Transcript
The Jobs Podcast: Hey folks, you're listening to the jobs podcast. I'm your host, Tim Hendricks. Your time is valuable. I don't like to waste it. So let's go ahead and get right to it. Our guest today is Bo. Bo has over 20 years in logistics.
The Jobs Podcast: He is currently a logistics operations manager in the great state of Missouri. And this gentleman knows everything about getting stuff from point A to point B. So the stuff on your shelves, he's a big part of why that makes it there.
The Jobs Podcast: So you can have your crunchy Funyuns or whatever it is that you want. But welcome to the show, Bo. How you doing?
Bo Prock: I'm fantastic. It is ah great to be here. I appreciate the opportunity.
The Jobs Podcast: You bet. So let's start off with a little origin story of Bo. And when when was your first logistics organizational setup? And we'll just kind of go from there.
Bo Prock: Oh, so i actually joined a trucking company in, well, August 1st of 2005. So we are just getting real close to approaching my 20th year ah with the company.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
Bo Prock: And I got hired on. um The owner of the company had just built a new shop and he knew that I didn't know anything about trucking or mechanics or anything like that, but he needed somebody to kind of help move things into the new shop, clean tools, uh, you know, get everything set up. And I, I took that job, um,
Bo Prock: Got me out of bartending and waiting waiting tables and kind of jumped on that for a while. ah Really liked it. And about six months after I started there, I got the opportunity to go to refrigerated mechanics school out in Denver, Colorado.
Bo Prock: and learned how to work on the reefer units, uh, which was the biggest part of his business at the time. And from there, ah you know, worked as a mechanic for a while, um, went to kind of the lead mechanic for him and his shop and then shop manager, um, somewhere around 2012, 2013, uh, jumped over into dispatching trucks and managing, um,
Bo Prock: loads and a little bit of customer relations and stuff like that. And just kind of kept taking on different roles. And ah shortly thereafter, got named the operations manager for his company. And we've been growing and trucking ever since.
The Jobs Podcast: Wow. So you really did start from the bottom and work your way up to the top.
Bo Prock: the below the bottom is what I tell everybody. it It wasn't even an actual job with the company. It was just somebody taking pity on me and letting me make some money for a while.
The Jobs Podcast: Well, now let's jump back a little bit. You had said that you were waiting tables and bartending.
Bo Prock: Okay.
The Jobs Podcast: Did you go to school for any sort of specific career or did you just kind of find yourself floating along or how did how did your early years play out?
Bo Prock: I did in high school. I actually, ah in my junior and senior year, had the opportunity to go to a vocational a vacational school
The Jobs Podcast: so Okay.
Bo Prock: And I took on the classes in computer programming, which at that time was RPG programming for the nerds out there. um and And loved it. I mean, I truly loved it. um And I think I loved my teacher more than I actually loved the work.
Bo Prock: um And I still to this day, ah my teacher then, Mr. Meister, ah the lesson that that I took from him was to always think outside the box. And it was such a big part of the computer programming world to not get caught up on a single line of code and to look at the big picture and, you know, to step away and and see what you could do with things.
Bo Prock: um But ah graduated with honors through that program. Went to college, ah went to Crowder College down here in southwest Missouri.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: And they have some computer programming classes there. And whenever me and my two buddies went in and started talking to them about that, they knew our teacher so well that they said, there's nothing that we can teach you guys. You guys should be the ones teaching the class. If you worked under this guy, which was, which was really impressive.
Bo Prock: I mean, it was, it was really neat. And, um, So, yeah kind of bounced around in that for just a little bit, but I really quickly decided that I had no desire whatsoever to live the next 40 years of my life in a cubicle.
Bo Prock: It just wasn't something I wanted to do.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: I've been a fan of the outdoors since I was little, hunting and fishing and camping, and ah i just, I could not see spending that much time in a cubicle um in my life. So, i just I just kind of woke up one day and said, okay, I'm not doing that anymore.
Bo Prock: and uh, moved on to other things. Um, from there, I kicked around a bunch of, of smaller jobs, you know, just kind of seeing what I liked.
Bo Prock: I had waited tables in high school. So I, I went back to that and waited tables, did some bartending, um, ended up in the kitchen, um, kind of helping with, uh, double shifts and stuff and, and really enjoyed that too. But,
Bo Prock: It just, it wasn't going to be a career. So whenever I got the opportunity to come work for Mike and his trucking company, it was, it was a pretty big leap ah to go from what I was making bartending to what you make as a tool cleaner.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Bo Prock: um But it was, it was something that i I thought could benefit me down the road and, and it was a worthwhile gamble it turns out. So yeah, it was a foot in the door on a ground level company, you know, they had just started.
The Jobs Podcast: It was a foot in the door for you, wasn't it?
Bo Prock: And, you know, at that point, he was really just looking for some good, honest, hard workers. And he was willing to grow whoever that was from there, ah regardless of their experience.
The Jobs Podcast: I think that's something that you don't see as much as you used to see. you know our um I think we're relatively close in age. I might be a little bit older than you, but our grandparents and our even our parents would talk about how you start from the bottom.
The Jobs Podcast: You work your way up. A company will invest in you.
Bo Prock: Mm-hmm.
The Jobs Podcast: Then you have a pension. You get a gold watch when you retire, and there you go.
Bo Prock: Yep. Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: and But nowadays, they expect 20-year-olds to have a PhD and 10 years of experience, and then they're paying $35,000 a year.
Bo Prock: Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: And so it's hard to find these opportunities to get in and prove yourself. Now, there's a step that you have to take, not you personally, but a person has to take. If you get your foot in that door, you need to make the most of that opportunity, and that's what you did.
Bo Prock: Yeah, I don't think you're given those chances, you know, seven or eight or nine times in your lifetime. So whenever they come around, if you can if you can see through the fog, you know, because...
The Jobs Podcast: Huh.
Bo Prock: being a 21 year old that could have went and without a college degree, just with what I got in high school, ah you know, I could have went and been a programmer for several companies at any time.
Bo Prock: I mean, at any given time, I could have went and done that. But you know it It took me a while. there there was There were some big things that I wanted. I wanted to live here in the town I live in, which is Purdy, Missouri, a little bitty town ah that i I mainly grew up in.
Bo Prock: and There's no programming jobs here in Purdy. At that time, ah there was no real ah remote work situations 2005. don't know. I
The Jobs Podcast: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Bo Prock: ah so i don't know you know
Bo Prock: Looking back on it now, I look at it and go, man, that was really kind of risky, though. You know, you you you had a lot of tools already in your pocket.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: And, you know, you went and started cleaning tools for a guy. But i um i At that time, I knew that's what I wanted. I wanted i wanted to be home. I wanted to be here in my town.
Bo Prock: um And I didn't want to be in a cubicle somewhere. And that checked both those boxes at that time. ah You know, all I needed was a little bit of money to go to the corner store once a week and buy the necessary things for the weekend. And and I was good. So i it checked my boxes at that time.
The Jobs Podcast: Well, and when you're young, that's when you can take those those calculated risks like that. But, you know, you mentioned something about you you didn't want to sit in a cubic all day and you could have gone and done programming at any time.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: If you you don't have the option to look into the future with a crystal ball, but is there is was there some benefit to having that base knowledge and now that logistics is so digital?
Bo Prock: ah Yeah. So now that that has really helped me in areas. of We had to build a couple custom app apps for our business that we hired a really talented company to do.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah Okay. Okay.
Bo Prock: But I was very involved in that. Like there were lots of questions. And, you know, if you click this button, what exactly do we want it to do? And I got to go back to that language, the if, then, when you know statements that we used to use in programming to type all that.
The Jobs Podcast: okay
Bo Prock: I could actually, and I'm nowhere near you know what these guys were, but you know I could go, when this happens, you know we need it to jump to here. and And it flowed a lot better.
The Jobs Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Bo Prock: um
The Jobs Podcast: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Bo Prock: But you know right now, I'm in-house. I'm kind of the tech guy. you know I kind of take care of you know as much stuff as I can. um but But going back, I'm i'm telling you, the most the most valuable thing I learned in that was the importance of thinking outside the box. And that translates to translates to logistics so well um because our our entire life is outside the box. there's no um There's no script for our day-to-day, hardly at all.
The Jobs Podcast: the you see these phrases or You hear these phrases a lot like think outside the box and synergy, and sometimes I think they might be overused, but theyre but I know I really do too.
Bo Prock: Mm-hmm.
Bo Prock: Yeah, I hate synergy.
The Jobs Podcast: it's it's I feel like I'm dealing with a used car salesman when somebody uses that word, but...
Bo Prock: I do too.
The Jobs Podcast: But at the same time, what your what it comes down to, thinking outside the box, is you're thinking unconventionally.
Bo Prock: Yes.
The Jobs Podcast: what This is what we've always done. We need to step back, and there may be a better way if we get a bigger picture.
Bo Prock: Yes.
The Jobs Podcast: And
Bo Prock: Yeah, and and I've kind of went to the term of being able to look through the fog because
The Jobs Podcast: there you go.
Bo Prock: i you know In logistics, you know like just this weekend, we had um a friend of ours. It wasn't actually one of our trucks, but a friend of ours turned his truck over.
Bo Prock: and We've had that kind of stuff happen in the past. and you know Your initial reaction is you know your blood pressure goes up and your anxiety hits 10 and all this stuff is going on.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: But then, you know, you step back from it and you just start picking out pieces of the puzzle that you can put together and go, hey, we need to do this. We need to call this person and just start plugging that in. And, you know, being able to see through the fog, as as I tell people, is is such a valuable skill, not to just have in logistics, but man, everything we do in life is, you know, not get distracted by all the the static and the fuzz that's out there and just look at the problem and figure out a way to solve it.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
The Jobs Podcast: My dad used to always say, how do you eat an elephant? You eat it one bite at a time.
Bo Prock: One bite at time. Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: And it's just, okay, I can't fix all the problems. Which ones can I fix? And then I start with that box and then the next box and then the next box.
Bo Prock: Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: And, you know, 10 steps from there, you've made a lot of progress towards fixing all kinds of stuff related to the issue that you're dealing with.
Bo Prock: Yep. For sure. Mm-hmm.
The Jobs Podcast: So logistics. I know that you deal with basically trucking, but it's not just semi trucks. Is it?
Bo Prock: ah So that's that's our main ah business that we have right now is asset-based trucks.
The Jobs Podcast: Your bulk. Okay. Okay.
Bo Prock: um We own all of our own trailers. ah So we what what we really concentrate on doing is find a customer that has an issue and we start talking, you know, those issues out and figure out if we're going to be a good match together.
Bo Prock: Yeah. And then one of the big things that we've done in our program is almost everything we do is a drop trailer program for our customers. So we put a certain amount, if we're hauling 20 loads a week for a customer, we put 40 trailers into it.
Bo Prock: So they've always got 20 trailers sitting there that they can load at their convenience while we're out pulling 20.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
Bo Prock: um So that's our Our main ah bread and butter, um we also have a brokerage.
The Jobs Podcast: You're breading. Yeah.
Bo Prock: um And for those that don't know, brokerages are, when I say asset-based, that means that we have trucks and trailers that we haul the product ourselves. A brokerage has the loads, but doesn't have any trucks or trailers. So they go out and find people that have trucks and trailers to haul the freight for them.
Bo Prock: So we also have a brokerage that helps fill some gaps for us. And then here just recently, we've We built a very, very elaborate automatic truck wash um that we're opening up to the public, and that's kind of going to be our our next level of concentration.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
The Jobs Podcast: The is there one particular field that you ship for whether it's refrigerated grocery type items or just for stuff for Walmart or feed or anybody?
Bo Prock: So right now we're primarily dry vans, which is just a box basically on wheels. So stuff that doesn't need to be refrigerated, ah that is small enough to fit inside a box instead of having to go on a flatbed.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
Bo Prock: And then we have, I think we've got eight flatbeds now that we're doing a little bit of work for for customer.
The Jobs Podcast: Do you you primarily just the lower 48 or do you go up into Canada, down to Mexico?
Bo Prock: No, thank God, as of right now, we're just the 48. Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay. My father-in-law used to, when he retired from farming, he delivered irrigation pivots out of Nebraska. And and he was, he went up into Canada quite a bit.
The Jobs Podcast: um He spoke very highly of the process, but he seemed to be one that they liked to use for that because he didn't have any, he didn't have a record. He didn't have any child support, nothing like that. He had his hazmat cert.
The Jobs Podcast: It made it easier for him to get into Canada and then back in the United States.
Bo Prock: Yes. And, you know, ah I don't want to do it, but, you know, I think it has gotten easier. um But I think one of the keys is having a consistent guy on it like they like they did with him, you know, ah because it's just like anything else.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: You know, if they're running the same route over and over, they get on a first name basis with whoever's working at the border and. you know they go, oh it's just old Bill again. And they don't...
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Bo Prock: It becomes a lot ah less hassle, I think, whenever you have some dedicated people doing it.
The Jobs Podcast: and
The Jobs Podcast: What's your favorite part out of you've got the the brokerage side, you've got the logistics side, you've got the day to day opera? Is there one thing you really like?
Bo Prock: oh So profitability-wise, I like the... the concept of a brokerage because you get out of having to have all the loans for the equipment and the liability of being out on the road yourself.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Bo Prock: um
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Bo Prock: But I'm still, I mean, starting as a mechanic here, I mean, I i love laying my hands on on a truck, you know. i I really enjoy just trucking in general, ah the route planning, um you know even the compliance stuff, you know making sure you're compliant with different states and you know the IFTA taxes and heavy use taxes, all that stuff. you know is just yeah I really like puzzles and there's there's so many puzzles in that where you can go, hey, you know if we do this, we can you know shave off a half cent per mile and and whenever it works, it it works well.
Bo Prock: So I'm going to say the asset-based side right now is my favorite, um but the the brokerage is growing on me considerably.
The Jobs Podcast: As I listen to you talk, I have a question that keeps popping up into my head. You talked about your your education and then you moved into bartending and waiting tables and now you're here, but you know your business.
Bo Prock: Mm-hmm.
The Jobs Podcast: Did this knowledge come from with each advanced step in the company? Did you just dive into that to learn every nook and cranny of whatever your job was? And as you move up higher and higher and higher, you can look back and see, I know what needs to happen in every position that is now underneath me.
Bo Prock: Yes, um I think, and I thought don almost call this a ah one of the downsides that I have, or one of the cons of Bo, I guess you you would say, is a I do not like ever feeling like I'm the dumbest person in the room.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
Bo Prock: And I've been like that since I was at least in high school, probably, you know, much younger than that. But whenever, whenever I came into a job specifically, I mean, I would research and, you know, up into the, you know, 2010 and, and on, you know, YouTube got to where you could watch YouTube and learn so much.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
Bo Prock: And, and I just, I just eat it. You know, I mean, I, I just want to be a sponge and learn everything I can, uh, that way, When I go into a room, you know, i can i can talk intelligently.
Bo Prock: You know, i want I don't need to be the smartest person in the room.
The Jobs Podcast: Thank you.
Bo Prock: Actually, I think that is a lot of times just means that you're in the wrong room. But i want to be able to contribute to the conversation. ah So, yeah, I mean, with each one of these jobs, you know, I had never dispatched a truck in my life until I dispatched my first one. And I was the only dispatcher at that time. We had eight trucks.
Bo Prock: And... I became dispatcher overnight and I, yeah, it it didn't go well at all for a long time.
The Jobs Podcast: How did that go? It's like, get on the radio. Hello? Hmm.
Bo Prock: ah yeah And it was in flatbed, which to me is one of the hardest ah arenas to play in. There's so much equipment and ah state by state laws and different things that you have to know to, to compete in the flatbed market and to, and to move your trucks efficiently.
Bo Prock: I was nowhere near prepared for that. ah So I asked tons of questions. You know, I had some people that I knew that I could call and talk to and ask questions of. I learned how to how to permit overweight over with, you know, loads on the fly, basically, which is ah you know, a whole nother level of flatbed transportation.
Bo Prock: But you know, it was just a step-by-step process. You know, it's the how to eat an elephant deal. You know, I had super good drivers that I started with.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: And whenever I had an issue or something, some of those guys had flatbedded before. So they were one of my biggest assets to have because I could call them and go, Hey, I found this load, but they're asking, you know, if we've got coil racks, what the heck's a coil rack?
Bo Prock: And they would go, well, it's this, no, we don't have it. Or yes, we do. You know, and they would walk me through it and help me. And, you know, within six months we were, we were trucking, you know, right alongside anybody else.
The Jobs Podcast: That's really nice when you've got other people that it's, yeah, that's not my job to do what you're doing, but I'm happy to help because we all move forward when we work together.
Bo Prock: Yeah. Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: We have a phrase at work that's, it's so cheesy, but everybody says it cause it's cheesy, but it's teamwork makes the dream work, you know? And it's like, golly, if I hear that again, that's up there with synergy, you know, and stuff like that.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
Bo Prock: yeah
The Jobs Podcast: But
Bo Prock: Yeah, it
The Jobs Podcast: it's There is some truth in that.
Bo Prock: There is.
The Jobs Podcast: As corny as it is, that's that's a valid statement.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: So the DOT stuff, I can imagine that could almost be a job in and of itself is just DOT compliance when you're shipping out of state.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: what is that a So that's ah not just a state thing. That's a federal thing. ah Is that just a nightmare on a daily basis with that?
Bo Prock: So again, it was it was kind of like the dispatching. Whenever I took it on, I didn't have a clue what I was doing. um
The Jobs Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Bo Prock: Now I handle all of our DOT compliance stuff. ah It's after I've been doing it for almost two years now, I've got a so a pretty good handle on it, but it it can be a nightmare.
Bo Prock: um I'm here to tell you state websites like, you know, modot.gov, uh, you know, the state's websites, they are the most rudimentary 1990s websites I've ever seen in my life.
Bo Prock: And they're hard to navigate. They crash constantly. ah you know, you can be three hours into, you know, reporting stuff on them and they can crash and there's no backup.
Bo Prock: There's no, it doesn't, you know, constantly keep saving to keep you up to date.
The Jobs Podcast: Oh.
Bo Prock: You just start over. Um, so there's some of that. Um, but it's really about just keeping good records. You know, once I figured out that records matter and you keep your records and you keep them very, very, um, secure, ah nobody but me, you know, touches our if to records, um, because, ah we had just kind of a random audit, uh, two years, two years ago, right after I took over and,
Bo Prock: I learned right then, like nobody should touch this, but the person that's going to have to sit through the audit, because, you know, one piece of paper gets out of order or something like that, and they'll just eat your lunch. ah they Now, the the people I had were super nice. and And part of that is because I told them right at the beginning, I said, look, I've been doing IFTA for two months. I've never done it before that.
Bo Prock: I'm not just going to be able to just get you whatever you want. You're going to have to help me. and And they were real good about it and we got through it. ah But it it can be a hassle. You know, there there is a ton of ah government reach and logistics.
Bo Prock: um You know, they, you know, we have the e-logs now um that that absolutely record every second of your day.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: You know, it is. it is every second is, is, ah is captured, you know, by that. ah We've got the deaf systems, you know, which is supposed to be helping with a, with a cleaner idle.
Bo Prock: um So, you know, they're, they're in everything, you know, anymore. And it, and it's just a matter of, of navigating that and ah being honest with people. And, you know, it's kind of like when you get pulled over and you're afraid you're going to get a ticket. If you're a jerk, you're, you're for sure going get that ticket.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Bo Prock: So the best thing you can do is be nice, be honest, and, you know, let the cards fall where they're goingnna fall.
The Jobs Podcast: Mm-hmm.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. Well, the cop doesn't want to do paperwork anymore than you do, so if you're just cordial, unless you were just obscenely over the speed limit or something, your your chances of, if you just apologize and be nice, your chances of just getting a ah warning go way up.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
Bo Prock: Yeah. Yeah.
Bo Prock: Oh, yeah, for sure.
The Jobs Podcast: But except for, well, there's one. I won't talk about him. he He's, yeah, I think he's out to get me. But anyway, um so what's a typical day like in your world? Let's say, I don't know what time you get in the office. Let's just say 7.30, 8 o'clock in the morning. You come walking in, you got your cup of coffee.
The Jobs Podcast: What is a day like for a logistics operations manager in your line of work?
Bo Prock: So for our company, it's a little different than a lot of them. um I wear a few more hats than most would, but I start my day here at seven. um the The main reason for that is I've always said, you know, we can't let the East Coast get ahead of us.
Bo Prock: And so when they start at eight, it's seven o'clock here and and we need to be working.
The Jobs Podcast: ah
Bo Prock: So I start at seven with ah at least, you know, a 32 ounce coffee in hand ready to go. um i have been drinking some Red Bull, though, and I have become a really big fan of Red Bull as much as I hate to say it.
The Jobs Podcast: Really?
Bo Prock: Uh, but so, I get here, uh, there's one other dispatcher here at seven And ah kind of get with her, make sure everything's good, make sure we we don't have any driver issues that that I need to get involved in.
Bo Prock: I run our fuel reports. um And again, that's basically for IFTA. ah But I run our fuel reports from the day prior, get them all entered in to my spreadsheet that I created to speed up IFTA taxes.
Bo Prock: Uh, after that, uh, I'll go through and check my emails, make sure the world hasn't caught on fire, uh, overnight or anything. And then when everybody else starts showing up at kind of eight, uh, you know, i do a shop check-in, uh, I'm over the shop, uh, make sure that, uh, that we're all on the same page with what trucks need done first in order for them to get out, uh, ask them, you know, if there's any holdups and getting on, on, on those events happening, like parts, uh,
Bo Prock: you know, truck didn't make it in until late, you know, whatever. And then I go usually talk to the dispatch manager and get a real good breakdown of the day and, you know, what's coming up, who's delivering, who's picking up, where are we going?
Bo Prock: ah And then once we kind of have all that kind of gathered all together, ah we can kind of plan on, you know, what trucks are going to be ready for which loads and start building those.
Bo Prock: ah The rest of the day, i tell everybody, you know, the biggest the biggest part of my job is just to kill rats all day. ah You know, somebody will holler and say, hey, can you look at this? Hey, what do you think about this?
Bo Prock: Hey, you know, we've got this problem. Can you jump in? And, you know, I just kind of bounce bounce around everywhere in the dispatch, the bookkeeping, the shop, you know, our truck wash that's now open.
Bo Prock: And then, you know, When I don't have something like that going on, that's when I work on the compliance stuff. ah We take on some some more fabricated, ah well, fabrication projects ah for for different customers. And sometimes the boss asks me to get involved in those and help them you know kind of get paperwork in line and and billing and stuff. So i after that, I just kind of fill gaps with whatever you know I need to do on my end.
The Jobs Podcast: When you say fabrication, are you talking about welding type stuff?
Bo Prock: ah Yeah, we've actually got to where we're putting Conestoga kits on some trailers. And that's like the best way I know how to describe it is like the old ah cowboy covered wagons.
The Jobs Podcast: Huh.
Bo Prock: And so basically it's a flatbed with a bowed tarp system on it that will roll forward and back. And it makes it to where the driver doesn't actually have to to tarp the loads. It just it makes it into a into like a dry van trailer that can load long or wide stuff on it.
The Jobs Podcast: Huh? I haven't seen, I haven't seen those even out in the wild.
Bo Prock: So, yeah, yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: Is that a relatively new thing?
Bo Prock: And you probably have, you probably just haven't noticed it, but it's, ah I mean, it's fairly common, um but there's not a lot of people that install them around here.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
Bo Prock: ah So we we kind of became a dealer for a company and ah have have have a couple customers that that require those. So we've got into that a little bit and doing those installs.
The Jobs Podcast: The turning of the wrenches, that's, you talked about dealing with your mechanics in the shop. That is, I remember my father-in-law would tell me that, you know, he was owner operator and he said, it's really great that you're your own boss until your transmission craps out and it's $10,000 or you got to get new tires and they're, you know, thousands of dollars for tires.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
Bo Prock: Yes.
The Jobs Podcast: So everything on those semi trucks is really expensive.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: It's nothing like a ah passenger vehicle at all.
Bo Prock: No, no, no, no. It's, it's so much more expensive. I mean, You know, a good steer tire right now is six to eight hundred dollars and you have two of them.
The Jobs Podcast: Good grief.
Bo Prock: So, you know, that's a two thousand dollar repair just to change just the steer tires out. You know, we've got another 16 behind that, ah you know, of varying prices between the truck and trailer. So ah just in tires alone, you know, it's it's it's an enormous expense to.
Bo Prock: To start repairing ah tractors and trailers.
The Jobs Podcast: You see so many trucks on the road, but is, is it a correct statement yeah that yes, they do occasionally need repairs, but if they're well-maintained, they're going to go for a while.
Bo Prock: Yeah, they're going to go longer you know than the average vehicle. ah Right now, if we buy new trucks, we very seldom have to do hardly anything to them.
Bo Prock: until they're 300,000 miles plus, which that's the end of life for for a lot of vehicles.
The Jobs Podcast: Wow.
The Jobs Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Bo Prock: ah you know And that's whenever we're doing, ah you know changing the drive tires out, you know starting to maybe see some battery issues, you know things like that.
Bo Prock: But you know we've went seven, 800,000 with some of these new trucks before you know We've really had to replace many components ah of the truck.
Bo Prock: The biggest thing now is the DEF system. DEF system still, they just haven't got it figured out how to make that actually practical ah for operational use.
Bo Prock: And so we you know we've been into DEF systems at 40,000, 50,000 miles doing something. Now, it's usually not major at that point. But usually by four or five hundred thousand, you're doing you know complete replacements of that entire system for the tune of you know eight, nine, ten thousand dollars.
The Jobs Podcast: Good grief.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: are You know, you hear about these trucks like the Tesla semi-truck and stuff, and I know that a fully electric, that might work if you're just delivering things in town.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: i don't I don't see, I mean, batteries have a long way to go before they could even come close to replacing an over-the-road combustion engine.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: But are you seeing things on the fringe that's working its way in like a hybrid system? Or I think, what do you call the little power units that allow you to run the air conditioning and the heating with the engine off?
The Jobs Podcast: a GPU?
Bo Prock: Yep, that's the APU.
The Jobs Podcast: APU, that's it.
Bo Prock: That's the auxiliary power unit, um which is, I mean, it works good.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
Bo Prock: You know, you know that that's something that that they've pretty well figured out. But that was somebody, you know, those are primarily made by companies like Thermaking and Carrier, which made the big cooling units on the trailers for the refrigerated trailers for decades.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
Bo Prock: you know So to them, they went, oh, you want a little one that'll only do, you know we'll take you down to like 65 degrees inside the cab. Yeah, that's no problem. We're used to doing negative 20.
Bo Prock: That's not a problem. So you know they had a they had a pretty good jump on on that market whenever that started becoming a deal. You know, that came into effect whenever, ah you know, specifically at California, ah some of Illinois started this no idle act, ah which prevents you from idling your truck in certain areas, which is fine.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
Bo Prock: You know, I get that. It's great. But we were just lucky that, you know, some companies like Therma King and Carrier had already been, you know, in that area as long as they had. and And they made it pretty seamless. You know, they jumped right in and made something and it's worked good.
The Jobs Podcast: Are those APUs still operated by diesel, just on a smaller scale?
Bo Prock: Yes. Yes.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
Bo Prock: So ah a diesel truck idling, and these are rough numbers. This totally depends on your engine and you know all kinds of stuff. But I figure about a gallon an hour if you're idling your truck.
Bo Prock: I figure about a cup an hour if you're idling an APU.
The Jobs Podcast: Wow.
Bo Prock: So it's there's a big difference there. ah And really, you know, over time, you know, whether, you know, people are are for helping the environment or not, if if it's taken care of and you do your job right, it probably is saving you money at the end of it, not idling the truck as much as you were.
The Jobs Podcast: Right. Do you see batteries like lithium has come a long way over the last few years? They're getting more powerful and smaller.
Bo Prock: It has.
The Jobs Podcast: Do you see them eventually taking over? I can see the APU being a primary target for battery technology.
Bo Prock: So, and the APU actually runs off the truck batteries too.
The Jobs Podcast: Oh, okay.
Bo Prock: ah So, and the APU, I mean, it keeps you warm and cool. ah It also runs off the same antifreeze that your truck does most of the time.
Bo Prock: ah So that circulates and keeps your coolant warm in the winter ah so you don't do cold starts.
The Jobs Podcast: Oh, there you go. Okay.
Bo Prock: And then it always manages your battery. So when your battery drops down to a certain voltage, it kicks on and charges your batteries. ah So the APU is really an ingenious product. I mean, it does a lot more than just runs an air conditioner you know for your truck.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: It's actually helping maintain you know other things that could get you in trouble out on the road.
The Jobs Podcast: Do they provide heat or do they just simply provide the electricity to run like a Wabasto diesel heater or something that you already have in the truck?
Bo Prock: Yeah, so what they have is is kind of like that. It's just like a little turbo heater underneath the bunk, and it it provides electricity basically to fire.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
Bo Prock: It's diesel, you know, too, that runs to it, and it fires that, and and then you have heat.
The Jobs Podcast: and Okay. What's the, what's the next, is there something that you see on the forefront or in the near future that technology wise you think is going to move in and improve the trucking industry or logistics? Is there something you see out there that you've kind of got your eye on?
Bo Prock: Oh, hands down, AI.
The Jobs Podcast: Oh, really?
Bo Prock: Yeah, hands down. I mean, it's already here.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
Bo Prock: ah We're already seeing it.
The Jobs Podcast: In what, in what, in what capacity?
Bo Prock: So the biggest thing that I see AI doing is there's and and it's already kind of there. I don't want to act like, you know, I'm calling that it's going to be here soon because they're already kind of doing it.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
Bo Prock: ah But there's going to be the ability, and I would say for sure in the next five years with the rate that AI is improving, where you know we have what's called ah TMS, and that's your trucking management software.
Bo Prock: And it's like QuickBooks for a bookkeeper, right? So you know we have all of our equipment in there.
The Jobs Podcast: okay
Bo Prock: We put all of our loads in there. And you know we drag this load over to this truck, and you know it gives you an ETA. and you know, you empty that truck and you can dispatch your drivers off that, you know, you can put in all the load information and hit, it's going to this truck dispatch, and it'll send them a text and go, here's what your next load is.
Bo Prock: So that's our TMS that we're using right now. But what I see happening is that's all very, very structured,
Bo Prock: um
Bo Prock: mathematical calculations that that can be made, right?
The Jobs Podcast: There's no on-the-fly adaptation with that, is there?
Bo Prock: ah
Bo Prock: Well, there is the way we do it now, but I think part of that is because just at the end of the day, I mean, AI can run so many more calculations and find such a better answer in such short amount of time that eventually...
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: you know we're going to put all the all of our trucks in there. We're probably still going to have to enter our loads you know at least for a while. But after that, you know the AI is just going to pick trucks and driver or ah loads and trucks and match those up all the way to the point that you know it's going to get to it.
Bo Prock: Have you played with AI much?
The Jobs Podcast: Oh, a little bit. I mean, I use it in some of my software editing for the podcast and it's when it works, it's great.
Bo Prock: Yeah. Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: When it doesn't, it is infuriating.
Bo Prock: Yes. I mean, it it can get off on tangents and stuff that I'm like, wow, you're way off base.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. yeah
Bo Prock: ah But, you know, I think after a certain amount of time dealing with, you know, John Doe driver, right? It's going to go, you know, if John's got the choice, he would much rather go to, ah you know, Florida than he would South Dakota. So we're going to move this Florida load over to John and keep him happy.
Bo Prock: And this other guy, he doesn't really care where he goes. So we'll give him the South Dakota load. Like I see that. for sure happening in the next five years to where a room of 10 dispatchers will go down to one or maybe two that are just really good at looking at the data and going, oops, AI made a mistake there.
Bo Prock: AI thinks John loves ah Florida and he hates that place. That's where his ex-wife lives. He doesn't ever want to go back there.
The Jobs Podcast: I, uh,
Bo Prock: ah And they'll change that, you know, but, you know, it's so close already ah with some of the stuff that I've been seeing. i I just cannot help but think, you know, that'll be very quickly in the future.
Bo Prock: And then from there, you know, I think that transitions over to your back office, your AR, AP, you know, I think that flows right into that to where ai' is just going to pretty well, you know, send out your invoices for you and take payments for you and,
Bo Prock: that's my opinion anyway. I'm an AI nerd. I love it ah with my background and and I just see a lot of possibilities with it.
The Jobs Podcast: Well, it's not just even when I hear you talking about, you know, John doesn't want to go to Florida, he'd rather go to Indiana or vice versa. It's not just customization, but it's personalization.
Bo Prock: Yes. Yes.
The Jobs Podcast: And that's a whole different level of um service, I guess.
Bo Prock: Yeah. Yeah, because it... After, and i'm um I'm careful to say that it won't make a mistake, but it will make fewer mistakes than a human will make, especially whenever you get on, you know, ours is still very, very personal here.
Bo Prock: You know, we've got 37 trucks.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: We know everybody's name.
The Jobs Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Bo Prock: You know, we know their families. You know, they bring their dogs in to see us. You know, it's it's personal. But you look at the bigger fleets that have, you know, five, six hundred trucks.
Bo Prock: you're no longer to a point to where you can know everybody. It's just not, it's not physically or mentally capable for a human to do that.
The Jobs Podcast: No.
Bo Prock: You just can't.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Bo Prock: And so ai you know, can know 5,000 tricks and after a certain amount of time, know them intimately and know that, you know, where John likes to go or, you know, hey, John's anniversary is coming up.
Bo Prock: We might want to send out a message to him to remind him, hey, your anniversary is coming up. Do you want the, the, a long weekend?
The Jobs Podcast: You just made every truck driver happy, man. Yeah.
Bo Prock: I'm telling you that the the possibilities are just endless with it whenever it gets, you know, full steam.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
Bo Prock: Now, again, I don't think we're we're there yet, but I do think that's the way we're headed.
The Jobs Podcast: You know, as I hear you talking, you just mentioned about your you're a big enough company, but you're still small enough to where you know your drivers by their first name and you have that unique luxury of having that personal relationship.
The Jobs Podcast: The trick for some of these companies is to implement AI and still maintain that customer service relational aspect because I can see it very easily turning into, well, that's driver 775.
The Jobs Podcast: That's not John.
Bo Prock: Yes. Yes. Yeah. And, you know, I, I hope that, you know, the smaller companies can, can keep that personalization of their company and with their employees.
The Jobs Podcast: Mm-hmm. Hm.
Bo Prock: Uh, cause that was something we were really big on whenever we were getting started is, ah Mike would not allow us to have employee numbers. He would not allow it. He didn't. I mean, we had an outside company that was doing our payroll and even in their own system, he said, none of our employees will have an employee And that was just, that was period, end of story.
Bo Prock: And it's been that way ever since. And, you know, nowhere on any piece of paper anywhere does anybody have a number of any kind other than their name. I mean, it's, you know, we learn their names and we we become personal with them.
Bo Prock: and and get to know them very, very well. And and it's it's it's really benefited us. we We don't have near the driver turnover that I hear from a lot of other companies.
Bo Prock: I personally feel like our driver satisfaction stays very, very high. But, you know, every single driver gets my personal cell phone number. they They can call at any time. And, you know, I tell all all of our drivers would during orientation that,
Bo Prock: They are going to get mad out on the road. Like there are going to be those days where nothing's went right. Somebody has treated them poorly, you know, somewhere where they were delivering dispatches and getting em load fast enough.
Bo Prock: just call me and just say, Hey, listen, I need to cuss at somebody for the next five minutes and, and get it off your chest. And you know, I, you would be surprised how many of them have taken me up on that. And we'll just call and go, listen, I'm just telling you ahead of time.
Bo Prock: I ain't mad at you, but I need to yell and scream and cuss for just a minute. And then we'll go back to work and they get it off their chest. And I go, all right, you feel better. Yep. All right, let's go back to work. And And and they're not I doubt that they have that you know in the big companies where they have 500 or 600 trucks.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: its It's just not something somebody can field all day.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: Well, there is a scaling aspect to that, but you know, my wife and I have this thing where if if I walk in and shut the door, like, Hey, I need to vent and she'll go, okay.
Bo Prock: Mm-hmm.
The Jobs Podcast: And she'll just sit there and let me vent. And then I'll go, all right, Hey, thanks a lot.
Bo Prock: Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: I just had to get that off my chest. I'm not at her just about, you know, something's going on with the kids or school or the bank or whatever it would be.
Bo Prock: Yep, whatever it is.
The Jobs Podcast: that pressure relief valve is is really important to have both ah at work and at home. So if somebody wanted to, you know, you've got a lot of experience, you've got a lot of career to look back on, you have a career where you've done a number of positions as you've worked your way up.
The Jobs Podcast: So if somebody came to you and said, I want to do what you're doing, What advice can you give me to make my process more streamlined, easier, more efficient?
Bo Prock: Well, so I think there's two ways to look at that. um You know, again, i was super, super fortunate to found to find somebody that was, you know, ground floor starting something.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: Very few people are going to get that opportunity. So, you know As as the the industry and the market kind of sets right now, you still kind of need college to get a very good job unless you want to start you know as a dispatcher or as a you know ah ah grunt mechanic ah to get your foot in the door.
Bo Prock: But I still, you know I talked to lots of guys that ah still to this day you know started as you know the the very bottom of the barrel dispatcher. They said, here you know, dispatch, you know, these trucks that we all hate to dispatch because the driver's a jerk. This is your job.
Bo Prock: If they did good at it, then before too long, you know, they said, here, we're going to move this over to you because you did such a good job on that. This is kind of a problem customer.
Bo Prock: Now we need you to handle this and see how you do. And, you know, I've seen people, you know, crawl the ranks like that. And I i talk to them occasionally Um, but right now, you know, I, I think there's still some benefit to college if you wanted end up in the role that I'm in.
Bo Prock: Um,
The Jobs Podcast: what degree would you recommend just a general business degree?
Bo Prock: uh, I, I think a general business degree is probably fine. You know, there's some really good logistics degrees out there now. Um, I don't look into them a lot, so I don't know exactly what they are.
Bo Prock: ah or what they consist of. But I do know of some people that have went through the school and got those, you know, their four-year bachelor's degree and have have stepped into some pretty okay jobs.
Bo Prock: But at the end of the day, there there is absolutely nothing that that will take the place of just in the field experience.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: I kind of feel bad for those guys that got their four-year degree and, you know, go to work for a company that's got 150 trucks and they get a very, very rude awakening, I would say, and in the first day.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. You know, you talked a second ago about when you get that opportunity to dispatch for this guy, you're going to be over this guy. He's ah he's rude. He's a problem employee, or you're going to deal with this customer who nobody wants to deal with.
The Jobs Podcast: When you're successful in that, it's a double-edged sword because like, hey, good job. Here's another one. It's the worst compliment you can ever get because it's like we give you all the the redheaded stepchild, so to speak.
The Jobs Podcast: No offense to the redheaded people out there.
Bo Prock: yep Yeah, we love the Redheads.
The Jobs Podcast: Right. I've got some friends that are redheads, great people. um But it's it's a horrible skill set to have, and you'll eventually get out of it.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: But you have to look at it as this is my opportunity to prove myself.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: So.
Bo Prock: and And you know, the the workforce is very different now. And, you know, I...
The Jobs Podcast: In what way?
Bo Prock: Well, so, i you know, I think anymore, once you... I almost think there's a more direct compensation for performance now than there used to be.
The Jobs Podcast: Sure.
Bo Prock: So, you know, it doesn't take very long of them giving you, hey, I proved myself here. Now we're going to give you some more junk ah before you're pretty okay with going, hey, I can do that.
Bo Prock: But I really want to talk about, you know, where I'm at pay wise first.
The Jobs Podcast: sure
Bo Prock: ah and, and I think, uh, employers are far more receptive to that than they used to be after going through, you know, the COVID debacle all the way up through, you know, really through 24 where it was just really hard to find employees that, that really just didn't have the all 52 cards in the deck and just tell you what they wanted and how they wanted it.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: Um, you know i think I think it was a little bit eye-opening for employers to go, it needs to be a little more give and take. And and i i have seen people that are pretty bold about going, hey, I've done what you asked me to do You're giving me more.
Bo Prock: Now we need to up the pay. you know they're They're very ah upfront about that. and And I think that's a great time to do it. Because, I mean, not only are you performing the task, but you're making sure right off the bat early on that,
Bo Prock: that people aren't going to walk on you and, and, uh, take advantage of, of your skillset.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: You know, I was talking with a friend of mine here recently and, you know, I'm, I'm 50 years old, so I'm Gen X. And I look at some of the generations that are younger than me and it's, you know, the, the older generations always crap on the younger ones and it all rolls downhill.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: You know, it's how it always is.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: So I don't lose much sleep over that, but yeah. There's a couple of things that I see that the younger generations got wrong, but one thing that they got right. And sometimes you'll have people come in and they have a degree and it's their first day and they expect to be in charge.
The Jobs Podcast: You haven't proven yourself.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: I don't care where you work. And you don't know what you're doing. And so you need to have the humility to come in and and show that you're you know you're worth investing in.
Bo Prock: Yep.
Bo Prock: Mm-hmm.
The Jobs Podcast: But one thing I think they got right is they don't just take crap and just have it shoveled on them and like, well, I'm just blessed to have a job. Like, no, I'm busting my butt and I needed to be rewarded for that.
Bo Prock: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
The Jobs Podcast: this is This is a relationship. I work for you and you pay me. And so, you know, i hear some employers say, well, nobody wants to stick around at a job. And some of that may be laziness, but some of that may be you're not taking care of your employees like you should.
Bo Prock: Yeah, yeah. I think that's the real truth that came out of ah the last four or five years for...
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: all industries, you know, in general, ah was that that it's that there's a give and take relationship there. Like it's not a one-way street.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Bo Prock: I can go somewhere else and make just as much money, if not more, because there's somebody out there struggling to fill my position right now.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Bo Prock: and And without it sounding bad, I can take advantage of them because of that situation and and get more money. um And that was something, you know, 15, 20 years ago,
Bo Prock: just really wasn't the case that I that i can remember.
The Jobs Podcast: Sure. And you said you're taking advantage of them. They're taking advantage of you in a respect, you know, it's a business relationship.
Bo Prock: Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: So we're, ah we're maximizing our options or can we work synergy in there some way?
Bo Prock: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: So the, the positives of your career, if someone came to you and they said, What do you like most about your job? You you listed a couple of things.
The Jobs Podcast: But what do you dislike most about your job? Is there one thing that you wish, i if I never have to see the X again, what is it?
Bo Prock: Uh, if I, I, my phone, uh, if, if I was ever not in this role, I've told everybody i would go and i would apply Lowe's and I would be employee of the month every month, but I would burn my phone on day one.
Bo Prock: Because it's just nonstop. I mean, the phone rings, you know, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: ah It rings on Christmas Day. It rings on your daughter's birthday. It just it is constantly ringing. So that I mean, as far as everything, the the phone calls and the inability to detach from from work is probably my least favorite thing.
The Jobs Podcast: Do you ever have the opportunity to have someone go, I need you to man the phone for this weekend?
Bo Prock: So mean, there, there's about three of us that, that field phone calls and it really depends on the level of, of the, the, whatever's going on.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay. Right.
The Jobs Podcast: okay
Bo Prock: um You know used to, i mean, if there was a flat tire, I got a phone call. If there was a problem at a customer, I got a phone call. ah If there was a problem at a, at a DOT scale, I got a phone call.
Bo Prock: If the driver was having a bad day, I got a phone call.
The Jobs Podcast: right
Bo Prock: And, over the past five years, we've got to where, you know, like the, the flat tire, simple mechanic stuff, I don't have to get involved anymore, which is great. Uh, we've got some good dispatchers now, uh, not that we didn't then, but we've had longer, uh, time to develop those relationships now. And so drivers tend to be able to call other people if they're just kind of having simple, simple issues, you know, like, hey, you know, my, my pickup number delivery numbers wrong. Can you look it up?
Bo Prock: ah So I don't have to field that as much. ah But I still, you know, if it gets much past that, then somebody's usually texting or calling me and going, hey, at the very least, just so you know, here's what's going on. Here's what we're trying to do to fix it.
Bo Prock: So it has got better. um But again, I'm just, I'm very much a, ah you know, I was, I was fly fishing this weekend and, you know, had my phone on me. So I'm very much a, I would really like the opportunity to completely disconnect and just go, Hey, I've got my wife and kid with me.
The Jobs Podcast: a Right.
Bo Prock: I don't need to know anything else in the world right now, you know? So, ah but, you know, again, That's my my least favorite thing you know about the job, but my favorite thing is the people.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: My very favorite thing is the people, and if they can't call me, I lose some of that. you know if If they don't feel like I can call Bo at any time, then some of that people relationship, you know I have to sacrifice along with that, and I wouldn't do that.
The Jobs Podcast: Sure.
The Jobs Podcast: Well, eventually maybe you can get to where it's, we call Bo, we'll have the bat phone, the Bo phone.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: just came up with that. That was pretty good.
Bo Prock: I like that one.
The Jobs Podcast: The Bo phone. It'll be a red cell phone.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: And that's only if it really hits the fan.
Bo Prock: Uh-huh.
The Jobs Podcast: That's when we call Bo.
Bo Prock: Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: What kind of person you think would excel in your occupation and specifically their personality style? Do you need to be, or does it lend itself easier to be an extrovert versus an introvert?
The Jobs Podcast: And what types of soft skills really would allow someone to be successful quickly in your line of work?
Bo Prock: So I think for sure extrovert, um, I'm yes, yes.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay. Because of the people's aspect. Okay. Okay.
Bo Prock: There's so much people relations in, in what I do on a dayto day to day. um I, my personal opinion would be a introvert would really, really struggle to enjoy the job. Now they might be able to do it. They might be able to push through it, but inside, I don't think that they could remain really happy with the job because there's just too much people interaction.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: Um, One of the best skills that I think I picked up was I had to take ah speech classes and in college where you actually had to get up and give speeches, ah you know, all the different all the different speeches that you know that they try to teach you. ah And that's become you know very, very handy in what I do to where I can sit down and and lead a meeting and keep things on track, get a point across.
Bo Prock: So that being able to talk to people, I think in a way that resonates with them is, is a really, really big chunk of, of whenever you get into more top tier management.
Bo Prock: Um, because I mean, the only person I answer to is the owner. So, you know, everybody under that, I have to be able to communicate to.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
Bo Prock: you Uh, other than that, um, I mean, you have to have a real strong caffeine addiction. Um, because i mean, there's been several times where, you know, we've got a phone call at 2 AM m and it's, Hey, I'm four hours from you and I just got an accident.
Bo Prock: I'm on my way, you know, and you have to, you have to jump out of bed and throw some shorts on and, and pour a quick cup of coffee and go.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: um and And I mean, I think moving forward now, I don't think this was really very true whenever I started in the industry 20 years ago. But, you know, a really, really solid electronics background is going to become more and more important.
Bo Prock: ah
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
Bo Prock: and And at the same time, you know, I say that. But whenever I start talking about where I'm at electronically, you know, my 15 year old daughter goes, Dad, you're a dinosaur. Like, let me show you the easy way to do that.
Bo Prock: And it's commonplace to them.
The Jobs Podcast: Don't you hate that?
Bo Prock: It's not like they went to school for it.
The Jobs Podcast: I know it.
Bo Prock: You know, they've just they just know.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: ah So, you know, they they may look at what I do on a day-to-day and go, yeah, that's that's so simple that I'm going to get sick of doing it. But, you know, think they've got to be able to change with the times because...
Bo Prock: they're going to be in the same boat me and you were in, you know, I'm sure when you were in high school, you knew whatever tech stuff there was, you know, you were, well, you were around whenever I was around and CDs came out, right.
Bo Prock: You know, CDs were, Ooh, boy, you know?
The Jobs Podcast: Oh, yeah, that was cutting edge, but I also took a typing class in high school on a typewriter.
Bo Prock: Yeah. I did too.
The Jobs Podcast: So, yeah, Commodore 64 was cutting edge for me at the time.
Bo Prock: Not on a typewriter, but
The Jobs Podcast: So.
Bo Prock: yeah. So, you know, you know, we saw those things and, you know, our kids, you know, have now,
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: you know, AI is just going to be, you know, just their left hand, you know, they're just going to go, ai can handle these, these projects for me today.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: I don't even have to look at this. ah You know, they, they can get around a computer so much better. You know, had me and you looked at the computers that we have today, 20 years ago, and somebody just set us down behind it, it would have been like living in Star Trek.
Bo Prock: Like we would have been like, holy cow, where's that annoying phone sound whenever I want to get onto the internet?
The Jobs Podcast: oh Oh, yeah. Yep.
Bo Prock: Uh, so, you know, I would say they, they need to be, ah paying attention to technology and electronics and getting a feel on that.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
Bo Prock: Um, but I, I, I really, you know, I'm going to go right back to one of the first things we talked about and, and I think it goes into a lot of industries, but being able to think outside the box, look through the fog, not, or,
Bo Prock: you know be able to see the forest for the trees instead of the other way around. um you know Being able to be a problem solver and not get super, super high strung because of a problem, which i my personal opinion is that's going to be one of the biggest problems that that plagues this next generation coming up is they I think they're going to be very, very used to instant gratification ah with social media and stuff that we have now.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
Bo Prock: And to have to sit back and pause and strategically think through problems instead of just hitting a button, I think is going to be one of the hurdles that that some of them, not all of them, but some of them are going to have to be able to overcome to do some of these jobs.
The Jobs Podcast: It can be when you're so used to just grabbing your phone, which good grief, our phones nowadays. I mean, I heard a statistic once where our modern day iPhones or Android phones have like 10 times the computing power of what they use to land on the moon.
The Jobs Podcast: If you believe in that, which of course I do, but that's a whole other. So it's just amazing that technology and everything in our hand, you can order food, you can have, you can pay your bills.
Bo Prock: ah who
The Jobs Podcast: I mean, you can do everything on your phone, but I can also see that if you're so used to just pushing buttons and that all of a sudden doesn't work and you have to go, heaven forbid, analog, it can be overwhelming.
Bo Prock: Yeah. ah Yeah. Yeah.
Bo Prock: And I mean, again, i without getting off on a huge tangent, you know I kind of like the the conspiracy theory type stuff.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: And you know i I think you know one of the greatest threats to our entire world right now is is the disappearance of technology. because so many people would be crippled ah immediately.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: You know, I could see my daughter just breaking down into tears after about two hours and just not know physically what to do next without that phone.
The Jobs Podcast: Sure. Yeah.
Bo Prock: ah So... You know, but I've got high hopes. You know, I see ah i see a lot of kids coming into the industry that that are hard workers that want to work, but they want compensated fairly, like we talked about.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: um and And really, I think, you know, some of that has has improved ah or sharpened, you know, their mind's edge on on how to work some problems, um which I think is going to be a benefit.
The Jobs Podcast: I think they have an advantage if they can look at two arenas. They've got the digital aspect covered. They're used to that. They know how to interact with it. They would be a force to be reckoned with if they could also...
The Jobs Podcast: I got a problem to solve and I don't have my phone or digital to figure it out. I have to use you know a pencil or I have to make a phone call or I have to do something kind of old school.
Bo Prock: Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: If you can learn how to coexist in both worlds like that, especially coming up, it'll allow you to relate to multiple coworkers and supervisors of various ages.
Bo Prock: Mm-hmm.
The Jobs Podcast: And I think you'd just be way more successful than just having all your eggs in one basket.
Bo Prock: Yeah, bridging that gap for these kids coming up to be able to talk to the 60-year-old owner along with the 18-year-old co-worker is is going to make them dangerous.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: I mean, they will be dangerous, dangerous employees. ah And, and you know that's what you know, I've talked to my daughter a lot about this. we you know We like to go camping and the whole overlanding movement type thing.
Bo Prock: I just really love and going out and doing that stuff.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: And yeah I've really, really pushed my daughter for whenever she graduates to just take a year off. And I said, I will buy you the truck, the the setup and everything, and just go travel, you know, force yourself into those situations to where you're seeing new things and, you know, hey, I'm out of money.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: Well, I'm going to have to get, you know, a little job here for a little bit, waiting tables at this place I've never been before ah to get some gas money, you know.
The Jobs Podcast: Yep. Mm
Bo Prock: And and i think I think it could be huge. And, you know, everybody laughs at me, but I'm like, you know, that's what I wish I would have done.
The Jobs Podcast: hmm.
Bo Prock: I wish I would have just went and did something totally for myself before real life started.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: And have nothing else, you know, holding me back, you know, zero bills, zero responsibility, and just be myself for a year. Because I think that's the only time that a lot of those kids are ever really going to find their self is whenever there's not all this other stuff pounding down on them.
The Jobs Podcast: Yes.
The Jobs Podcast: I'm trying to convey that message to my oldest son now. He's going to be moving out and going on his own here not for too much longer. And I'm trying to impress upon him that when you leave, it's you.
Bo Prock: Mm-hmm.
The Jobs Podcast: There's no more mommy and daddy.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: There's, I mean, we'll ah we'll always be here. Of course you can always come home, but, but you decide how to manage your time.
Bo Prock: Oh, yeah, for sure. Mm-hmm.
The Jobs Podcast: You decide what to eat, what to spend your money on.
Bo Prock: Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: And you're going to have to kind of grow up, but all the responsibility now is on you, but you also have all the freedom to go do what you want. So go do it.
Bo Prock: Mm-hmm.
The Jobs Podcast: The overlanding stuff.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: I love that stuff as well. I,
Bo Prock: Oh, it's so cool. Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: if i I always said if I ever won the lottery or Powerball or whatever, I would go get an old Land Cruiser and trick that sucker out. I had an FJ-60 that – which one?
Bo Prock: I just went and looked at one the other day.
The Jobs Podcast: What model?
Bo Prock: ah It's one over in a in Joplin that I found, and it's a 92. And it is so, it's just a little farther gone than what I wanted to mess with.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: And I was like, man, I'm not big on body work. Like, I like engines and interior and stuff, but you gotta get into, like, rust. And I'm just like, man, I don't know if I want to do that.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: But Land Cruiser is my dream car, like 100%.
The Jobs Podcast: Oh yeah. Well, I'll let you in a little secret. I've got a 2001 Toyota Sequoia and that's like the poor man's land cruiser.
Bo Prock: yeah
The Jobs Podcast: I've got 278,000 miles on that 4.7 liter V eight. And my, my family, if they listen to this, which sometimes they listen to my podcast, um, they hate to hear me talk about, I love that truck so much.
The Jobs Podcast: I mean, it's just been such a good vehicle. And, oh, is but I take care of it.
Bo Prock: Oh, they're bulletproof.
The Jobs Podcast: I maintain it.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: um I just love taking that thing out on the road. And even with almost 300,000 miles, it fires right up and it runs just as smooth as could be.
Bo Prock: Yep. I've got an 0-1 4-runner. ah
The Jobs Podcast: Oh, yeah. Yep.
Bo Prock: That's decked out. You know, ive I've done it pretty well right.
The Jobs Podcast: Yes.
Bo Prock: And it's still, it's my favorite car to drive. i've got ah
The Jobs Podcast: Yes.
Bo Prock: I've got a 2022 Tundra. My wife's got a 2015 4Runner. And my daughter's got an 06 Tacoma.
The Jobs Podcast: Nice.
Bo Prock: And i'm I'm a Toyota guy.
The Jobs Podcast: Oh yeah, me too.
Bo Prock: But if I just want to go just cut loose for a little bit, I jump in my 4Runner and find a back road.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: I love it.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. Forerunners, man. You can't go wrong with a forerunner. Well, the new stuff, I don't know. I i think, i i mean, it's it's got a lot of tech and it's got a lot of cool things, but Toyota seems like they're losing their soul a little bit.
Bo Prock: I don't like the new stuff.
Bo Prock: Mm-hmm.
Bo Prock: i
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: that's what I'm afraid of.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: i They, you know, the fifth gen 4Runner was the last one where I was like, don't go any farther.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Bo Prock: Like, stop before we're Ford and Chevy and all those guys.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: Yep.
Bo Prock: ah And i looking at the new Tacoma and the new 4Runner, I'm just, um'm I'm a little afraid that they've lost their soul.
The Jobs Podcast: Well, and what, I mean, it's not just Toyota, but what new vehicles cost anymore.
Bo Prock: Oh, yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: I'm not going to pay $67,000 for a Tacoma, but even if I could, well, maybe if I could, but yeah, yeah.
Bo Prock: No, I'm not doing it. Yeah. Well, again, I mean, the lottery conversation, I'd probably own them all.
The Jobs Podcast: I don't know. It's it's also principle at that point. i'd probably I'm going to buy an older vehicle and then fix it up how I want it for half the price.
Bo Prock: Oh, yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: so Oh, yeah.
Bo Prock: Yeah, like an old defender. I've always wanted an old defender.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. We could talk about this forever, man.
Bo Prock: Oh, yes.
The Jobs Podcast: but So let's get back on to the logistics side of things so as we as we land the plane.
Bo Prock: Yeah, go ahead. Okay.
The Jobs Podcast: um What's your best advice for if one of your employees comes to you and they screwed up, they made a mistake, or how do you deal with failure and how would you advise someone working with or for you to deal with failure?
Bo Prock: So I hadn't been working here very long and I was mechanicing. And part of my job was to grab the trailers with our yard jockey truck and pull them into the shop.
Bo Prock: And whenever they got in there, you know, i I would do some of the work. I wasn't really totally in on the mechanic side of it at that time.
The Jobs Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Bo Prock: um But it was the first time it ever happened to me where I'd really where I mean, I i screwed the pooch. And so especially reefer doors, you know, they're kind of thick because they're insulated and trailer doors swing back to the sides of the trailer and you hook them and and they hold themselves open there.
Bo Prock: And I had went out and grabbed a trailer. It was hot outside and we'd hauled some nastier stuff in it. So I'd open up the doors, let it air out. And I was bringing that trailer in and one of those door hooks came undone.
Bo Prock: And as I was pulling it into the shop, it came out and caught the ah big door frame of the building. And I mean, tore stuff up.
The Jobs Podcast: Ugh.
Bo Prock: And again, I hadn't been there very long and i was I was terrified. I was like, well, I guess it's back to the bar for me. I'm going to be bartending by tonight. And i went in and I said, hey, listen, I screwed up bad.
Bo Prock: Here's what I did. And we walked out there and he looked at it for a minute and he said, well, what'd you learn? And I said, well, I, I for sure learned not to be ah pinning these doors back whenever I bring them in the shop.
Bo Prock: And he said, all right, let me call him my metal guy and we'll get him over here to fix it. And that was it.
The Jobs Podcast: wow
Bo Prock: Like that was the end of the conversation. And, you know, I've seen our owner do that with several other people over the years where they've, they've done something that was a pretty, you know, pretty good mistake. You know, it, it wasn't a $5 mistake. It was a, you know, $1,500 mistake.
Bo Prock: And I've never seen him jump on anybody. Uh, But I've heard him almost every single time ask, what did you learn? Now, if you didn't learn anything, you were probably in trouble.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: But if you could go, well, this is what I did wrong. Here's what I'm going to do to correct it from now on. That was the end of the conversation. Always has been in this company. ah if you If you knew what you did wrong, knew how to prevent it from there on out, that that was just it. and i And I've really picked up on that. and you know We have guys come in that'll...
Bo Prock: back up into a car or catch a pole in a parking lot. And, you know, that's the first question out of my mouth is what'd you learn and how are we going to prevent it next time? And that's, that's kind of how, how we handle those situations until it happens multiple times.
Bo Prock: And then it's another conversation.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. So any of your employees listening, if they do something, they need to come find you and say, look, I made a mistake and I want to tell you what I learned from it before you even get the chance to ask.
Bo Prock: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That, that makes it real easy. Like let's just have the conversation and move forward.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. Well, that sounds like a manager when you were new that had been down this road before and had the experience and probably the wisdom and the age to realize this is the best way to handle this the first time it happens.
Bo Prock: Yeah. Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: And you also owned up to it and learned from it. And that's key right there is owning up to it and learning from it. Everybody makes mistakes.
Bo Prock: Yep. Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: But if you can just say, man, I royally screwed up. Sorry, it won't happen again. And this is what I'm going to do to change it. And then you proceed to follow your own advice.
Bo Prock: Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: That's
Bo Prock: I've never pulled a trailer in the shop in 20 years with the doors pinned back. and i And i I mean, I could do that 400 times and it would never happen again, but I will not pull a trailer into our shop with the doors pinned back.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Bo Prock: Just won't do it because I remember that every single time.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. Well, I got lesson learned.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: So I'm not asking you what you make, but if someone was curious about what logistics typically pays, or like if you want to be a dispatcher, do you have any rough numbers in your head as far as this is what you might expect to pay starting and this is the ceiling?
Bo Prock: Mm-hmm.
The Jobs Podcast: Or can you give me any numbers to work with at all?
Bo Prock: Yeah, I mean, you know, in dispatching, I think it's a pretty wide range. um You know, you you could pretty easily in this market expect to make a minimum of $20 an hour, and you know, starting just about anywhere.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
Bo Prock: I would say if it's less than that, I would go find somewhere else to work.
The Jobs Podcast: OK.
Bo Prock: ah You know, and I know dispatchers that make, you know, $60,000, $70,000 a year, you know, and above that. But I would say, you know, your $60,000, $70,000 for a good season dispatcher is is getting near the top.
The Jobs Podcast: jerry
Bo Prock: um Brokers ah are slightly different because a lot of brokerages work off commission. So, you know, the cheaper you can sell a load to somebody and the profit margins bigger,
Bo Prock: you know you get 10% of the profit or whatever. So that gives people a little bit of an opportunity opportunity to control their own paycheck, which is nice.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: ah What we've seen in the in the past several years, though, is the take the lowest bid trucking method that a lot of people are using, and that has backfired on them you know horribly ah to the point that a lot of those people
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
Bo Prock: that were making really good money, brokering loads, have lost their jobs because, you know, they, the the lowest bid trucking company out there that said they'd take the load never showed up to pick up, never showed up to delivery, ah you know, didn't strap down the load and lost load in transit.
Bo Prock: ah
The Jobs Podcast: You get what you pay for.
Bo Prock: You know, yeah, you get what you pay for. So, ah you know, you have to be careful with some of that. you know From there, you know i would think, ah especially right now, if you went and got your bachelor's in logistics and you probably years experience, in there.
Bo Prock: um probably five years experience you know get in there ah you know you you ought to be making to you know fairly easily ah
The Jobs Podcast: so Okay.
Bo Prock: you know as ah as ah ceo o o of a trucking company or an operations manager um but again it kind of it depends a lot on how the company's set up um i i wear you know several different hats i i'm not just the guy that tells the compliance guy what he needs to do or tells the dispatcher what they need to do so our our company is a little little different in that but i know there's a lot of companies out there our size that are kind of doing the same thing so uh but there there's some good opportunities out there you know i saw
Bo Prock: I actually had somebody call me, uh, it's probably been a couple months ago and wanted to talk to me about a job. And yeah, I mean, it was starting at $180,000 a year and I, I was pretty taken back by that.
The Jobs Podcast: Wow.
Bo Prock: I, I didn't know that, that, that was even out there. but you know, again, the right person that has been struggling for the last three years to fill a spot with somebody that is willing to work hard and, uh,
Bo Prock: get on the same dream path as they're on ah is worth something to somebody.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. Well, and that's good to know your worth and to go in there and then work hard to earn it.
Bo Prock: Yeah, for sure.
The Jobs Podcast: Yep. What, um, what would you say, have you ever gotten a compliment or what's the most like rewarding thing? I know we talked about what you like most about your job, but has there ever been something that just like a one-off incident where you got a real good compliment or you were just like, man, I just, I feel like i walk out of there, you know, kind of like your Conor McGregor swagger where you're like, I'm hot stuff. I just nailed my job.
The Jobs Podcast: I'm, I'm out.
Bo Prock: So, yes. So two short stories, and I know we're trying to wrap up here, but I've got two instances on that.
The Jobs Podcast: Now you're good.
Bo Prock: um So in 20 years of of working for this company, I've only had one complaint that I know of.
The Jobs Podcast: nice
Bo Prock: and And it was a ill-forged complaint. um It was a customer that we were trying to do business with.
Bo Prock: And I tried to, i think he thought I was mansplaining to him whenever I was trying to let him know that the way he had the load set up could not be done on e-logs.
Bo Prock: And I was trying to explain that to him and saying, you can't deliver this same day because there's not enough hours on the clock. And anyway, it can' ended up in this big deal.
Bo Prock: Uh, he called the owner and the owner, you know, brought me in the office and said, Hey, here's the problem. Uh, this is a new customer. You need to fix it. And I, at, at that point I was like, I don't, I don't know how to fix this.
Bo Prock: You know, I, I, I've never had a complaint. I don't know how to go about getting this fixed, but, um, you know, I, I just, instead of calling him, I, I loaded up in the truck and I went out and I,
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: you know, got five minutes of his time and sit down and talk to him. And within a week of that meeting, uh, we got to where we were having to order more trucks and trailers, uh, to service this customer because we actually got more freight than we intended on.
Bo Prock: Uh, and to this day, ah he will say that that was one of the best carrier relationships he ever had was with me. Uh, and,
The Jobs Podcast: That five minute personal touch.
Bo Prock: yeah Yeah, just because I showed up and and I was humble. I mean, I still to this day don't think I did anything wrong. um you know I was trying to give him knowledge in an industry that he was not familiar with ah so that it didn't shut down his company whenever the product was late.
The Jobs Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Bo Prock: Uh, but I, you know, I went into it very humble and apologized and told him that if he would give, you know, our company another shot, me another shot that he would have nothing but, you know, high praises to saying after that.
Bo Prock: And, and it worked out good. So that for me was one of the big ones because I still, as far as I know, don't have an unhappy customer out there that I've dealt with.
The Jobs Podcast: Thank you.
Bo Prock: Um, But the other one, and this is more kind of on the employee side because it's it's led to some really good things. And and i've I've told this story on a couple podcasts, but it's so interesting to me how how you can be headed down one path and just chugging along and chugging along and chugging along thinking you're doing the right thing. And then something out of the blue hits. So for like six months, I spent a a huge portion of my time, uh, studying leadership and, you know, reading books, watching YouTube, watching Ted talks, uh, anything I could get my hands on just, you know, how to be an effective leader.
Bo Prock: Uh, how you know how to gain the respect of your employees, how to how to grow the company, you know all this different stuff. And after six months, I really didn't feel like I was any farther along than I was when I started. And I was getting, i mean, I was almost getting depressed about it. I was like, man, I put a lot of time into this to not have you know my aha moment.
Bo Prock: And, and I remember we were, we were sitting at home one night and I was flipping, you know, around Netflix, trying to find something to watch. And I'm huge on like, uh, like, uh, like the show house, like doctor shows, like I love that stuff.
The Jobs Podcast: Sure. Mm-hmm.
Bo Prock: And there was a new one on there. I'd never seen before. And it was called new Amsterdam. And I was like, now let's check this out. Let's see what it is. And I started the episode and the whole, um, The whole series that they made, it was TV show, and was this doctor that had lost his sister to a hospital that didn't take very good care of her.
Bo Prock: And he had made it all the way up to like Dean of Medicine, like the top dog at a hospital. And New Amsterdam, this hospital had hired him. And he walked into you know this big you know ah stadium seating type auditorium where they give speeches and stuff with everybody in there.
Bo Prock: And he he very you know he introduced himself, said, i'm I'm the new guy in charge here. And he said, I want to do you know things better than they've been done in the past. Like, we're going to totally change how things are done.
Bo Prock: And his whole deal, he said, how can I help? and i And whenever he said that, I was like... this is the dude in charge and he's not going, okay, in order to do that, you know, surgery, this is what you're going to do. yeah ER, r this is what you're going to do.
Bo Prock: He took it all on himself and said, how can I help you make this a better place? And so I thought on that for, I mean, probably another month. And I, I actually, I started watching the show because he kept on that, you know, for like the first season after the first season, I really lost interest, but
The Jobs Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Bo Prock: you know, the first season was all about him going to all these different departments and going, how can I help you? And, and so I really got to study in that. And I brought that to our team here at work. And I said, I said, I want you guys to look at this and think about this.
Bo Prock: And, and we're going to try to adopt a new philosophy here. So what we have done is we have this philosophy in our office of how can I help? And,
Bo Prock: where it came, where it became important was I, I was always going into, you know, dispatch going, Hey, do you need any help with anything? And the phrase, do you need any help with anything?
Bo Prock: I ended up deciding for them to say, yes, I do need help with something. Was them having to admit their failure at their job in order to do that because nobody ever asked for it.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: I don't know if you've ever If you've ever asked, you know, do you need any help? I never have anybody go, yeah, man, I've been waiting on you to ask.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: You know, I'm dying over here.
The Jobs Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Bo Prock: yeah Everybody's like, no, I got it. You know, it'll be fine. I got it. But whenever you turn that around and go, hey, listen, I'm all caught up on my stuff. How can I help you today?
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
Bo Prock: They've got no choice. Now it's, hey, I'm going to help you whether you like it or not. So you probably better give me some direction or I'm probably going to mess up what you're working on.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: And so when whenever the entire office, ah you know, whenever I explained that, everybody was like, hey, that that kind of makes sense. And, you know, within a couple of weeks, it was amazing, you know, just hearing in the office people going around going, hey, I'm caught up. I'm getting ready to go to lunch. ah You know, how can I help you get caught up?
Bo Prock: And it it just gelled, you know, the the office staff so well. And to this day, you know, we've we've had a couple of people retire, you know, since we adopted that. And, you know, i have heard those people say that was one of the most valuable things that they ever had anybody put into effect in their company was just, you know, you have to ask this question. If you aren't doing something important, go to somebody and ask them how you can help. Look for the busy person who is, you know, drowning.
Bo Prock: And ask them, how can I help? and And it sounds, it's so simple, but it was so huge at that time.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. Yeah.
Bo Prock: You know, we were in a huge growth spurt at that time. ah People were taking on, you know, more responsibility, different jobs that they weren't used to, and to have everybody doing that. And then we ended up, you know, six months into it, we were accidentally cross-training people and didn't even realize it.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
Bo Prock: you know, because, you know, our accounts receivable lady, you know, would be caught up on a Wednesday and come and dispatch and go, hey, how can I help you? And they'd go, well, you know, all these papers really need, you know, scanned in and put into our TMS ah side of things so that we can start dispatching loads.
Bo Prock: Well, all of a sudden our AR person knows how to dispatch loads. And we're like, this is great. So to me, that that's been one of my biggest things, you know, ah for sure in the last five years that
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Bo Prock: you know, came off a stupid Netflix show after I did six months of studying and reading, you know, all I had to do was, you know, turn on, turn on the brain melting Netflix and, and find the answer to what I was looking for.
The Jobs Podcast: Well, I think it's easy for me to say this looking back on your issue, but you know you put in the effort for months and it was kind of, I won't say fruitless, but it wasn't igniting that spark.
The Jobs Podcast: And I think you had to get to the point where you kind of temporarily just put it on the back burner, not gave up, but just said, I'm not going to focus on that right now.
Bo Prock: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: And then your mind was clear enough to just go, Hey, wait a minute. I think I can apply that. And then you took it and ran with it. So it might not have popped into your head as obvious if you were early on in that process of trying to soak stuff up.
Bo Prock: it It probably wouldn't have. i mean, the the studying is always an important part, whether it actually gives you the answer or not, it prepares you to to receive the answer somewhere.
The Jobs Podcast: Sure. Man, there's so much to logistics. you've You've got so many hats that you wear and all of your... Well, your arms and legs are just moving all day long and you just, you know, you just constantly going.
The Jobs Podcast: But you also, when I talk with you and I hear about that and then I i get to know you as the person, you're kind of in your lane, aren't you?
Bo Prock: Yes.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: Yeah, I love what I do, for sure.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. Man, and that's the thing about this podcast is that I... I see so many people that we spend so much of our lives in our career.
The Jobs Podcast: There's just no reason to be miserable.
Bo Prock: No, no.
The Jobs Podcast: There isn't. And I, sure.
Bo Prock: And there's so much opportunity out there, you know. i there's There's no reason to be unhappy with what you do.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. And you know, what's neat about this show is that i I get to talk to people and I get to see that, yeah, there's a handful of my guests that have, I knew what I wanted to do. I went to college, I got my job and I'm in my career.
The Jobs Podcast: But a lot of folks go, no, I had six jobs before I finally found this and I realized this is exactly what I was looking for. Or exactly, yeah.
Bo Prock: It had nothing to do with my degree. Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: so Or I didn't even need a degree. There's a time and a place for college.
Bo Prock: Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: There's a time and a place for trade school.
Bo Prock: There is.
The Jobs Podcast: And there's a time and a place to just work hard.
Bo Prock: I totally agree.
The Jobs Podcast: So...
Bo Prock: Yeah. if i If I've got to have brain surgery, I want the guy that went to college.
The Jobs Podcast: I want the top. Well, I want the top of the student. You know, the I'm not even smart enough to say what they are valedictorian. That's it.
Bo Prock: Yeah. Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: Maybe I need to see a brain surgeon.
Bo Prock: I want the best.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Bo Prock: Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: Hey, no.
Bo Prock: But if, if i if my car is broken down, I want the guy that's been working on cars since he was in diapers.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: Yes. Yeah.
Bo Prock: So.
The Jobs Podcast: I don't care about your certifications.
Bo Prock: Nope.
The Jobs Podcast: The experience is where the diagnostic part of it don't just replace parts.
Bo Prock: Yep. Yep. For sure.
The Jobs Podcast: Hey, Bo, thanks a lot, man. You really, it was a really enjoyable conversation. You provided a lot of good insight into your your career and some ancillary careers as well. and And just, it was just a blast to talk with you. We'll have to talk more about overlanding when the yeah when the show's over.
Bo Prock: Yeah, for sure. And, you know, make sure ah anybody out there, you know, find me on LinkedIn, ah subscribe to my newsletter that I put out. And if you want to get involved in logistics, I'm happy to talk.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: And your last name is Proc?
Bo Prock: Yep. P-R-O-C-K.
The Jobs Podcast: Bo Proc and the name of your, um, on LinkedIn, your newsletter or your, uh, blog is what called, what's it called again?
Bo Prock: It's a newsletter that I put out three times a week and it's called caffeinated logistics talk.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: All right. And do you want to say the name of your company you work for?
Bo Prock: Yeah, it's Eagle Logistics in Purdy, Missouri.
The Jobs Podcast: P U R D Y.
Bo Prock: Yep, that's it.
The Jobs Podcast: Purdy Mo. All right, man.
Bo Prock: Yep.
The Jobs Podcast: Thanks a lot, Bo. I really appreciate it.
Bo Prock: All right, thanks for the time, man.
The Jobs Podcast: Take care.
Bo Prock: Bye.
