How Wilson Logistics is Leading the Charge to Bring Modern Technology into the Trucking Industry

hi and welcome to power of the network I'm your host Tim Locker vice president of broadband here at CBM you know this has been such a great journey for me and such an opportunity to learn uh so much about different things and today's no different uh today we have uh Dan Brewer with Wilson Logistics he's a long customer of ours that we've been working with in several different places over the years and and he's got a tremendous background in the world of it uh one of the smartest folks I've ever met and I'm so looking forward to uh learning from him today so please join us Dan welcome to the show we appreciate you joining us um you know taking so much time out of your day to be with us it it means a lot to us so thank you uh it's always it's always fun for me to have a customer on the show and uh to kind of show show people a little bit about what we do but also get some perspective from you know an end user and how things are working in their world so um I know you've got a ton of expertise and you've been in the it uh industry for a long time uh want you start by telling us you know your story how did you get how did you end up at at uh you know Wilson Logistics and and tell us some of your accomplishments over your career okay and thank you for having me U I really started out as a contractor doing low voltage cabling uh and I was a contractor for a utility local in Springfield okay uh that company decided that they would start doing fiber broadband and quit buying circuits from AT&T Southwestern Bell Y and uh I was already there as a contractor they decided to hire me to start that so then we started spring net which was a Metro ethernet provider in the Southwest Missouri region uh that would have been back in 95 when we did that it was that was project was kind of way ahead of its time at it was we started we started in 95 and it was kind of funny people would you'd talk to them about Native ethernet and it's like we can give you 100 Meg across town and they would go well is that two DS3 or it's like no it's just native ethernet and their eyes would kind of glaze over and you'd leave them alone and the next day they would call back and they're like well if I could have native ethernet at this BR then I could do this and I could centralize and it was a real exciting time but it was something that nobody else was doing at the time yeah that's awesome and then and then in around what did that process says take how long how long was were you involved in that project uh I was with spring net for 15 years oh wow uh and we actually ended my last five years there we did a underground data center uh at the Springfield underground okay and it is 64,000 square feet of data center space that's 85 ft underground in a in an old Limestone mine oh that's cool yeah and that one that was a really nice that was a nice project uh and then from there uh the local one of the local health Care Systems Cox Health uh decided that they needed to redo their infrastructure and they hired me a way to to do their director of Technology position um that is a six six hospital system with about 116 facilities in about 100,000 square foot square miles oh wow um took us uh we redid every closet every Network piece everything in every floor of every building uh took us about 14 years to architect that and put it through um and the thing of that was that was nice in healthcare at the time because they were still when I got there they were behind the times doing a lot of paper charting nurses did um I got to ride that curve to them to digitize everything in the public in the EHR health records yeah um doing wireless networks for the infusion pumps the ventilators doing all the all the patients were on the network at that point um when I left we had about 33,000 devices on that Network oh wow what's the secret to managing that type of a network I mean that's a lot of information that's a big you really have to have a big view a big overall view you can get really wed up in the details and then you get lost with what you're trying to do uh the biggest thing with that is looking at the big picture and trying to be three steps ahead of the software folks that are trying to be on The Cutting Edge so you're kind of barely hanging off the edge when you're doing that kind of stuff gotcha well I mean you talk about that the technology changing so fast if it takes 14 years to build that project I mean how many things changed in that in that time we had uh I had a a gentleman that took care of about 3,500 wireless access points and when we would upgrade by the time he would upgrade everything we would be ready to upgrade again and it was just a constant a constant churn to get through all of that so that that kind of explains why it would kind of took so long to get done because it's always you're kind of repeating it did yeah yeah it really was and it would change and then the technology would change and so you're trying to update something you would go back and update things again yeah and it's just a constant constant flux yeah what's what uh what's one of your biggest accomplishments you think biggest accomplishment was probably springnet with being a startup yeah um even when we would talk to the manufacturers the manufacturers would not understand what we were trying to do because what we were doing nobody else was at the time and they would go here's what here's the product it's like no that's not what we want it to do we want it to do this and it took a long time to find manufacturers that would help us with their product to make it do what we were trying to do and those were the ones that were more um farsighted to realize that this is a whole new market for them to tap into yeah so that uh Vision or forethought I guess if you will where did that come from have you always been minded like that to look deeper than people normally came I love new things I love it because it is you wake up dumb every morning and you've got to learn more to be able to stay up with everything yeah so it it's really The Challenge and in that of trying to do new stuff is what I really enjoy what kind of challenges do you think uh like currently what what are some challenges that you're that you're tackling so the trucking industry is about 10 years behind the health industry with digitizing everything so so now we're writing that technology curve I'm getting to do it again in the tra in the logistics and trucking industry um and that's moving from paper logs to electronic logs to monitoring the trucks the cameras in the trucks um and here lately the first what we've been working on is drivers have downtime drivers used to get uh a product called epic View and it's a satellite Light TV Direct TV essentially and so then when they're off duty they can watch TV now that the generations have changed those guys don't watch TVs they're on their PlayStations oh sure and so now instead of satellite TV in the trucks uh we were I believe the second Fleet in the country uh to start doing mobile data in the trucks so now the trucks have mobile data for the drivers and the drivers get on their PlayStations and play games after hours so the trucks themselves are are kind of like their own hotspot they are they're mobile they're mobile data trucks and we manage all of those um managed to sign a a reseller agreement with a cellular provider with a carrier and so we're actually able to to activate deactivate do everything and we manage all of those all of those things rather than using a Verizon or an AT&T end user store we do it all ourself and buy everything whale well that's incredible that's that's very forward thinking uh like I said there's not too many people doing that but what you're going to see is you're going to see a lot of people doing that because just as you say there's around what 400 million trucks four million trucks I believe out on the road and uh every one of them is a is a new customer to be able to do the mobile data so if I'm seeing a trend here it's uh you appreciate a good challenge yes you dig your heels in tackle the project and uh then you like another one yes uh you know I kind of see that like you know a lot of people talk about goals and you know setting goals are great and it's a way to get to a certain point but uh you know in my experience uh sometimes you hit that goal and then there's almost a let down like right like what's next okay we did this now what is that kind of been your pattern little when you get used when you get used to it that's how that's how it works um the last really cool thing that we were able to do we moved to a new campus uh built a new camp we're building a new campus uh it's 120 Acres 125 Acres uh and it will be a destination for drivers so we have an administrative building and then we're doing a motel a restaurant we're doing paid parking for the trucks and that'll be set up so that a a driver can get on an app he can pick a spot get his spot we'll send him a QR code he pulls up to the gate shows his QR code to the reader and then it lets him in to park in his spot now is this so this is at your your new headquarters in statford that's what we're building Stratford Missouri okay yes um now is that for your truckers that's or for any that's for for any truckers um and we're going to do that at several other places also but this is this is where we're starting that at okay um trying to get everything lined up building a campus we've got our administration building there our training buildings there we we run our own training school so we we train our own drivers so we take students we a independent CDL testing okay facility so we bring them in we put them up we put them up in a motel we teach them how to drive the way we want them to drive we get their CDL and put them in a truck so how big of a challenge is finding finding drivers it's really tough uh drivers driving is a is a unique thing it has a really high turnover rate because if you're a CDL driver that's got a good record you can get mad at something that we did you can leave us and the next day you're in somebody else's truck driving yeah and so that happens a lot so it's it's it's really difficult and that's one reason that's kept us doing well is we do train our own driver most of our own drivers and so we're bringing in new people into the industry and we put them through school they agree to drive for us so is there a term with that like if okay I'm going to put you through school and I've got to sign a contract for you you you do a certain time okay how do you keep that culture so you you talked about okay um you know a driver could get mad and leave um you know what do you guys do within your culture to um avoid that situation so it's it it's a lot of the little things and it is it is some some time back I had a driver I I was talking to outside and I was asking him several things and he found out who I was and what I did and he goes you know he goes it'd be really nice if we had faster internet out here in the parking lot for our trucks because we're downloading our games downloading our stuff and it's really slow oh so like they're coming back to home base and they take that opportunity they're setting in the terminal do it upate things and that's before we started doing mobile data or anything like that and so we upgraded the outside APS and the outside bandwidth so that they could have better bandwidth and I got more thank yous over that because they were like oh thank you for doing that and now they drive some of them will drive out of their way to hit one of our terminals so they can update all of their stuff while they're there oh that's incredible shows you care shows you listening yes um and that means a lot to the to the people for sure yeah and it it's kind of interesting and trucking because we have two sets of customers we've got we've got our shippers that are our customers and then we've got our drivers that are our customers and so and so it's a it's it's little unique yeah that's an interesting way to look at it I wanted to take a second and explain what is a manufacturer's rep uh you know it's still funny to me sometimes uh our role is is often misunderstood U but in a nutshell what a rep does is we are a subcontracted Salesforce uh for multiple manufacturers um our our lines are complimentary to each other and not not uh competitive uh and what this does is you know it often gives us the opportunity to to sell a F line solution so it really brings value to our customer when we can uh you know represent product from one end to the other uh we're not a distributor uh you know we work with Distributors uh to get our product to Market but we're really an extension of of those factories um so just in a nutshell if you're looking for a a a great manufacturer rep with uh years of experience and great folks uh look us up at CBM rep.com okay so walk me through the uh how technology has changed in the trucking industry I I understand you know you know providing Broadband to your drivers uh updating log books you know all of those things you got a bunch of things to track but walk us through the progression of what it was like you know 8 10 15 years ago however long walk us through the evolution of of what technology has done from then to now for the trucking industry so truckers have to provide uh proof of delivery different documents as they drop off loads get loads okay uh they have a fleet manager that would call them and say he I've got this load for you go here they would go take the load get the paperwork at that point you would they would stop at a truck stop or a place like that take their paperwork and they would fax it in so everything ran off of phone calls and fax machines okay so if I'm a driver I could have just finished a load somewhere dropped it off now I call in and they're like here go get this somewhere yes so on the road I'm dealing with paperwork and then fax me the paperwork so that we can get it build and get it proof of delivery and everything for the drivers okay then things evolved to uh transportation management software which was a piece of software that would that would track all of those loads and then as and the drivers were also doing their paper log books then as that was mandated to electronic logs then we started putting telematics units in the trucks what's that uh telematics unit is a unit that messages back and forth from the driver to the to the fleet manager that's back at the office um it will keep an eye on the trucks uh we monitor all the points whether it's low on oil whether it's got too much wear on a on a break you can this day and age you can monitor the tread wear on the tires and you know that when the tires are going to need to be changed before long and we can route them in through a maintenance center minimal downtime change tires put tires back on it oh that's huge um we do we do telematics in the trailers so we know if the loads empty or full because we charge if if a if we leave a trailer at a company we're we're a truckload carrier so we only deal in a full trailer we don't do okay bits and pieces uh we leave a trailer they keep it for a long time they got it unloaded they never tell us they're done with it for us to pick it up and it's called detention we can charge them for that okay so we know by Those sensors if that load has been taken off that trailer and we know we can start charging them um the telematics and the trucks tells us if there's anything going on in the trucks to the maintenance department uh reports mileage reports any hard breaking any shifts If a driver swerves it will send it will alert the fleet manager fleet manager gets on the phone calls the driver and goes hey noticed you're kind of swerving around here are you okay something going on yeah and so we keep an eye on everything we keep an eye on the RPMs everything way that truck drives cameras to the front and uh we just recently started putting cameras inward facing toward the drivers okay so what does what does that do for you uh if the driver is looking down at his phone because he's not allowed to yeah then it alerts us that he's looking at his phone gotcha and so it just it just uh that a special kind of cameras that is smart enough to see where like they're literally boxes their head in and so it knows when they when they dip their head down or when they're when they're averted away and it keeps an eye on everything wow so we're kind of the eye in the sky to the drivers how do how do the drivers feel and maybe it's just old hat now but how do they feel about you know just being monitored so closely is that tough for some some drivers do not like it but we do uh as I said we do a training school so students start in it they start with them that way so they're they're just accustomed to it and and everybody forgets about it after a while that makes sense and and it's really about making the easier for them yeah is what it's really about or and we know where they're located so if they're having trouble getting somewhere we can reroute them uh if there's a high wind area we can we can reroute them around the high wind and let them know that are are you able to track uh that information back to a safer Fleet have you make that we are uh we are rated as one of the safest fleets in the country uh and all of that information any type of an action or anything that happens goes to our safety department and the safety department deals with that but yes we're really stringent on the safety standards well that's awesome at least you get you you're able to get that info and and see with without it we wouldn't have any idea yeah oh that's great yeah no it makes it makes all the difference in the world so what do you think uh for your company the biggest advantages of all this technology is the biggest thing that the technology for us is keeping the trucks up and running keeping the driver safe and taking care of the drivers so ai's been kind of a buzzword lately uh and I saw an article that uh you were quoted in that you've got uh I think over 400 trucks you know using AI now in the fleet um explain to me what that means what does AI mean to the trucking industry so automated technology and workflows are the electronic logs the telematics in the trucks everything within that we've actually been using that for a long time and AI means more than just chat GPT 40 uh it is something that that is something that we have worked with automating processes for years so how would you define AI I would define AI as taking a manual process and automating the process digitally somehow with scripts with software to where everything does it itself um I will go back jump back just a second to the healthcare organization we set up AI then and used automation so that all of the information from the patient flowed into the patient's record so the nurse wasn't charting the record so she had time to take care of the patient and not worry about the charting okay that makes sense and trucking is the same way we've automated the safety anything happens in the truck the right person knows it and we have a process to take care of it enhancing the process speeding things up elting eliminating mistakes making things safer adding safety to things because something doesn't get missed or somebody doesn't forget about something um and generally making the whole thing run more homogenous and less bits and pieces okay that's awesome what do you think's uh one of the biggest myths regarding your position one of the biggest myths is that an IT guy is an IT guy and non-it technical people always think well you're an IT guy so you can do this here I need you to do this and it's like with the advance of all this technology you really have to be specialized and you have to tell them I don't know anything about that one I'll learn it yeah but I don't know that so that that's probably the biggest myth that that I fight okay so staying in your lane kind of yes if you will that that it takes more than one person to make all this run yeah how big is your team uh there's three of us three of you mhm that'll still keep you running with all the gadgets you've got to deal with we stay pretty busy with construction and with adding the new technology it does keep us fairly busy tell me a little bit more about your new facility is that already built or still a work in progress the administrative building is already built okay uh that was a really fun project uh we had recently divested of some West Coast operations that company wanted our operations but they also wanted our software and our it so we sold them the data center the software the servers and most of the IT team to them okay so then we're building a brand new building so we got to and this is one of the funnest things I've done uh I got to build an entire it infrastructure from scratch and it's like a marble on a flat table we could go any direction and we worked on you know and we started with and this is another Buzz word is let's put everything in the cloud yeah and let's just not have anything on on Prim and so we looked at all of that and then it was like well this can be in the cloud but this can't we really need this on Prim and so we ended up we are 85 85 80% on Prim and the rest of it's in the cloud so we ended up not being full Cloud because it just did not work for us yeah uh one of the nice things was that talking about my other te other guys that was with me they're fairly younger I it professionals so we sat down and went through this exercise together to try to Mentor them and get them and transfer that knowledge base of how do I start from a blank sheet of paper and how do I do this and we did this all from the design the procurement the configuration even managed all the low voltage technology and cabling in the new building and set everything up that's awesome that sounds like a lot of fun actually it was a lot of fun my guys were like we got to do this from scratch and I go you don't understand we get to do this from scratch yeah well and you mentioned uh you know you're mentoring them uh because obviously they're going to be taking over at some point right yes did you have a mentor that got you started in this I did I had several mentors on my way on my way through my career and I think and I think that's really what I would have to attribute My Success to is the people that took the time to show me the right way to do things and not just go do this you know I don't want to do this um the other thing you got to do if you don't that is the only way to learn all of this and if you're not training your folks and bringing people in that's going for your job you're hiring the wrong people yeah that makes a lot of sense well and having the right person too it's one thing to go go do this whatever this is right but it's another thing and I think where people really find the value is when they understand the why yes I think a lot of times people forget to explain that why and then they understand and they retain it better when they understand why rather than type this in yeah and they feel better about you know why they're doing it and what it means yes and it gives them a little bit more uh buyin or or purpose if a lot more Buy in I've actually I've actually had people uh it professionals that have worked for me more than once just because they want to come back and work and do what I'm doing yeah well and that says a lot about your leadership abilities as well so thank you um so how do you think you're doing things differently in your role than the person before you uh I think we touched on that just a minute ago that's really similar the person before me kept all the information to himself because he felt like if he's the one that knew it they could never get rid of him they could never do anything okay and so he was more just an order giver and uh i' I've got a completely different belief and the fact that everyone needs to be involved in it and work as a team and they've got to know the why they've got to know you know what's going on with it um that's probably the biggest thing that we do that I do differently than other folks that's awesome and that helps uh you know obviously in the future for um Legacy planning if you will or whoever's going to fill your role correct yeah it gives me a it gives a person to replace me and uh when I started with this company the owner of the company asked three things of me he asked me to stay till I retire he asked me to leave them better than I found them and he asked me to have a replacement when I leave that's a reasonable request and I you're honoring those wishes I could not turn that down yeah that says a lot about uh you know their uh culture and you know what's important to them the company the company's leadership is very forward thinking uh just like the pitch on the mobile data for the trucks you know that wasn't something that's pervasive in the industry yet it's like we can do this we can make this work and like let's go for it that's great it you know it sounds to me like uh you know some of the things that we've talked about today and some of the some of the advancements that you're not only just making for your company but it sounds like in the industry um you know you should have people knocking down your door wanting to work for you um we have a very low turnover rate that's awesome that good that says a lot that says a lot about any company so um awesome well Dan uh I can't thank you enough for coming in and visiting with us today I've really enjoyed our conversation I've learned a lot you know it is something that's kind of a mystery to a lot of people it is um I can clearly see that you love it and you've had a a great career and um super proud of what you've done and it's been a pleasure working with you so thank you thank you for having me I've really enjoyed it awesome thanks thanks again for joining us today uh thanks again to Dan he was great I learned so much today about it and you know what it means to not only the trucking industry but also you know hospitals and uh you know further on it's something that impacts our daily lives and uh it's just great to have an expert like him in front of us and be able to talk to him so thanks again to Dan uh you know if you're looking for a expertise Salesforce uh need issue or need help with a project um you know reach out to us here at CBN and we're always here to help that's CBM rep.com and uh please comment like subscribe uh give us some feedback on the show and tell us what you'd like to hear from us next time as always thank you for joining us and we'll see you next time on power the network

2024-08-08 11:18

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