things cost money. And so like for like isn't necessarily the goal. Doing the job is the goal. And I think that's what's really important here is people always kind of want to go, is it going to be hydrogen?

34:59Is it going to be electric? And this idea that it's one or the other, it's like, no, no, it's what do we need for the job? And so what we need for the job in the case of a lot of electric and probably hydrogen as well is 40 to 60 % less maintenance per unit sold. Right. And so when you talk about 40 to 60 percent less maintenance per unit sold and you're a diesel dealer that has 50 bays and that square footage is all designed around that piece of technology, ice technology that has a certain level of maintenance per unit density. When you then you spread that out to a region, you have the same number of units that need to be deployed.

35:34How many square feet do you need to service those units? 40 to 60 percent less is the answer. And so if you if you're not for us, we're designing our business model from the start with that. and what does that mean for us the amount of fixed overhead and costs that we have to carry along the way will kind of equate down to 40 or 60 percent less right your two most expensive business costs in business real estate and people right so you want to win on real estate win on people right if you need 40 to 60 percent less brick and mortar and you can and you can service the same area based on that that low it lowered service need based on this technology and you can start with that, I don't have to unwind my ICE infrastructure over the course of, say, the next 20 years.

36:17And so along the way, we can win on margin and just continue to grow as we aggregate demand. And really, it's a tight margin of business, as you guys were talking about earlier. And so really looking at that and going, okay, how do we build a model around this particular new technology? And if you look at who's winning and who's really done the best as it relates to ev adoption coming from the consumer space it's direct consumer brands that are not strapped with nice technology right and so what can we learn what can we learn from those direct consumer brands and go okay how does this apply to commercial and and what are the differences between them who you know like in the case of of like we use rivian and tesla effectively started distribution before they ever even had brick and mortar barely they barely had brick and mortar and and now they're starting to get there but the amount the the square footage if you were to go and look at their square footage numbers of units sold per service square footage and salesperson per revenue or unit sold, I can tell you it is not comparable to ICE legacy brands and their distribution and their incumbent distribution models.

37:22And you have to learn from that.

37:25Malcolm: Mike, you got to follow up on that because I got like three more, but you go ahead, Mike. Well, I don't know how much time we got left, but I mean, my question is this, I mean, you talked about you don't have to unwind the ice model that's out there right now but i mean you're making so much sense and there's so much obvious i mean you i never thought about it this way and and that's why we have people like yourselves who are so passionate about different things to really bring these efficiencies if you're really saving that amount of money and i don't doubt that you are why wouldn't it change the entire ice model that's that that's here or or vice versa So if you're successful, or not you, but let's say if the adoption of alternative energy vehicles is successful, as it probably will be, as we all guess it probably will be, or think to estimate it will be, why won't there eventually be, hey, this OEM says, wait a minute, you can only exclusively sell mine.

38:18I mean, that's how it happened with ICE engines and automobiles. You could sell multiple and then he said, no, no, no, no, only Buicks in this one or only BMWs here. How does that – how do you not let that unwind or how do you not let the ICE model unwind? Am I asking a question or am I just running around? I feel like I confused myself. Hopefully, you guys understood. I had to. So, yeah, no, I got to. So, the multi-OEM thing is interesting, right? Because I don't actually – I think you're right on – I think you're spot on, right? And so do some of these OEMs that make it morph and grow into where there's enough demand in one spot where it's like, hey, you just carry us now.

39:03And it's like, yeah, I actually do think that happens. So we might have different OEMs across different lines. But inline competition, I think that does start to go away over time. But one of the reasons that the distributors, the dealers of the world, haven't been able to get behind this is they can't trust the OEM. and they're not building in redundancy and risk management checks to their supply chain. So how much money can I go invest into this when I can wake up tomorrow and that OEM is bankrupt and gone and now I have no supply and that's the only way. I don't build things. I distribute them.

39:37And so if I don't risk check that, I can't go and make the necessary investments in distribution and demand aggregation that need to be made to bring a new technology to a new market unless I have absolute security in my supply chain. And so right now, the OEMs kind of have to just deal with that. Is it super annoying to deal with a bunch of different OEMs and inline competition? Yes, unequivocally. It's not like a model that I love, but I think it's necessary to be able to kind of make the kind of investments you need to be able to aggregate demand enough to get a model that actually works to actually go and bring this stuff to market in the way that we thought was going to happen in 2019 and eventually is you know our core thesis is this is going to happen i you know yeah fill in the number the x for not how long it takes and what it exactly looks like but this is we we operate under a very clean a very basic thesis which is like we are going to transition almost all transportation and movement of goods to non-fossil fuel energy right like like that's a there's a pure there's a purity to that which is unequivocal which is the reality for all of us and why this is all happening is i don't care where you stand politically fossil fuel is a finite resource it's going to run out facts absolutely

41:00Malcolm: yeah absolutely yeah johan's area we're gonna get to mars before then though dude we better If we got Johans at the helm, we're going to get to Mars by next week, baby. Mr. Arians, be safe surfing. I need to get out there to visit you because I've never been to Washington State. And it has been killing me. What? What? It's been killing me. You got to go, bro. You got to go, bro. Now I got a reason, man. It's beautiful. Beautiful. Oh, man. I appreciate you doing it. I mean, it rains all the time, and it's horrible. Don't come out here. No, no, no. I hear that. Like, honestly, I think everybody in Washington State is lying because you don't want people it a move there because you love it so much you want to keep it a secret so um for more information for rain zero emissions and what you guys are doing um where can we go uh website wise i want you to plug everything in before we uh go to our next guest yeah range zero emissions.com uh pretty straightforward and uh yeah that's that's where we're at uh you can find us you know in multiple states cross country we drop shipping nationwide and um if if you're trying to figure out incentives there's a lot of money out there we're working with uh i don't know i literally don't know how many incentive programs we're selling trucks against right now today um so that's our specialty we we help we help organizations figure out initial capex to be able to make the transition because as everybody likes to talk about but nobody seems to be able to get to because once you have the truck there is no comparison on cost operation it does not exist it is all about capex so if you can clear that capex hurdle you're good to go and that's that's what we help people figure out how to do yeah well you're doing a great job johans thank you and the rest of the team uh for all that you guys do and uh definitely gotta have you here in chattanooga if not i i gotta see you i love chattanooga i can't wait so i have i have been to chattanooga and and it is awesome so i uh i'm actually i saw your little ad for the the the thing in october and we'll see yeah we'll definitely see we appreciate you great surf there's great surfing on lake chickamauga bro he is lying to you what I know is there's not great surfing on the east coast so I just ride off the stairs even Diane got a chuckle out of that I see her in the wings appreciate you Johans thank you brother Johans Arians awesome awesome segment and we got about 10 minutes left so with that she has been patiently waiting in the wings She's got a few laughs here and there.

43:29Malcolm: So we got about 10 minutes. I will say she is very humble. But her role, which congratulations to her. We're going to talk all about it. Amen. And her organization is one of, if not, I'd say top three most important organizations in trucking. And what they've done for drivers is miraculous. So we're going to talk about it. We've had them on the show before. But again, representing the St. Christopher Trucker Relief Fund is none other than their executive director, a director of philanthropy. Really, that gal should just be on the bottom of her lower third because she is, in fact, that gal. Diane Hutzel.

44:06Malcolm: Diane, welcome to What the Truck. It is so good to see you again. How's everything going? Thank you. It's been phenomenal. It's been fantastic. And don't feed lies to people what Chattanooga's like. You need to tell that man exactly how bad the weather is here. because I'm 45 minutes down the road from you. Y 'all just so full eyes. But whatever. I want to come with you so I can stop all the grunge here. He's going to be waiting for his surfboard to come off the plane. You know that. We'll take him down the Ocoee and then he can surf that and see. But no, thank you. Yeah, yeah, there you go. There you go.

44:40Thank you for having me. And all the kind things and wonderful things you say, you know, about St. Christopher's. I am thrilled and excited to get to be executive director and lead such an amazing organization. I mean, we've coming up on our 20th. We've given out over five and a half million dollars and there's just more to come. So thank you.

44:58Malcolm: No, of course. Of course. Fantastic. We got some research. We did it for Johans in the first segment. Well, no, I taught. Listen, I've changed my style here a little bit here. First of all, we're bulldogs. My wife is a bulldog. She's tennis. Yay. What year to graduate? uh yeah like 2007 she went back to school she went back to college i'm a bulldog too i graduated i actually i put you in it's weird because i put you and claude said who is this person described this person in a picture and here's here's what here's what came i think and why it didn't why it came out as a as a as a golden retriever not a bulldog i don't know i don't know i don't have a golden retriever i have a giant rhodesian ridgebacks and and the ut is appropriate for the family that i've married into but i'm a cub's right and that should be blue and red yeah it should be that's what i'm saying i'm a cubbies fan too it should be cubbies fan and there should be bulldog there i don't understand But there you go.

46:10Where did the fiddle come from? Are you a fiddle player? Do you play the fiddle? I am not. I have no idea. I don't know. I don't know where the hell that came from. I don't know. Oh, well. There you go. Claude. It's crazy.

46:21Malcolm: Shout out to the Cubs, by the way. I was actually going to wear a Cubs jersey today. Yeah. It was way too big. Yeah. Yeah. So I just decided against it. Diane, we got a bunch of questions. But for time, I want to just get to the nitty gritty. talk to us a little bit about behind the numbers because i don't think people really understand the totality of work that you all do and the money that you guys raise and how you impact truckers like with sickness with mental disability with all these different things and obviously with driver appreciation month and week and so on and so forth like i i just really want to be able to give you a spotlight to just really put it by the numbers.

47:05Malcolm: So please take it away. Do it. Yeah. So like I said, over five and a half million dollars to drivers that are in need, just because as you know, when, when the truck stops moving, the paycheck's not coming in. And so that's where we step in. We get to help pay with mortgage and rent and car payments and truck payments and insurance and utilities. And then that way, whoever is sick or injured, that driver can focus on trying to get better and not worrying about how they're going to keep the lights on or, you know, keep a house and, you know, roof over their head for their kids. And then we also have the preventative side of it.

47:36So for the last 10 years, we have helped hundreds and hundreds of drivers quit smoking. We have helped, you know, even more who have cut their nicotine by half. We have cancer screenings, which early detection is key. And so the great thing about St. Christopher's is you can come to us and we can get you cancer screenings, cervical cancers, colorectal, prostate cancer screenings for free. You can get vaccines, COVID, pneumonia, shingles for free at St. Christopher's. So my big emphasis, I mean, it has always been since I came on as director of philanthropy a year and a half ago, as I tell people, obviously I'm going to come to you and say, Hey, would you support St.

48:16Christopher's? And the industry has been phenomenal. Like when I, when I come with my handout, they are right there saying how much and how much can I give and how much more, even in today's economy where it's not necessarily great for the trucking industry. But they're there to help and they really want to see what's going to be successful. And so without them, we can't do what we do. But if people don't know what St. Christopher's is and that it actually exists, we can't do anything either. So my main goal, especially as coming in executive director and going to all the shows and making the circuit is how do I get in front of the people that can tell drivers what we do and where we are and that we're here.

48:54And again, it's all for free. So that is first and foremost, my main goal. And like I said, trekking industry, I'm new to it, came to it about a year and a half ago, worked in a lot of social services, but this is by far the biggest group of people that I've ever worked with that, that they step up to the plate when somebody needs something, they're there. And so it's, it's incredibly rewarding and i love my job every day i don't know a lot of people that get to say

49:20Malcolm: that but i get to that's beautiful and the work you guys are doing is beautiful as well mike i'll let you follow up before i want to uh end this one on a on a good question so go ahead mike oh so i get to go first yeah you're gonna end it with the good question yeah yeah for sure for sure look the only thing i have to say is is how do we get more people involved you guys are awesome and growing and and that i mean malcolm i just want to promote what the heck they're doing because we we all understand exactly what they're doing how do well not actually how do people get involved how do we get more truckers to understand that these resources are out there those that are out there because you know when people get down and out they a lot of them just put up walls and go you know what yeah the world is is screwing me so forget it and that hand reaching out sometimes you're blinded you just don't see it how do they see that yeah you know the biggest hurdle that we see a lot of is a lot of the times they don't want to admit they don't want to ask for help being one of those people that is terrible at asking for help I understand that and some of them kind of feel a little embarrassed when they come to us because they feel like they're not doing what they need to do to take care of their family.

50:40We have to get past that stigma. You know, when you call St. Christopher's, you get one of us. We talk to you. It's case by case. Getting in front of drivers is key. So that's where industry leaders are important. I've been hitting the road. I'll be at Ambest in Phoenix in a week and a half. I'll be in Charlotte at ATA, you know, going to be in Indianapolis next year. I mean, just trying to get in front of people. So my big ask out there is not necessarily for money, but also how can I get in front of your drivers? How do I get to be part of those safety meetings? How does St. Christopher's get to be part of your new driver orientation?

51:17So again, that God forbid, if that need rises, we can be there and we can help you financially or even better. Let's keep you healthy on the front end. You know, it's not a very healthy lifestyle being on the road all the time. You've got, you know, a lot of driver smoke. You're not stopping by the road to get a salad. You know, you're kind of eating what's quick and what's easy because, you know, you're on the road. You got to get moving. You want to get home. You don't have time to go get screenings and tests and stuff because, again, you're on the road and when you're home, you want to be home.

51:46You don't want to think about this kind of thing. So I think right now, other than obviously, if you want to donate financially and support St. Christopher's, we love that. But help me get in front of drivers. Help me get in front of the people that we are, you know, destined, where you're supposed to help. That's what we're here for. And that's what we want to do. So that's my big ask for the industry out there.

52:07Malcolm: I think we can chop that up and get that in the hands of the people it needs to get to. You guys are about to turn 20 next year. Technically founded in 2007. You helped your first driver in 08. and you're at the heart of one of, if not the biggest moving part for just driver health and driver security and driver safety. What do you want the next 20 years to look like that you didn't necessarily do in the first 20 in terms of the mission? I think more of what we've been doing, you know, just with recently with a lot of the interest that's been focusing on St. Christopher's because we have so many wonderful things.

52:44Julie Dillon, who was with St. Christopher's for a decade, has come back on and she is our health and wellness manager. So she is bringing new light and new energy and new excitement and new programs to our health and wellness program. So we wanna focus again on keeping drivers healthy. We don't wanna have to be able to give them funds to help if they're out because they have a heart attack. We don't want them to have that heart attack to begin with. And so just kind of more of the same. And again, like I said, industry, whether it is carriers or distributors or just everybody, manufacturers, You know, they have been amazing and have been knocking on my door.

53:21I just came back from the new core carriers conference just a week and a half ago. They called up and said, hey, we want to do a fundraiser for you guys. Raised over$11 ,000. Transfix is doing their second annual fantasy football, which I know there's a ton of people in the industry. You know, they quadrupled what they raised for us last year. So it's just been a wonderful year of the industry coming together to support drivers because we all understand the important role that drivers play. But I think your average Joe on the street just doesn't quite understand, unless it's COVID and they're not getting their toilet paper.

53:54They all remember that from six years ago. We're just trying to impart to people, drivers are important. We need to take care of them. And a lot of people just don't. They think, oh, they're just a driver. But no, there's so much more to it.

54:08Malcolm: So much more to it. And Diane, you always have a spot here on What the Truck. We appreciate you and all you do for the organization and for the industry. And I hope you have a good weekend. And we'll see you next time in studio. Let's make that happen. I would love that. That would be fantastic. You know, we'll go hit the Chattanooga spots. Let's go do it. I appreciate you, Diane. Thank you. We appreciate y 'all for being here again on What the Truck. It has been a fantastic episode between Johans as well as Diane. I would be remiss to not end the show by saying 25 years ago, we lost a lot of lives.

54:45Malcolm: It was 9-11, and we will never forget. God bless our country. God bless America. God bless y 'all. See you guys next week. Peace. Peace and love, everybody. Peace and love.

55:14We'll be right back.