SPEAKER_00: 0:27

Welcome back to That's Delivered the podcast where trucking and transportation meet real stories that move people forward. I'm your host, Truck and Ray, and today we've got a guest that's Howard Pearl, CEO of Cars, a Charitable Adult Rides and Services. Howard leads an operation that handles nearly 100,000 vehicles donated a year and delivers tens of thousands of rides to seniors nationwide. Just like trucking, cars is all about logistics, reliability, and making sure people and resources get where they need to go. And we're going to dive into Howard Scale cars into a nonprofit powerhouse and the challenges that is leading both business discipline and compassion and what trucking leaders can learn from this approach. That's awesome. Yeah, track and rain.

SPEAKER_03: 1:31

That's awesome, man. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 1:32

I love it. My friends, they say, hey, man, we we should use that. And it's always great when someone else gives you a name. So I'll take it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:41

I agree.

SPEAKER_00: 1:42

Yeah. So um, you know, you you've done a lot out there. I mean, you shared a lot with me before backstage before we got on here. Um, man, just talk about your experiences. How did you get started into uh what you're on today? I mean, you're leading a nonprofit um around the uh so the world to serve the Canadians and um and all those around. So how did you get started with all that?

SPEAKER_03: 2:06

Uh you know, I I knew I never intended. Uh I never intended to work at a at a nonprofit. Didn't start out that way, but uh 10 years ago I was sort of tapped on the shoulder they needed some help to uh change out management. And uh I had just returned from uh uh China. I'd been working in China for four and a half years, five years building a uh plant uh to build rough terrain vehicles, uh mostly uh uh emergency uh recovery vehicles, rock crawlers, uh some of it for fun, and uh, you know, some of it for you, uh some of it for utility. Um and uh I I I was asked to come in and and uh give these guys a little bit uh a little bit of help. And uh I had no intention of staying here. I didn't know anything about nonprofit, but I knew enough to you know hold the business together and hire hire a guy, I figured 45 to 90 days. And uh when I got in here, uh I found two things uh that inspired me. One um was the existing staff, it was a small staff at the time. They were incredible, but they'd been terribly terribly mismanaged uh by the individual that I was being asked to replace on a short-term basis so we could hire somebody. Uh, but they were really incredible people. They really knew what they were doing, they just weren't being allowed to do it, which we find so often uh in businesses where the boss wants to be the boss as opposed to letting people run the business that really know how to run the business. You know?

SPEAKER_00: 3:42

Was there something in your early days? I mean, you uh we talked about how you were able to do some trucking back in the day and you still have that in your heart. Was some of that play a role as leadership?

SPEAKER_03: 3:52

Oh my God, it absolutely. Are you kidding? Look, the things I learned on the road um still work uh to this very day. I I started off um, you know, I I I worked uh my way through school. I did a lot of trucking. I had a work worked uh with another guy. We got a couple of contracts with PepsiCo. We were dragging mobile homes up the highway, um, got up uh even onto some of the ice roads uh uh up as far as Metagamy Quebec, up to the Quebec Hydro Project there, way up in northern Canada. Um hauling those uh Atco trailers in there to build the the work camps for Samard Baudry for the construction camps. Um that was kind of you know, that was kind of fun. And in between, you know, placing people's homes, moving, you know, moving mobile homes. So that was uh and I and I got that job because the guy was working with, uh he and I drove tow truck together for uh, you know, one of the services in the in the city that I uh you know that I lived in. They would they had the police contract, so we got to do uh, you know, a lot of interesting stuff on the freeways, uh, rollovers and crashes and you know, God knows what. And then the you know, the regular everyday uh pickup and delivery, you know, the the sort of boring stuff in between uh that you have to do. But you begin to realize that the boring stuff isn't so boring, right? That's commerce. You're moving somebody's product from one place to another, whether it's uh you know a car that needs to get in for repair, or whether you're or or or whether you're move picking up a vehicle that's being donated. Um so in the business I'm in now, really understanding the tow business and understand the challenges that they face, and understanding the guys that drive tow trucks, um, an interesting breed. Um, you know, we we're picking up eight to ten thousand cars a month and delivering them to 300 different auction yards across the country, right? We're national, in Alaska to Hawaii and everything in in in between. Um and when when we got to get them picked up, you've got to get them picked up. People donate a vehicle, they want those things picked up in 24 to 48 hours. They're not gonna sit around and wait. If you don't pick it up, they'll give it to somebody else. So you've got to pick it up. We you know represent uh almost 11,000, a little over, well, a little under 11,000 uh nonprofits. Um and uh, you know, they expect us to uh to express gratitude. They expect uh when that that driver shows up at the door that he expresses gratitude, pardon me, that he's polite. And you know, they're not always that way. Sometimes, you know, the hands aren't so clean. You know, they're they're they're working men and women, and uh and and so um I can't get real upset with them. I just have to try and educate them. And uh I think what I learned in my days on the road, uh not just the technical skills, because God knows we handle a lot of things that happen from between A and B, but uh everybody deserves everybody deserves respect. Everybody deserves the same amount of respect, the people that work for you, the people that work with you, and the people you're working for. And if you can't understand that, then I don't know how you're ever gonna get along in life.

SPEAKER_00: 7:05

Yeah. Some great fundamentals, some great uh, you know, things to be characteristics that we should have as part of everyday life.

SPEAKER_03: 7:14

So that's I think it is. I think we have to understand that everything you do has to have a a value attached to it, either for your own self-respect or or for you know for the person you're providing a service for. Um, I think that's you know, that's what keeps you on top. That's what'll get you to the top. Just out service the next guy, right? Lots of reasons to get upset. But the smarter plays to just kind of chill, let it move on, be respectful, be the guy that isn't a pain in the ass, right?

SPEAKER_00: 7:46

Absolutely. I mean it's uh help a lot of people out there. I mean, you're you're providing a great service. Walk us through the vehicle donation process and from someone giving up their car to a nonprofit receiving the benefit. Uh tell us a little bit about that. What goes on?

SPEAKER_03: 8:01

Sure. It's it's actually um it the the underbelly of it is like every other uh logistics challenge, um, you know, far more complex than it seems on the on the outside. I say complex, not complicated, it's just a series of simple executions, but they all got to come together. So if an individual had a vehicle that they wanted to donate, and people donate vehicles for a number of different reasons. Uh people, you know, people think everybody donates them for their tax benefits. I believe that's number four on the reason why people donate a vehicle. The number one reason, what do you think? What do you think the number one reason is that people donate a vehicle?

SPEAKER_00: 8:40

Uh, they kind of think about when there's a time that they probably needed that, um, someone helped them. So here's their opportunity for them to do the same.

SPEAKER_03: 8:47

Well, I think that's a wonderful reason. That's one of the reasons. But the number one reason people donate their vehicles, they want to get it out of their driveway, get it out of the garage, get it off the lawn, get that tree stump that's in the middle of it so they can cut it down. You know, it's that's that's the number one reason.

SPEAKER_00: 9:06

They need the space. There's a lot of storage units going in out there, so I can understand that. You know, you don't want to pay for storage, so give it to someone else.

SPEAKER_03: 9:14

Yeah, and and you know, it's and it's a myriad of reasons. I mean, you wouldn't think a lot of people want to give their cars, but you know, kids grow up, you don't need that extra van anymore, they're all gone off to work or on off to school or gone got married, or you know, your spouse has passed away, and the second car is sitting in the driveway. Finally, there's you know, spider webs growing between the tires and the concrete, and it's uh just time to get that eyesore out of there, or you know, maybe it was a collectible that the old man was working on in the garage but never finished, and uh, you know, the old lady's saying he loved that thing more than he loved me, and he he he never finished that either. So get it out of here. Um all kinds of reasons. Or you've got a spare vehicle, you bought a new one, you didn't want to trade it in because they weren't gonna give you enough for it. You didn't want to go meet a stranger in the parking lot and you know, get a chance of being uh you know lit on fire like the guy with his half-done truck there a few years ago, and you want to do something nice for somebody in your community, whether it's a small nonprofit that looks after animal rescue, or or you know, whether it's somebody like St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or Shriners or something somewhere along those lines. Because we have a nonprofit for everybody. If you go to our site, or even if you go to if you go to Kelly Blue Book, there's a uh you know a tile there that says donate. You hit that, it comes to our site.

SPEAKER_01: 10:36

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03: 10:37

And and there's there's thousands of them you can choose by geographic location or by subject matter. Maybe you're interested in uh, you know, three-legged uh dogs with striped tails, you know. There's probably one there for it.

SPEAKER_02: 10:51

So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03: 10:54

And then so you the you call in and and you give your information uh to uh a wonderful donation receptionist who's basically trained to express gratitude for your gift, or you go online and and you do it. And when we get that order, we dispatch a tow truck. And we'll dispatch a tow truck from the nearest auction yard that we use. Okay. Again, logistics, we want to move it the shortest possible distance, right? Every mile you move, it costs you money. So we go pick it up, goes to the auction yard, and generally it gets an inspection. We publish the things that are good about the car, we publish the things that are bad about the car, and then the auction goes online. Uh we have uh several auctions every week. There's an auction going on every day across the country at most most auctions, and and uh and usually they're wholesale auctions. So we sell to the the guys that use car lots, the guys that buy here, sell here, or buy here, finance here, those things. Um believe it or not, most of the vehicles that are donated aren't junk. Everybody thinks people only donate the crap, right? The stuff that goes for recycle or dismantle. That's not the case. I'd say that 80% of the vehicles that are donated to us are we are able to resell, you know, either into a third world or or it gets uh you know gets a little tune-up here and there and then gets back put put back on the road. You know, normal normal people, when I say normal people, people that uh you know, people whose collars are usually uh you know a little wider, um, basically think when your car hits you know 49,000, 50,000, that thing's ready for the junk pile. You and I both know it's got another 150,000 miles if you just change the oil every now and again. Put a set of tires on it, maybe you gotta put a battery. That's it. Don't have to do much. They they they're put American-made, the Japanese, they're pretty pretty good vehicles. So uh so that's uh we we we like to recycle them. We like to give them to people that you know you know can't afford a new car. And and uh so you get an eight-year-old car with 50 or 60,000 miles on it, and that thing is still running well. And uh a lot of our donors come from um you know a more white-collar environment, so they've got you know options on it that you might not normally buy. And so the thing is a little older, but it's reliable. And uh, you know, we got people these days. One of the one of the sort of phenomenon is that um particularly with uh you know, with immigrant families, three or four families that live in a cluster will come together and they'll buy one car and they all use it to go shopping on the same day or to go to the laundry or to do whatever it is they do, and they share the unit. And it becomes and and so that so these things provide a great service and a great recycle. And uh and then uh what happens is uh the auction yard sends us the proceeds and we uh send uh eighty percent of that money to uh the nonprofit that you know that the car was donated to. Ten percent uh comes to us for our operating expenses and the other ten percent. Uh we are also a nonprofit, and we we run uh uh we support a large social service program here in San Diego. We feed uh the homeless. We have uh eight uh safe parking lots for people who are sleeping in their cars to uh stay in at night so they're not uh don't get in trouble with the law or people are coming by and robbing them at night or taking advantage of their daughters. Um, you know, that's not safe to be sleeping out there at night on the street. So we provide secure areas for them to do that. And um food pantry programs for food insecurity and so on, and that's what we do. So 100% of our money basically goes to a nonprofit. We're a nonprofit that's owned by a nonprofit, 111, I think, 110, 111-year-old. And and uh we only work for nonprofit. So 100 cents on our dollar, you know, other than goes for our salaries, but that's you know, we work for nonprofit, so we're not talking getting wrenched here, but uh but but uh but the work is good. The work is good and it's very gratifying.

SPEAKER_00: 15:10

Wow, that's huge. Thank you. Thank you for doing it, making that available. I mean, that is something that we see at a lot of truck stops, people sleeping in their cars, you know, I work at night shift a lot of times, and you see that. You see individuals out there doing things, whether it's a sacrifice or it's just a hardship, uh, they're in that point at their life and you're helping them. So great.

SPEAKER_03: 15:36

The uh I I think the most intriguing thing to me is uh, you know, you get you get into those yards and you talk to some of those folks, right? Especially in the summer nights when it's uh light, late and you go in and you start chatting with people. You know, they're you know, they're you and me that uh the company closed down or you lost your job or whatever, and you know, four months in you can't pay the rent, you're out of money. Right? Maybe you got two, three months worth of money, you borrowed, your credit cards are maxed. Where are you gonna go? You know, you got that uh Kia SUV, that big sportage there, and you know, that becomes your uh that becomes your living room, your bedroom, a place for the dog to sleep. All of it. It's amazing, but uh it's it's it's it's amazing. And yet they show up with you know, courage and try and maintain their dignity and they can get up in the morning and the kid will go into the we have the place where they can pack their lunches and that that sort of stuff. We uh the local Starbucks here donate all the food that they don't sell at the end of the day, so it's on the shelves by morning. So some of these kids will go in there and grab a couple of Starbucks things and go to school with those things. You'd never know they were living in their cars. Dad goes to work. Yeah, and they work with a they have to work with a counselor to try and get them back into a home, into some form of housing. So it's it's it's very gratifying. We also take in uh real estate and uh uh we take in stocks and uh you know stock certificates and uh and so a lot of other things as well. But basically that's that's what uh that's what we do. We serve uh we we serve that community.

SPEAKER_00: 17:21

That's amazing. Well great stories, I mean, that you can have that hold dear to your heart. Uh many people will go through rough times, you know. Never say never. It could be anybody that could be in that position. So uh if we could help someone out when they're vulnerable, I mean that's huge. That's a lot of what trucking is about is helping people get what they need, getting the goods and services that they deserve. So that's nice.

SPEAKER_03: 17:46

It's unfortunate people don't really recognize that, you know. They uh they don't they don't you I don't think people get it. Uh and one of my best employees here, one of the longest serving guys, uh was uh you know, was a long haul guy, uh Ryan Caldwell. He's our VP of um well, we don't call it logistics, but basically his job is in fact logistics. And uh sometimes we we laugh, we we compare stories because we were on the road about the same time and we we talk about the fools that are on the road. And and they they just you know they think most of us are just you know not real thinking creatures.

SPEAKER_01: 18:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 18:29

But uh they they uh you know, you can be an idiot and you can be a professional, doesn't matter what the profession is, but I'll tell you what, they they don't they don't understand they couldn't survive without without a truck.

SPEAKER_00: 18:45

Yeah, I'm grateful to be a part of that network and uh be able to still perform. Um, but yeah, it does hurt your heart when you hear about those bad stories in the industry. People are losing a little res a lot more respect for truck driving if they didn't have it already, you know. It's saying, you know, there's another idiot on the road uh hurting people. So we hope we can change that in the future and stop the decline. That'd be great if we could do that. So more effort needs to be put forth in those efforts like you're doing. So good job.

SPEAKER_03: 19:18

You know, you learn a lot of things on the road, right? You learn a lot of basic uh life skills, just uh well, you know, 95% of the time it's and then those five percent you run into somebody that's stuck on the road or a crash or fire or you know stuck when it's uh you can't get up that hill and you're stuck there in the snow and looking at the fuel gauge and thinking, uh it's there's a lot of lessons.

SPEAKER_00: 19:55

Just starting out long day. Yeah, so I mean thinking about too, um, a lot of things that you're doing. It was makes an impact for a lot of people. You have any stories or any individuals that you that you could think of that you've helped, like with the seniors, I mean that on the on the go rise program, it makes a program.

SPEAKER_03: 20:19

Yeah. Uh well, we we started the on the go program. That's you know, that's the basis of who we are. Uh we took it up to uh a place where we had uh we were serving 300 cities across the country, and and then uh because it was really starting to become uh you know, the uh the the tail was starting to wag the dog, we moved the program, uh it's still in our building, but we moved the management of the program upwards to JFS, who's our parent, and let them and let them manage the program. So uh because our uh vehicle donation program has expanded so much, and the real estate program and all the rest of it, and when the government decided to defund in uh NPR, um we have about uh just under uh somewhere around 550, 570 uh NPR stations across the country uh that we serve. So we got very, very busy serving that uh that market. And uh and so while we still operate the program here, we've moved the management of that program sort of upstream um right now. But it was it's one of my one of my favorite programs, basically. Um a lot of it's funded by municipal, uh, county or state uh governments, and it's exactly what it says it is. It's just uh those people that either can't afford it or are or are unable to uh you know to manage your transportation, um, you know, are uh given access to a program where the government covers the cost of getting them to and from, not just medical appointments, right? But grocery shopping. Um but also what we've learned over the years is that socialization is just as important to your health as anything else. You can't be stuck in your house all the time. You gotta be able to take, you gotta be able to take one of those things over to, you know, over to a relative's house so you can have a Christmas dinner or or you know, something along those lines. And I don't know about you, but I'm hoping to live independently, you know, as long as possible. And I don't I don't want to be calling my kids and saying I need to go shopping for my groceries, or I I want somebody to be, you know, grocery shopping for me and delivering them in a bag to my step. I want to go and pick up my own uh, you know, oranges or tomatoes once, maybe once a month or something and get out. Or look at how important is it to get your hair cut or get your beard trimmed, or you know what? My own mother, you know, I remember one of the last things uh she wanted to do before she passed was uh she said, Look, I like this place and all, but she said, you know, these uh these sons of uh I'll replace this. So these sons of unwed mothers, they don't always get me to my hair appointment. And I got, you know, I'm not feeling well this week. I got, I'm not going to meet my maker with roots. You tell him to get me to my my hair appointment. That was on a Monday, on Wednesday, they did take her to her hair appointment. Okay. She passed away that Friday. She got her hair was done, all done up. She put on her her robe, you know, the quilted robes they would they put on with the rosettes on. She lay down on her bed, and that was that. See it, a little rouge on her on her cheeks, and that was it. So I'm I'm ready.

SPEAKER_00: 23:39

Sorry for your loss. And yeah, definitely had individuals like that in their life. Uh those tough individuals, man, they they definitely make that impression on us forever.

SPEAKER_03: 23:48

So I think our grandparents, uh, I say that because I'm a little older than you, so my my parents would be about your grandparents' age. And uh I I I think they uh you know they were hardier than we are. They they you know, they did life without push buttons. Yeah. You want water?

SPEAKER_00: 24:13

Yeah, you have to go out and get absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, those are um I got like the the last bit of that being able to see that. Go out there and get the water and you pump it. I'm like, hey, it comes out of the ground. Wow. So yeah, there's a lot of things that we uh take for granted. You're right, especially when we all we do is scroll or swipe right or left. And oh my. Yeah, it's it's it's getting uh it's getting to be over the top. There's more to come too. I guess they're not stopping, they're just out there coding away.

SPEAKER_03: 24:47

This whole uh AI is really quite in quite incredible. We're we use a we we use a fair bit of it here, and certainly we will use more. Um, and what we've done is that uh, you know, instead of letting people go, we just we take everybody that's being replaced with some of the services that the AI replaces, and we just retrain them, put them into other jobs. So, you know, all of a sudden now they know how to do something else. But you can't take good people that have been with you a long time and say, well, you know, used to drive a NASCAR, we can't hire you because these are right turns. We just take them over here and show them how to turn right.

SPEAKER_00: 25:31

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, maybe nonprofits is gonna be the way of the future. Um, being able to give back and people can actually connect better with the human um element instead of being so detached from from individuals. Maybe we're gonna create a more caring uh generation in the future ahead, you know, the opposite of what we got.

SPEAKER_03: 25:50

From your mouth to God's ears, you know, we could use a little more compassion. Yeah, it doesn't take much to be civil, doesn't take much to be decent to people, doesn't take much. I mean, I I've been very fortunate in my life. I I've had a number of careers, uh, you know, mostly mostly automotive or transportation related. And um, you know, I don't want to get all spiritual or anything, but I'm telling you, you take any you take any eight, take any eight of the ten commandments. I don't care, pick eight. Pick any eight you want, live by those. You'll be okay.

SPEAKER_00: 26:30

You'll be okay.

SPEAKER_03: 26:31

You don't even need you don't even need to do all ten, but you have to pick the right eight.

SPEAKER_00: 26:38

Yeah, absolutely. Great. Um, thinking about scarcity mindset in a lot of nonprofits. Sometimes they get stuck in that mindset. How do you keep cars focused on growth innovation instead of just survival?

SPEAKER_03: 26:55

Um, well, I you know, it's very personal. Uh, I would get bored if we just did the same thing over and over and over again, right? I don't just want a job, you know. I I want a I want an opportunity to uh to to to grow and to train people to be different or better. Most of my senior staff, we're about 190 people all together here. Um, my senior staff has been with me for almost uh I've been here a little over. Like I said, it was a 45 to 90 day assignment. I've been I'll be out about 10 and a half years now. Um because uh I the the mission um you can't help but get passionate about the mission, doing what we're doing. I I didn't realize most of the things I did in my life were really of service, but I didn't realize that until I was in a business that being of service was the major point of the business, right? I mean, look, you're moving things from A to B, you're performing a service, you're getting the goods where they need to be. But you don't think of it as having a servant's heart, you don't think of it as being in service to your community, although you are, you're getting the food onto the damn shelves, right? You're getting the parts, you know, to where they need to be if people can build things and and earn a living. You don't think of it until you're in the business of feeding people or housing people or or or or giving them an opportunity to drive from here to there and have a have a life that is socially enriched. But the truth is it's all the it's all the same. You know, your own what I've discovered at the ripe old age I've arrived at is that your your rewards in life are in direct proportion to the amount of service you provide to your fellow men. And by man I mean mankind, men, women. I don't sort of distinguish any, you know, I'm not trying to be all DEI. I just people are people are people, right? So when I say and I think that for people forget that. You know, an act of kindness doesn't go unnoticed. And if it does, it's okay. You know, be thankful to yourself that you're that kind of person that it doesn't matter. I I think that's what it is. And all the businesses I've been in, I think the success that we've had taking them public and and so on, and building vehicles that do do things. I I think we've been relatively successful, and I think there's one, you know, one, two reasons for it. Whatever you do, well, one do for the greater glory, but but uh for the for the most part, just do what you're doing well. Do it as if it was being done for you. You know, what do you want? I want my stuff. What do I want it? I want it now, too.

SPEAKER_00: 29:45

Yeah, it's all about that stuff.

SPEAKER_03: 29:47

It's all about the stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 29:50

Oh man, you know, we get uh so passionate about it, and like I said, we can't take it with us if you're uh you're thinking about what transition you're gonna be going into. I mean, that's uh it's so important now, but it doesn't matter later. Um but you think about those tough decisions you make when you think about compassion, when you think about discipline that you're doing as a leader, um, tough decisions that you've had to make to balance the business efficiently or uh to be effective with serving people. Uh, can you share an example of you had a tough decision and you You're able to get through it with those principles and compassion.

SPEAKER_03: 30:27

Well yeah. I mean, look, um at the end of the day, every business has to support itself, it has to be profitable. And uh that's you know, that's the nature of the business. That's what business is. And uh and so um you know, we we've added other divisions, we've added different products and stuff, we experiment with them, that's how we we grow, and that's how we serve a wider and a greater community, picking out those technologies um, you know, as part of the part of the job. So when you move to a new technology, you have a tough choice, right? Sometimes you have people that don't necessarily adapt. So when I say we move to a new technology, we say, okay, you don't do that anymore because the machinery does that, the technology does that, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna get you to do something else. Sometimes there are people that either can't be, won't be, or don't want to be retrained. At the end of the day, you gotta say, look, the choice is yours. You know, you have to adapt or you have to find some other place, you know, to earn your living. And you know, it's just the natural, it's the natural law. It's a natural, you know, it's sort of the natural proclivity of people to do what's not you know what comes to them. So I I I think that uh I'm I'm a little different than most. Um even when we let people go for cause, uh we tend to give them a bit of a package plus a day, and the extra day goes into the following month so that they can have health coverage for an extra month, give them time to catch another job, or you know, because Cobra is expensive if you're not working, and if you got a family, you gotta keep them insured. So you can make the tough decisions and not be ruthless. You can make the tough decisions and not surrender, you know, the need for compassion or understanding. And I'll tell you, there, you know, during COVID, I went to some of the staff here and said, Look, we either you know forgo the bonuses and use that money to keep people on, or we let people go. And the team themselves looked around and said, Well, who would you be letting go? You know, maybe it's me or maybe it's my friend who, you know, I've I've worked alongside the last three or four years. I can do with a little less under the circumstance. And and I and I think you have to be I think you have to be aware of that. Uh and and uh tough decisions, we all gotta make them. I wouldn't I don't, you know, I don't I don't like making the difficult ones. You know, I didn't want to move the management of on the go to another group of people because we were really doing well with it. But it it was interfering with what our major purpose is, right, which is to fund all these nonprofits. I mean, sorted out. We, you know, we we our top line, you know, is you know, somewhere plus or minus 100 million bucks a year, depending on the year. 80% of that goes back into the community, you know. So that's$70, 80 million dollars a year going back into the community, plus, you know, plus whatever, you know, plus whatever we're doing. Now that takes care of a lot of people. That takes care of a lot of people. Unlike, you know, cars for kids, the the guys with that obnoxious jingle. And if you're on the road, you've heard it, you can't help but hear it. Um they keep all that money, they don't have to split it with the nonprofit, right? They so they you know they use that to do their work. But we, you know, our cost of goods is 80 cents on the dollar just to begin with, and then add the labor and so on. So we run a very, very lean shop, and that means some days you have to make the tough decisions. We're not gonna buy that piece of code, we're not gonna do this. But I I think if you if you if you decide look, first you gotta be practical. Second, you gotta have a heart. Third, you need to balance the two of those. Neither one can ever win a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00: 34:42

Wow, right. Like I said, uh a lot of experience goes into that answer.

SPEAKER_03: 34:48

A lot of bruises.

SPEAKER_00: 34:49

Yeah, yeah, that blood, sweat, and tears, that thing is real. I mean, especially when you're running a business where you're actually trying to give back to individuals, even if you have to let someone go, that's a giving. Uh because you're not holding someone in a position allowing them to go and use their talents elsewhere. Elsewhere. It's all how you look at it too.

SPEAKER_03: 35:10

How'd you get started on a podcast?

SPEAKER_00: 35:12

I wanted to give, actually. Yeah. I started to um had some challenges in my life and I wanted to uh think about others. And this was a platform that was um didn't take a lot of money to get into.

SPEAKER_02: 35:26

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 35:26

Um, so it's an area where I can share people's stories and highlight their dreams and goals and make them the star. And I I enjoy talking with people, I enjoy having conversations with people uh naturally. And so this was a way for me to focus on others and and I learned about podcasting. This is a man, instead of me watching the phone, watching other people, why can't I produce something that will bring joy to other people or helping other people share their their joy, you know, like yourself?

SPEAKER_03: 35:56

So well, I got I got one one good story for you, because I didn't know you were interested in sort of how you do or why you ended up in a business or one business over another.

SPEAKER_01: 36:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 36:08

Uh I've been lucky I've had a good career, but you know, it has not all been roses. You can't have success without some failure. Uh, like Mr. Edison said, uh, I didn't uh I didn't fail 2,000 times. I just found 2,000 ways not to make a light bulb. Nice. And once once I'd learned how not to make it, uh one came along that worked. Right. So I I ran I ran out of things, I ran out of ways the light bulb didn't work, right? So it all depends on how you look at it. But I was running uh I was uh running a communications firm of b uh and and uh I I I I uh back in the sort of late 80s uh or mid-80s, and uh back then uh you were probably just a squirt. But the uh were you born then? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 37:04

I was, yeah. I was born in the 70s. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 37:08

Well, I the uh you might remember the economy was pretty bad in those days. There was uh the our first really major recession that we had sort of come across and things were bad. Anyway, I was busy trying to do an acquisition by another business and that that was gonna help grow. And anyway, I I worked on that acquisition for nine months. Nine months while I was still operating this other little business, but this was gonna really make the difference. So uh we were having trouble making our rent. Uh I had to lay a bunch of people off, and there were just you know, three of us left trying to serve a few service a few customers and basically making a you know, literally making a living, period. And uh I went off uh to sign the final deal. Uh I remember leaving the office about 11 o'clock in the morning, uh, met with everybody. We had a small lunch in the lawyer's office, and everybody was signing the deal. It was a pretty interesting deal. And uh that was great. It was kind of a celebratory time, kind of happy. And I get back to my office. It was a Friday afternoon.

SPEAKER_02: 38:24

Um the doors were locked, that they changed the locks.

SPEAKER_03: 38:31

Point is we signed the new deal which gave us life and a new place to go on Monday. We had to crawl in through the roof, through the roof light to get to get stuff out. And then I called the phone and said, Look, I had to take my stuff, but here's what's going on, and you know, we'll get you paid over this period of time and then and that sort of stuff. Could you please let us back in so on? You can anyway, but last day, last minute of last day, last breath, right? And something came along. And I I something I learned from that was uh my brother was working with me at the time, he decided to be real cynical. And I decided to be real positive. And uh at the end of the day, um if you got an idea, if you have something you're passionate about, never give up. Last minute, last day, poof. You know, you put something out into the universe, if you put it out with a good heart, something will come back. And you need faith for that. You need you need faith. That was a valuable lesson to me. On I had to make a decision, am I gonna be I I don't know wanna I don't want to offend anybody on here, but are you gonna turn into a cynical dick, you know, or are you gonna embrace the opportunity that's before you and be thankful for what you have and get on and get on with the new whatever it is? And I think that's what you have to do. You have to choose you have to choose to have faith, you have to choose to be committed, and you have to choose to genuinely appreciate and celebrate the successes and learn from the failures. Because they're also successes in disguise, right? It was a uh I'm not really a poetry kind of guy, but I remember Kipling, you know, and uh the poem If, you know, in the last line that says, uh, you know, if you if you can if you can uh meet success and meet with failure and treat both those impostors the same, I don't know what the rest of it is, but the you know the idea of just you know, things aren't good, things aren't bad, things are just different. Just how you deal with them.

SPEAKER_00: 40:42

That really resonates with me. Um like I said, you know, my age. So you you reach certain points in your life, and like I said, you can become very cynical, or you could choose to embrace the change and make the best of it. And so yeah, I actually am in a lot of those transitions right now. So thank you. I mean, every time I have a podcast, I get encouraged to keep going, I get encouragement to keep doing good. So yeah, I mean, it serves a purpose right there. I mean, and I hope that other people can hear it and enjoy that same benefit that you're able to share with me. So thank you.

SPEAKER_03: 41:16

I hope so.

SPEAKER_00: 41:17

Yeah, yeah, I think it will. And um, and there's a lot of lessons we can learn from trucking or building businesses and making those tough decisions that make you a leader. Or, like you said, you can make you can either meet it with failure or you can head on and go for it and help so many people by being uh the leader that you are today, too. So, I mean, you've changed the game a lot. I mean, trucking companies and nonprofits, they make a difference, but uh depend on trust and reliability. What parallels do you see between leading cars and and how trucking companies are run or should be run? What would you say to those trucking companies out there?

SPEAKER_03: 41:53

The bottom line is still back to something we said a little while ago, right? Your rewards in life are in direct proportion to the amount of service you provide to your fellow man. So, and you know, basic respect for the people that you work for or that you work with, or that you know, or or or you know, that are financing you or whatever. Look, you can say I'm just driving a truck, right? Or you can say, you know, I'm a uh, as Brian likes to say, oh no, I wasn't a truck driver, I was a logistic relocation engineer.

SPEAKER_02: 42:28

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03: 42:30

You know, you you can make what you do into the most glamorous thing in the world or the most important thing in the world. And if you don't think that somebody else is living, if you don't think that somebody else's kids are, you know, are are being fed by you, you know, delivering something from A to B, you're crazy. So what do you need? You you you need to be honest, you need to have integrity, right? You need to fill that logbook out correctly. There's a reason we have those rules and regulations, and it may be a pain in the ass, but if you're working for a good firm, they want you to pull off to the side of the road and they want you to get your aid off because that that that means you're safe. Yeah, you're awake and you're alert, and you're not gonna kill somebody, and you're not gonna kill yourself, and everybody's going home that night. More importantly, the people that trusted you with their goods who somebody else is making a living off of are gonna get their goods. So integrity. Know what you're doing, know what your job is, know the importance of your job. And if it wasn't so important, there wouldn't be so many of us on a road.

SPEAKER_00: 43:36

Yeah, you see that late at night when everybody else is sleeping at three o'clock and you see all the lights ahead of you, the market lights. You know, that's another trucker out there pulling the load trying to get it done.

SPEAKER_03: 43:46

Trying to get it done. Wants to be home on a weekend, trying to maybe get a little time with his kids, right? Get a little fishing in or whatever. And and so, one, be honest about who you are, what you are, what you're doing. Your job is as important as you think it is. And so that makes you as important as you think your job is and what you do. And also remember that who you are isn't what you are, right? I'm I'm I'm a father, I'm a husband, I'm a member of the community, I'm a social service guy, you know. I I'm I'm I'm I'm not you know, I'm not the CEO of a hundred million dollar company and kiss my whatever, right? Well, I know a lot of guys that uh, you know, they they are their titles, you know, horsepucky.

SPEAKER_00: 44:29

Titles.

SPEAKER_03: 44:30

You know, yeah. I lost this job today and I needed to eat, you know, something. I know where to put that chain underneath, and I know how to run a winch if I gotta. I, you know, that's physics haven't changed. I can still do a rollover if that's what I had to do. I wouldn't want to do it at my age, and I certainly wouldn't want to do it where it snows, but if that's what it was, then that's what it is. I like it. So know who who you are versus what you are. Nice. I think that's important.

SPEAKER_00: 44:59

And back to the basics.

SPEAKER_03: 45:01

Well, yeah. And the other is look, whether you like the guy you're working for or you don't like the guy you're working for, he's putting food on your table.

SPEAKER_00: 45:13

There you go.

SPEAKER_03: 45:14

And he's making tough decisions and he's got bills to pay of his own, and maybe he's got trouble at home, maybe he's got prostate cancer, you'll never know. If he's having a bad day, he's having a bad day. I find that most people that if you give them respect, they give you respect back, even if they're a dick. It gets hard for them not to, right? It's just you just you just nice them uh out of their grumpiness.

SPEAKER_00: 45:37

Yeah, there you go. All right, compassion. I love that empathy, empathy, okay.

SPEAKER_03: 45:43

So you know, that's just the basic rules of life. And if you got a dream, chase it.

SPEAKER_00: 45:51

It's worth it, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03: 45:53

Oh gosh, it is so worth it. I had no way in the world I was. I knew within a week I was gonna stay here. Wow, I I wouldn't admit it to anybody, but my wife said, What's the matter with you? You're like you're coming home happy. What's wrong? You like to work? So I said, Well, yeah. She said, Well, what do you want to do? I said, I don't know. She said, Well, why don't you stay? And uh I've tried to retire three times. Last time around, I knew it took me two and a half hours to take a pair of pants to the cleaners. I knew I'd never wear again. I said, I this is it. I this is not for me. This retirement stuff is not for me. So I knew that. And I and and and the passion of doing what I was doing, the belief in doing what I was doing, and knowing that I could take, you know, what turned out to be about 30 years in the you know, C-suite as a you know a senior executive officer, to take all that knowledge that I'd learned from people much smarter than I ever was, and and uh and put it, you know, either, you know, put it in a box somewhere and put it in the garage or or come into an office and put it to work and train people that are younger than I am to do all of this stuff and to apply all of the learning to growing the business, to do an acquisition, to bolt it together, to do the integration, to rise people up. You know, they don't necessarily want another big raise. They would rather I send them off for some education, right? So I've I've taken people here and sent them off and sent them to executive ed and sent them back to college. And, you know, those are life skills that whether they're with me or with somebody else, they will always take that with them and they will make a better living and they will grow. And so my wife said, Well, why don't you tell them you want to stay? I'm sure you'll find that they'd be happy to keep you. And you know, I was well, you know, I don't know. But women are smarter than men, right?

SPEAKER_00: 47:54

So tell you, man. Yeah, yeah. Gave me a pattern. One of the questions I want to ask you, is you know, you've accomplished a lot with cars. What makes you the most proudest? It looks like you're able to help individuals continue or further their their knowledge and their in their life with uh the success that you're able to share. I mean, that's that's gotta be something to be proud of.

SPEAKER_03: 48:18

I I am proud of that, but what I'm most proud of is uh, you know, I've produced a couple of good citizens. I've I've uh I've got a 34-year-old, my youngest son, who is uh just you know doing great in life. Uh he's got good values, he's got good integrity, we're tired, we're tired of the job that he likes. He's uh you know, he's not he's chasing a good living, but he's not chasing the best living over the best work and the greatest satisfaction in his life. Um he's a hockey broadcaster uh and uh played hockey most of his uh you know most of his life. He's young, God, 34, but uh it didn't seem so young when I was 34, it seemed like forever, but but uh but when you're looking back from from this angle, it's uh it's still pretty young. But I think I'm most proud of the fact that I've been with the same woman for 38 years and we're still happy. I still like I still like the girl. I'm assuming she still likes me, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01: 49:24

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 49:25

She's still hanging out, so I guess that's okay. Uh but I'm most proud of the fact that I've uh uh put people together that read and that vote and that that uh are compassionate and and uh understand the value of of uh interacting with their fellow men with dignity. That's what I think I'm probably most proud of. And then I am also to be quite honest, I look at my car's family, the people that have been working with me for over ten years, and I I jump with joy that they've decided to spend so much time here, that we've made it so palatable for them to be here so comfortable and that they've learned stuff. They're doing when I got here, they were doing about 30 odd million, we're doing 100 now. So they are doing three and a half, four times, four hundred times the business they were doing when I got here.

unknown: 50:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_03: 50:21

And and and they're more relaxed. There's less stress because we brought in process, right? You guys know what ISO is, ISO 9000. We're an ISO 9001 company. We've got process, everybody knows what they have to do, so there's no stress, right? Everybody knows what what the job is, and they get out there and they do it. I'm I'm really proud of that. I'm proud that that in a in an era where people are turning over and leaving jobs and all that, people choose to stay here because it because they like the work and because they like the environment and because they are treated with respect.

SPEAKER_00: 50:58

That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_03: 50:59

I couldn't do this alone. No man, no man can create a successful enterprise on his own. It's impossible. They get the they get the credit. You know, my job, I I stand at the front of the boat and say, we're going that way, right?

SPEAKER_00: 51:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 51:13

But but they're carrying me.

SPEAKER_00: 51:16

That's beautiful. What a great story. Uh you mentioned 10 years. Uh where do you see cars in the next five years uh from now?

SPEAKER_03: 51:25

Oh, it's funny. You should ask. No, that's great. Our our our goal, we have a management, uh, big management uh deal coming up in Nevada, you know, bringing in all the senior people, guest speakers, hype, hype, hype, whoop, whoop. Uh, and we're setting the uh we're setting the goals for the next five years, and in fact, the next the goals for the next 60 months is to double. We're gonna do we're gonna go for 100 to 200 million, and it's not a big ask, it's a 20% a year growth. Wow. In fact, it the growth gets smaller. I don't need 20% on year five, you know, only need about 8%, right? Okay, yeah, you go eight percent of a bigger volume. And I think I think they're gonna do it. That's exciting. Yeah, actually, it is very exciting. And by then, believe me, I will be ready to hang it up.

SPEAKER_00: 52:14

Pass it on to someone else. Yeah, pass the torch. Um, that will hopefully continue your legacy and your dream. I think that's great. I mean, that's uh that's a good thing to keep in mind that other people can help you be successful and carry that on for you. So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03: 52:31

Yeah, where where are you based, right?

SPEAKER_00: 52:33

Uh I'm in Minnesota, yeah, in the Midwest. So yeah. There's a lot of times I think about moving, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_03: 52:42

Yeah, I'm sorry to say I'm down here where the weather is boring and just fine with me.

SPEAKER_00: 52:49

Yeah, originally I was born in North Carolina, so I know where it's warm. I live in California, so I know where it's it's just beautiful and gorgeous. So on the west coast is that weather, man. That's uh that no humidity. That's a mean that's amazing.

SPEAKER_03: 53:04

No bugs. Yeah, that's how much you did. You got kids?

SPEAKER_00: 53:08

Uh she's grown now. Um, she's 18, yeah. She's all groom.

SPEAKER_03: 53:14

Well, they think they are at 18 anyway.

SPEAKER_00: 53:17

Yeah, she's still the light of my life, and I'm very proud of her for she's um she's trying to make you know the best of what she's got, make life work for her. You know, so many kids feel defeated. I feel like, you know, what's the point of trying? And I'm so proud of her for going out there and trying her best.

SPEAKER_03: 53:33

So I'm pretty sure she's proud of you too.

SPEAKER_00: 53:36

Thanks. Yeah, you gotta keep reminding each other of that. You know, a lot of times time goes by and you get out on that big rig and you're moving, you gotta make sure to reach out to your loved ones and let them know, hey, this is what really matters. This is what I've been doing, what I've been doing, right? For my loved ones.

SPEAKER_03: 53:53

Well, isn't that isn't that what texting's for?

SPEAKER_00: 53:56

What's that?

SPEAKER_03: 53:57

Isn't that what texting's for?

SPEAKER_00: 53:59

Yeah, they love it. To me, it seems so impersonal. I love the phone call, I love the voice, but for them, they love the text message. That's just like, okay, I can do that. Yeah, just not what I'm doing. You see, that's yeah, I like I go back with uh the phone on the wall. I love that. I mean, with the long cord, you get that long cord, you can stretch it pretty much all over the house.

SPEAKER_03: 54:22

Dude, the first phone I ever used is a magneto, you know, the crank. You know what, you know what that's for, right? You know what that crank is for?

SPEAKER_00: 54:32

I think he would generate the electricity or something.

SPEAKER_03: 54:34

Yeah, and it rang the bell at the other end where Sadie was sitting with her board and plugging in the wires. It rang the bell and she saw where the light came approach about. Yeah, what do you want?

SPEAKER_00: 54:44

Wow. Yeah, the switchboard jump. Man, that those are some days, huh? People will sit there and man that board for so long. Yeah, it's a change.

SPEAKER_03: 54:56

Now I can buy a house and pay my mortgage.

SPEAKER_00: 54:59

Right there. You're right. Buy a house. Man. Yeah, somebody's gonna get more. They're they're working on it as we speak. They're coding their little fingers and coding their little little hearts out.

SPEAKER_03: 55:10

That's right. They're gonna put one of these things right in here. They're gonna cut a little slit, they're gonna stick it in there, and they're gonna go, Oh, got reception now. Nobody knows where you're gonna have to put the other finger. I don't want to know. Hello?

SPEAKER_00: 55:27

Yeah. Oh man, that's funny. Yeah, I mean, where do you where do you see technology uh going? Um, what are your thoughts on that? You're you're all for the autonomous truck, or I mean, how do you feel about all these changes?

SPEAKER_03: 55:43

I have mixed feeling about uh autonomous trucks, but I do think that we will see uh, you know, I I think we'll see uh one, two, three, four, five, you know, trailer caravans uh, you know, at night, you know, in the in the in the in the darker hours, you know, maybe eleven to five a.m. Uh just you know, just on the on the freeways, on the multiple-lane freeways, just you know, going up. We'll see trains, we'll see pup tanks being and I and I think that's not a bad deal. Uh, I do think there should be somebody probably uh on there for now. But yeah, I think we're going that way. And I don't know that it's so bad. I think there'll be less carnage.

SPEAKER_00: 56:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 56:29

You know, the software doesn't make the mistakes. Uh, but I think once you get off the freeways, I think you're still gonna have humans in there doing all that stuff. I don't mind these little guys driving around the little cars and the Wayne Mow's and all that sort of stuff. But you know, you put you know, you put three million bucks worth of somebody's material behind you. You gotta show that some respect.

SPEAKER_00: 56:51

Yeah, they are dumping the money into it. And I do too. I have mixed feelings about it as well. So, but yeah, I do like the human factor. Um, something about that instinct, the feeling about knowing, you know, hey, that's I know exactly what that is. That's a deer.

SPEAKER_03: 57:09

And I know what I and I and I know that the deer is scared and confused, and it's probably gonna stop where they are, right?

SPEAKER_00: 57:16

When they see all of that, yeah. Because they look up now when the lights come through and they're like, What are you doing out here? I'm eating grass. Yeah, those guys are out there.

SPEAKER_03: 57:29

Worse, man. It's the elk. The elk, the deer are easy. The melt, the elk, 900-pound elk.

SPEAKER_00: 57:37

It's yeah. You're going to get loose. There's a lot of cows that get loose too. Um, they get loose and they get on the road and they really uh they really stop us, anyway.

SPEAKER_03: 57:47

Well, they're two two thousand pounds.

SPEAKER_00: 57:55

Yeah. Well, that's good talking with you. I mean, uh, you've done so much. Um, you've inspired me. I'm sure you'll inspire so many others, and your team continue to do such great work there. I appreciate you sharing your journey, sharing us how showing us how nonprofit leadership isn't just uh about uh you know the one cause. There's so many other causes that they're able to to help um make a difference in just trucking, but rely relatability, um, reliability, um, efficiency, and making every mile count. So thank you so much for sharing that journey. And um, for anyone who wants to learn more about cars and how to get involved, um, where would they where would they look? Where would you send them?

SPEAKER_03: 58:34

Uh well, they can go to uh www.careasy.org. Car easy dot org. And uh there's tons of information there, including how to reach uh me personally. If you've got a specific question or something, I'll always answer my emails. I even answer my phone and uh I'd be uh be more than happy to take your questions. And uh Ray, I'm humbled. I I appreciate you uh spending uh some your valuable time with me. I've been I've enjoyed uh being a guest on your show, and uh and I wish you great success and uh love and success.

SPEAKER_00: 59:13

Awesome. I mean, humility is a huge part of your game. I think you describe yourself as humbly driven, right?

SPEAKER_03: 59:20

Well, driven anyway.

SPEAKER_00: 59:23

Thank you so much, and uh Howard, you have a great rest of the day, and um that's all for the show, and that's delivered.

SPEAKER_03: 59:29

Thank you, sir. You take care.

SPEAKER_00: 59:31

Ciao.