Touch a Truck and the Evolution of Diesel Mechanics and the Future of Technology - Dave Brannan from Evans Delivery and Ron Scholler of TransEdge Truck Center

Dave Brannon from Evans Delivery hosted a Touch A Truck event and received support from Ron Scholler of TransEdge, who donated a 2024 Volvo sleeper truck for the event. They discuss the importance of the trucking industry, especially in delivering essential goods. TransEdge is looking for diesel technicians to join their team as it plays a crucial role in keeping trucks on the road.

We discuss the opportunities and challenges in the diesel technician and trucking industry. There is a shortage of technicians and drivers, leading to longer dwell times for repairs. The industry offers good pay and a chance for career progression, but there is a need to attract younger people. Local schools are being contacted for apprenticeship programs, but the message about the industry needs improvement. Technicians with knowledge and experience are highly sought after, often leaving for higher-paying positions at other companies. However, with dedication and strategic planning, individuals can start their own trucking businesses and achieve success in the industry. Leasing or buying trucks both require good credit scores and two years of driving experience.

We also discuss options for maintenance and ownership of vehicles in the transportation industry and highlight the benefits of leasing and not having to take responsibility for repairs.  Different paths, such as becoming an owner-operator or working with a company like TransEdge, are mentioned.

There is a  lack of younger people entering the trucking industry is noted, despite its importance and opportunities.  The need to promote trucking careers to high school students is emphasized.

The future of technology in trucks, specifically electric vehicles (EVs) and hydrogen fuel cells, is discussed. EVs are seen as a promising option for short-distance freight transport.

Ron Scholler discusses the benefits of electric vehicles in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mentions that renewable energy sources are being used more now than 30 years ago. They highlight the efficiency and lower carbon emissions of electric vehicles compared to traditional diesel trucks and also mentions the potential for job creation in the autonomous commercial vehicle industry. They discuss hydrogen fuel cells as a way to increase the range of electric vehicles, particularly in heavy-duty trucks. The transcript highlights the progress made in electric vehicle technology and its potential appeal to younger generations entering various roles within the industry. The speaker talks about their dealership's involvement with electric vehicles, including hosting an electric vehicle expo and becoming a certified dealership for battery-electric vehicles. They emphasize that while diesel trucks still make up a significant portion of their business, they are actively embracing new technologies. The conversation touches on future regulations aimed at further reducing emissions and predicts that by 2033, around 50% of heavy-duty trucks will be powered by alternative fuels or hybrid systems. The speakers mention attending events related to clean energy technologies and express excitement about advancements being made across multiple areas of truck technology, including polyfuels and low-carbon tires. They note that infrastructure needs to improve alongside these developments but express confidence in achieving goals set for emission reductions by 2030 or after.

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Transcript

Ron Scholler -
Again, those first two LRES, which is a cab over refuse truck, went to New York, and believe it or not, they're coming back now. And they're going to get, I believe, ten more. And those first generation LRES, my understanding is that they're going to be in the Mac Museum. 


Dave Brannan -
Really? 


Ron Scholler -
So if you don't think technology is moving fast oh, wow. Think about it for a second. Like, oh my God, an electric truck is already in a museum. It's so old. 


Lindsey Trent -
Hi, and welcome to NGT Talks. I am excited today to have a good friend, Dave Brannon. Dave works with Evans Delivery and Ron Schaller. We are excited to have them on the show today to talk about Touch A Truck events and to talk about the state of the industry, especially when it comes to diesel technicians and all things next gen diesel technology. But I shouldn't just say diesel technology, and I'm trying to change it. It really is medium heavy duty truck technicians because we're moving into the space of EV technology and hydrogen fuel cells. So we're going to be talking about that as well. And first of all, though, we're going to talk with Dave about his Touch of Truck event he just hosted. 


Lindsey Trent -
Dave, tell us a little bit about your background and the Touch of Truck event you hosted and what made you want to host that event. 


Dave Brannan -
Yeah. So good afternoon, Lindsay. Ron, good afternoon. Nice seeing you. 


Ron Scholler -
Dave. 


Dave Brannan -
Yeah, Dave Brandon. I've been with Evans Delivery Company for about ten years. Evans is located in Schukelhaven, Pennsylvania. They're a very large intermodal container drainage company. Also do some over the road and brokerage work as well. Prior to that, I spent about 30 years in the trucking industry in some way, shape, or form. So I've been around trucks for quite a while and certainly have seen a lot of changes in that industry from the shops as well as the truck drivers, the licensing changes and things like that. So, yeah, about 36 some years, 30. 


Ron Scholler -
Wow. 


Dave Brannan -
Yeah, I'll stop there. So I've been around him for a little while, and I live in the northwest corner of Lehigh County outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania. And we have an event every year called Night in the country, where the community comes. It starts in the afternoon and goes till the evening. A lot of people show up. They have car shows and things like that. And local businesses will have a booth there or something along the lines, the fire companies there. So I thought it'd be a great venue to host a Touch of Truck there. And we did. It was the middle of August, so it was wonderful. It started out, I'd say, probably a little slower than I thought. I don't think people realized kind of what they could do. 


Dave Brannan -
They could go in, get inside the truck, and then look around, and they were getting the coloring books for the kids and some people asked if were selling trucks. Some people thought were like a recruiter for trucking. And it kind of once the word got out that people could go in it, look around, it blow the horn, which was the big hit, I guess. 


Ron Scholler -
Yeah. The air horns are always. 


Dave Brannan -
We had about 60, 70 people go through. It nice. Yeah, it was really good. And I was kind of surprised, too, at the amount of adults that said, wow, I never saw a truck. I never saw the inside of a truck. Tell me a little bit about the trucking industry. We did have quite a bit of interest from some maybe half a dozen younger folks to learn more about the trucking industry and what it all entails and what's expected kind of in today's world and how it's changed. They saw the trucks are automatic, blah, blah. They have all the nice sleeper and things like that. So it was a really nice event. It was received really well. People even went back. They would go get their grandchildren to come back to the event and just have their grandkids. 


Dave Brannan -
So it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. And with that, Ron, we wouldn't have been able to do it without Ron Schaller and the folks at Trans Edge. 


Ron Scholler -
Thank you. 


Dave Brannan -
They were nice enough to donate us to donate to the event a brand new 2024 Volvo sleeper truck. Yeah, I think it had 63 miles on it. So we certainly really want to extend from the Evans to everybody at the event in the community, just a great deal of thank you to Ron and the group at Transedge. And with that, I think I'd like to introduce Ron. Tell us a little bit about himself. 


Ron Scholler -
Before I talk about myself. Dave, how did that Volvo compare to the first heavy duty truck you ever drove? 


Dave Brannan -
Oh, my gosh. So the first heavy duty that's a really good question. Well, it didn't have power steering, or I should say it had power steering. It had air conditioning. It had a very small steering wheel. The handling of it was obviously very much different. The visibility on these new trucks from inside the driver's seat, the visibility around is crazy. I mean, you can see the mirrors are huge. So it changed from the 1974 Kenworth I learned to drive in. It's changed quite a bit. 


Ron Scholler -
That's 50 years of technology. 


Dave Brannan -
And it was automatic. So it was automatic transmission. 


Ron Scholler -
So that's one thing there, too. Yeah. I'm Ron. Shaller. I work for Trans Edge Truck Centers. We have six locations throughout Pennsylvania. Not your typical path to commercial truck sales. I went directly into the Air Force right out of high school, spent six years in the Air Force. Four of those in Europe was deployed for four operations in the first Gulf War desert Shield, Desert Storm, Desert Calm, and Southern Watch. From there, I went into a career in law enforcement where I worked for 23 years, literally a par five away from where my office is right now. During that time, I was certified as a dot enforcement officer. Grew up. My father left the army in 67, worked for a couple of trucking companies. Finally, the third one announced they were shutting the doors, and he said he's going to start his own company. 


Ron Scholler -
So he lied to my mom and told her that he had a contract, a signed contract to haul dryball cement, which he really only had a handshake deal with a guy over in New Jersey. So, yeah, they put the house up, bought an R Model Mac I'm sure Dave's familiar with that. And a trailer, and away they went. And I think I was like, eight or nine when my dad started that company. So from there, not so much in the Air Force, but then in law enforcement. I've been around diesel trucks, heavy duty trucks, about 90% of my life now. Kind of was getting towards the end of where I was at with my law enforcement career had been promoted. Trans Edge was rebuilding her sales team. 


Ron Scholler -
We went through the negotiations and they asked me, what makes you think you can be in sales? You can sell someone a truck? And I responded with I said, for 23 years. I walked up to complete meet strangers and said, you have no idea who I am, but I'm going to take away your freedom. I have a warrant for your arrest. You're going to jail. And I said, It's got to be a lot easier to walk up to somebody and say, I have a really great product. I think it's going to make you guys better at what you do. And apparently they bought that line. So then, yeah, I've been here for four years now. Matter of fact, four years and five days. 


Dave Brannan -
Wow. 


Lindsey Trent -
So how do you feel about moving from your history in military experience and law enforcement over to trucking? And what do you feel about trucks. 


Ron Scholler -
Mean? It was a vital part of my growing up. It provided a great life for me and my three siblings, my family, my mother straight from Germany, my father's family's also from Germany, as well. As matter of fact, my mom still has her accent, so were able to fly to Germany summers as a kid growing up, my friends went to the shore, I went to Europe. So I've always been not uniquely, but very acutely aware of the benefits that can come from a career in this industry and at the same time, understanding that we all want to go to the store and find what we need, or even nowadays where we go online and we type in, like, okay, this is what I want. Well, it's got to get to us somehow. 


Ron Scholler -
So when you understand the volume of commodities in all of our lives, that is touched by diesel trucks, you realize just how vitally important they are to everything that we do. So it was a welcome transition. When I left law enforcement, I kind of hoped I made that place better. And I came into this industry wanting to make this industry better and leave my mark so that when I do retire, people can say, yeah, that guy made a difference, and we're better at getting these products to all the people that we want to serve. 


Lindsey Trent -
Yeah, that's a really interesting point, because one thing that we try to communicate is that Gen Z, they actually care. They want to be a part of something that's bigger than themselves. And so one of our main messages as an industry is we need to be communicating that Trucking is if you look around the room, almost everything is brought to you by a truck at some point. 


Ron Scholler -
Sure. 


Lindsey Trent -
And hospitals are filled because of trucks, the grocery stores. We need to communicate that without Trucking, we don't have all of the things that we need. And that if you are in Trucking, then you're helping your community, you're helping the country. That's an important message. What kind of jobs do you all have at Transedge? What are you looking for? And how do you build a culture with your younger generation? 


Ron Scholler -
Wow, I'll break that up into a couple of areas. The jobs that we have at Trans, where we're always looking for people, definitely not sales. We have enough in sales. My greedy side says no more salespeople are welcome. But certainly diesel technicians is probably our biggest area, where we're constantly looking for good people to come in and bolster our staff. Between the six locations in Pennsylvania, we have positions that essentially do just about anything. Trans Edge has a Mod center here in Allentown, which any after factory modifications that get done to a Mac, which comes out of Mccungey just about 10 miles south of us, goes to that modification center. So there you have guys that are experienced in metal fabrication. 


Ron Scholler -
We're really kind of doing some crazy unique stuff every once in a while when we have that truck, that this truck is going to do something that we've never asked a truck to do before. So those guys handle those sort of modifications. Fabrication actually like the creative mind there. So you're not just that guy that's bolting something onto a vehicle or unbolting a broken part and putting a new one back on. And we certainly have those positions as well. We employ over 200 people, and a large portion of those are on our service department and our parts department. Dave and I are very much alike. When we see that truck, that's just gorgeous. It's got all kinds of shiny parts on it. It's got big chrome stacks on it, and it just looks cool as hell. 


Ron Scholler -
But all of the trucks that we're talking about, they all perform a service. They're a tool for the company that owns that asset. And if that asset is down, imagine you go to a fuel station because you need gas for your car so you can take your kid to the sporting event and every pump is not working and every gas station you go to is like that. Well, imagine if every truck in the country suffered a fault and there were no technicians to repair that truck and get it back on the road. So the diesel technician is probably the number one position that we're always actively engaged in, that next person that we can bring on board. 


Ron Scholler -
And it's incredibly difficult because I think this younger generation, I don't know that they see not just the value in that position, but the benefits of a career. Maybe you start off as a diesel technician and you can make good money and provide a really good life for your family, but you can also progress. We have service manager positions and then it goes up to Foreman and all the way up to our vice president of service. So it's an area of the industry that's crucial to every person that lives in this country and is affected by a truck, which is everybody parts, obviously, is another big issue. We have a lot of companies that they'll facilitate their own repairs, they have their own technicians. 


Ron Scholler -
So we have to constantly keep aware of what parts we keep on the shelves and make sure that they're always available for the customers that want to do their own repairs. So it's a task for sure. 


Lindsey Trent -
Absolutely. So with everything that you do, I'm assuming you're constantly hiring people. Is there a shortage of technicians? I mean, Dave, is there a shortage of drivers? What are you guys seeing out there? 


Ron Scholler -
I'll let Dave go first. 


Dave Brannan -
Yeah, I'll kind of carry or piggyback on what Ron said about the shortage. So Evans runs almost every state. We're large intermodal, so we run all the port cities as well. But we run around, I don't know, probably 1200 lease van trailers, flatbeds, and another 1500 or 1800 chassis, plus about 8000 owner operators. And that falls into my area as well with the trailers. And every day we talk to a shop around the country. Every day I hear the same thing. I'm too short. And Ron said they have 200 people. So Trans Edge is obviously a very large company in this space. But I'll talk to truck stops, they're two short, three short, four short, or else they've consolidated. 


Dave Brannan -
They went from four shops to three shops just so they could UpStaff one that might be in a little more dense area, say around Houston. Maybe they took one farther to the north and that kind of thing. So I hear it every day, not only on a trailer, but we work with a lot of truck shops as well. Our owner operators, we try to help them work with shops. And it's a problem. It's a real problem. And when you have dwell time at a shop just because they can't get to it. And if a truck is down, like Ron said, it's down. It's not the 1974 R model where you can patch it up with what you have in the garage kind of a thing. Yeah, exactly. 


Dave Brannan -
So the livelihood of these drivers have dwell times now of two weeks, three weeks, depending what they need. Where a turbo? Back in the day, that was a couple of hour job, and they were out on the road providing there wasn't an intercooler issue. But now you can have that take almost two weeks. 


Ron Scholler -
Sure. 


Dave Brannan -
Which is a real problem. Again, I don't want it. But it's definitely the shortage in the technician is out there. I see it every day. And we work with dozens and dozens of shops and rental companies and things like that. 


Ron Scholler -
Yeah, and I'll piggyback on that a little bit. I have my CDL, obviously, coming into this even before then, but I knew I would never want to sell a product that I myself wouldn't drive. But I find that I'm doing sometimes some driving in terms of getting my assets to the companies that I'm working with. Because, again, we need more people in this industry. And I don't know if it's an image of what this industry really is. It's not convoy. The rubber ducky isn't out there. It's progressed and it's technological and it's advanced. So it is an interesting career for someone that wants to pursue a technician position because you are working with state of the art things. At our dealerships. We have Mac, Volvo, Hino and Battle Motors, which was Crane Carrier corporation. And those companies are at that. 


Ron Scholler -
Hino is a Toyota owned company. Volvo is a global company. Volvo owns know. So, Mac, Volvo, Hino and even Battle. Those are companies that are right at the front edge of technology. So I don't know how the message needs to get out or how it needs to be constructed better, but certainly there is a shortage. I know Mac because they're right here in Lehigh County, where I'm located. I feel like they're having a hiring. 


Lindsey Trent -
Event every other Saturday at the manufacturing plant. 


Ron Scholler -
Yeah. And Dave could probably attest to this as well. You hear the advertisement on the radio, you're driving down the road. Yeah, I still listen to the FM radio. I'm old. But hiring event this Saturday at Mac Trucks or local TV channel has a commercial on it. There's a full page ad in a lot of the local papers. Hiring event at Mac Trucks. And it makes the industry really difficult. And I don't think that people understand the type of livelihood they can have. My best friend, we grew up together. He started working as an auto technician when he was 15, before he even has license. And he still works for that same company today. Now he's progressed. But this is a guy who has a beautiful home, nice single home in the Emmaus area. Mccungey has a lake house out in Lake Winona. 


Ron Scholler -
So if you think that I want to have the Ferraris, a barn full of Ferraris, and if you want to have a great life and really provide well for your family, it's certainly possible in this industry and we're just not seeing enough candidates entering into it. 


Lindsey Trent -
Do you all work with any of your local schools? Do you ever do any apprenticeship programs? I mean, how are you attracting younger people? 


Ron Scholler -
I personally, knowing that there was a shortage of CDL drivers and knowing that could affect my business, if companies don't have drivers, they're certainly not going to purchase trucks. So I took a position on the occupational board for their CDL program so I could be a part of the institutions that are recruiting and training the drivers of today and tomorrow. And then I know that our service department is heavily involved in contacting the local technical schools and recruiting that we are definitely recruiting. The issue comes about when because there's a shortage. Okay. And transedge as a whole, our technicians, I wouldn't say that they're the highest paid in the entire industry, but they're certainly in the top 25%. 


Ron Scholler -
But when you have a trucking company, say, that has 50 trucks and they're not getting the service interval times, like Dave said, the dwell times are longer. Well, then they come to one of our top technicians and say, okay, I don't know what you're making, but I'm going to give you 20% more an hour. 


Dave Brannan -
Wow. 


Ron Scholler -
And then boom, that guy's gone. Right. So now it's not just a person filling a space, it's 10, 20, 30 years of knowledge about these trucks. And then I've seen too, where they've done that, and then we kind of go to that same person six months and okay, we need you to come back and how do we get to that point? So there's a lot of that going on where a diesel technician is a hot commodity. 


Dave Brannan -
One thing too, while you were speaking, Ron, I got thinking of when you talked about the careers and how you can progress up, I don't know number off top of my head, but Evans, we have an enormous amount of small fleet owners that run one of the flags throughout the Evans network of companies. And these are five, six, seven. We have one gentleman that owns probably about 25 trucks, just chooses to run under the Evans flag. So again, the truck driver can move that as well and grow his own personal fleet and become a three truck owner, two truck owner, or whatever they want to be, whatever they want to do. I guess the message we're trying to say is there's really no limitation to where you can go with this correct at all. And I thought of someone you were talking. 


Dave Brannan -
You asked me earlier about the difference in driving that truck, that 24 Volvo, up to the touch of truck, it was like driving a computer compared to it was it took me a half. 


Ron Scholler -
An hour just to kind of sit. 


Dave Brannan -
There and kind of look at it. Then the screens and the LEDs and the navigations and this control. That control, lumbar seat control. Who would have thought a truck would add a seat? That's the most comfortable thing I've ever sat in. 


Lindsey Trent -
Did you get your Bluetooth connected? That's what I want to know. 


Dave Brannan -
I wasn't even going to try that. I don't have it connected on anything I own, so I wasn't going to. 


Ron Scholler -
Go down that road and I apologize. I don't think that truck was equipped with what they call a seat that has a back cycler, which is literally massaging wheels that go up and down the upright part of the speed. 


Dave Brannan -
Really? 


Ron Scholler -
Wow, that's a real thing. Heated back cycler, four lumbar adjustment to Dave's point to mine. Typically, if you have two years of driving experience on a CDL, that's when finance companies, if you want to start your own business, will look at you seriously and good credit and a two year driving history. And if you have a hall source, if you have a contract, you start your own company. And again, my father did that back in the late seventy s. And this is a guy that took his family to Europe, four kids, and is paying for us all to go over there again next year. 


Lindsey Trent -
Oh, wow, that's awesome. 


Ron Scholler -
Again, whether it's the technician that works hard and excels well at their position and provides a wonderful life for their family, it's the driver who puts his two years in with a company and then says, you know what, I saved up enough money. I'm going to put 5% or 10% down and I'm going to buy my own truck because I'm going to get a contract with Dave Brandon Foods and okay, now I start with one line, and then a year from now I pick up a second line. And I've had customers of mine do that very thing. They came in, they sat down, and for me it's an incredibly joyful moment where I can say, okay, you have a CDL, right? Yeah, I just got it last month. Okay, this is what we're going to do. 


Ron Scholler -
We're going to put together a strategic plan for you to one day start your own company. 


Dave Brannan -
Awesome. 


Ron Scholler -
And this is what you got to do. And I become a partner with that person. And then two years later they come in and they say, I'm ready. 


Dave Brannan -
Cool. 


Ron Scholler -
What do you have? I'm ready. Give me a good used truck with under 300,000 miles on it. We can put warranty on it. That way you're protected against any sort of serious possible fault that might cost you a decent amount of money. You have the warranty protects you. And we built this strategic plan. And then that guy comes back in two years later and says, I'm ready. And then I'm out there taking pictures of this guy starting his own truck for the very first time, and he's just about got tears in his eyes. And six months later, I run into him and I'm like, hey, how's it going? He's like, oh my God, it's the best thing that ever happened to me. I'm doing really well. My family is doing great. We just bought a home outside of the city, and it's possible. 


Dave Brannan -
Oh, yeah, it is. 


Lindsey Trent -
That's awesome. So you help them come up with a strategic plan to get to those steps. 


Ron Scholler -
Sure, it does take work, but yeah, nobody's asking you're not curing cancer. You put the time in and you advance yourself as a driver, and then you become an owner operator. And then maybe you put a second truck on. You put a third truck on, and next thing you know, five years down the road, you have a trucking company. And it's very possible. 


Dave Brannan -
Ron, is there any less barriers if somebody goes through leasing versus buying or it's the same? You still need the credit score, you still need the two years? 


Ron Scholler -
Sure. Oh, yeah, it depends. First of all, if you have the time to do your own preventative maintenance, if you're going to do your own service work in terms of changing your oil every 20, 30,000 miles, if you're going to do your own brake changes. That's how my father did it. He had a shop and maybe tools that I can't tell you how many tools and how much they but we did our own breakdown. Or if you have the type of situation where you just want to make a payment once a month to a leasing outfit, and then the leasing company owns the asset, you lease it, you can purchase it at the end, a pre established payment at the end, or a walk away lease. But all you really have to do is operate the vehicle. 


Ron Scholler -
If it needs service, if it needs a repair, that's not your responsibility. So it depends on how active you want to be in the ecosystem of being in the transportation industry. If you want to take it all on and you're capable of doing that, you purchase it, you own the asset. Then and then it becomes something that you can trade in at the end of two years, three years, and maybe move towards that brand new big Volvo sleeper that feels like you're on a nice, gentle cruise through the clouds. 


Dave Brannan -
Absolutely. 


Lindsey Trent -
Yeah. They have massager that you can just. 


Ron Scholler -
So we have options. The options are, again, like Lindsay had said, talking about our strategic plan, the way that I operate is here's all the options. Okay, what best fits know this person with this situation, what best fits them? Because ultimately, my goal is for every client that I have to succeed. 


Dave Brannan -
Exactly. Good point. Good point. Another path that you mentioned about the two years. It's kind of like Webbins with their owner operators we support and we have the infrastructure and we have the large national enterprise contracts and we have agents that work hard and have customers and it just helps that driver maybe that middle step again. If they don't want to go to get their own authority but they want to have their own truck or their own fleet, these owner operator companies, we can supply that authority, the insurance and of course the agent has the customer base and so on and so forth, they can bring their own customers. Again, it just goes to show there's so many the prongs on the fork, so to speak, are just go and go and go. 


Ron Scholler -
Yeah, the opportunities are there. Again, when you have a company like Evans that's willing to invest in partners that may 1 day decide to go on their own. 


Dave Brannan -
Sure, exactly. 


Ron Scholler -
But they're still going to put that investment. And when you have a company like Transedge, where we become part of the ecosystem that you operate in and we're contributing to your success. When I first started here, they were looking for kind of like a saying to go on the bottom of a postcard that we would send out. And the question was why? Trans edge. And I thought about it for maybe a couple of days and then finally I said, your business, your success, that's why we do what we do, so that you can be as successful as you can possibly be. And ultimately we all benefit from that. People that aren't in the trucking industry. 


Lindsey Trent -
That's a good point. What do you see, younger people coming in that work for you? What do you see why they like to work for Trans Edge? Even you, Dave. Why do they like to work for Ebb and Delivery? Have you seen anything with this younger generation that you wanted to share? 


Dave Brannan -
I'll let Ron kind of lead. 


Ron Scholler -
So I just turned 52 today. 


Dave Brannan -
So what are you doing in an hour and 21 minutes? 


Ron Scholler -
It's going to look something like this, but it's not going to be tea. 


Dave Brannan -
Without the tea bag. 


Ron Scholler -
Yeah, I have wonderful dinner reservations tonight with my wife. 


Dave Brannan -
Good. 


Ron Scholler -
Again, being 52, I'm starting to feel like everyone's younger than me. And I'll be honest with you, I don't see the numbers of 20 somethings that I want to see. And it's sad because it's a great industry and it's an industry that's so vitally necessary. More than 90% of all traded commodities at some point in time in their life are touched by a diesel truck. So the opportunities are there. And again, I don't know how to change the message, but we have young people that start here and stay here. We just don't have enough of them. So to. Come be a part of trans edge. So when I was in law enforcement, we had a phenomenal benefits package. 


Ron Scholler -
And I was like, oh, man, okay, well, if I take a job at Transedge, how does that change things for us in terms of the medical care that we need for us and our children? And it was just as good, if not better. And I thought, oh my God, I can't believe I literally have benefits that are as good as I had before, because I thought I had great benefits before. So I came to Trans Edge and I was like, oh my God, these benefits are the exact same. They're maybe even a little better. So that's there and it's hard sometimes to get a young person to think how important your health insurance is, because when you're 20, you're ten foot tall and bulletproof. 


Lindsey Trent -
Yes. 


Ron Scholler -
So we do have young people that come here and they stay. My nephew started here a few years ago, and he was that kid that kind of like, bounced around, wasn't sure he wanted to do he wasn't really cut out for college. And I said, Listen, I said, Come take a job here, and he did. And it's remarkable because I see that kid come to work every day and be here early, and then I hear good things about it and I think, oh, man, holy crap, if he works any harder, he's going to make me look bad. And the jokes about salespeople and their schedules are out there as well, so I don't have to include you guys in that. 


Ron Scholler -
But my point is that when they come here, I don't know that they all think about it, but when they do take that step, they realize, hey, this is good. Trans Edge is a good place to work. We bring in food trucks throughout the year, treat everyone to a lunch from a cheesesteak truck, or we have our own grill. I think, Dave, you saw we turned an old R model into a grill. 


Dave Brannan -
It's so know. 


Ron Scholler -
So the whole sales team will cook for all of our locations. They bring an ice cream truck out a couple of times a year, give all the technicians ice cream and the parts guys. So it's a good place to work. I don't think everyone's aware of what the opportunities are within the diesel industry. 


Dave Brannan -
They're not. No, I agree. I agree at all. And I kind of echo what you said, and I'm not in the recruiting side, and Evans is fairly large, but I talk to a lot of drivers and I don't see a lot of that 23. I mean, there's, of course, the interstate rule, so that 23 to 30 year or 28 year old. We have them. I know that, but I don't think it's filling in the folks who are heading toward retirement. I don't think that's going to balance. I don't see that at all. 


Lindsey Trent -
Right, yeah, we've got a lot of work to do to reach the next generation and really just introduce them to these awesome careers. I'll say a side note, dave was with me this summer. He went to the school counselors conference. Dave, what was your interaction with the school counselors and educating them about trucking careers? 


Dave Brannan -
I was so surprised how many times I heard a counselor come up and say, I have students who go by and they see the billboard that says, sign on bonus. Make $100,000 a year with whatever company. And they come in to me and they say, how do I get there? How do I get to that? How do you go there? Because the high schools just aren't promoting that. Whether it's the vocations schools, whether it's because they think there's an age requirement that you really can't pursue this career till you're 21, which is false, which I think we can get into. You can start pursuing this career when you're 16 years old or 18. 


Dave Brannan -
If you want to work, if you want to run a parts truck, you want to run parts, or you want to work in a shop, you want to wash trucks on the weekend, like a lot of us did, and change. 


Ron Scholler -
Tires. 


Dave Brannan -
And then you can get into that driving and you're in trust state when you're 18. A lot of people don't realize, so you can drive all through a Pennsylvania at 18 and then 21. But again, I was shocked to hear how many counselors had an interest from students about careers in the trucking industry, but had no idea how to guide and help their students get there. So again, what you're doing, Lindsay, with the next gen trucking group is just so spot on and so important and so valuable to you guys. We all support you and appreciate that because that was so wild to hear people say, we don't know how to help these kids. 


Lindsey Trent -
Yeah, it's about career branding and making trucking a brand as a career so that we can get this workforce and providing those resources so that they can get these young people connected. So where do you all see and this is specifically for you, Ron, in terms of EV technology and hydrogen fuel cells? I mean, one attractive thing for young people is technology. They also care about the environment, so they want to know that the company they work for, the industry, is socially responsible. What do you see as the future of technology with trucks? 


Ron Scholler -
Obviously, electric vehicles is a big thing. So we saw the compressed natural gas wave, kind of seemed like it was going to really take hold, and then it kind of didn't. But it's still there, believe it or not. We're doing upfits on Ups trucks, and Dave sees them on Route 61 out there, hundreds of them, for compressed natural gas. So that's still a part of it, but where everyone else is kind of putting their eyes is the electric vehicle revolution, if you will, in the trucking industry. They're there. And in typical cadence with life, the heavy duty market is about five years behind the light duty passenger car market. So we've seen the passenger cars have success. 


Ron Scholler -
These electric vehicles, no matter what brand it is, and there's so many of them, but they're out there, they're working, and they're actually having success in that. And then we look at the heavy duty market and how can we do this? And companies like Volvo have had electric vehicles and commercial vehicles in Europe for almost ten years now. When you think of their buses, mac deployed two LRES refuse trucks to New York City Department of Sanitation, and those trucks were Trans Edge, our modification center downtown. Again, so you talk about these technician positions. Right? We had technicians that were literally hand building those first two LRES. So the electric vehicles are there. And a lot of the concern is that can it do the job that a diesel truck does? And the answer to that is two parts. It's yes and no. 


Ron Scholler -
We're not at the stage where we're going to have over the road, battery powered commercial vehicles. The ranges just aren't there yet. But if you consider an EPA report, which was just released 2021, ten point 27 billion tons of freight was moved 250 miles or less. So of all the tonnage that was moved in 2021, 87% of it was moved 250 miles or less. 


Lindsey Trent -
Wow. 


Ron Scholler -
So if we look at that, even if you cut that number in half, which it's a pretty accurate number, because they collected that data, and it took them two years to establish that the electric vehicles that are available today are more than capable of handling a large percentage of what we do. So when you think of technology and you think of that younger person, and if you've ever had a chance to drive one of these electric trucks, do it. It is the most unique experience. They're so quiet. The operating environment is not anything like a commercial truck operating environment. It's quiet, it's comfortable. The power is instant. And again, I'm okay with saying we need to do a better job with our environment as a whole and the climate and the future Earth that we give to our children. 


Ron Scholler -
I did a presentation last year for the Volvo Vnre, and literally my last slide was grown up handing Earth to little tiny child hands. And I said, a better tomorrow starts today. So if we don't do our due diligence in progressing the electric vehicle market, it's a shame, because it is better as a whole, and it does reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. There's no doubt about it. Yes. Do we still use fossil fuels to produce a decent amount of our energy? Certainly. We also use a lot of renewable sources that we've never used it 30 years ago. So your kilowatt miles versus your miles per gallon of diesel burned. When you juxtapose those two things against each other, the technology today clearly does it more efficiently and uses less fossil fuels and produces less carbon emissions than anything we've ever seen before. 


Ron Scholler -
So the technology is exciting and it's neat and it's different and it changes things for the owner of the company, the management of the company, the fleet manager, the dispatcher, the driver, the technicians. It's changing, but it's not taking things away. We're a long ways away from an autonomous commercial vehicle, which in and of itself will create more jobs, parallel jobs in terms of the technicians it takes to service those sort of things. So when you think about this electric vehicle technology and what it is in the commercial industry, it's there that should be hugely attractive for younger people, whether they want to become involved from a technician standpoint, an operator standpoint, or even progress to a company owner standpoint of what you can do with these vehicles and how you can do it efficiently. 


Lindsey Trent -
Absolutely. What is your thoughts on hydrogen fuel cells and where that's going to be? 


Ron Scholler -
So I think that's going to be where we move the electric vehicles from the ranges they have now. So like a Volvo Vnres out to like 275, maybe stretch that a little more 275 miles. Mac just released a medium duty electric truck about 230 miles range. And that's a medium duty class six, class seven. We want to be able to push those ranges out as far as we can and we don't want to just keep adding weight and batteries if you want to extend the range of that truck. I think what we're going to see is a hybrid version of the current electric vehicle. So the Act Expo in 2023 was in Anaheim, California this year. I didn't go, but obviously I followed it very closely. 


Ron Scholler -
And one of the things that they had there was announcement, a joint venture between Volvo and Demler, which are two competing interests in the heavy duty truck market. But their joint venture was to produce hydrogen fuel cells. So if you think like of an electric vehicle, so you have a battery and you stores kilowatts and that propels you down the road by way of electric motors. And then a fuel cell uses hydrogen to produce electricity. So then you'd have that battery set up and then you'd also have the hydrogen fuel cell set up. I think what you're going to see is you're going to see those ranges get pushed out to well over 500 miles with the evolution of hydrogen fuel cell, when they can figure out how to make that into a hybrid truck. 


Ron Scholler -
We're going to go way farther than we're going right now. 


Lindsey Trent -
Well, it's exciting to see and it's going to be exciting to see where we go as an we. 


Ron Scholler -
Again, those first two LRES, which is a cab over refuse truck went to New York, and believe it or not, they're coming back now, and they're going to get, I believe, ten more. And those first generation LRES, my understanding is that they're going to be in the Mac Museum. 


Dave Brannan -
Really? 


Ron Scholler -
So if you don't think technology is moving fast oh, wow. Think about it for a second. Like, oh, my, the an electric truck is already in a museum. It's so, like so we had seven Vnres that came through our dealership and went to our neighbor Ryder, and they're employing them there. City of Pittsburgh has several battle motors, electric cab over refuse trucks. Pitt, Ohio, took some battery electric trucks from us. The Volvo Vnre straight truck, a four x two configuration, single steering axle, a single drive axle. They took those trucks trans edges. We're the tip of the spear in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and beyond. We were the first dealership to have an electric vehicle expo, which we did last year wow. And had all the major manufacturers that we support there mac, Volvo, Hino, and Battle. 


Ron Scholler -
And then I believe were the first dealership. That was a certified electric vehicle dealership, which requires two certified technicians. The facility has to have the charging infrastructure and a charge point, and then you have to have a salesperson that's a certified expert in battery electric vehicles. I fulfilled the role for both Volvo and Mac certification on the sales end of it. So now we have that certification that covers those two major brands for electric vehicles and our technicians. And the reason there's two technicians is because one technician does what's called a commissioning or a decommissioning, and then the other technician would actually perform the work because the amount of energy we're talking about, it's significant. So we already have those technicians. 


Ron Scholler -
They're already performing maintenance and repairs as needed on these electric know, in terms know electric trucks, it's not taking over what we do, but it's a big part of know. Dave and I were just down in DC not too long ago for a Department of Energy event, clean cities. You know, I was in Philadelphia before that. Next week, I'll be in Roanoke at the Mac medium duty plant, where I'll be getting my expert certification for the medium duty truck. So in terms of transedge and what we do know, yes, we do a monstrous amount of diesel truck business and sales parts and service, but at the same time, a very progressive, a very eyes on the future type of dealership with respect to the new technologies that are coming out. 


Ron Scholler -
For me, it's exciting having grown up around diesel trucks to see where it's at now and to think like, okay, wow. We we need to put signs in our parking lot now that say, be aware. Electric trucks in use. No noise because you can't hear them. They're that quiet. So yeah. To be a part of an organization that does what we do, it's really you know and I know, Dave, you pay attention to the greenhouse gas rules that are going into effect, and the EPA, if you're ever having trouble sleeping. Read. Combined Federal regulation 40 kind of, like, gives the EPA the authority that they have, and it's established, and it's pretty much impenetrable. They've targeted 2027 model year, which for us in the industry is 2026 actual year as kind of like a soft start. 


Ron Scholler -
But by 2028, you're going to see that phase three take effect in terms of further reducing our emissions. So that's 2028. And then at the end of that five year life cycle, we're looking at 2032 into 20. Well, which would be model year 2033. So we're looking at that five to ten year window. Now, where I believe in five years you're going to see double digit percentages of the heavy duty truck market be battery, electric. And I think that 50% goal that a lot of them have for 2030, they're going to adjust that, but they're going to see that in 2033, I think you're going to see 50% of heavy duty trucks be some sort of alternative fuel battery electric or battery electric hydrogen hybrid. 


Lindsey Trent -
Well, I just got back from IFTA, the International Food Distributors Association, their annual convention, and all of the vehicles there on the showroom floor were electricals. They had sprinter vans, they had box trucks, they even had trailers with a utility trailer with a carrier reefer unit. And it's electric. It was a hybrid, but it was electric. Lots of exciting technology coming down the. 


Dave Brannan -
Pipe, not only in the electric, were down in DC. You got polyfuels coming. So you talk about another job growth in the industry. So there's other fuel by, of course, biodiesel, renewable diesel, polyfuels, low carbon tires or zero carbon tires, sunflower plant tire, I mean, just was endless. Not only is it only on electric how the vehicle is propelled, everybody's just attacking it from every possible part of the truck because they realize you're not going to be able to produce electric and other alternative fuel driven trucks, obviously as fast. So realizing there's also fuel technology to help with the greenhouse and the ESG concerns and everything around the world. But that's what I took out of that. 


Dave Brannan -
I had no idea that I thought everybody was just working on just moving the truck from electric or hydrogen or whatever, but they're looking at every part. 


Ron Scholler -
Of that vehicle, sure, and the infrastructure that supports it. It's a massive effort. But if you look at the numbers, if you look at that EPA report where ten point 27 billion tons of freight is moved less than 250 miles. So if you look at from a freight perspective, the Volvo Vnre already has a range of 275 miles, which would be 25 miles above what that average is for that 10 billion tons. We're already ready. We're prepared. Now, the products are available now to begin to cut into that 250 miles or less. The food distributors, those are all day cab trucks. 


Dave Brannan -
Yeah, good point. 


Ron Scholler -
They're not sleepers, wegmans or Giant or Weiss. And those are the companies we have here in Pennsylvania. Look at the trucks. Know again, we all put gasoline in our car. Unless you're operating an electric vehicle, those gas trucks, those tankers, they're all pulled by daycabs. How crazy would it be to see a battery electric truck pull a fuel tanker into a gas station? Right? It's like the war of two worlds there, right. So as we see the infrastructure improve and it has to and it will, it has no choice but to keep up with where we want to go. So the aggressive number of 2030, 50%, I think you're going to see that pushed back maybe two or three years. 


Ron Scholler -
So that ten years that we're looking at right now, because phase three, the public discussion for phase three on the greenhouse gas emissions that goes into effect in 2027 model year, there was five letters that were submitted to the EPA just to extend the public discussion, the public comments, part of that. All five of those requests for the extension were denied by the EPA. But the EPA gave out great reasons of why there's no need to extend it. So I don't think you'll see it be pushed past 2030. But realistically, we have ten years to do this, and we all know ten years is going to go by in a Blip. One of the reasons I'm so aggressive with it, because first of all, it's knowledge. And knowledge isn't going to hurt me any. But the products are there. 


Ron Scholler -
Again, we're right in that big range where we need to be mileage wise on our kilowatts. And again, the vehicles themselves come with contracts that's built right into the vehicle, where you're not responsible for anything except for rubber and glass. So you replace the tires, you damage the glass, you do that. Other than that, your scheduled maintenance, any repairs that need to be done. The huge concern of, well, these batteries, how much are these batteries? I bought a battery for my range finder that I use at Golf. It was like $8. What does that thing cost in a truck? And they are expensive, but it's not a concern for the owner for at least the term that they finance the truck five or six years because it is 100% covered. So it's possible, and it's going to happen. 


Ron Scholler -
You don't have companies like Volvo and Demler partnering with each other because they think this is technology that will fail. It's going to happen. 


Lindsey Trent -
Well, I think that the next generation of trucking. I mean, we're focused on that next generation workforce. And what's going to attract that next generation of workforce is those next generation of trucks and technology. And it's great to see a lot of progress being made out there. Well, thank you for being on the show today, and thank you for your continued partnership. 


Dave Brannan -
No. 


Lindsey Trent -
And we are excited just to continue to reach young people and to continue to attract them and do whatever we can do to attract them. So thanks for all you do to do that. 


Ron Scholler -
Yeah. 


Dave Brannan -
And Ron, if you can hear me, thank you. And Lindsay, thank you for all the hard work that you and your organization put into this industry.