Strategic Fuel Expense Planning

Brent – 00:00:01:

Welcome to Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast, where we explore the fascinating world of trucking and freight management. We dive deep into the freight industry and uncover why the trucking industry is more crucial to our country now than ever before. Stay tuned to uncover the driving forces behind successful trucking businesses and hear from the hardworking truckers and leaders who keep the world moving. Let’s hit the road. All right, well, welcome back again, Freight Nation. On behalf of Truckstop and all the people at Truckstop that exist and live to serve the trucking industry, thanks for joining us. Really appreciate you giving us your time, your effort, your energy. You guys know if you’ve watched any of the Freight Nation podcasts, you know I like to say that because, man, there’s a lot of places you can go to find information in the marketplace. And I’m just glad that you took the time to listen to Freight Nation because it’s our job at Truckstop to always bring the information to you that can help in your business. But also,, this is why Freight Nation, that’s why I love doing Freight Nation. You get to hear a story about somebody who got into trucking because of some circumstance or some desire or some hope in their life. And so it’s really good. To me, it’s the most compelling that you get to hear the story. And so today is a really fun story because it was one that kind of was a surprise for me. I was at the Mid-America Trucking Show and a gentleman, Alan Alberto, who runs our partnership division, said, hey, I want you to meet this person, man. He goes, they’re really, really neat. He goes, and so I said, well, what is it? They work with us on this. Well, it’s in the fuel card segment. I go, ah, fuel cards. Come on. They’re in the credit card industry or something like that. He goes, no, well, she’s different. And man, did I find out how different she was. And so today on Freight Nation, you’re going to get to hear from Jessica Dotson, who is the director of business development and account management for Multi Service Fuel Card. But you’re going to get to hear her cool story. So, Jessica, thank you so much for joining us today on Freight Nation and bringing your story.

Jessica – 00:01:52:

Thank you, Brent. It’s great to be here. I’m excited to talk to the trucking industry. You know, that’s where my passion is. So glad to be here.

Brent – 00:01:59:

Well, get ready, Freight Nation. You’re going to hear a really cool story because you’re going to get to hear about somebody who was in the accounting world and just said,”man, I’d rather be in trucking than accounting.” So, Jess, I tell you, it was so fun meeting you ar Mid-American Trucking Show. One of my favorite places to go on the planet. Every March, I get to be in Louisville, Kentucky, eating pork chop sandwiches and meeting with the industry. I know everyone laughs because I love pork chop sandwiches. And I hope if you go to Mid-American Trucking Show and leave without eating a pork chop sandwich, I don’t know if you’ve really experienced the whole thing that Mid-American Trucking Show has to offer. So anyways, that’s just a side note. But I got to meet you at Mid-American Trucking Show, right outside the Truckstop booth. And it was just clear to me that you had a passion not just for helping the industry on the fuel card end, but also just being a part of this industry. And so to me, really, that’s what kind of separates you from some others in the marketplace on why this industry is so fun for you. But you’ve got a really cool story about how you got into this because you were somewhere else. And your husband came to you and said, “I think I want to get into transportation.” Man, I’d love for you to start off this Freight Nation podcast episode withtalking about that, because that obviously changed y’all’s life.

Jessica – 00:03:07:

Yeah, absolutely. But first, I have to say, when do you have time to eat at MATS, first of all? It’s like I’m like a kid in a candy store there. That is by far my favorite event as well. Interacting with all the different companies and the truck drivers. I’d call it my holiday. So back on track. So my journey started in the trucking world, to your point, through my husband. He had worked in warehouses most of his adult life, forklift operator, unloading trucks, loading trucks. He worked for a commercial moving company. And one day he came home. He’s like, you know, “I want to get out of the back of the truck and I want to drive a truck.” I was like,” oh, that’s great.” That’s cool. You know, not thinking anything of it. And then a couple of months go by and he said, yep, I’m going to take my CDL. Find me a truck driving school. Like, okay. So you’re serious, right? So that started the journey was his passion to get in the front of the truck, and start driving a truck. Unbeknownst to me, he had wanted to be a truck driver since he was a kid. So we hear a lot of those stories that I would love to be a truck driver. That’s where that inspiration came from, I still to this day do not know. But he wanted to be a truck driver most of his life. So he took that step, went through truck driving school. I was right there, lock and step with him along that journey. We were down to one car at the time. You know, grassroots. Talk about grassroots. One car in our family. So I dropped him off at truck driving school. I’d go to my full-time job. And whenever I would get there, I would see him, you know, in the truck with the drivers. And, you know, basketball nerves. So watching him start in that position. And watching his passion for that space. And the motivation, the drive that he had was exciting. So after he got through truck driving school. He started working for a trucking company. Obviously, he had to start as a student driver. Every truck driver does have to get that experience under their belt. After, I think it was about, he was on the road when he first started. Almost three months without coming home.

Brent – 00:04:52:

Wow. 90 days. What was he hauling?

Jessica – 00:04:55:

At that time, he was hauling a dry van. He was hauling big rolls of paper out of Blinker, Wisconsin. And so definitely a whole new world. Blinker, Wisconsin, as we know in the wintertime. It’s an ice skating rink up there. So he definitely got the diversity and the elements. It was exciting to hear about it. But I mean, not sidetrack, which I always do, if you know me at all. I kind of compare what it was like going without him to when my oldest son went into boot camp. You don’t get to talk to him. You don’t get to, well, he’s now out. But yeah, he served his time. And anytime your family’s gone like that, they’re there every day. We’ve been married for almost 22 years. And at that time, we were about 10 years in. And having your husband there every single day with you, helping you with the kids, helping you with everyday household items, mowing the lawn, taking out trash, and so forth. There’s comfort there. And then to have him just gone is quite a shell shock for us. And so, yeah, being out there and turning into somewhat of a single mom, carrying all the weight of the house, it was definitely testing our relationship and to me as a person, can I do this? Right. But, you know, you muster up the strength and you support. And finally, after he got done with the truck driving part of, you know, the student driver part, he was able to come home for a couple of weeks and tell us all the great things about it and transitioned into an actual company driver. And so he had to be a company driver for a couple of years, just again, to get that experience during that time. I tell you what, whenever he was new to being a company driver and calling me in a panic, help me find somewhere to park. My clock’s running down. You know, I went by this truck stop and all the parking spots were full. I didn’t even know that could happen. Find me somewhere. And I’m like, what do I do? He’s like, grab the laptop, pull up this website. I think it was called Truck Master or something. He’s like, I’m on 80. I’m running this mile marker. Find somewhere. And I’m like, there’s a Walmart. He’s like, okay, I’ll go there. And, he’s like, but you didn’t call, because sometimes Walmart’s won’t let you park there. So I called the manager. Hey, my husband’s on his way. He needs somewhere to park. Is it allowed? And so I get the yes or no, you got to find somewhere else. Then I’d call and I’d get him off the wrong exit ramp because I found him a gas station instead of a truck stop. All the alarms are going off in the background. And you talk about an experience, right? Just learn so much through him and his time on the road. We jumped in the truck with him and rode with him. Me and the kids did. And that experience is, you know, later on down the road, whenever he started after getting done being a company driver where he was over the road, he found a local company here where he was able to start hauling containers out of the rail yards. And he was home every other day, every day. So that was a great change for us. That was the great part. That’s whenever we could kind of go out with him over the road. He would go to Liberal, Kansas. And so we’d stay down there with the stinky cow stockyards and go to taco trucks at the local lady down the street and get food through the truck. And I’m a camper, so it’s kind of like camping. I know I’m totally glamorizing the whole trucker experience, but that’s how I kind of relate to it. I’ll tell you what, it was so eye opening to see what a truck driver goes through, you know, the unexpected elements on the road. You know, sometimes the disrespect when you’re at a place where you’re unloading and they don’t even let you use the restroom. It’s just heartbreaking. You know, it’s personal. So down the road, obviously, he would drive through. This company here locally, Hall’s cancer, and the company he worked for was fantastic. The guy that owned the company, he inherited it from his father. And so he took it over and he created a unique opportunity to those drivers to buy some of his used trucks from him and start really creating their own way and their own path. And that’s whenever my husband came to me and said, hey, I think we should start our own trucking company.

Brent – 00:08:12:

Where was that in the journey? How long had he been driving when he transitioned from a company driver to buying a truck? I’m assuming becoming a leased owner operator to that fleet.

Jessica – 00:08:20:

That’s exactly right. He was probably about five, six years into his journey.

Brent – 00:08:24:

Okay. . Before truck stop or overdrive, Max, I used to love all the data. It’s a seven-year time period before the company driver to owner-operator, sometimes lease owner-operator, sometimes independent owner-operator, but it’s about a seven-year period before that they go through. So your husband was right in that same timeline.

Jessica – 00:08:40:

That’s cool statistics. I didn’t even know that.

Brent – 00:08:42:

He got to ride in the truck with them and sometimes. So let me ask you a question. So how many children do y’all have?

Jessica – 00:08:46:

We have six kids between both of us. We were in previous relationships., we’re a pretty bunch. He has a couple older kids. I have a couple older kids. Then we have two shirts.

Brent – 00:08:57:

Fantastic. Yes. So what was it like being in the truck with him when he was driving? What did that just feel like?

Jessica – 00:09:02:

It felt exciting and terrifying all at the same time.

Brent – 00:09:05:

Oh, really? Okay.

Jessica – 00:09:06:

Yeah. So my husband is definitely the safer driver between the two of us. Slow and steady wins the race in his mindset and for me fast track just gets there is mine. So sitting up that tall and that high and going across a huge bridge and looking over and like we go over the edge, there’s nothing stopping us there. Right. That was scary, but exciting. You know, you felt like the biggest thing on the highway. There’s a lot of power in that. It was really fun. In my younger years, I had a CDL and I drove a dump truck and a school bus. I had-

Brent – 00:09:34:

You drove a dump truck. Get out of here.

Jessica – 00:09:37:

I sure did. Exfolk. And boy,, that’s a whole nother story for a whole nother day.

Brent – 00:09:41:

Part of the market. Yeah.

Jessica – 00:09:42:

So yeah, it was, I had some experience.

Brent – 00:09:45:

I knew there was some trucking in your blood somewhere. I knew it was somewhere. There it is right there.

Jessica – 00:09:49:

There it is. It comes out. So yeah, I mean, it was really fun. Like I said,, a wealth of knowledge by being in that truck, the things you just don’t know and never think about, you know, riding is one thing on the highway. That’s great. But then you get into the cities. Then you go to backup. Then you have to do pre-inspections. Then you have, oh my gosh, an accident, right? And then your hours are running down and I am filled with anxiety anyway. So hearing the Qualcomm’s go off or knowing that we’re cutting down to the wire, I’m very much a planner and there’s so much unplanned circumstances that happen. A little too much for me. So my husband is absolutely the right person in the seat.

Brent – 00:10:25:

Well, that’s fantastic. So Freight Nation it’s really cool listening to Jessica talk about their experience, because if you’ve been in trucking long enough, you really know it can be very much a family affair. You remind me of something about how when a trucker’s out on the road, they need help back somewhere. And if you own your own truck, you know, and you’re out there, it’s one of those things where you’re calling back to your spouse or your significant other that’s helping you coordinate things because you need to be paying attention when you’re driving the truck. And on top of that, it’s kind of part of the law, it’s part of the law that you’re paying attention. So it’s really neat. You were talking about finding a parking place for him, which is obviously one of the biggest issues inside of transportation right now is just having enough parking. So you found what you thought was a parking place, but it was really a gas station with a diesel pump. It’s okay. That’s not, that’s not figuring out these processes. It’s not easy. All right. So what was, when he started driving his own truck, what was the thing that you thought, oh, that was the thing that I enjoyed the most? And that was, what was some of the hard, other than him being gone, what were some of the more difficult things?

Jessica – 00:11:20:

I mean, really being gone, right? Him being gone and not being in the house. That’s why it puts a lot of weight on your shoulders. But also the hardest thing is worrying about him. I mean, the worry that you and, you know, you start to absorb is tremendous. I’m very much a good morning and good night kind of person. And seeing you and making sure you’re safe is another. Back on track, backing up just a little bit. Whenever my husband came to me and said he wanted to start, he wanted to run his own trucking company. I was in accounting for many years. And in my mind, I had the immediate thought of how am I going to run the office side of things? And, you know, a lot of people say they kind of fell into this space. And I think kind of uniquely, I did both. I fell into it through my husband, but I was very deliberate on moving forward and staying in it. In my mind, now that I’m a lot further on in my career, in my mind, at that point, there’s no school for being a trucking company business owner and running a back office. So I was like, how in the heck am I going to get this experience at the accounting piece? But, you know, then my husband says we got to get stickers for it. We got to get inspection safety and compliance and if, and I’m like, what is that? And so I deliberately went out and made choices in my career path to learn all these things. So I went here to work for a large trucking company here in Kansas City as just a billing clerk using my accounting skills and-

Brent – 00:12:32:

Oh, there you go.

Jessica – 00:12:32:

Oh, my gosh. Tons of stuff at that trucking company, billing, customer relations, rates, dispatch, safety, driver orientation. Oh, that’s an amazing truck driver. And in that space, the reason why I kind of backed up a little bit is I formed really good relationships. With truck drivers and their families, they would come into the hub and check in and say hi. This one gentleman, his name was Bernard. Going to try not to get emotional. Very good man. Very good family. I got very close with his wife because we coordinated with, you know, his loads, his lanes, his pay. And he would bring us donuts. He’d come by my desk and bring a box of donuts and made me the hero. You know, I got donuts from Bernard. And I got in one morning and I got very tragic news that he had passed. And that at that point, it was very eye opening to think it could have been my husband, personally resonated with me. And so I think that is the pivotal time whenever that worry really sets in. You know, it’s just always on your mind. I mean, my husband’s not on the show. Many times I would call him at the end of the day whenever he said he was getting ready to pull in and park. And at that time, we didn’t have Life 360, so I didn’t know where he was or what he was doing. And I would call. I called him about an hour later to go in, take a shower, do all the things. I need an answer. And of course, worry worked for us. I called the truck stop. I think I need somebody to go look at his truck and make sure he’s okay.

Brent – 00:13:48:

Right.

Jessica – 00:13:48:

So they had safety. They had the parking safety team go out, knock on his doors and he calls.

Brent – 00:13:54:

Right.

Jessica – 00:13:54:

And I’m in tears at that time, panicking. And he’s like, what are you doing? I had the worst case scenario in my head. I was in the trucker lounge. I fell asleep watching TV. So, you know, that was probably one of the most challenging things that I had to face being the spouse of a truck driver is that constant fear and worry if he’s safe and he’s okay, because it’s real. It’s a real fear, that spouses, whether you’re a husband or wife at home, it’s a real fear that your loved one is out there on the road and that he’s okay. And he has some, you know, he has some real life experiences as a new driver. He wasn’t aware that sitting a long time can cause problems with clotting in your body parts. He came home one weekend after being on the road for a couple of weeks and was complaining about late aches and problems. And I have a family history of blood clotting. And I knew the kind of the signs and got him to the emergency room. And he had formed a clot from his hip to his ankle because he wasn’t moving around. He was just trying to keep on the clock and get to his destination and not taking the breaks he needed. Later on, he developed type two diabetes, came home one weekend, really tired, really thirsty. And, you know, we just rolled drowsy and did weird acting. And he’s not a drinker. So it’s like you’re acting like you’re drunk, but I’ve had a drink. Did you start a new habit? You know, because I was out of town visiting my kid in the military and got home and got him to the emergency room because he just wasn’t acting right. And he had a blood sugar of 1,183 Brent.

Brent – 00:15:09:

Whoa, that’s off the charts.

Jessica – 00:15:11:

Yeah. And that was all encouraged. Because he wasn’t eating right. Right. Wouldn’t eat because he wanted to wait till he got home because everything on the road wasn’t healthy and he didn’t have opportunities. And he was so focused on delivering. And so, yeah, there’s a lot of things that just your average person doesn’t really understand what those truck drivers go through. And so deep passion, deep respect for trucking, the trucking community, families and drivers. So, yeah. Real.

Brent – 00:15:34:

Right. Well, that’s cool. I didn’t know we were going to dive into the health part of transportation. You know, it’s so unique, Jessica, and I appreciate you bringing that out because, you know, Freight Nation, what Jessica’s bringing out, this is so important because it’s things you don’t think about. You just think about how am I going to get a load, deliver a load, and run as efficiently and safe, but as much as possible so I can maximize my return. And people forget about their health. They forget about all of the softer parts of trucking that you have to deal with when it comes to the back office, when it comes to health, when it comes to all those things. And so, Jessica, I think that’s really unique that you did that part of it for your husband. And so you guys were working together as a team. And by the way, you also had a full-time job doing other things last time I checked. So it’s just crazy, you know, but the point Freight Nation I’m trying to make here is that that’s normal inside of a small trucking operation. It’s just normal. So however you’ve constructed yours, Jessica’s, this is like a pro tip from Jessica here. Make sure you’re paying attention to these things, especially things like your health when it comes to clots, because you sit tremendous amount of time, or the fact that your diet and how it could, when you get to a certain age in your life, type 2 diabetes becomes a real thing, and you need to pay attention to that. So super important because your health is a big part of how you can perform. So I know Kevin Rutherford and I,, at Let’s Truck, we talked about this all the time, but your health is a big part of how well you can perform.

Jessica – 00:16:54:

Yeah, and don’t avoid taking care of yourself, right? When every first one you got the blood clot, and we talked about having to monitor your blood, density levels and the warfarin and all the things, we’re like, “oh my gosh, how’s he gonna pass his physical and keep driving, right?” But you can do it. You work through it, you learn your regimen, and same with diabetes. Oh my gosh, you know, but it’s about monitoring and being proactive and controlling that disease. And you can be successful in this space. So just don’t avoid it because you’re afraid it’s gonna take away your license because it won’t.

Brent – 00:17:21:

All right. So Jessica, this is really cool because this is kind of like a one-on-one for the Freight Nation watchers and listeners. Okay. You’ve started your own operation. What are the other things you need to make sure that are in your trucking operation that can help you create success? And you’re talking about those things, which are, what are you doing for back office? What are you doing for extemporaneous help or outside? Typically it’s by a spouse or a significant other in this marketplace. I’ve been around long enough, 26 years now, and then, but yet to run into a couple that is a family that has a small trucking operation, where both husband and wife or, husband and significant other, or wife and significant other aren’t both involved in the operation because that’s usually what creates success in it. Super cool. All right. So you were in accounting, you decided, okay,, I’m going to go to work for a fleet and I’m going to learn all about the process. And then, but you’ve gone even further than that because you left that and got deeper into the marketplace. And tell me first off, what made you want to leave sort of an accounting structure focused type job and get further into transportation? What was the motivation behind that?

Jessica – 00:18:24:

The motivation is obviously at home, right? Being a successful company owner and aligning with my vision, with my husband’s vision.

Brent – 00:18:31:

Ooh, I read it all the time. Aligning your vision with your husband’s vision. Freight Nation, that’s a big one. Write that one down somewhere. You have to align visions. That’s super cool. That’s a great statement. Keep going.

Jessica – 00:18:43:

Yeah. The one piece that I was missing was how do we get loads, right? Do we go directly to the shipper? Well, that’s really hard when you’re an owner operator because you have to make sure that you can accommodate each one of those lanes or be reliable. And if there’s a truck breakdown or he gets sick, there’s not another backup person, right? Well, how do we get loads? So how do we get on with a broker? Better lack of better words. So I was like, well, let’s go see if I can find a job as a broker, right? So I was able to align my career goals with a broker here again in Kansas City and started there, leveraged my accounting skills again. That’s where my route started. So I was on the accounting side of the brokerage, but in a very small, intimate office. So I was able to be the person that sets up the carrier packets. So I learned what is required of a truck driver, a trucking company to sign on with a brokerage. You have to have a certain amount of insurance. You have to make sure you don’t have any freight guard reports, which again, now that I’m further in my career, there’s a lot around the freight guard reporting and how accurate it is. But at that point, I needed to understand what a brokerage was looking at in regards to a carrier qualification. And so it was, they would look at freight guards, they would make sure you had the right insurance and it was, you know, an active policy. That’s beneficial. Also looking at your back records, making sure you have a good driving record and then experience how long you had to be a driver and how much experience you had to have for them to sign you on as one of their carriers to haul their loads. Because on the opposite side of that, I got a unique perspective on what makes a broker want to use you. And it’s not just the reliability and it’s not just your score. It’s how are we going to get along? How well do you communicate? Are you yelling at me all the time? Are you understanding? Are you empathetic? Do you verbalize where you’re at? Hey, I got a flat tire. It’s going to take me a little bit. I have a breakdown. You might need to put somebody else underneath this so you don’t lose the load. There’s a time and a place for everything and how you communicate and the relationships you form are so important in this industry. And it’s both sides. I was able to see on my side of the world, how great these brokers were, how genuinely they cared, how long they were sitting at that desk, how they negotiated rates, how they fought for the driver’s pay. And so that was very inspiring to me. I was like, this is exactly the kind of broker I would want to work for. An amazing relationship there. It doesn’t stop with brokerage, right? We don’t just book loads. Well, how are we going to pay our bills whenever you have a 30-day pay on a new? What should I do? Do I go through a brokerage and get quick pay and pay those fees? Or should I do factoring? Guess where I needed to go next? I needed to go work for a factoring company and understand what’s required of a trucking company to be able to factor. What are the rates? What are the ins and outs? What has to take place? How fast do they pay? I started my journey at that point with Multi Service whenever they had their factoring division. And I was an account manager at that point. So again, immersing myself in those relationships, understanding the urgency of when they need to get paid, how quick they need to get paid. I think my biggest struggle in every aspect of my career and what I do personally is working with people that are like-minded, that truly get it, right? Do you truly understand the sense of urgency? Are you truly intimate with your customer? Because that’s what’s going to create the the trust, which is completely broken in the industry. You don’t have trust, you have nothing. And that’s both sides, right? You have to trust your customer’s going to pay the bill and your customer has to trust that you’re not going to try to push all these operational costs on him and really put a burden on him, right? So getting those relationships, getting an understanding of what it takes to run a trucking company through factoring, which is extremely beneficial. At first I was like, oh god, this is a payday loan. This is so gross and disgusting. And as I got into factoring, I was like, no, this is actually crazy beneficial. This helps with cash flow. This helps gets us paid faster. And again, if you work with a good factoring company that is truly genuine in making sure that you’re able to operate and run your business successfully and be profitable, then you’re winning.

Brent – 00:22:20:

Man, keep going. I’ve got your start in accounting, into your husband buying a truck. You working for a fleet, you working for a broker, you working for a factor company. Keep coming. This is like a one-on-one on all the pieces of the puzzle. This is fantastic, Jessica. Keep going. There’s going to be so many people helped by this.

Jessica – 00:22:38:

I would like to say we’re almost done, but we’re almost to where I am now. And there’s so much more we had. Now, Fuel card. Here I am. Whenever I got offered the position I’m in now, I kind of laughed. I was like, I’ve never sold. I’m not going to sell. As an end user, as the wife of a trucker, why would I ever want to sign up for a credit card? But I quickly learned that it’s not just a credit card. It’s not really a credit card at all. The fuel card is a unique piece of plastic that you’re able to use for transactions. And you’re able to really control your spending, right? You can put limits on your card. It also is very beneficial because it opens you up to acceptability at all the truck stops, right? And be able to have savings on that. Where I found it beneficial and a very barrier for it because my husband and I signed up for the fuel card. I was like, well, if I’m going to sell it, I’m the seller. I was on the account management side, you know, where I live and breathe over relationships, helping out the truck drivers and making sure that they’re successful. But I needed to understand the product. So I signed up for the fuel card. Funny enough, I mean, my husband’s fantastic. So he got approved, and was able to get an unsecured line of credit. And he kind of laughed at me. He’s like, let’s see how this goes. You know, and within the first few months, we were seeing a lot of savings, right? And the savings weren’t just at a discount. He’s just a one truck guy. It was also at that cash price, right? That’s already down below that retail that they put on that board. So we were able to see instant savings immediately. But I found it beneficial to be able to have reporting to go through, you know, the FTA tax process. It was a conundrum. And if you don’t have easy reporting, it just causes chaos, right? So that was where I found it beneficial. I could go on and on about how great fuel cards are.

Brent – 00:24:10:

We’re going to talk for a couple of minutes. We’ve got about 15 minutes left, so we’re definitely going to talk about that. So let me ask you a question. What is your greatest piece of advice to a couple who’s starting themselves out in the trucking industry? He’s been a company driver. She’s been a company driver for two or three years, and so they don’t know how to drive a truck really well. But you pivot into owning your own business. What’s your greatest piece of advice to somebody who finds themselves that desire for their operation?

Jessica – 00:24:39:

The biggest piece of advice, especially right now with the space that we’re in in the industry with the economic factors, you’ve got to have, you know, a lot of people say nine months. I would say at least have a year to a year and a half worth of operational savings. Do not go out on your own until you have saved enough money to maintain that business for at least a year.

Brent – 00:24:59:

Wow. Now that’s, you know, usually they say six months, but you’re probably considering some of the uncertainty in the marketplace today after we came out of this incredible marketplace during the pandemic for truckers. I mean, they were making two or three times more than they’ve ever made per mile in their life. So you say one year to 1.5 years. Yeah, I always like to say, but most people don’t know this, Jessica, and I appreciate you saying this highly because most people don’t know this. The number one thing that puts a trucker out of business is a major mechanical failure. It could be through a wreck. It could be through a wheel end. It could be a transmission. It could be an engine issue and you’re $20,000 in need of money and which you may not have in the bank. And then the thing that makes you money has stopped working. So that usually puts them out. Now, the second thing, and most people don’t know this one either. Second thing is what you alluded to earlier. You have a health crisis and those two things are the two major things that knock you out of doing what you love to do, which is to drive a truck. So pay attention to those things. So cash flow is king and cash flow in circumstances where you have a breakdown or you have an issue going on, you need to be able to get through this. And if you don’t have cash in the bank, it’s going to be very difficult and sometimes impossible.

Jessica – 00:26:08:

It would have taken us out. We would have absolutely been a one income household if my husband hadn’t been smart to do that in the beginning. He’s a saver anyway, so it was natural for him. But if we wouldn’t have, he was out for three months with his blood clot.

Brent – 00:26:20:

So firsthand experience, you went through something that your preparation was able to allow you to keep you guys, allow your husband and your family, keep him doing what he loves to do, which is to drive a truck. This is a little boy, right? Super important. So that’s great. So let’s pivot into talking about cash flow and cash reserves and operational things that, by the way, Freight Nation, and I know this, I’ve been doing it for 26 years. I know a lot of Freight Nation truckers out there that go, I just want to drive the truck. Why do I have to pay attention to these operational things? Well, if you pay attention to the operational things, you can get to drive the truck even more than if you don’t. So talking about the operational things with cash flow and products out there that can help you are, it’s really important. So this is why I sort of benefited from part of the Freight Nation podcast today, where I wanted to have Jess on. First off, I wanted to hear her story. It’s such a cool story. And I know you agree with me. So gosh, I’m so impressed. Fleet, broker, factoring, fuel card, all of it understanding the operational part of the business. Let’s talk about operations. And then let’s talk about fuel cards. What are the ups and downs of using a fuel card? What’s the right way or some of the advice on how to use it? And what are some of the potential sort of pitfalls on things you might want to avoid or understand better before you utilize them? But let’s start first with the operational things. Let’s talk a little bit about the operational things of you guys running your business and then how fuel cards work into that.

Jessica – 00:27:41:

Yeah, absolutely. So operationally, my husband, very old school. He knows the nuts and bolts, ins and outs.

Brent – 00:27:46:

That a trucker is old school? That’s a shocker.

Jessica – 00:27:51:

I know. I’m trying to bring him into the century, trying too quickly.

Brent – 00:27:54:

Nah, old school’s what makes him a great trucker. I tell you what, that makes him a great trucker.

Jessica – 00:27:58:

That’s right. Pin to paper. You know, they talk about paper logs. He has, you know, paper back office, on the note of operational expenses, he knows the ins and outs of exactly what it takes to break even and what it takes to be profitable within his business all the way from, you know, just jotting down every single operational expense from his preventative maintenance, when he’s going to need brakes, when he’s going to need tires, when an expected breakdown could happen. And he averages that out throughout his month or year, or however he breaks it down, because I don’t try to pick up his paper and look at it. But he knows what it takes by the mile to run his business successfully. So whenever you’re doing that, obviously rolling into fuel spin is one of the big things. And about 28, depending on where he runs, how heavy his load is, anywhere between 28 cents to 50 cents per mile is what your fuel is going to be. So when you talk about that, you’re talking about as a whole, how can I save on that? Multiple factors go into that, right? How fast does he run his tractor? Whatever his tires, you go cheap, you go broke. You know, those angel tires, you got to make sure that they’re safe and that they do good fuel efficiency. So he’s making sure that his tires have good wear. He’s making sure that he’s running his truck at a decent speed. I mean, he strategically leaves every morning about two or three o’clock in the morning to get ahead of traffic. So there’s no stop and start. That’s also hard on your truck. He also sets it on cruise control because he knows exactly where he needs to set that parameter to make sure he’s running fuel efficiently. But then with the fuel card, as a whole, anybody in this trucking space, you need to be aware of the overall fuel spend, right? A lot of people get so attracted to it, I’m going to save 50 cents a gallon. I’m going to save 90 cents a gallon. That’s great. But are you paying a higher dollar amount even with that discount embedded in that? Do you know along your journey where you could actually save more at that bottom dollar? So getting trapped into that discount arena is dangerous because you’re losing focus on your overall spend for your truck. So that’s where technology is really benefiting truck drivers these days. You know, let’s go way back in the way back machine, right? 1978. Whenever, you know, drivers were out here with a wad of cash in their pocket. Crazy. Big issues with theft and safety for our drivers. Not really being able to document where their spend is very well. You know, paper receipts in a shoebox. That’s kind of challenging. I had to do that. Pack envelopes, you know, stacks crumpled up and not able to manage that spend very well as well as, you know, the efficiency. Walking into the truck stop, you’re going through your cash, you’re holding up the fuel while you’re taking your time. So fuel cards come into space, right? And that’s just usually where it started was just being able to have a safer way to pay and an easier way to document. Well, now we’re in the arena of transparency and efficiency. And so with mobile apps coming into this space, you’re really able to, with our mobile app, I can’t speak on competitors. I know everybody’s got the pricing mechanism with our mobile app specific. You’re able to plan your route and along your route, you’re able to see what the actual cost of your fuel is going to be along the route at truck stops. So you can more to strategically prioritize what you need to do? Do you need a shower? Do you need to, you know, just fuel? I call it a splash and dash. I found out that’s an Olympic term for diving into a pool, but I use it for truckers, splash and dash. So really you can make better use of your time. You’re not wasting your time trying to find your facilities or understanding exactly how much you’re going to pay at that bottom dollar. So that’s the biggest tip I can give in this space as a trucking company is make sure you understand the whole picture.

Brent – 00:31:13:

On the fuel card that you might be using. So are you limited or unlimited?

Jessica – 00:31:17:

Yeah, exactly. And are you working with a fuel card that understands the space, right? A lot of these tech companies come out and we’re accepted everywhere is Visa. Well, then you find out where you are accepted and you’re looking and it’s like 222,000 locations across the United States. And you’re like, well, which one’s the truck stop? That’s not going to work. I can’t, again, like I said, I was putting my husband in a four-wheeler and he couldn’t even turn his truck around. Then you have a lot of problems, right? You have to work with a fuel card that knows the trucking industry that has a wide acceptance at the truck stops, which is the high flow diesel island. Important term to know, right? Because everybody has a diesel pump. I mean, I’ve lent our big truck to get diesel in that truck, but it’s a diesel high flow diesel island with enough maneuverability. We worked really hard to create that space, right? Where we know the merchants, we know the truck stops so that your truck drivers aren’t put in an awkward position. So you’ve got your acceptability, you’ve got your technology, so you can see where you’re going to fuel and have a strategic way to plan. That’s for fuel efficiency and cost and savings. And then with your reporting, right? You want to make it easy. You want to make it to where it’s not. In my case, before we started using our fuel card, I was using another fuel card and I would spend about an hour and a half trying to itemize, pull a report together, upload into the exact. Those are the main things I could sell you a fuel card for.

Brent – 00:32:31:

Yeah. So let me start as Freight Nation. Notice that Jessica didn’t start with what the fuel card does. She started with the major expense part of the equation, the truck. She talked about tires. She talked about understanding when you were operating the truck to avoid starts and stops. One thing you didn’t mention, but I’m sure that you and your husband pay attention to is the aerodynamic drag on that truck. You try to be as aerodynamic as possible because that’s fuel mileage. You’ve also talked about knowing. And so that was one piece. And another piece was you said that you’re a husband and you know, every single piece of the operational cost of the truck. And I can tell you, and this is a historical thing, and Freight Nation, I know you know this, if you operate a truck, you may fall in this category, you may not. But a lot of the marketplace does not know their operational costs. They don’t know their cost per mile. And so it’s a very difficult thing. When you operate in an arena that is charged by the mile, you need to know what your operational cost is by the mile. And so you were talking about you and your husband know that all the way down to every piece of what is his cost to operate that truck, including saving for the times it may go out of service. That is just, that’s fantastic. All right. So, and then you start talking about a fuel card and how that part of it is a, does it have all the options in the marketplace? Is it accepted in the marketplace? How is it utilized from a standpoint of reporting? All the things go into making it a benefit to you. You also mentioned, you said something, I want you to unwind a little bit more of this. You said so many people pay attention to just the discount that is stated on a fuel card. And that’s not everything in the benefit of a fuel card. So talk a little bit more about that. Because that’s something I heard somebody say much about.

Jessica – 00:34:10:

Yeah, I mean, you can pull up a Fuel Card on Google right now, and the first thing you see is 40 to 50 cents off. I mean, that’s the sell, right? But truly understanding that you need to know what you’re going to pay at the pump is where you really save, right? What am I actually paying whenever I get done swiping that card? And so a discount is great to have. It’s always important to make sure there’s some discount effort in there. But you can’t be gullible to the fact that that discount is still not bringing that price per gallon down to what somebody down the street or right across the street could be charging, right? And so whenever I speak to customers, whenever I speak to friends of my husband’s, and we’re talking about fuel and fuel cards and getting out of that whole category of it’s just another credit card, right? It’s not. It’s not a credit card. You can get an unsecured line of credit. That’s great. You can get a partially secured line of credit. You can get a cash deposit account, which will help you build your business credit. If you’re new, you can also do prepaid. So you have different opportunities on how you get a fuel card, but it’s how you use it and which fuel card product you decide to get. It’s kind of important because you have to be able to get it, have acceptability, and you have to be able to get fuel, right? Last thing you want to do is be going down. My husband was a victim of this with this previous part. He was going down the highway. He drives at odd hours two o’clock in the morning where stores are not open. It went to what deal card didn’t work. He was new in the game. He was like, oh, what do I do? Stranded. Lost the load. Lost $2,500 because he wasn’t going to make it in time. Not only did he lose out on that load, but because he wasn’t going to get the load dropped off. Now it’s delayed. He lost the next day’s load because he wasn’t going to be there in time. That’s a $5,000 loss to a company because a card did not work, right?

Brent – 00:35:54:

Wow. Freight Nation, listen to that. It can roll downhill. Wow. That’s incredible. So we’ve got a couple minutes left. Jessica, thank you. Freight Nation, please pay attention to that last example. Jessica. It just gave about how making sure you’ve got acceptability with the fuel card that you choose is probably one of the greatest things. And making sure what you’re paying at the pump is the biggest benefit to you. It’s not a discount. It’s what the cost is and what you’re actually paying is the benefit to you. So Jessica, in the closing couple minutes here, what’s the couple things that are usually the potholes that people step into with fuel cards that create an issue that’s kind of unforeseen?

Jessica – 00:36:28:

Obviously, salespeople are very good, right? You get out here and you get a fuel card that you are alluding to that’s going to work everywhere. Back to my point, right? That’s a pothole, right? You get in there and you’re running down the highway and it doesn’t work. Causes a big problem. Potholes that people get into with fuel cards, they, you know, make the assumption that it’s a credit card and that you’re going to be fed in percentages and it works the same way. It doesn’t. It’s a very valuable piece of tool to be able to streamline your operations. You don’t have to reconcile it with what you’re reporting. You have driver control spin and also to bring up a very hot topic that we didn’t get a touch on. Make sure you’re using a fuel card that has protections on it to prevent fuel card skimming from happening because it’s real.

Brent – 00:37:09:

Well, I’m glad you brought that up. That’s obviously an issue in the marketplace. Yeah. Fuel card skimming is a reality.

Jessica – 00:37:15:

Yeah. So be careful with that. Make sure you’re choosing a fuel card that does have not only one, but maybe two barriers of entry. You know, making sure that there’s protections around that fuel card that protect your card from getting skimmed at those pumps. It’s real. It’s in the industry still. So make sure you’re picking a field card that has those parameters on there.

Brent – 00:37:30:

Yeah, for sure. Wow. Jessica, I had no idea that you’d be bringing this much information today to the Freight Nation audience. Freight Nation, this was a special one. I’ll tell you what, I thought one thing, and this is what I love about doing the podcast, is so many times I think one thing and then so much else comes out that’s a benefit to the Freight Nation watchers and listeners. Jessica, you’ve been such a wealth of knowledge to this entire marketplace today. I need to have you back on for another episode. Thank you so much for being on Freight Nation today.

Jessica – 00:37:59:

Yeah, my pleasure. I could talk about this all day long, right? I think that a lot of people get into the space thinking they’re going to bring home a lot of money and make all this money, but money is secondary. I have so much fun when I come to work every day. The relationships I get bring in a benefit to the truck driver. I want to leave this space better than I found it. And I’m just immersing myself out there. Yeah, we need to have a part two. Let’s talk more.

Brent – 00:38:19:

Well, Freight Nation, I tell you what, what a gem we had today on this podcast. I hope that you watch all of it because every piece of it is good advice to your operation. Jessica, thank you for bringing that great advice. And thank you for you and your husband’s heart for this industry. It means a lot to all of us that operate in it and you’re part of it. So thank you so much for your heart.

Jessica – 00:38:37:

I appreciate that. Thank you, Brent.

Brent – 00:38:38:

You’re welcome. All right, Freight Nation, that’s a wrap. This was a great one. Please watch all of it. I hope that if you missed it, scroll backwards and watch it twice. All right, Freight Nation, I hope this was a big benefit to you. I know it was because it was a benefit to me. I’ve been around a long time, watched a lot of people, and Jessica communicates this really clearly. So pay attention and really appreciate what you do out there on the road, Freight Nation. And as we like to say, don’t forget to work hard, to be kind, and to stay humble. We’ll catch you the next time, Freight Nation. Thanks for watching and listening. On behalf of the Truckstop team, thanks for listening to this episode of Freight Nation. To find out more about the show, head to truckstop.com/podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you hit subscribe so you don’t miss any future episodes. Until then, keep on trucking and exploring the open roads with Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast.