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SPECIAL! The SnowJobs present The Arctic Army Roll Call Episode #1
758 Plays1 month ago
The guys welcome one of the most entertaining guys in snow, Mr. John Starek, Director of Operations for Arctic Snow and Ice Control for the very first Arctic Army Roll Call monthly special episode! John takes us through his 33 years at Arctic, the early days of the sectional, and then starts to take us through the incredible winter prep process that Arctic goes through on over 600 machines, that begins on the final day of the previous season!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Arctic Army Roll Call'
00:00:33
Speaker
All right, here we go, Snow Jobs Nation. We are off and running with the very first episode of the new Arctic Army Roll Call. It's going to be a special series of episodes that are going to drop once a month on the Snow Jobs podcast platform. As always, I'm Steve. I'm talking to the Juicebox guy.
00:00:53
Speaker
That's right. You know who's with me. The most interesting man in snow. Maybe not. We might have the guests we have tonight. Might be the most interesting man in s snow. We will find out. But the one we call Rick James is here with me. You know who he is, Mr. Jeremy Lindstrom. I'm one of the baddest motherfuckers of all time. One of the best singers and one of the best looking motherfuckers you've ever seen. Hold my drink, bitch.
00:01:15
Speaker
Jeremy, what's up, brother? You pumped for this? Oh, I'm pumped. I love this fun. It's going to be fun. I know John white really well. So it's ah it's going to be a. be a fun night. Absolutely. Full surprise. I can guarantee that. So it's going to be great. It's going to be great.
The Inspiration Behind the Series
00:01:29
Speaker
You know, guys, if you listened to the main episode last week, you know, you heard us announced that we're going to be bringing you a new special episode once a month that is called the Arctic Army Roll Call. All right. If you are in the Arctic Army, you know who you are. All right. It's a a much better club than the the other club that's out there.
00:01:46
Speaker
but But basically, as we explained with that announcement, all right, in the last few months, we had both Randy straight and Lucas straight come on with us and do episodes. You know, those episodes killed it. You know, there were such huge numbers, listens wise. The feedback we got from so many of you guys was that, you know, basically, hell, yes, we want we want to hear more from these guys.
Impact of Arctic on Business
00:02:08
Speaker
ah So being able to do these with Arctic is pretty awesome for Jeremy and I, because it's no secret that we both use and love Arctic. They've transformed our business, right?
00:02:16
Speaker
Correct. Yeah. Artics been great. Absolutely. So Jeremy and I basically, we relayed this, the, you know, the listen info and the feedback we were getting from all the listeners. We we relayed that to Lucas and Randy, and obviously they were very happy ah that so many guys were loving what they had to say. And we just simply told them, you know, you guys are huge players in the snow industry. You got a ton of knowledge, ton of experience as a self-performing snow company. That's the most important thing. Everybody knows about the products.
00:02:44
Speaker
But the most important thing is they started and are still a monster self-performing snow company. And we asked them basically, would you guys be willing to give back and do more episodes and maybe give snow pros out there the benefit of hearing some of that experience and wisdom that you guys have accumulated the last.
Meet the Arctic Family
00:03:00
Speaker
I don't wanna get yelled at by Randy again. 40 years? Is it 36 years or something? It's it's up there. What is it, John? It's 46? 46 or 46? 46, all right, so I'm off again. Randy's gonna be mad at me.
00:03:14
Speaker
So Randy's gonna be mad at me again. yeah but you know But we asked them, and and this is where Arctic is different, all right? the And the straights are just plain different from other huge companies. We asked them if they wanted if they would do more, if they would do more episodes to give back. They didn't blow us off, they didn't say no.
00:03:31
Speaker
ah they didn't say well we're just really busy and they didn't even say you know that's just not for us i think if i remember correctly lucas's immediate response was something along the lines with like fuck yes let's do it you know i think that was basically what he said right off the bad zero hesitation so just ah Yeah, just ah how can we help? Like, let's do this. And um now, you know, to those of you out there like us who know the Arctic family and know the straight family, that's not at all shocking that that was, you know, whatever they can do to promote the industry they're in. ah But if you don't know them, then strap in. All right. Because if you think Jeremy and I have no problem giving it to you straight with no chaser, then ah you're going to love the Arctic gang. All right. As you as you begin to meet some of them.
00:04:15
Speaker
ah So guys, these episodes are going to work like this. Every month we're going to have someone in the Arctic family. They're going to come on with us. They're going to come on and talk about, you know, a snow topic that is somehow their specialty within Arctic. All right. They've been playing this snow game a long time. All right. They know their shit and we are very lucky that they're willing to do these for all of us and bring us the benefits of their experience.
John Stark's Journey with Arctic
00:04:36
Speaker
All right. So tonight to kick us off with the very first Arctic army roll call episode,
00:04:42
Speaker
We have Mr. John Stark. He is the director of operations for Arctic Snow and Ice Control, the Snow Company. All right, John, welcome to the Snow Job, brother. How are you? Good evening, guys. How are you? Oh, we're good. We're good. We're excited. You know, in your intro, you made that little comment about Lucas saying, like, yeah, he wanted to do it. Because at the time you asked him the question, he was looking at his bank statement on the floor behind the stipend he was getting to do this.
00:05:14
Speaker
Oh, yes. Oh, that's great. Oh, man. Well, it's good to have you with us. It definitely is. This is exciting. you know arctic I've been following Arctic a long time as a snow company, and you that's the first place I saw the sectional, and Arctic has definitely transformed my business. being I'm a small um'm a small operator, but you know I use Arctic equipment. I use Arctic sectionals, and they work for me. They've worked definitely worked for me. So we're excited to have you and i' excited to be doing this with Arctic.
00:05:42
Speaker
Well, let me tell you, this whole thing is very personal to me. And the fact that this is happening now, it's just one more step in the growth of this company. You guys might not know this, but I have been with Arctic for 33 years. Yes. They said that over 30 years. Yeah. They said you were over 30 years.
00:06:01
Speaker
Yep. And I was involved on the ground floor of this plow starting. We had a little shop in Tinley Park, and it was literally a two semi bay shop with a little bit of square footage in between the two. Okay. And they took one of the bays cut it in half so we can at least get a salt truck in for service and that other little section. So picture what, 53 foot semi trailer, 38 at best is where they started to do the plow. Randy's mind is, it ain't right. He is three steps ahead of his own mind with his ideas. He is truly an inventor. I mean, just the things he comes up with, he is onto the next two things before he finishes the first that's how quick his mind works.
Innovations in Snow Plow Design
00:06:55
Speaker
um If he had his way, our factory would be five times in size because he keeps throwing shit at Blake. I do this, I wanna do this, I wanna do this. And Blake's like, slow down, let me get certain things done here before we move on. But backing back up, he's drawing shit out on paper. He's bringing it into the to the fabricator that's in the shop. I wanna see this, I wanna do this, I wanna see this. And when we first started doing this stuff,
00:07:22
Speaker
ah In 78 he tell me stories on how I tried to find better ways. I bought one truck I bought another truck then I come across this old state truck that was for sale and I picked it up and and I picked up the state pickup truck that had a plow and it blew an engine in the venture parking lot now He wasn't gonna pay the money to tow it back. They literally rebuilt the engine of this truck in the frickin parking lot up pulled the intake pulled the head got it down to a block and the two of them him and i believe jeff stewart was his mechanic lifted this engine block out of the truck took it back did everything rebuilt it all brought it back and put it together in that in the middle of fricking winter Jesus. he didn't watch
00:08:07
Speaker
ah daughter We did all this and built this stuff. This is the kind of stuff that he did. And we had to find a way to do things better because pickup trucks were screwing us up. You got insurance, you've got registration, you've got tires, you've got brakes, you've got all this. And somewhere it's written when you hire a guy to drive a plow truck and he takes it home,
00:08:32
Speaker
That's officially his new second vehicle and he punches the vehicle in the garage and doesn't drive it all year. We found him at bowling alleys. We find him all this kind of thing. You know, further in this, we'll get into why we've gone to the skidsters, but this is what I'm talking about. yep So he tried to figure ways for efficiencies.
00:08:52
Speaker
oh let's buy a western plow and put it on the front of his kid's gear. He got his kid's gear. He started doing it with that. Oh, that made things a little bit quicker. Then it became, hey, I want to find a way to get away from plowing with a bucket because we had picked up a couple loaders. Now, if you remember in his podcast, he made that comment about Kenny. Kenny always died in South Park. For South Park, we had an old 4062 loader and he nicknamed it Kenny.
00:09:22
Speaker
but So it's kind of coincidental that salt trucks started this with Kenny and Kenny dying because this fucking A62 would die right in the heart of when you were using this thing, trying to get something done. So we had guys that would plow with these buckets and it's like, oh my God, somebody's going to get hurt. They're going to get seriously hurt. I got to come up with something. So we'd go to state auctions and he would buy the 12 to 14 foot state plows off the front of these salt trucks.
00:09:48
Speaker
he would buy the coupler setup that went into it, weld it into the bucket so it had a receptacle to receive the blade. Now we're pushing with this 12, 14 foot blade. Okay, now we're making some headway here. Then he's like, what if I took two panels and welded it to the side of this thing? Holy shit. Now we got a containment cloud going on, okay? yeah Well, that was still an issue because it was something that was rigid. So then his mind comes up and goes, what if I could do something Like if I taped five snow shovels on the front of my truck, they're going to move, they're going to adjust. So then he comes up with this segmented plow idea. How am I going to make these things work to where they can do what they got to do? The very first one was just mole board sections with the four polyurethane blocks. No trip edge, nothing. The wings were massive and at power angle.
00:10:49
Speaker
holdback pride yeah He made it to where you could pull two pins out and slide these tubes out of the side of the ah that frame, take the wings off. So now a guy could come out for the night, have the wings off, power angle this thing, roll back and forth throughout the mall or a distribution center, get get all of the snow into windrows, then put the wings back on, put it straight and hog it all off.
00:11:18
Speaker
Well, them fucking wings weighed about 500 pounds a piece. You needed two two grown men and a small child to put the pin in after the grown men are wrestling this shit, trying to get the pin. And that's how fast his mind worked. We didn't have those a couple of months. He says, okay, that's gotta to go. We gotta come up with something different.
00:11:36
Speaker
And then he got away from the power angle end of it and said, look, this is working. It's jumping over the sewer caps. But when I'm when i'm getting into bigger obstacles, it's wedging. It's not doing this and this. Mind is going. Mind is going. Let's put a spring loaded edge on it. Now that spring loaded edge is tripping over that obstacle. And before it even has the opportunity to clear the obstacle,
00:12:04
Speaker
It's right back to scrape mode. Figure in your pickup truck plow. You're zipping through the parking lot eight miles an hour because that's what this is. Yeah, yeah. All the air quotes. Well, it's eight miles an hour. I got to get this shit done and get paid an hour, you know? You're zipping across the parking lot at 20 miles an hour. You know you are. What happens when you catch a sewer cap? Oh, God.
00:12:29
Speaker
if The plow flies up in the air. You hope that the top rib of the plow doesn't hit the headlights and snap them off your plow frame. ye You go 20 feet before that plow drops again. Now you just lost all that snow. You don't have that.
00:12:44
Speaker
with the sectional. No matter how quick you're going, the three springs on there, the second they trip, the spores on the springs are stronger than the poly. So the poly rides up, allowing that edge to get right back before you've even cleared the obstacle and it drops right back down after the sewer cap. You don't have a handful of snow left behind that section. Yeah, that was incredible. All the other sections stay on the ground, giving you that good scrape.
00:13:15
Speaker
So he's been rolling with this roll, and then we came out with,
Leadership Style of Randy
00:13:19
Speaker
you know, he was sitting down at the house in Missouri at the pool, and he's like, we gotta think of a way to support these wings to make this and this better. Now I'm gonna date myself. We were faxing pictures back and forth on ideas of what had to be done for this. And he's sitting by the pool, you know, drinking his drink, drawing me stuff, do this, put this together, see how this works.
00:13:43
Speaker
constantly going. He can't even take a break for vacation without thinking about this stuff. That's that's the thing that kind of locked me in with him. Randy up to a few years ago was out there every storm. I want to say it was 2003 that his then wife, I think that's the year that the Hummers came out. His wife went out and bought a Hummer and not a couple of days after she went out and bought him one.
00:14:12
Speaker
ah Big yellow Hummer. And took away his picket truck. And he's like, well, what am I going to do with that? I can't put a plow on this thing. It's like, you're done. You're done plowing. You're the boss. You need to go out. You need you need to have these people. You don't see what you're doing. And then, you know, you need to go check on them. He goes, oh, no, I got to be out there with the guys. He looked every possible way to get a fucking plow on that Hummer. yeah It didn't last three days. And he calls me and says, hey, I need you to do me a favor. He goes, I just bought a Polaris 700. I need you to get me a plow from somewhere. I need to get it on this thing. Like, okay, this Polaris
00:14:51
Speaker
was the very first Mossy Oak Print Polaris 700. This was the one they used in the brochures and he bought the very first one. Okay, another unique thing about him. So I go and get this plow and he goes out and he buys a single axle trailer with a ramp door on it. And his wife's like, what the fuck are you doing? He goes, I gotta have something, I gotta help these guys.
00:15:16
Speaker
So he goes, first night going out in the storm, he rolls up to, I believe it was a jewel that we were doing. And he unloads this thing, he's got on his car hearts and his hat and his, you know, his floppy hat, his hunting hat and that, you know, he looked like fricking Elmer Fudge, just a little bit taller. And he's pulling the checkbox off. And the storm manager comes out and he goes, Randy, is that you? And he goes, yeah, hey, how you doing, blah, blah, blah. He goes, is everything okay?
00:15:44
Speaker
you Yeah, why? He goes, well, you're out here doing sidewalks. He goes, now I'm out here helping my guys. And he was just, the store manager was just astonished by that. And Randy has always been that guy. That's why I have had the level of respect I've had for him because he's done that shit. yeah There's so many of these big guys and a few of them are in our area.
00:16:07
Speaker
that roll up in their Cadillac, roll up in their Mercedes, roll up in their Beamer SUV, and just roll through 8.30 at night. Yeah, these guys are doing good. I'm going on the light of fire and have a bourbon and a cigar and just start counting up the money I'm gonna make. Randy has never been that guy. He still calls when it's time to go, hey, do you guys need help anywhere? You need me in a loader? Yeah, you can't shut it off. No, dude. No, I shut it off. We put him in a loader two years ago at the mall.
00:16:35
Speaker
He's flying through the mall. Look at me, I'm doing great! Whips around the light pole, pushes the thing down. Flips in reverse, he's got his head turned back and up. Forgot to do the weave for the light pole. Oh, I have a hole!
00:16:51
Speaker
My pole was leaning against the cab and he's calling, hey, yeah can any of you guys come over here and move this light pole? I don't know what happened. I didn't touch anything. That's what you got to love about him.
00:17:03
Speaker
Oh, he's awesome. bo You know, there's there's the a little picture out that shows a figure sitting behind a desk pointing, yelling that this is the boss telling everybody else what to do. Then there's another picture showing the stick figure as the leader that has the end of the rope and the rope is connected to that desk with his four guys behind him pulling it. Randy is not a boss.
00:17:32
Speaker
Randy is a leader. I adapted that same principle on how I run things at Arctic and how I run the shop. I will never ask anybody to do anything that I wouldn't do. I've changed time. I've done breaks. I've done alternators. I worked my way through all that shit. When I first started, when he hired me as director of operations,
00:17:55
Speaker
I was working for a burial ball company. I was in the union. I had been there umpteen years and I plowed snow at nighttime for them. And a few years go by and the vice president calls and says, Hey, we'd like to get together with you and your wife. Do you maybe want to come to us, you know, come with us to a Cubs game? And, you know, that I'm like, okay, this is kind of odd, but okay, no problem.
00:18:20
Speaker
And we went up to one of the suites and we're watching the game and just to date that, Sammy Sosa was on the team. okay how long that way And they're like, look, we invited you in your, well, it started out with, listen, we really appreciate everything you've done for us over the years and that, but we can't juggle the two things of you having a bailout and go to work and all that kind of thing. We just, we can't do that anymore. It's like, Hey, no problem. I fully understand. Thanks a lot for, you know, the last several years of work and all that. Cause no, no, no, you're not understanding. me We called your wife in on this also because we would like you to make a career change. We would like you to come to work for us full time. I thought to myself, what the fuck am I gonna do in the summertime? This is a snow company. Oh my God, 33 years later, I can't even remember that question now because there's more shit to do around here in the summertime. I bet. Winter's an absolute no brainer. Get the shit ready, put it out on site, wait for it to snow,
00:19:18
Speaker
When it snows, you plow it, they break it, you fix it, you wait for the next one. Repeat. Summertime is chaotic. There's so many people working for us.
Arctic's Industry Impact
00:19:28
Speaker
There's so much going on. it's just you know People have growth spurts. No, we have like big growing pains because we keep growing and growing and growing because We're doing it right. yeah And now with the plow, with all the other products that we're making, with the denest leasing equipment stuff, we are helping others do it right too. You're 100% right. Absolutely. And people call us stupid for doing it. Why would you want to help somebody else? Way back when when Rainey was making this plow, people started seeing it. Oh my God, look what that thing could do. like How can I get one? No, no, they're not for sale. They're not for sale. That's our secret weapon.
00:20:08
Speaker
then it got to the point where anddy's like you know what if i'm not goingnna get the account and might as well get something else's money right you in the account and somethinglow so 2006, here comes the Arctic sectional factory. And, uh, we started producing snowplows and you guys know where it's gone from there. Oh, absolutely. It's definitely a success story. That's for sure. A hundred percent. Oh man. That's a good introduction. Johnny Johnny's awesome. You can, you kind of script to that one. So, all right, John, let's, uh,
00:20:42
Speaker
but once you Let's get into the Arctic themselves. Your company, what do you guys do to get ready for the upcoming seasons? what what's your but What's your game plan? Well, believe it or not, getting prepared for next season starts at the end of the previous season. Literally. okay When we are officially done off contract, we start hauling in the equipment. That takes about a month.
00:21:06
Speaker
to get everything in because there's so much equipment. We have 560 pieces purchased this year. um That's all gotta get put out on site. so like years become less fun You get you know all the trucks out, you gotta get that shit done. So as soon as it's over.
00:21:24
Speaker
The first thing you go do is start picking up your plows. You pick up your plows from, in our area, pick up from the southern region. Because the chances of those fluke storms are going to come a little closer to the north. The temperature's still going to be colder up in the north. So you start picking up all the stuff that's closer to home base. You know, we got a few yards on the east coast than that, but we got a yard in Buffalo Grove, we got the yard in Frankfurt.
00:21:49
Speaker
So we start bringing the stuff back to Frankfurt. This way if something happens, you still got equipment out. If I've got a ah distribution center that's got three wheel loaders and two skids, I'll leave a loader in a skid, I'll pick up the extra. You leave yourself skeleton stuff because at that kind of year, it's warmer now. That angle of that sun's a little better. You're not gonna need all that stuff. The chance of a clipper coming in and fucking you at seven o'clock in the morning is slim and none. And then that sun hits and that shit starts melting right away.
00:22:18
Speaker
So you start to do that. And then once you know you're at that safety point, you have a couple of guys work on plows. Then you send a few more guys to go out and start picking up equipment.
00:22:31
Speaker
Then you send guys to start to pick up the extra salt trucks waiting until you know you're a hundred percent golden. Usually hit around after December 15th and you're kind of okay. And the very second, the last thing you do is you pick up your salt because if you bring all those trucks back and it's happened before when we brought shit back the first week of April and all of a sudden, Oh my God, this thing's coming in. What are we going to do? so Also April 15th drivers to roll down to the Frankfurt yard, clock them in at the Frankfurt yard and run them out to the salt piles. And their salt is still there and there's still one machine to load with. And you can still see why a cover your and get pick that up. Then you pick up the concrete blocks. Well, in the meantime, while those guys are working on the salt, the concrete blocks, we already have a crew of a dozen guys. When those come in, they all get checked in on an asset management program.
00:23:29
Speaker
Any pictures of damage are taken, any of that, so that you can talk to the operator about what he's done wrong. If they're rental pieces, you can go to the customer, say, hey, you know what? You got a big slash in this tire. You got a broken window. You got this, you got that. You get it to them right away, so they know they're going to have a bill coming. Then that crew gets into it. Pull the mats out. Pull the wheels off. Everything gets power washed. Everything gets soaked and scrubbed with a brush. It isn't put on the heavy detergent and hit it and do that. It can scrub down with a brush.
00:23:59
Speaker
power washed off then hit with a salt neutralizer and then you hit it with a backpack blower or something to dry the extra off. Then there's two guys the next day on anything that got done that day that hit it with the Milwaukee grease gun because you just pack water into all those joints. yep Everything gets greased. Then from that step they go into the shop where any bodywork, any damage to tires, all that stuff gets done. All right.
00:24:29
Speaker
The mechanics are going through doing all that. If there's any that need oil changes, any that need water separator changes, that shit gets done. Now, there's a couple more guys. that are taking all the plows that are coming off the trailer. The guys just dump and run, dump and run. There's other people in the yard to do it. They start lining everything up. They do pre-insfections. Do I have at least 50% of cutting edge left? Are the shoes still good? Do I see any broken poly blocks? Do I see any um broken studs? Are there any worn parts to start jotting down what we're gonna need to get for parts to have all that in place?
00:25:08
Speaker
There's ah maybe fluid film. We'll shoot the edges with fluid film if there's a certain area of the yard that there's a lot of moisture, just to keep that stuff from rusting. Then, once all the salt trucks are in, that wash crew splits off. Some of them start washing all the trucks down, while the others are still washing equipment, keeping feeding the shop the whole time. This goes on from April with the machinery until we just finished everything in the beginning of September.
00:25:36
Speaker
That's how much shit is out there. The trucks all get washed right away and done. At that point, if there's any trucks with a conveyor belt or a conveyor chain, um we use the product by Romar yeah that and we spray it. I tell you what, I'm not doing a promotion for them, but let me tell you. No, it's good. I know what you're talking about. there It's that black shit. I would blast off a dozen chains a year.
00:26:01
Speaker
When I started using it, it was four or five years before you blew a chain. yeah And when you blew a chain, it was because somebody screwed up and lost a grade on the truck, had a big knocker go down in there. It hit the back door, couldn't get out. It bent one of the ribs and literally ripped the link out of the chain.
00:26:19
Speaker
And you know that fucking things only break when the truck is totally full. oh god yeah It takes three and a half hours to shovel a stall truck out by yourself. I did it many times. That's why I tell you, I wouldn't ask somebody to do something I wouldn't do. So when I tell somebody, hey, I need you to do this. Oh, that's bullshit. Why do I got to do that? Because I did it. Oh, okay. No more questions asked. That's why I think I have the level of respect I have from the guys in the shop. Just like you said, I have that level for Randy.
00:26:44
Speaker
for the same reason. Randy will never tell you no on anything if you ask him for a hand or if you ask him to do something for you or you need an operator and if more owners were like that I think there would be more respect out of the employees because if you don't have your employees respect you got one foot in the grave already you're done. hundred of yeah You're totally screwed because they're gonna know you don't give a shit about them and they're not gonna give a shit about you. So back to the equipment so you're doing all that stuff then Big calendar on the wall. Every two weeks, for three at the most. On a Friday, first thing in the morning, every mechanic jumps in a truck and they run them five miles. Down the road, on the highway, we go down a 45 mile an hour road, bang around, get on one of these frustrates, 65 miles an hour back.
00:27:38
Speaker
run it back to the shop, park it. It saves the rotors. It rolls the tires so you don't get flat spots. It allows you to turn the hydraulics on, run the conveyor, run the auger.
00:27:50
Speaker
that saves your ass so much problems than things just sitting all that time. yeah I know there's a few guys in our area that got a dozen trucks in that. I literally watched them bring them to the shop, don't even wash them, park them in the yard and they go do landscaping or they go do their concrete work or whatever. And then a few weeks before it's time to go out, here we go. We're gonna we're gonna bring our shit out, fix it up and run it out there.
00:28:17
Speaker
i I mean, maybe it's because they got a handful, but with the amount of equipment we have, you can't do that because it would take way too long to catch up. um One of, one of Randy's sayings is for most snow was an afterthought for Arctic. It's our only thought. only thought yep ye We are literally preparing for the next year, the day the previous season ends.
00:28:41
Speaker
So in getting ready for the upcoming season, you do all that kind of stuff. And then throughout the year, you're going through and getting your plows repaired, changing edges, changing shoes if you need to, doing all that stuff. So that's all done to the side. All the sidewalk equipment, um that all gets washed, neutralized, and then fully coated with either fluid film or, you know, depending on it, we do all of our truck frames, our fuel tanks, our rims with a product by Anzio, it's an HD product that's a little thicker. That has made a world of difference. There are so many products out there you can put on to eliminate corrosion. Nothing's going to stop at a hundred percent unless you have a big bubble that you can put that thing in and roll the old food saver up to it, suck all the air out of it. That's the only way you're ever gonna do that hundred percent You know and and plus during the winter if I've got above 25 degrees We have mobile wash trucks. They go out they wash it down They wash the skids down that the loaders that wash the salt trucks out take any of the you know food wrappers or empty cans and that, that the guys have in the trucks, just to keep them neat and clean for them. And then when the guys see that stuff, you know, you preach to them in the meetings that you don't want that stuff in there, but they're tired, they leave it in there. Sure. yeah You know, how many people are running? ah you I know you guys don't have them by you, but hey, it's nine o'clock, we're heading out at 11 and the guy puts his kids to bed, does what you got to do, gives his wife goodbye, goes, damn, I didn't eat. Here comes the stack of white castles. He's running.
00:30:22
Speaker
No boxes are hitting the floor. He's not gonna be behind the seat and you know, it's a clock in the morning He's forgotten about if he gets out we run through we clean that stuff out he comes back goes Oh man, I know I left stuff in but they cleaned it out. It kind of installs in their mind that damn I need to do that. That's not good You know because this equipment has got to be pristine knowing that kind of thing.
Operational Practices for Success
00:30:45
Speaker
You know, I get guys that vape, but it's still, you go to sell a guy a new skid steer and he gets in and it smells like cotton candy. It's like, what the hell? You know, I mean, the guys used to do the sunflower seeds and you got a pile of sunflower seeds on the floor, you know, spit bottles and they're in the machine. When you bring it back, you're like, oh, gross. You start doing that kind of thing. They realize, shit, I left that there and they had to clean it up.
00:31:10
Speaker
and then they get the mindset of doing it themselves. And it cuts back on a lot of that. It cuts back on a lot of that extra work so you're able to do more stuff. So as summer goes on, they're still washing, they're still cleaning, mechanics are still doing their thing. um The finesse leasing stuff, sales are going on, trucks are rolling stuff out all over the country. We got five semis that are running equipment on top of the stuff that other buyers broker out. They send trucks in, okay? Come August, it's a fucking madhouse. but okay We're on like 78 acres where we're at. We're literally on an old airport and the runway is lined a mile long.
00:31:53
Speaker
Both sides and i'm not talking butt to butt It's amazing. It's amazing on both sides. Okay that we've got a video on youtube when we had another brand equipment called the mile long of equipment yeah that That's a joke now compared to what's now you gotta do no one i think i think almost eight he hundred units went through our facility this year. We are the largest private purchaser of case equipment. even That's what Randy said. That's incredible. Dude, it's it's an and i i I'm literally, what my hair is standing up on my arms. That's how excited I get about it. You know, people are like, oh my God, 33 years, dude, aren't you getting burned out with it? No, I get frustrated. I get aggravated on shit sometimes because things don't go the way my mind wants them to go. But it all comes out in the end.
00:32:44
Speaker
but the thrill of looking at all that shit, sitting on a parking lot when you roll up. You come up, there's flashing lights everywhere. And there's clouds of snow rolling off the front of these blades. There's fucking mountains of snow everywhere. Do you remember back in the day that Tim Allen showed Tool Time? Where he does a badass I'm completely white and when I'm done and I got mountains of snow and I can see the yellow eyes, ho I did. I know that there's thousands of contractors that have that same deal when they do something. The the the feeling of accomplishment, they're like, look what I did. and When you start to use the products that we manufacture,
00:33:31
Speaker
It just, it makes it easier for them to do that. You know, now they're picking more things off. Now they're, hey, I'm going to take on that distribution center that I never thought I could take on. And that kind of stuff. You know, I, back in the day, I had a little field coding business and I do a driveway, 50 bucks for a driveway. Well, I had to go out and I had to do a bunch of driveways and be out for 12 hours to make any money. But then I get a strip mall.
00:34:00
Speaker
And it would take me four hours to do the strip mall, but I tripled the profit I made for the day doing all those driveways. So now these little guys who had pickups, dabble in and get themselves a skid steer. Or are they, I'm going to step up and go from these two skid steers and get myself a compact wheel ownerer Now they're starting to do more and more and realize this is getting a little bit easier. I can adjust pricing to make this work for me and I'm not going to be out as long and I'm going to make more money. And then it just grows. Yep, that's me. I'm raising my hand. There you go. That was me. I mean, you're seeing it. You're a perfect de example, Steve. You're seeing how this works. Yeah, I did it. So with with getting all that stuff prepped and getting all that ready um last month,
00:34:46
Speaker
my sidewalk coordinator Elvis already had guys going through increasing bearings on trailers. making sure all the lights were working, getting the Snow Raiders out and pulling all the batteries out of them and charging them up to make sure that they were sent to go, getting the pallets of salt unstacked and out so that they're ready to put in the trucks to get that kind of thing ready, um making sure that the lights on the trucks themselves work, checking the brakes on the trucks because the mechanics are doing other things, you know, all that kind of stuff. It's just everybody has a piece to do and it all comes together.
00:35:23
Speaker
And then comes now like second week of September. I'm starting to build salt bins already. I'm running the concrete blocks out. and And there's a lot of guys who just dump the salt in a lot and then throw a tarp over it. yeahp Well, here's your lot. And you dump the pile here. And then after the first storm, in the pile's here. And after the next storm, the pile's here. yeah And after the next storm, the pile's here.
00:35:49
Speaker
And here comes your two fresh oldest fault. Now the guy's dumping in the pile that is a hundred feet away from where it should be. It is very time consuming to run these blocks out, but to keep it contained is a privilege. And and we explain this to these guys that.
00:36:09
Speaker
You know, it's a privilege to have this stuff on site. It's an advantage for the customer, because it's immediate service when you get called. But you got to keep that shit in order and you got to keep it clean. All the piles got to be tarped at the end of the night. Every machine has to be parked in order. Every salt truck, the blades got to be angled the same way. That's how anal we try to get about it. i love So when that property manager comes rolling up saying, hey, wow, you know, this stuff's great, it's in order. If that shit is left all over,
00:36:36
Speaker
They freak out. If you get a truck or machine that breaks down, send me email. Tell them, hey, just want to let you know everything went well with the lot. We had a machine that blew hydraulic line. It's sitting over here in front of coal. um We got a service coming out today. We're going to get that taken care of. We'll get it out of the way. It just softens the blow. They don't freak out when they come up. run oh my god what hell was this you know or or you send them a picture of the parking lot, because two semis parked there all night long, and you left at 6.30, and at 6.45, those two semis left, and at seven o'clock, the property manager rolls up and they see a section of the lot that's not even plowed. They have your email. Hey, we got everything done. Here's a picture. These two trucks were parked here. We'll roll back later today and check on that and see if they're gone and get it cleaned up. You just avoided yourself a problem. ah percent and And when that shit happens at the end of the season,
00:37:28
Speaker
You could have done great, all 50 times you went out. Fuck that last one up, that's the only thing they remember. That's all they remember. Build a thousand bridges. I keep going off on these little fingers here, but with the prepping, the blocks are going out. We're starting to run equipment out to sites to get it ready. We are holding employee meetings. We just threw a big employee appreciation picnic. Had over 600 people there, families.
00:37:56
Speaker
Operators you got a buddy that wants to operate bring them out huge tent killer DJ The DJ is actually one of our employees. His nickname is tight shirt Steve He weighs 94 pounds soaking wet and he wears his he wears his nine-year-old son's baby gap shirt But the dude is a killer DJ And he's actually Lucas's assistant and has made Lucas's life just a tiny bit easier. I mean, for a 30-year-old kid, Lucas has got like two hefty plates because there ain't no way a regular styrofoam plate would hold what that kid's got going on. So it's funny because I told my wife, I said, you know, the kids would be in the shop and then all the time. Lucas, I think, was seven years old, eight years old. And he would come in, bossing people around, and I went, home to my office ain' no fucking way i'm working for that pumpcast kid
00:38:49
Speaker
hold and And I gotta tell you, for 30 years old, Lucas is amazing. He is just a sponge on learning everything about the business. He's heavily involved with Dinesse leasing. He's um just phenomenal. That's all I can say, okay? um I have a lot of respect for him and people are like, you have a hard time working with somebody that's younger than you? No, not at all. Because when Randy,
00:39:21
Speaker
had said these boys were going to be getting this company. He's like, I'm not just giving it to them. They're going to go to school. They're going to learn. And I'm going to take them through the ropes. and And that's it. They're not just going to be handed no big company. yep So Lucas goes to Purdue University. He comes in, he now runs operations, runs the Nest leasing, like I said, and just has total control of the service site.
00:39:44
Speaker
Then you got Blake, the next youngest, who went to Bradley University, who heads up engineering down at the factory. ah Jeff Sexton runs the plant. Blake gives him direction. Nick Stewart, which was another engineer that went to school at Blake,
00:39:58
Speaker
Blake knew right away when he was coming to do this that he was bringing Nick with him because of the knowledge Nick has. The two of them get their heads together and look out. Shit starts happening. I mean, like I said earlier, Randy has all these ideas going on and on. He just keeps firing at them and they do what they can do with it. Then we got the young dispenser who just graduated from Iowa University.
00:40:20
Speaker
in marketing. This kid has come in like a fireball. yeah He has wiped out all of our advertisement, all of our brochures, all new pictures, all new fresh stuff. You see the Razorback trucks running around now. You know, this stuff like the these shirts and all this is just him working with our marketing team and on getting them to
Building Loyalty and Team Spirit
00:40:42
Speaker
design things. We got a great designer. We got a great web guy. who just make sure things happen. um We're wrapping all kinds of trucks. I'm wrapping a cube van right now that's going to be rolling down the road and that going to be at the equipment expo show coming up here in a couple of weeks nice for people to see. um You know, we're pumping wag out because it's amazing how many people ask you, Hey, you've got a hat. I got two heart ticks. I'd really like a hat. Man, can I get one of those shirts? They're proud to wear this stuff because they believe in the product.
00:41:13
Speaker
And that's what overwhelms me to go, fuck yeah, dude, we made that shit that people love. I'm part of that. yeah You know, or I figured with the boys all creating all this stuff, doing all the the upgrades on the sectionals, coming out with the razor back now, doing all that, they're gonna push the old guy to the side. Yeah, you go just worry about your service side and we're gonna take care of all this. ah They got me by the hand and I'm rolling.
00:41:42
Speaker
out to Minnesota when it snows there. And you're in Chicago to show off the plow and things like that. And just, they respect the knowledge that I have. They respect the experience that I had. Don't reinvent the wheel.
00:41:57
Speaker
Let me give you an idea. let me Let me tell you we've gone down that road. Talk to your dad and I to see that we tried that many years ago. It didn't work. Don't go that avenue. Don't waste your time. And they're receptive on it. you know When you've got somebody that has horse blinders on and they know this is all I'm doing, this is it, i'm not you're never going to get anywhere. mean ah we We have parameters, but they are set so wide. It allows for all that.
00:42:25
Speaker
um You know, with anything else, you get your people that show up at the shows, oh, I see you change that because you had a problem. um Yeah. Okay. You do you know, and and we do, we change stuff. um But they look at it as, oh, you realize you had a problem and you had to make a change.
00:42:45
Speaker
Well, the new car you just bought isn't the same when you bought 10 years. Exactly. Everybody does it. They realized that this was a problem, so let's change this. Let's go from making power windows and power door locks an option to making it part of the package now for the car. Let's know that we have to include this and this when we do this. That's all evolution. Sure. And there's a good group of people that understand that. And then you got your haters that want to piss them on about it. Sure. You know? Now you're always going to have them.
00:43:14
Speaker
you are You are. So back to getting things prepped, getting it all out there. We have that employee picnic with Steve as a DJ and doing all that. And all these guys come in and bring their families and we're just showing them that like, look, you're just not a number. You're not just the guy who's in that machine. We respect what you come out and do. Hey, I want to, and I make an announcement. I do, I do the announcements and stuff for the picnic into the raffles and all that shit.
00:43:41
Speaker
I think just like Randy comes up and thinks all of the guys and he thinks all of their spouses. A lot of ladies that work for us as well. And there's a lot of husband and wife teams that come out and work. You'd be amazed how many women jump in salt trucks and skidsters and all that. And they can run circles around some of the guys, let me tell you. ye okay Because their mind's not a billion and one places.
00:44:05
Speaker
Women are focused. They're focused. If you didn't clean up the garage, they're focused on making sure your ass gets old from work and you clean up the garage. That's very true. That laundry's been sitting on the credenza by the wood by the dryer for two days. Take your shit upstairs. They're focused on making sure you do that. you know and and And my wife, my wife keeps me in my lane. She really does. She really does. Because I have ADHD and I think that's what makes me work the way I do and do the things I can do. And I get to, ooh, squirrel.
00:44:35
Speaker
you know It's one of those things. But as Randy said in his podcast, Jeff Sexton runs the factory because it's very structured. Jeff will know this is what needs to be done today. If at the end of the day, 10 frames aren't done, 20 mobards aren't done, and this isn't done, what happened? Why didn't it get done?
00:44:54
Speaker
with me, we're going to start the day like this, but within the first 30 minutes, three things are going to change. And if it's not on the schedule, other people freak out. Okay. I got to do this. I got to move this over here. I got to go over here with that. You know, when it comes time to calling guys out, Oh, Hey dude, I'm sick. I can't make it out. Okay. I know I got two guys that are showed up at the mall that it's two o'clock in the morning. Mall doesn't open till nine. Hey, Tom, leave them all go down the street to the strip mall. Start clearing that when you're done, go back to the mall.
00:45:25
Speaker
you know Somebody else might panic and go, oh my God, I got to find another guy. Why? It's not six o'clock in the morning. The store has been opening at seven. You're okay. You have plenty of time. That's where my mind rolls with that shit. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what Randy said too. So he thanks all the wives. Hey, thanks for letting us wake you up in the middle of the night. Thanks for letting your guys come out and help us and work.
00:45:47
Speaker
And you know, they chuckles like, Oh man, it's great. I got the whole bed to myself now. You know, that fights I'll have a nice deposit in the bank. that's yeah That's the response you get from the ladies, you know? So that gets done. We got a bunch of prizes that we give out to guys. I mean, range for like three grand at Costco, tool kits, flashlights, heated socks. Um, you know, all that kind of stuff that the guys can appreciate and use. We even got igloo coolers with built-in speakers.
00:46:17
Speaker
There's something new, the little flip lunchbox with a set of speakers on it. A guy's gonna take that and put that on the seat next to him in the salt truck or in a loader that didn't have a radio, let's say. And he's got his lunch with him and he's listening to some music. You know, that's another thing that we did now. All of these machines all have heat, obviously. All sealed in cabs.
00:46:37
Speaker
all have stereos in them with Bluetooth. ye These guys are getting in in what I'm wearing, a t-shirt and a pair of jeans or maybe a hoodie, cracking the windows open a little bit to plow. They got the music going. The time's flying by.
00:46:52
Speaker
That's smart for 12 hours. And it's like, hey, how are you doing? Oh, good. Hey, we're gonna stop for lunch. Lunch? What do you mean lunch? We just got, oh my God, it's noon already? That's how fast that time goes by. Because they have the comfort of that new machine. They have that nice, toasty, warm heat. They have a good set of tunes. A guy will work all night for you. you know We had one guy back in the day, we had the old Alex 885 New Hollands. No radios, heats tucked in it. But we had a guy that was a dedicated worker and he goes,
00:47:22
Speaker
Every two hours bring me a cup of coffee and a pack of cigarettes. He never got out of the machine. I think he plowed 20 hours. Roll up, fuel him, hand him a cigarette and his coffee and off we went. We had to pull him out of the machine because he was stiff from doing it.
00:47:43
Speaker
so but he was good. It just, that's how these guys get. So with the picnic, we bring them all in. We have an hour, hour and a half meeting. We play the video on how to operate the plow. We go through on how they punch in and out on their phones. You know, that stuff is all done now. There's no more calling in your time. ye sure right You go on your phone, you clock in, you kick on the GPS. It tells me exactly what time you were there. Now it's done for a couple of reasons.
00:48:12
Speaker
You don't have that, you have that GPS to know that, A, he showed up on time, but B, you got to slip and fall. You don't see that shit for two years. Hey, Steve, do you remember back in 2021 on January 3rd at six in the morning when you were at the Walmart? um Do you remember what time you started pushing there? Are you fucking kidding me right now? but You pull it up on the GPS. Hey, it started snowing at 10. We started plowing at midnight. She fell at 11. Guess what? Act of God, not my fault.
00:48:41
Speaker
yep now Now I know what time of they were there, what time they were done. I may have bid that job to take two hours to plow. Yet now I'm looking at this guy's GPS and it's taking him three and a half hours to plow every time. What's taken him so long? Oh, there's trucks over here. There's trucks heading out of here. He can't do this. The employee shift changes over here. He can't do that. Now I can go back and rebid that property to work because let's face it, who the hell wants to do a property you're not going to make a profit on?
00:49:10
Speaker
Yeah, same aspect. Hey, I did this to take three hours. They're getting it done in an hour and 45 minutes. Contract renewal time. Hey, can you guys sharpen your pencil on this number? I got two other guys coming in, but I really want to save you. You know what? I know it's not taking me three. It's taking me an hour 45.
00:49:31
Speaker
yeah i can take fifty bucks off that price gone perfect you guys are my contractor Don't lock it up. ye See what I'm saying? Yeah, absolutely. so So that's where that works out well. We go over safety stuff. Who to talk to, who not to talk to. Don't plow anything. You haven't been instructed to plow because nowadays so many of these stores are empty. There's office buildings that half of them are closed down. You got an office building. It is $300 to plow every time you come in.
00:50:05
Speaker
Now they want to be like, well, can you adjust the price if we don't plow this area? Nobody's going back there. Nobody's this. Just give me a fire lane around here. Take that off. Yeah. You know what? I can do it for two and a quarter now, but now you don't want that guy to go there. A because you're not getting paid for it. B it's not an insured piece of property anymore.
00:50:29
Speaker
And you don't wanna give people the opportunity to go back there and park, or there could be a problem. yep That's where all that gets in there with the instruction. um You explain to them, don't wait until you're empty to call for fuel, okay? yeah You hit a half a tank, some of the guys have tanks on site, others go by the foreman or the salt trucks to fill them up. We've equipped all of our salt trucks with 50 gallon fuel tanks now, or 90 gallon fuel tanks, I'm sorry. So now the foreman is not running around like chicken with his head cut off.
00:50:59
Speaker
They're fueling when they go to salt in front of a store to go check a property. They're getting fueled up. So now, you hit a half a tank, call your foreman. Hey, just letting you know how to half a tank. He's gonna laugh, you got right, whatever dude, I got other shit to do. You hit the quarter tank, Mark. Hey, Bobbin, just letting you know I hit a quarter tank.
00:51:18
Speaker
He's gonna tell you, no problem, I'm on my way. He's lying. Because there's another thing he's lying. Or he gets another phone call and gets diverted. When you hit the red zone, you call him and tell him, hey dude, I'm out of fuel, I'm gonna shut this machine down here in a few minutes. He's gonna get there real quick and get you fuel. Top these machines off at the end of the night. Because you're gonna run into, with every manufacturer now, issues in polyurethane tanks. Okay?
00:51:48
Speaker
You're running these machines. That fuel is coming out of the tank, running under high pressure. What happens when things are under high pressure? They create friction. It creates heat. You're warming up the temperature of the fuel. Now, as you're consuming that fuel, that space in the tank is building up steam. What happens to steam when it gets cold? It turns to frost. Take the cap off your machine in the middle of winter. Look at the fill tube. You could put your finger inside and pull up a line of snow or frost.
00:52:19
Speaker
What happens now when you start that machine up and the fuel starts circulating and that tank starts getting warm? It goes to water, water that goes into your separator. Then when you shut the machine down again, the separator freezes and you got a block of ice in the separator.
00:52:34
Speaker
You wanna pop, it's out in the garage. You go get it, it's warm. What do you do? You put ice in your cup, you pour the pop over the ice, it gets the pop cold. What's gonna happen when you start that machine and that cold fuel now goes through the separator and over that chunk of ice that's in the bottom of that filter?
00:52:55
Speaker
you're now dropping it even more which is making it thicker and with the tolerances and the microns in these filters today now you're trying to push pudding through a pinhole and you gel up and the machines are shutting down you have additives you have all this shit and that's another thing these guys have got to watch what they do for additives read the fucking bottle go by what it says, because in additives case, more is not better. It can reverse and turn your fuel into jelly if you put too much additive in. We use a blend of 50% number one, 50% number two.
00:53:42
Speaker
and then you put in a non-jowing additive or you put in the FS, or power service, sorry, not FS, the power service white bottle, okay? 911 is only to get you out of an emergency, it is not a additive. How is this another good one? like Do the mix, the ratios correctly.
00:54:04
Speaker
and that'll save your machine. And teach your operators how to drain that water separator at the end of the night. Because by then, if you had water in there or ice in there, it's now water. It takes two seconds to drain that to get that machine safe.
Maintaining Operational Efficiency
00:54:21
Speaker
Because when you put it to them to say, look, your machine shuts down, you're clocking out till we can get a mechanic there.
00:54:27
Speaker
Because if I'm not getting paid, you're not getting paid. Whoa, that changes the whole attitude right there. ah You put the battery disconnect in the back of the machine for a reason. You have to open the lid to open the door. What's inside when you open that lid? The dipstick. Case, cat, bobcat, New Holland, any of them have warranties on new machines.
00:54:55
Speaker
but they don't warranty stupidity. If you run it out of oil, that's not new, Bubba. That's a $10,000 engine and a $60,000 machine. Who's paying the bill? The owner of the machine.
00:55:07
Speaker
Yes, sir. So, we teach them about fuel and equipment. We teach them about all that. We teach them about oil. Look, if you can't get oil, the guy's not out there, go over to 7-Eleven, go over to Speedway, go over to the quick trip or whatever it is you guys got by you, 15W40, put it in, give me the receipt, I'll reimburse you. I have driven an hour and a half to give a guy five, six bucks for a quart of oil. Oh, you didn't need to make the trip. Yes, I did.
00:55:32
Speaker
Because that six bucks and my time and the 20 bucks with fuel I used saved me $9,920. There you go. a engine okay That's how you have to have the mentality to teach these guys this. Salt trucks have got to be empty by the end of the night.
00:55:51
Speaker
Otherwise, they leave that shit. And the worst ones are augers. Everything's going auger now. It's a better feed. It's all that kind of thing. But if your bear chains, they would have shit stuck in the back corners of the box. They'd crank the door open. Oh yeah, everything looks good.
00:56:07
Speaker
And as I'm making the gesture, wiggling my head back and forth like I'm looking in the back of the truck and none of the audience can see that. You guys can, but they can't, so this is kind of funny. But you're looking in the back of the truck and you think it's good. The sun comes out during the day, it warms up to 35 degrees. All that salt goes and slides right down onto the chain.
00:56:29
Speaker
Now we get a little bit of freezing rain at night, then it starts to snow. Salt truck guy shows up, dumps a bucket of salt in, right on top of that frozen clump that's on that chain. You turn the frickin' power on for the PTO, throw the lever for the spreader. Gee, the high-pitched scream, because the belt is screamin', or you hear it mine, and then you hear pop. The chain breaks. Truck is down. You're not fixin' that in 30 minutes.
00:56:58
Speaker
That's a next day project. You move on. So you gotta make sure they clean that shit out at the end of the night. Same deal, make sure it's full of fuel. Cause when these clippers come in, you guys of all know know best about that being up north. ah That shit comes in in a couple hours. And some of these guys would have the attitude, ah, you know what? I'll just call the guy to come out when it's time to go out or I'll go out a half hour early when I know we're going out. Cause we try to schedule times for guys to be out so they can be here on time.
00:57:25
Speaker
And they go and figure, I'll do it when I get out there. Well, here's a clipper. He just got home from work. He fell asleep. He's out cold. You're calling, you're calling, you're calling, you're calling, you're calling. Finally, after an hour, you get a hold of him. All right, I'm on my way. Well, now he shows up. Now he's got to get the machine started. Now he's got to open the door on the container. Now he's got to back the machine up and hook up the alligator clips for the pump. Now he's got to fill it. You're an hour and 15 minutes.
00:57:53
Speaker
You just had an hour and 15 minutes of potential slip and falls because he wasn't out there and he wasn't ready to go. Amen. and know So they all get prepped with that. um for For time to go out, when we have to go out, if we know that storm's coming in at 9, 10 o'clock, at 3 in the afternoon, we're calling the foreman. We're getting a hold of him.
00:58:22
Speaker
Jeremy Hicks runs the north side of things with all the foremen there. I take care of the south side of stuff. I have 24 men under me. He's got like 24 men under him. And then they all have their people that they call. I do everything via group text. So nobody can ever say, oh, you never told me that. I put it out in the groups where everyone gets it. And I want everyone to respond to me individually.
00:58:47
Speaker
I give you 10 minutes. If I don't hear from you, I get a phone call. Hey, did you get my text? Yeah, I have a chance to answer you. Okay. Answer me. Cause I want it on there that you answered me. yeah We're going out at 11, have your guys on site at 10 30, blah, blah, blah. Now we can call a guy and when he gets home from work or whatever he's doing, he knows that he's got to eat and he's got to lay down for a few hours. We're looking at four to six inches. It's supposed to end at noon tomorrow. You give them all the best stuff you can possibly give them and it makes it work.
00:59:16
Speaker
Better. The bottom line with anything. I don't care if you're making widgets. I don't care if you're running a strip club. I don't care what you're doing. Communication is key. If you do not communicate with these guys, you're gonna fail. Absolutely. Last year. No snow. It was crap. Every 10 days, the text went out to the foreman. Hey, how you guys doing? Anything going on? Anybody been out to check their stuff? Yeah, you know what? I rolled through this. I rolled through that.
00:59:46
Speaker
or two weeks go by, no snow. Hey, call a theory operators, go out and pop around and fire everything up. Refresh the GPS. Make the machine run just a little bit. Make sure that we didn't have a tire go flat over that period of time that you weren't out there. yeah And it just keeps you in communication. Cause nothing sucks worse than not communicating with somebody for a few weeks. And then the snow's coming or a clipper rolled in, you're calling at 11 o'clock. That guy's like, what? Hey, we're going out. Dude, you guys didn't call me. I got a different job. Why would I call you? It ain't snowing. You know, that kind of thing. yeah So now we communicate with them all the time.
01:00:23
Speaker
You know, and the foremen are are talking to them. They want to make sure their asses are covered too. They don't want to get a call from John or from Jeremy or or Lucas or Randy for that and go, Hey, how's it looking out there? Uh, yeah, I only have five of my 11 guys. What happened? I don't know. Did you call? him Well, no, it wasn't snowing. We don't have that issue because for you martin then we go through all that stuff with them. Okay. Um,
01:00:52
Speaker
When they're done at the end of the week, and come Monday or so, you touch racism. Hey, you get your check, everything all good? That's something that we take pride in as well. We do not allow anyone to pick up their checks. Everything is direct deposit. Thursday night, all their payroll has to be in on Monday.
01:01:11
Speaker
if you don't get it in on Monday now it's sent in through the phone but you have to hire guys on the spot sometimes you have to pick up additional sidewalk labors paperwork isn't done you get their paperwork in you hand their hours in it gets entered manually but if it's not there by noon on Monday you ain't getting until the next week because there's over 1,800 people on a good snow night that have to get paid the following week. And we have a separate account. I don't know if it's a line of credit, what the hell it is, that is strictly for payroll. Cause you know as well as I do, contracts start to go remember first. You get a snowfall on the 10th.
01:01:53
Speaker
It isn't gonna be, ah hey, give me two weeks, because I gotta send the invoice out and I gotta wait to get paid. yeah yeah The money is already sitting there. It could be as much as a million dollars, because you know how somebody's storms can get. It's sitting in the bank, waiting to get the payroll, so that you know, you're never gonna ever even say, yeah, fuck those guys, I ain't going out, I never got paid. Nope, paychecks in the bank. Like I said, 33 years, I have had one time,
01:02:22
Speaker
that my check was four days late and it was by my choice. We had gotten slammed and it got snowed for like 14 days in a row. And they were slammed in the office trying to make sure everybody else got their payroll. And they said, listen, would you guys be upset if we didn't pay it for a few days so we can get all this done? Everybody that worked at that office all said, not a problem. We're good. We're good.
01:02:47
Speaker
All right, gang, we know we're going to cut it there. We're just out of time for this one. So that's going to do it for the first episode of the Snow Jobs podcast, Arctic Army Roll Call.
Conclusion and Teaser for Next Episode
01:02:58
Speaker
All right. We want to thank John so much for coming on, for giving us the time. He's got so much information, guys. So stay tuned. We're going to keep this going next month with John. He's going to take us through. We only got to really one of the four topics that John was going to talk about tonight.
01:03:11
Speaker
ah He spent so much time talking about what Arctic does with their equipment, which is awesome. It's amazing what they go through when the equipment comes back after a season. And I think that was very valuable information, hearing hearing what they do to their equipment to get it you know ready and keep it as pristine as possible.
01:03:28
Speaker
for the next year and for future users. right And then he got into the what they do for employee training and how they take care of their employees and and how that all builds efficiency. So a lot of great information. Stay tuned. Next month we will continue this with John. ah He's got a lot of lot of information. He's been doing this guys 33 years. So we're lucky to have him and we'll have him back with us next month and we'll continue on this. So we wanna thank John so much for the time.
01:03:55
Speaker
for all the insight he just provided to us. ah Fantastic. All right. So stay tuned for these coming at you every month, guys. Thank you to Arctic. Thank you to John. Everybody have a great weekend. Be safe. Keep pushing.