Loaded: The Hahn Ready Mix Podcast

A podcast for the employees of Hahn Ready Mix

Loaded: The Hahn Ready Mix Podcast

77. To the Top!

August 17, 2026 • Griffin Hahn & Andrea Meier • Episode 77

0:00 | 15:44

Andrea and (kind of) Lex are joined by Sheldon to discuss truck selection criteria, what makes an effective driver and to give some appreciation to our new drivers.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome to Loaded, the Han Ready Mix Podcast with Andrea Meyer, producer Lex. No Griffin again, two weeks in a row. Who cares though? Sheldon's here.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Hello.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

What's happening, Lex?

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Trying to open my water bottle as slow as possible.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

You said we were ready, but you weren't actually ready again.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

I didn't think you'd make this much noise.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

That's all right. Here we are. Rainy Friday afternoon for us. It's been a real bummer of a week with rain outs.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Sure is.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

I can't do this by myself.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

You caught me at a bad time, or I caught myself.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

This is where Griffin would throw in some clever quips.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

I guess we do need, I guess we do like to have Griffin here.

unknown 0:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Somebody's got to talk.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Um well, thanks for being here. Uh we did start some pretty major cleanup projects this week, especially in Muscatine. So I know that that isn't fun ever, but it's especially not fun when it's pouring down rain the whole time. But has to be done.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Dodging lightning and thunder.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yep. I know also the shops have been busy this week trying to get trucks back out on the road for sure next week when it dries up, we're gonna be busy. Appreciate everybody hanging in with us. Today I actually wanted to talk about when trucks open up or when we get new trucks. There's a lot of chatter about how do I get a new truck.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Well, there's uh there's some fun stuff coming up in the spring. I think we're gonna have five new trucks.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

So cross your fingers.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

They usually drag their feet and it'll be fall, but always tentative to announce a timeline on that because they get here when they get here and we don't have much control over it.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

But and it'll be a different body style, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Yeah, bunch of changes. So that's a good topic for podcast. Actually, maybe we should have Steve come on and talk about what's changing.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Logistics on on what we've done differently.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Yep. But e whether it's brand new trucks that are coming in or the shifting that happens when people move on or move up, there are always opportunities. And I think, especially with a lot of new people that we have here, it might be good to just kind of run through what you can do now to put yourself in the best position to move up to a better truck in the future.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Well, there's lots of things you can do. When you're a new person, I'm gonna steal your example that you gave me earlier. Um, new people get hit with the fire hose of information. Yes, just blasted with all this stuff, and they've got to learn all of it right now. And sometimes it's your first couple of weeks, even into a few months, you're hustling, you're just trying to keep up, you're trying to not forget the important things. But one of the things that gets missed most is trying to keep your truck clean. And you can get it, you can get some help from some of the the fellas that have been around or ladies that have been around for a long time. They can give you pointers, how to make your life easy, keeping up with the truck. But I I jotted some stuff down when we were discussing this topic, so I'm gonna kind of hit on some bullet points. Um number one, you just gotta work on getting good at the job. I mean, if you're if you're out there in a struggle bus and you're running things over and banging into things, putting you in a nicer, newer truck isn't exactly the best decision. How you maintain your truck, that's important too.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Um Yeah, so I think there's there's a couple different things there. Well, like keeping a truck clean and also taking care of your truck are kind of two different things. Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

So you got you got to give the the mechanics a chance to fix it when it's broke. I mean, you're gonna start out in an older truck, new person, old truck. And the old truck has been driven by a lot of new people. So it's not gonna look brand new. And if you get all the concrete knocked off the back of it because the last guy didn't make the cut, you're you're way ahead of the game. Um because it's it makes life a lot easier to maintain a clean truck if you don't have a bunch of buildup to try and try and rinse all the splatters off and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Yeah, it takes practice to learn, you know, kind of the most efficient ways to do it. But like you said, there's a fountain of information around you of the people that have gotten good at this over time. And you need to ask them for help.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Humble pie tastes bad.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

It it does. And when you when you've got somebody that is busy enough that doesn't have to stop and help you, but they're willing to slow down, take a beat, absorb what they're giving you for information and put it to work, and you'll be in better shape.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Listen to what they say, ask questions. Like no one, no one walks in here knowing how to do this unless they've done this job before. Like it it isn't easy and it isn't something that you just know what to do. So asking questions, showing them what you're doing, saying, is this right? What could I do better? Getting some feedback is is really, really helpful. Um I always think it's it's interesting when you're following behind a truck and you don't necessarily see the numbers or whatever, but you're I always try to guess who it is by just looking at it. Oh, like you want to have the kind of reputation that people know whoever is in that truck is taking care of it.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

Yeah, you know if it's Matt, you know if it's Josh, you know if it's Brian or Dan. You know, they have a system, the way they do their job makes it easier to keep it clean. And if you just hang back and watch them, if you're not busy and you see them doing their washdown, pay attention. You can learn something. One of the things that you uh it's a common misconception. Uh, I need to spend all my free time in the wash bag. No, no. Um, you'll notice like uh Michael Cole. Yeah, I was just talking to him earlier today. I was I was giving him a giving him a fist bump. He's he's got one of the cleanest trucks out there, and and I and I told him, I said, this looks good, man. And he he's like, Thank you. And and he was telling me how he does his thing. And you know what? Now I know his tricks. You know, it it it took five minutes for him to just point and and show me what he was doing. The big thing, you don't need to spend all your time in the wash bay. Uh you can do you gotta get all the buildup off of the truck before the wash bay is even effective. Then get some acid on it, work, work it in, scrub it, rinse it. After uh after a few rounds of that, you start finding the paint underneath all the glaze of powder and concrete. But then uh after you after you get that far, once a week, give it a good wash, you know, after you and the the acid will do its job. Getting back to how do you get into a nicer, newer truck. Uh, we kind of I went off on a tangent, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

That's okay. Clean trucks is the number one item.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Um in in the quad cities, at least, I I think I uh I I kind of am the one that makes the call. I'll I'll run it by some of the other managers. Like if driver A and driver B are both great drivers, I'll I'll pick brains before I make a decision. It's not a knee-jerk decision. There's four things that we put we factor into it is your job performance. If you're doing a good job, you're not running stuff over, you're not leaving dents on the truck. Okay, you're pushing yourself to the front of the line. Are you keeping it clean? Yes. Um, are you doing a good job with the customers? Are the customers liking what you're doing? Have you built those relationships? Obviously, truck cleanliness and then attendance. If you're constantly late or you're constantly missing work, we're gonna move somebody else up.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Yeah, I think of that attendance category a little bit more broadly in terms of reliability. So attendance is is part of it, but another big part of reliability is communication, right? If everybody's gonna be late once in a while, everybody's gonna have something come up, but the the frequency that you communicate with this batch, that you communicate with your manager and let them know what's going on, give everybody as much information as you possibly can, that goes a long ways into reliability as well. So it's not not just the attendance piece, but the communication piece, reliability as far as we know that you're always fueling your truck at the end of the day. We know that you're gonna be here in plenty of time to get loaded when we need to get you loaded. We know that once you're loaded, you're gonna go straight to the job as quickly as you can, as safely as you can. That kind of reliability is it it's feels intangible, but we do have a lot of staffs that we look at for that information. We're always working to try and help people become more efficient and more reliable.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

That's a good way to break down the job performance. You know, it's not just I can drive a truck and get it there. It's there's there's a routine that you have to have and you you gotta be diligent at it. Um that's what makes a good mixer driver. Being diligent, sticking to the sticking to your every job, every time you get loaded, every time you get to the wash rack, every time you get to the job, every time you're done pouring, you're doing the same thing consistently each time so that you're not missing anything important. And the more you do it, the easier it gets. It becomes second nature. And then next thing you know, you it's it's just a fun job that you don't have to stress over.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Yep. Another thing I really like to see, and I don't know if you had this in your notes or not, but is a little bit of proactive problem solving or a little bit of prevention goes a long way. So if you're looking out for yourself and for your truck and for everyone around you and bringing it to the attention of the people that need to, that makes you stand out as someone who deserves to take the next step.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

I don't remember which one which job site it was, but I got a phone call from Chris Jones. Um, he he rarely calls me unless it's something big. And it was something big to him. He was the first guy in he's like, hey, you need to you need to let dispatch know that this is what's going on out here. Getting in and out of this is going to be tricky, and we need to do this. And I was like, wow, good job, Chris. You know, so it's an opportunity to give him a shout out on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

For sure. I also like to see um someone, whether it's a new person uh or someone who's been around for a long time, I think curiosity goes a long way. So asking questions, whether it's about how you're doing your job or about how others are doing their job, like just being curious, you can learn so much and you can improve yourself through that process.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Oh yeah, absolutely. I I think and the other the other part is is you you said a big big thing, communicating. You know, that's that's part of communicating. It's it's the icebreaker. Hey, why did you do that that way? Can you show me? And then you spend five minutes with somebody and they've just blown your mind, and all of a sudden your job just got a lot easier. Yeah, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

No one no one ever gets mad if you say, Is there can I help you with that? Is there something I can help you with?

SPEAKER_00 10:45

I'm gonna derail this conversation. Lex needs a blanket. He's freezing.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

It's because he's not talking. Like the people who are carrying the conversation are sweating over here, and Lex is cold.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

I'm conserving energy.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

I'm so cold I can't talk. I'm underneath the register. You're underneath the air intake. I don't know. I'm never cold, so I don't know why I'm freezing.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Maybe you'll get a nicer truck if you bring Lex a sweater.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Yeah, hurry up. Chop chop.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Uh but no, there is so much to learn around here. There's people doing really interesting things, and almost everyone can use help. So if you find yourself sitting with not having something to do, there is always something to do, and someone can always use your help. So just be be curious and ask questions and offer to help.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Yeah. Just kind of breaking it back down, overall performance, what you're doing at the job. You're you're showing everybody that you're a necessary part of the team, and this is why, because I'm out there hustling, I'm doing the things the right way. Um, customer service, you're interacting with the customer, you're not, you're not going out of your way to start an argument with a customer. If a customer's having a bad day and he's trying to kick your dog, you're not fighting back, but at the same time, you're just getting the job done so you can get the concrete out of the truck and move on to the next job. Attendance being on time for work is important, but like Andrea said, you've got to communicate good with dispatch and your your managers so that you can, if you are running behind or if you know a family emergency, things like that. And then keeping your truck clean and and show show us that you care about what you're doing, you know, and that that makes a big difference. We've got a we've got a bunch of new people this year.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

I think I think I'm I'm juggling like 14 or 15 new drivers this season.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

And they're and they're doing a great job. It is it's such a steep learning curve, and there's so much, you know, on your plate at one time. But uh, we are gonna do some more training, get people back in for additional slump training and practice, and and not because they're doing anything wrong, but just because it's it's so much to learn so quickly. Is there anything, especially like for these new people that you see that holds people back? Like, where do you see people stumbling where they may think they're doing all right, but they're missing the mark?

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Well, I won't call him out specifically, but I can tell you if you have Darren fix him in your drum, you should be standing next to him communicating, saying, Hey, what you doing? What are you looking for? Can you show me what you're doing? That that is a huge thing.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

If you got a QC person out there trying to help you slump your truck, or John or Sam or BJ or Lex, somebody on the job site, if there's somebody out there that's working on your truck or helping you out, you should be right there asking questions and learning from that experience.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Right down to what are you looking at and tell me tell me how I can do that. You know, just that little thing is gonna help you. But then also, you know, we we're still fighting with doing a good job washing down after po after doing a pour, making sure that we're not leaving the the creamy white water all over the ground where the city would get upset. So we got to make sure that we're doing a good job washing down into a contained area covered in plastic or in a washbag or a wheelbarrow or things like that. Honestly, this this year has been a change of pace for me with as many new people as we've got running around. I'm gonna knock on wood. We've been lucky, or we're just doing really well because I'm not running around with a shovel and a broom as much as I did in the past. So that's that's pretty huge.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Yep, I I totally agree. Very appreciative of the experienced drivers that we have and the people who are just getting started.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

Oh, keeping the insides of the drums is pretty important. That's a talent more than a it's a skill and a talent out of anything.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

You have to learn over time for sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Because you being a being a new driver, it tends you tend to be in a rush and you're hurrying up to get back to the job, get done with the job, get back to the plant, and and you overlook the little things like, wow, there's a bunch of concrete stuck to my upper fence, and that's gonna be that's gonna be a mess over time.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Yeah. Thanks, Sheldon, for being here for the podcast and for doing this job. It's not it's neither one is easy, and we appreciate you doing it. And ultimately, like we want every we want it to be a really hard decision about who moves up to a nicer truck because we want everyone to be doing the the best that they can and all the trucks looking really good. So that's a really tough and it and it is uh to to some extent, but we can always get better. So I appreciate you doing that and everybody being here. You have anything to add, Lex?