25. Rogue Podcast

Sam and Sheldon forcibly take over the pod this week for the exclusive purpose of discussing the best nicknames in the company. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:07

Welcome to Loaded, the Hon ReadyMix podcast. With a knock on the door. Who might that be?

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Hello. They ran away. They ran away. They ran away.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Are you gonna knock and run away? Wow.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

They went out the door.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

I think that was probably Griff. So they they're probably noticing we're we don't sound anything like Griffin and Andrea.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

No, he's just trying to ruin the podcast because he's jealous that you guys are gonna do so much better than him. So that was Griffin. Probably. Ding dong ditch. Yep. That would make sense.

SPEAKER_04 0:47

That was probably Griffin.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

Loaded podcast.

SPEAKER_04 0:50

Yes. Um as you can probably hear in our voices, I am not Andrea Meyer.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

And I am not Griffin Hun.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

But I am producer Lex.

SPEAKER_04 1:01

That's what I'm talking about. So uh today is a special episode. Perhaps Andrea and Griff just needed a break. But uh Sheldon has volunteered along with me to host the podcast today. So we're gonna cover a few different topics uh from truck maintenance to customer service to those time off requests, and uh maybe touch on a little bit of safety at the end.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Yeah. We're gonna try and package it in small bits and hopefully not overdo it and make it boring.

SPEAKER_04 1:37

Well uh one fun thing we've got for today is uh I've compiled a list of uh various nicknames from employees throughout HonreadyMix, and I've made a top five list of the greatest nicknames currently at Honready Mix. You're gonna have to listen to the end to find out who's number one, although I'm sure a lot of you can probably already guess. I'm on the edge of my seat. Oh, it's exciting. I'm gonna start though by uh giving a little list of those who did not make the top five. Apologies ahead of time. We've got our very own producer Lex, also known as Sexy Lexi. Ooh, sorry, Lex, didn't make the top five. Uh we've got Big D, Big Darren Fick. Uh we've got Bear, although some people may be convinced that it is actually his real name. His name is Jeremy, but he is Bear. Um we've got uh Johnny Ahole. I'm not sure where the name originated, but I am told that is a real nickname. Uh we've got uh a couple of the guys down in Muscatine, uh Buzzy and Seabass. I'm a big fan of those nicknames. Uh Big Country, Brian Schultz, as well as uh Pork Chop, Calvin. Also, uh last on the list, I've got Buddha, um, which is a special nickname for one Alex Herrera.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

That's a laundry list right there.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

Yes. So I'm gonna go ahead and get into the list at number five is a tie between Alice, Andrea's nickname, Alice.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

There's a little story behind that. Who's who's she tied with?

SPEAKER_04 3:37

Well, I put Big D, but I already mentioned Big D. So it's such a big nickname that it can fit into both categories, I suppose.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Nice. The the story, I won't be able to tell it as well as Big D could, but um when Alice had started, uh she hadn't met all the managers and all the plants, I believe. And uh Jim Glazier, who takes care of material deliveries, um he just called her Alice, and it stuck.

SPEAKER_04 4:11

Uh I've heard her called a number of different names. Alice is a good one though. Oh. Because it's uh it also starts with an A.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Yeah.

unknown 4:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:23

All right, so uh let's enough of the nicknames for now. We're gonna get into uh Sheldon's got a little bit to talk about truck maintenance, uh keeping those trucks ready and on the road.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

All right, so uh we've been doing a really good job this year, especially in Davenport. We've focused really hard on getting the uh getting the trucks cleaned up. Um we've got a lot of drivers showing a lot of pride in their ride. The the big thing is is not to let the concrete build up on the back of the truck or in the drum. So if you can catch it while it's fresh, water takes it right off. And you don't have to bang on it with a hammer or use heavy chemicals to do that. Properly securing your chutes while you're driving around, that's important too. Um but also every morning flip the hood open, check the fluids, make sure the truck's ready to go before you take off. Do your do your full pre-trip and uh greasing your rollers to try to get that done about twice a week. Be a good idea, especially in the wintertime because water gets down in there when you're rinsing down and it freezes and it ruins those rollers. Fuel up every night before you park the truck. You never know when you run into a snag. I think Andrea had mentioned that in a previous podcast, but it's something we've run into recently where the fuel pump island is acting up and we can't get fuel, and it's a terrible time to find out you don't have enough fuel for the day when you're starting out.

SPEAKER_03 5:48

Sheldon, going back to rollers, why is it important we grease those rollers twice a week?

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Well, you're pushing the moisture out of the rollers. So we we wash the trucks down 10, 20 times a day after getting loaded, after getting unloaded, and you know, at the end of the day when someone wants to wash on their trucks, that water gets it worked into the rollers and it it breaks down the grease. And then that grease isn't gonna do its job very well. So it it runs into mechanical problems after that where the the ball bearings inside the inside there doesn't cut it. So if you uh if you grease it twice a week, you're you're helping the truck, it's a real real process actually changing the rollers on those trucks. And so it's it's important.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

And then chutes, what kind of issues have we had people not doing with their locking up their chutes against the truck?

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Uh about a year ago we had somebody have a chute fall off of the truck on the interstate, and one of the vehicles behind him happened to be a one-ton Dodge pulling a really long trailer with a bunch of stuff on it, and he had no choice but to straddle it, and it tore up everything underneath the truck. So it's it's just one more of those things where you you want to make sure that the straps hold them on there, they stay on the hooks so they don't fall off of the hangers. Yeah, and keeping them clean. You know, it's they're lighter, they're easier to manage. It's it's easier to put them together if you keep them clean. So keeping them washed down.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

Oh one point that I I took there was the very first thing that you said was uh uh take pride in your ride. Oh, you like that? I do like that. I think it should be on a t-shirt somewhere. Maybe producer likes you can make that happen. Um but uh to the guys that that are cleaning up their trucks in the wash bay every single day, and maybe some other guys don't have time to get in there, what what would you say to that, Sheldon?

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Um I think it'd be a good idea. I mean, the guys that are really on on the verge of OCD keeping their trucks clean, we appreciate it. We can tell that they're doing a good job. Um, but eventually, you know, you gotta you gotta give that space up and let somebody that needs to get in there that hasn't had an opportunity to give a good clean. It'd be a good idea to do your best to keep up with the with the mess through the week and give it a good wash once a week. We don't have to we don't have to spend extended periods of time shining on a truck that's already clean.

SPEAKER_04 8:21

Agreed.

SPEAKER_03 8:22

Uh it's something I think I want to add while we're talking about the wash bay. Also, when people are in there washing, let's make sure to keep that area clean for the others that are coming in there to wash as well.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Yeah, that's a very good idea. Yeah, people overlook that a lot, they get in a rush on the end at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_04 8:42

Yep. So an organized uh clean workspace is always a more productive workspace. So if we can keep areas clean and they're easier to navigate, that that's always helpful.

unknown 8:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:56

All right. Um, so thank you for that, Sheldon, on the truck maintenance. Um next thing we wanted to uh talk about, but before we do, I want to get to number four. Number four. Number four. And uh I know uh I've called Steve this nickname a few times, and it's one of my favorites. It's the pavement princess. Um, not only is it fitting for a pink truck, but nobody treats their truck more like their baby than Steve Kellenberger. That is for sure. Oh, yeah. So thank you to the pavement princess for making that truck look so nice.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Our guys in Geneseo do a great job, and there is one fella that could probably give him a serious run for his money, and that would be Scott in 440.

SPEAKER_04 9:50

Okay. Well, maybe we could have a uh truck wash-off at some point.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

That's a good pun. I like that one.

SPEAKER_04 10:00

A few things that we wanted to talk about on uh customer service. Uh Sheldon, I'll let you go ahead and get started.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

All right, on customer service, we're outside all the time with our customers. Um, our drivers are our first point of contact when we're arriving with a load. When you get there, a good part of the customer service is size the job up before you drive on to the lot or if you leave the roadway. Um if you have to, pull the parking brake, get out and communicate with your with the customer that ordered the concrete and find out what the game plan is. Make sure that we're we're communicating with the customer, hey, everything that this truck drives on is gonna get broke. All right. Um, especially in the residential areas, sidewalks, driveways, things like that. Uh it might be an inexperienced customer that didn't think that, oh, you shouldn't drive that 70,000 pounds of concrete in truck on top of my three-inch driveway. Um thing things like that happen, especially the asphalt, it'll curl up on a hot day underneath a heavy truck. Um let's see. Don't be in a rush. You know, take take your time while you're doing your job. You know, you might have a customer that's trying to get you to hurry up because they're they're they've got things going on too. But it it's important to stick to the pace that you're comfortable doing the job in so that we can complete the job well. Um be diligent with the truck, take care of the load. You know, when you get loaded, put your eyes on that load, make sure that make sure that the concrete looks like concrete. We didn't have something go wrong in the plant. Um, make sure it's the right slump. Communicate with the guy batching, make sure that he knows if something's going on with it. Or if you're not sure about something, just get his attention, have him come out and look at the load with you.

SPEAKER_03 11:50

Recently I've had a few drivers come up to me when I've been at plants just to come and look at their loads. So I think we're doing a good job at doing that and continuing to do those that kind of things is really helpful for not only the QC team, but everyone that is uh involved in that process.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Another thing too is if if you're doing a residential job, try to leave the way you came in so that you're not putting more ruts in someone's yard or driving over something that you weren't aware of. Oftentimes, easy mistakes happen because you can't see it from the st from the driver's seat, like running over people's tools or hitting a form board, things like that.

SPEAKER_04 12:31

So the acronym uh Get Out and Look. Get out and look. Yeah. I heard that used to be on the on the rear views.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

It was on the on the rear views, but a lot of those trucks have been updated, and I don't think we've put stickers on them. Maybe we need to get the stickers out and put them on there.

SPEAKER_04 12:49

I I think that's a great idea, you know. Get out, look around, make sure everything's safe. Get a game plan for yourself before you get in there.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

And then another thing to keep in mind is it's our job to hang the shoots on the truck, right? We get to a busy job and you might have seven hands out there and they just start hanging your shoots for you. That's awesome. The customers in a her the customer's trying to save time, that's great. But it is our job to do that. Along with adding water, if the customer wants us to add water, we should be the ones putting our hand on the valve, making sure we're putting in the accurate amount of water so that we're not we're we're not just leaving it to a question mark like how much did that fellow really put in there? You know, so we can track it, make sure that everything's accurate.

SPEAKER_04 13:34

One thing that I I might also add to that is um as the drivers are out there, you guys are hauling numerous loads every single day. You you're seeing more concrete than anybody else. So if you notice something is different in a mix or something looks goofy out there, make sure we're saying something. You know, maybe perhaps something got messed up at the plant or some sort of contamination, or maybe something different is just going on. Um don't be afraid to uh take notes if you see those things. Um when you're out on a job and you see something goofy happening, maybe it's a guy that hasn't done a lot of concrete before and uh he's doing some some weird things out there, don't be afraid to jot the notes down on your ticket. That way we got our butts covered, you know, six months from now when there's a problem with the concrete. You know, if they're pouring on three inches of water the day after it rained five inches, you know, make note of those sorts of things. That way we're we're covered when that time comes.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

I know it's been brought up before, but uh every time we talk about when we see something goofy, I always think of the Golden Corral incident. Um and that is where big country comes in. He's the one that delivered that. Oh could you could you imagine Mr. Schultz sitting in the driver's seat laughing to himself, saying, Oh yeah, wherever you like I'll put this concrete. Well that's just priceless.

SPEAKER_04 15:09

Yeah, that was that was an interesting situation, and I don't know if we'll ever see that again.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Oh, I doubt it. I doubt it. I mean, finishing, I think they spoke about it at the l on the last podcast too. We should play that for everybody sometime if we can pull that off. Um one of the one other thing that kind of popped into my head too is uh when when we're doing customer service, communicating well with the customer, do your best to provide solutions if something comes up. Um and if you're if your gut's saying, hey, this is a bad idea, trust your gut and call dispatch. Trust your gut. Um we don't we don't want you putting yourself in the in harm's way or putting anyone in harm's way while we're out delivering concrete. These are big trucks, and you know, sometimes the customer overlooked something, and you're you're the professional driver, you gotta do a good job, and you gotta go home in one piece.

SPEAKER_04 16:00

Amen. Yep. All right. Uh before we get started on the uh topic of time off requests, I've got uh nickname number three on the list.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Number three.

SPEAKER_04 16:14

Bones. This is uh a nickname that was dropped uh a few episodes back when I was on the podcast. This is the nickname for one Brian Hahn. I am told that this uh nickname originates all the way back to the uh 1990s, early 1990s. So uh yeah, Bones, great nickname.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Yeah, I I honestly I've when I first started, I heard people talking about bones all the time, and I I was always looking around, like, who's this guy named Bones? And then Big D told me about it, and I was like, Oh, now it all makes so much sense.

SPEAKER_04 16:50

Bones, a big a big bag of bones. All right, so Sheldon, uh, we're gonna talk about uh time off requests. Um, if you want to get us going here.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Okay, so something we've been working on. Um, we want everybody to be able to take the time off that they need, but at the same time, we still got to keep the company running. So we have uh like an unwritten rule of a threshold of 10 drivers. So if we have 10 drivers asking for the time off, we should be okay to handle whatever our customers throw our way. But when we start getting into 11, 12 on down the line, we might not be able to approve that request. So good ways to get around that is to be the first 10, right? So if you know you got a doctor's visit and it's coming up a month or two weeks or something down the road, try to give us as much heads up as you can so that we can get you on the list and make sure that you can get that time off.

SPEAKER_04 17:42

Well, I I would say perhaps we've been fortunate to be able to allow as much time off as we have recently, but that is because we have been slow. And as uh things start to pick up.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Yeah, and they and it sounds like we're gonna have a pretty busy fall.

SPEAKER_04 17:59

Yeah, so keep that in mind. Um get those time off requests in as soon as possible, especially things like your birthday. If you're expecting to uh want to take your birthday off, you might know that day in advance.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Yeah, things like that. Or uh another thing to keep in mind too is if if you're number 11, number 12, 13 down the road, um, we might call you after you put in that request and say, hey, we we've got 10 people off. Is this something that you could reschedule? Try it, we'll try and work with you. But obviously if if you can't get in, you can't get in. But we we we want to work with you and we want to make sure that we're not piling onto the drivers that are still here. And now they're they're gonna have to work over a little extra harder because there's less people to take out all the loads.

SPEAKER_04 18:45

Yeah, somebody's gotta pick up that slack.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

And if if you're unsure, ask your manager.

SPEAKER_04 18:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Call call into dispatch and ask your manager.

SPEAKER_04 18:54

Okay. All right. Now on to nickname number two on the list.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Number two.

SPEAKER_04 19:03

Uh Shorty down in Muscatine.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

The ten-foot tall driver.

SPEAKER_04 19:08

Yes, Shorty driving around in 108. Um is a comical nickname giving his stature. The man makes Lex look like a toddler.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

Yeah, he's a big sound big.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Oh, yeah, yeah. Shorty, shorty, uh, it's not, I mean, the trucks are big, but the cabs are not. And it is it is a lot to find a a cab where his knees aren't pushed up against the dash.

SPEAKER_04 19:38

And a gentle giant, that guy, too. I really like Sean down there.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Yeah, he's he's fun to work with.

SPEAKER_04 19:43

Yep. And uh our last uh topic that we wanted to cover today um is safety.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Yeah, safety. Okay, so this is something that we don't we don't have an opportunity all the time to get everybody in one place. So we're taking advantage of this media to be able to get some messages out there. I'd like to go over a couple of things that have happened recently that we could uh share with you things that we've smashed or something like that. Um this in the last couple of months we've uh accidentally struck a building. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:22

Gotta watch out for those guys.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

It was a it was it was a building that's uh about a hundred years old. Brick facade caught the corner with uh Bridgmaster and shucked about ten to fifteen bricks off the corner. Just there they weren't structural bricks, they were more decorative, I I guess. But uh we did that. Um we had uh an instance where a concrete finisher wasn't paying attention while we were hanging our chutes, and he crouched down while we were hooking the chute on the back of the truck, and our driver didn't see that someone was had stepped behind him and crouched down right where the chute would land and bonked him right on the head.

SPEAKER_04 21:07

Yeah, you gotta keep your head on a swivel, guys. Keep your eyes on a big.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Uh jockeying around in a parking lot, light pole got snagged. That one, luckily, we didn't do any major damage on any vehicles. It fell into an open area, nothing terrible there, but uh little things like paying attention to your blind spots while you're jockeying around in reverse. And then the most recent one, smashed hand with a forklift.

SPEAKER_04 21:42

Yes, that was not a pretty incident.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Uh we gotta we gotta be mindful of the things we're doing. We need to slow down a little bit. If we have to, the get out and look. That that's a handy thing to do. Just hit the pause button and take a look around and and see what's in the way. And Or, you know, size up the job that you're doing and make sure that we're approaching it in the right manner.

SPEAKER_04 22:06

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

Yeah, this is the things Sheldon is talking about, these are just easy reminders or how easy it is to create damage with such a big truck and how aware we need to be of our surroundings and the littlest thing can make the biggest difference in these type of situations. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

And just paying attention is well a couple of things you could do, just simple things. When you're getting in and out of the mixture truck, use three points of contact. That will help immensely because most of the in instances where someone is actually getting hurt, it's because they misstepped while they're climbing down off of the truck. And eye protection. Uh a lot of people don't think about this, but we deliver concrete and it's the last thing you want to get in your eyes. Uh that is a miserable experience getting pinned down and having your eyes flushed for 15 minutes because the eye wash station, you couldn't do it by yourself, so you end up having to go get checked out and you have a professional flush your eyes out.

SPEAKER_04 23:07

Yeah, it's uh it's hard for me to say this because it's a very much uh do as I say and not as I do. Um, but you know, it's important to wear that PPE out there, um, especially um when you're getting climbing out of the truck and heading around to the backside to to unload back there. You know, just be aware of your surroundings, get that hard hat out, put them safety glasses on. If you need a vest, grab a vest. Yep. All those sorts of things, you know. Um I, for one, know that I could do a much better job of all of those things, and I've made a conscious effort to make sure I have my hard hat out when I'm on those job sites. Um, I could do a better job when I'm around the plant here, that is for certain. But you never know when something's gonna come flying towards your your face or your your head or something's gonna fall, and you know, you you gotta be gotta be ready for when those times happen.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Yeah, I I I think ultimately, you know, we all we all have a job to do. We're all grown-ups, and it's part of our gig. You know, we we go to construction sites, we go in and out of our customers' giant buildings where they they build tractors, where where they create chemicals. We have to we have to follow their guidelines. We go out on the arsenal all the time. There's rules. Um we have our own set of rules on top of those rules. So we we just need to be a little more diligent, make the effort, um, and follow the rules.

SPEAKER_04 24:41

I like it. I like it.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

All right.

SPEAKER_04 24:44

All right.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

Are we at are we at number one?

SPEAKER_04 24:46

We are at number one. And a lot of you have probably guessed.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Number one.

SPEAKER_04 24:51

Number one on the list for uh nicknames at Honre Mix is Tater. Tater. Tater. Everybody loves Tater.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

I bet there's so many people that know Tater is Tater, they don't know his real name.

SPEAKER_04 25:07

Nathaniel?

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Nathaniel.

SPEAKER_04 25:09

Nathaniel.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

Who's that? Who's Nathaniel Miller?

SPEAKER_04 25:13

That's that's Tater. What? But number 30 on the truck, number one in our hearts.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Number one 30 on the truck?

SPEAKER_04 25:22

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

Number one in our hearts.

SPEAKER_04 25:25

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Yeah, I think honestly, Tater's he's been around so so long that um he's kind of like a uh a fixture for Han ready mix. You know, he's he's been he's he's probably the most popular, nicest driver that we've got because he just gets out to the job and everybody's just smiling all of a sudden because Tater's there.

SPEAKER_04 25:47

He's got an aura about him. He certainly does. Yes. And everybody appreciates that. Great job, Tater. Um, so that was the podcast today. Hopefully, we did Griff and Andrea some justice here.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Yeah. I I think for our first round we didn't do too terrible.

SPEAKER_04 26:07

Yeah, it's some pretty corny jokes in there, but that's okay. We're trying here.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Well, thank you for listening to the loaded Han Redimix podcast. This is Sheldon signing up.