Next Gen Trucking Talk with Lindsey Trent
The Next Gen Trucking Association is a membership-based advocacy group solely dedicated to advancing the trucking industry as a career choice for the next generation through nationwide education and awareness initiatives. As a leading national nonprofit trade association, Next Gen Trucking Association (NGT) inspires, educates, and provides resources for young people and schools and promotes opportunities within the trucking industry. This podcast is all about steering the next generation towards careers in trucking. Who is doing it, how, and best practices. For more information contact Lindsey Trent at info@nextgentrucking.org.
Next Gen Trucking Talk with Lindsey Trent
How Classic Carriers creates partnerships with local high schools and FFA programs.
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode, Lindsey talks with Luke Subler from Classic Carriers.
They discuss the company's operations, partnerships with high schools and FFA programs, training programs for technicians, and community outreach initiatives. Key action items included establishing partnerships with local schools, conducting educational workshops for educators, and expanding community outreach programs.
https://classiccarriers.com/
#trucking #supplychain #thankatrucker #ffa #dieseltech #cdl
THANK YOU to our Sponsors
Ben E. Keith Company - https://www.benekeith.com/
Christenson Transportation - https://www.christensontrans.com/
GeoTab - https://www.geotab.com/
Clean Harbors - https://www.cleanharbors.com/
Digital Management Team - https://digitalmanagementteam.com/
Driver's Legal Plan - https://www.driverslegalplan.com/
Fastenal - https://www.fastenal.com/
Old Dominion Freight Line - https://www.odfl.com/
Ryder Systems - https://www.ryder.com/en-us
SambaSafety - https://sambasafety.com/
Long Haul Trucking - https://www.longhaultrucking.com/
Trivista Companies - https://www.trivistacompanies.com/about.htm
Roehl - https://www.roehl.jobs/
J&M Tank Lines - https://jmtank.com/
The Next Generation in Trucking Association is a non-profit trade association who is engaging and training the next generation of trucking industry professionals by partnering with high schools, community/technical colleges and private schools to connect to and launch training programs around North America.
Visit our website: www.nextgentruckers.org
Contact us at: info@nextgentruckers.org
Follow us on socials here:
Facebook
Instagram
Youtube
LinkedIn
TikTok
Welcome, trucking enthusiasts, to another exciting episode of NextGen Talks. I'm thrilled to be your host, Lindsey Trent here as we delve into the world of all things NextGen when it comes to trucking. Whether you're a seasoned professional behind the wheel, an educator, technician, executive, or someone who's just passionate about shaping the future of the industry, you're in for a treat. Before we hit the road on today's discussion, I want to express our sincere gratitude to our sponsors. Without their support, this podcast wouldn't be possible. So a big shout out and thank you to our partner members. Benny Key Foods Christensen, Geotab Clean Harbors digital management team, driver's legal plan, fastenal, old Dominion rider, samba safety, long haul trucking, Trivista, Roehl, and J and M tank lines. Thank you for helping us advance the community. And so buckle up and get ready for an inspiring, insightful journey as we delve into all things next gen trucking. Your road to the future. Hey, this is Lindsey Trent with NextGen talks. And today I'm excited to have my guest, Luke subler from classic carriers. Luke, welcome to the show.
Good afternoon, Lindsey. Thank you for having me.
So Luke and I met at the TCA, the Truckload Carriers association annual convention, and we shared the stage and talked about young leaders in the industry. And it got me really excited because classic carriers, they are located in Versailles, Ohio, and they're doing some really great things in building up their workforce. So we wanted to bring Luke on today to discuss how other companies and carriers in their area could build up their workforce by working with high schools. So, Luke, why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background, and the company that you work for.
Well, you know, again, I started, my dad started classic carriers back in 1985. So I'm the third generation on both sides of my family in the trucking industry. So I was really didn't have much of a choice in the gene pool there. You know, we always kind of laugh about it, but it's, you know, I always felt that I was just destined to be in trucking, and it's an industry I've grown up in I truly love. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of headache, too. But, you know, typically, you know, the rewards outweigh the, you know, the bad things. But all in all, you know, this is an industry that has provided for my family for a long time.
You know, this is actually 90 years that my family's been in the industry, and we cherish that history, and we want to continue to see it grow. I'm hoping that one of these days, one of my kids will continue on to the fourth generation. And, you know, but part of that is I've got a long way to get there. My youngest are four and six years old, so I got a long ways to go before I get one of them ready. But, you know, in the meantime, you know, part of what we're talking about is getting the next generation ready as far as our young, you know, young kids, especially high schoolers and, you know, recent graduates coming out and getting them ready for the workforce.
And there's too many times I feel that we, as an industry, you know, that back during COVID you know, trucking was, oh, my gosh, everybody just loved us. You know, thank the trucker, thank a trucker. And years prior to that, weren't that way. So our. And shortly after Covid, we've kind of lost that luster to an extent. So our industry kind of gets a bad rap. And there's a reason for that. It's every night you sit down and watch tv or, you know, you drive down the interstate, you see a billboard where you're hurt by a truck, or, you know, did this happen with the truck? Did that happen with the truck?
And that just adds to the kind of the biased against the trucking industry that it's just not really a sexy industry. But that is such a, you know, such a lie in the fact that this is an interesting industry. They can provide great paying jobs for a plethora of positions. And I don't care if it's office staff, mechanics, trucker, you know, trucking warehouseman, you name it. There's, you know, all kinds of opportunities within our industry that don't necessarily require a college degree to come in and be very successful with.
That's right. And tell us a little bit about what your company does, because you don't just do trucking. You have warehousing and. Correct.
Yes. You know, we are mainly a refrigerated transportation company. We operate about 200 reefers, 125 power units. We also have, oh, gosh, probably about 40 drive ins that we run dedicated for some different customers. And then we've worked out into refrigerated and dry warehousing. We got into the dry warehousing probably in, I want to say, about 97, 98. Dabbled with that. And back in 2017, we opened up our first refrigerated and frozen warehouse we've since then quadrupled the size of that. It's located down just south of us here in Greenville, Ohio. And, you know, it's been a nice addition to what we already did. And, you know, we always kind of looked at it that, you know, we should do refrigerated warehousing. You know, a lot of people get into it, but they don't know what they're doing.
And, you know, with the years of experience that we've had in the refrigerated sector, it's like, why not us? Why shouldn't we do this? And since we've done that, it's been a really nice addition to our fleet, you know, as well as our customer base. It's kind of a, you know, one call does it all. If you need anything, whether it be across dock. Hey, can you store this for a couple weeks? You know, can you help feed the plant? Can you do this? Can you do that? We can do it all, you know, to a lot of our local customers and some of them, actually. So it's been a really good addition. We also run a logistics division, you know, with our brokerage, which, again, has been an excellent addition to what we've done.
You know, our shop that we run out here, we have approximately nine technicians on hand right now, and we do mainly our own repair, our own equipment, but we do a lot of outside. I mean, I'd say about 20% of our business on that end is outside work that we do for local carriers. And you get some just kind of fly by night pull in. Hey, I broke down across the street. Can you help me out? You know, we're happy to do so. And, you know, just whatever we can do to fill in to keep everybody busy. But, you know, for the most part, that's kind of what, who we are and what we do. And, you know, again, we're very,
But, you know, the other segments are quickly catching up to the trucking side, so it's time to crack the whip and get the trucks going, so.
That's right. And so you have started working with your local high school, and tell us a little bit about the program that you developed with them. And maybe you mentioned, is it through your FFA division in the high school?
Correct. You know, about. Gosh, I'm trying to think back. We've always worked with our local high schools, and I'm going back probably ten to twelve years. We've done that. And we've looked back at the local high schools and especially with our career tech, you know, career technology centers and different places, especially with the, with our mechanics is where we really started and said, okay, I need, you know, a young kid that's local. You know, actually our head mechanic was a graduate of one of the career technology center. And, you know, he's got a great relationship with those people, with the teachers. And he'll go to him, he was going to him every now and again saying, hey, you know, you got a couple good kids.
Maybe let me interview a couple of, I need one, maybe two for the summer, you know, if we can get them half days, whatever, throughout the school year. Let's work something out. And Wes has done an excellent job of that and again through the last good ten years and, you know, that's over half of our staff now in the shop is our technicians are all, we brought them out of high school, I shouldn't say all, but again, over half have come out of high school and came directly to work for us. We've offered to send these guys to additional schooling and everything else. Most have just said, you know what? No, I'm happy and I'm learning more here, day by day than what I feel that I'm going to learn sitting in a classroom doing this and it's hands on training.
And for me, the way I've always learned is, you know, number one, trial by fire. But, you know, it's me, I'm a hands on type person and so I can appreciate that. And I think most technicians really are hands on. It's hard to read a textbook and say, okay, this is how I rebuild this or this is how I do that. You know, you learn at a time or two, you. And it may not be the same each, you know, in every component, but you learn a few different things here and they all apply to each other and our techs are great, you know, I mean, this year we just had one graduate here and that actually is coming up this weekend.
And, you know, he's been working with us since about four years now, family friend, and said, hey, can, I'm kind of interested in diesel. And so he came into that. And so again, he's been here with us about four years now, getting ready to graduate and come on full time. But the beauty of it is, as we've done this over the last ten years, our local FFA has, they basically decided in our community, again, very small community, very agricultural community. And, you know, there's a lot of good, you know, young, good, well mannered, hardworking kids that really want to go out and do something, and they know that college is not their choice. You know, a four year degree, even a two year degree to a lot of them is not something that they really want to pursue.
So what they've done is our FFA program has come up with what they call the Capstone program, and Capstone allows juniors and seniors that are members of the FFA to come in and basically work for. I'm trying to think on their junior year, they can start anywhere from about one to 02:00 in the afternoon. But again, that all depends on their GPA. And that's the thing I love about the program, is that grades first, work second. And, you know, they have to get through school, you know, and it's kind of funny that, you know, you've got the older mechanics out here sitting there going, what do you mean you did bad on that math test, you know, what do you mean you're doing bad in English. You know, you, all of a sudden, you're hurting.
You're making me work harder because I don't have the help because you can't show up earlier. So you got a lot of dads, you know, for one kid, it's a neat thing, you know, and we really embraced it. And so, again, the better the GPA, the more hours that are allowed to work, that also increases from their junior to senior year. Again, as long as the GPA is there. And, you know, that's very important to us and is to make sure these kids get through the quality education, you know, and. But can still come out with, you know, the skills to basically dive right into being a full time technician.
That's incredible. Have you all built a program, a training program? Like, what does their everyday look like and how do they grow as a technician while they come to work for you?
Well, there's one thing I've learned in the trucking industry is that no days, no two days are the same, right? So it's. It's very hard to just say, okay, here's our program, you know, and here's how we're going to train you. You know, most of the time, you know, these kids are coming in, they're, you know, pretty green. You know, some of them have been working on a farm. You know, they've been wrenching with dad a little bit. They've got a pretty good idea. But, you know, all of a sudden, I tell them, okay, it's time to do a wheel seal, and for the first time they go, you know, so one of our, basically, they shadow one of our experienced technicians for, you know, quite a while.
And it all depends on that said technician, you know, or the trainee, you know, because you get one that comes in and they do it once and it's ingrained in their brain, they're ready to go unless something comes awry and they go, what's happening here? They can just do it the next may take two or three times, you know, so it's, you kind of develop it perfectly, trainee, to get them into the industry again. It's worked well for us, but, you know, there's no AlA carte program that just says, okay, I'm going to teach you this and you're going to know it, and it's done again. We work with each and every individual a little bit differently.
So if a carrier, somebody that does your job in a different city, is listening to this, and they say, I am really interested in trying to get this set up in my local school, or what. What's the first step? Like what, how do they start working with their local school?
Well, you know, again, we're blessed to have the FFA program that we do in the FFA leadership. You know, our FFA program, I believe last year was number one in the nation.
You know, a little Ohio or just your district?
No, number one in the nation for.
Versailles is for FFA.
Yes, they were recognized as number one FFA chapter in the nation.
So very proud of them. Amazing.
Yeah. So, you know, and again, that's a lot of our leadership. You know, Deena Weptger is our FFA director, and she actually just won the state Golden Owl award, which is the highest honors you can get for the FFA in the state. So very well earned for her. So we worked very closely with Dina through the years. And, you know, I look back when I was in FFA and junior high and a little bit of high school, Dina was the FFA director there. So she's literally put a lifetime of work into this. It's really starting to show everything that she's done. And there's, I'm trying to think the number of businesses, it's over 20 businesses within our community that are taking advantage of this program to get these young kids out and start teaching them some sort of trade.
And whether it being a beast technician, whether it be a welding career, h vac, you name it, there's all kind of things, and it doesn't even have to be transportation or manufacturing. We've got kids that are working up processing meats and doing different things. It's something they wanted to do. You know, school isn't for them. They know. They know they're not, or they have no desire to go on to the next level and on their education. So why not start earning some money now and again, come in to basically hit the ground running, you know, when they graduate at 18 years old and they've got a solid career path.
Mm . Yeah. So it sounds like call the school, see if there's an FFA program or if there's a program that you could call the school and help create to bring on some students that might want to start learning to be a mechanic.
Well, every district's going to be a little bit different. And that's the one thing that, again, we're blessed that our FFA program was so willing to come out and just say, hey, we're going to take the ball. You guys want to help with it? And, you know, absolutely. What can we do to help? And, and, you know, we've done anything and everything we can for our local program as well as other local programs that, you know, it's not just for sales. We've got a couple different districts within the county that have sent students to us, you know, to either job shadow to, you know, come in. We do career days here. We do all kind of different things, you know, just to promote the trucking industry and promote the industry, which, you know, has made, again, my family living for three generations.
And I, you know, one of the other things we also do is teach the teachers. We actually host a workshop where there's, I would say, anywhere from 20 to 30 teachers that come in. We do about a two and a half hour program for them, teach them all the different things. You know, whether it be, you know, it's, you know, mechanics, you know, accounting, safety drivers, you know, warehousemen, all the different positions that we have available so that if a teacher sees a, you know, a student that, hey, I'm not, he's not destined for college, or she's not destined for college, hey, here's some opportunities are right here in your backyard that, you know, if you want to stay in this area, you don't have to travel. This is what's available.
And then again, it's teaching the teachers, and we've done that for, this will be our third year, I believe we've.
Done that so great.
But as far as the districts go and how you contact each one, you know, again, if you have an FFA program, reach out to, you know, a lot of them. Start with your, what I would say, honestly, is start with your guide, your high school guidance counselors, and say, okay, what do we have available to our kids that allow them to start co oping throughout high school? And most, I would say most every district has some sort of co op program that they have available. So if you can do that, you know, start there and then say, okay, is it ran through the guidance counselors? Is it ran through the FFA? Is it ran through, you know, the industrial tech classes or, you know, whatever it may be.
I mean, I think each one of them is going to be a little bit different. You know, I know Toledo local schools is one right now. They, they actually have a full blown driver training program for high school, which they started that about two years ago, which I think is great. And almost every student that's graduating out of there has a job somewhere in Toledo. You know, granted, most of them can't leave the state unless they're part of the new FMCSA program. But again, the more we can do that kind of thing to bring, you know, bring the next generation, the younger generation into our industry, the better off we're going to be. You know, we always laugh. We have somebody that walks in here and I'm like, and that's a kid.
And I laugh because they're probably late thirties, early forties, and you're like, well, I'm a kid. But if you think about it, in our industry, you know, the average age of your driver is mid to late fifties.
Right?
So that is a kid, you know, in this industry. And so it's. You kind of chuckle about it, but it's. It's also kind of a hard truth, you know, that we have to accept. And what are we going to do to change that? Because those guys aren't going to drive forever, and they're not going to be mechanics forever. They want to retire. They're going to hit a point where they've earned that right. So we have to do everything we can to start backfilling those positions.
That's right. And the thing I love about reaching them while they're in high school is that they can get these credentials and they're free, usually to the high school student. But also, when you're doing work based learning, you're paying them.
Correct? Right, correct.
It's on the job training. They're getting paid. It's better than working, you know, in a fast food establishment, they're actually getting a skill set that's going to take them into the future to be able to stay in their community and have a good job where they can be successful. What was it like? How did you get it set up with your insurance to be able to approve a 16 year old working for you?
You know, insurance is very touch and go on that. And you do you really have to watch a plethora of things, you know, with child labor laws and different things. I mean, there's a whole host of issues that you can run into. Thankfully, with the Capstone program that we're involved with, they handle a lot of that insurance burden, so there's really not a ton against us. So, you know, we look at that, say, okay, we can bring them in at a minimal liability and, you know, so that, and not that I expect anybody to get hurt on the job, but unfortunately, it's the nature of the beast in the business that we're in. You know, things are inevitably going to happen. You try to mitigate them as much as possible.
But the one thing I will say is that, you know, is we've started and we've grown this program. You know, the older mechanics who were once, you know, those young kids are starting to look at it and go, hey, you know, I about took my thumb off doing this. Don't do this. You know, make sure you're wearing those safety glasses and you have all these eyes looking at these kids and just keeping an eye on them. It's not like we're just throwing them out saying, hey, pull this transmission. No, you're going down or you're working with them. Hey, no, strap this down. Do this, do that. Do things right. Do them the right way because there's too many times you get in a hurry and, you know, as I used to wrench myself, it would do one of those things.
heck, you know, it's no big deal. And, you know, you came, you know, a quarter inch away from lobbing off a toe, a thumb or whatever, you know, and when those things happen to you try to teach that to the next generation and to make them again a safer place. And I personally feel that having the younger generation in here, that all of our older technicians have really kind of taken them under their wing to make sure they're doing things correctly, they're doing them safely. And, you know, not only for themselves, but, you know, when that truck rolls down the road that everything is done correctly, you know, because something's done wrong that could be detrimental. I mean, it could be horrible.
So, yeah, and it's set up so they come and work for you during the work, during their school week. And as it's a part of. Are they getting credit, high school credit, and are they working for you any other times, like Saturdays or over the summer?
Absolutely. They do get credit for the program, you know, so they're going to graduate, you know, with, you know, full honors as a high school graduate. And they're also, you know, we work Saturdays, a little bit of Sundays at times. You know, we get times, you know, something breaks down in the middle of the night and, hey, I need some help. And if they don't have school the next day, I get, kids will show up and they're willing to work, and it's good, you know, I mean, it's. They're very gung ho about it. They're willing to do it. You know, they don't have a family yet to start worrying about, typically.
Right.
So, you know, their schedules are pretty free and loose. So as long as they're not hanging out with their buddies, they're, hey, yeah, I'll come out and work. And they, you know, we do offer them full time employment through the summer. You know, here in Ohio, we kind of look at it that summertime is time to start catching up. And, yeah, things we're doing this, we're refurbing, you know, all the things that you've been closed up for, you know, six, seven months that just the weather hadn't been right, and all of a sudden it's nice. It's time to get, you know, spring cleanup and, you know, so we get those type of things done and, you know, I laugh. They may be sweeping the floor. The. Yesterday, we literally had two of them out playing grass. And they enjoyed it.
You know, it was a day outside. They were having fun and hotter than heck, but, you know, they still enjoyed it. They're out running equipment, you know, doing different things and just getting them involved in whatever we can, you know, that's what I enjoy. You know, our shop is kind of our do all just, you look at them say, hey, the door's broke here in the bathroom, and I got three guys over there working on the door, and ten minutes later it's done, you know. Yeah, but it's. Again, it's teaching them anything and everything there is, you know, again, our, we don't really have a maintenance guy for our facilities. It's typically, you know, our mechanics go out and work.
They may be working on our refrigeration units and on our warehouses and things like that, you know, because our refrigeration units on our trailers, a lot of that transpires over into what we do on our refrigeration units, our warehouse. So, absolutely a lot of cross training.
That's great. So they come and work for you. They're learning engine repair and trailer repair and refrigerated. And, I mean, they're going to get so much experience. And. Are you seeing that you're hiring these young people to work full time for you?
Yes. I'm gonna. Gosh, I gotta think here. Since we've started the program, five of the nine that are in our shop right now are all full time that have come through this program. Well, four of the nine, one of which, actually, his last day of school is Monday, so he started. Well, started full time yesterday, so.
All right.
Yeah. So we're really excited. And, you know, again, great kids.
You know, not just any kid. This is a kid. This is what they want to do, right? Yeah, exactly. That's right.
You know, it's not something that's being shoved down their throat. They. They've had two years to say, this is what I want to do. And now that they're coming on full time, it's okay. How am I going to grow? You know? And we offer a lot of training, you know, whether it be with. With Daimler, with Paccar, thermocaine carrier, utility, you know, whoever, any of the manufacturers, if there's any additional training, you know, especially with the trucks and the diagnostics and things like that, we're throwing the kids in there. They're. They're under. You know, they're in the same class as my 50 year old technician. You know, they're learning the same exact stuff.
And half the time, it's kind of funny, you know, I'll get an older guy that's out there and he's cussing the computer, and I get one of the younger guys that walks up and goes, just hit this. And he hits a button. Oh, you know, and it's fixed. It's in. The beauty of it is that our younger generation is so much more tech savvy than, you know, another, you know, again, a 40 to 60 year old person out there working on something. Computers weren't that big of a thing, you know. I mean, when they started out and coming through high school and college, you know, if. Even if they did college. So, you know, these, in everything we touch now, I. You can hardly fix a truck without a computer.
You can't fix a trailer half the time and clear a code without having a computer hooked to it. So the things that, you know, may stump some of the older generation. This younger generation is coming in and they're picking up on it like that. They're just going. And I, again, they kind of help the older generation at times. It might stump them for a while.
Yeah, that's incredible. Tell me, you guys, at classic carriers, do you do any other things to outreach events in your community to promote the trucking industry?
Oh, yeah, you know, we do. We do quite a bit. You know, we're very. Again, I'll probably say it 100 times during this. We're very blessed to live in a community that we do in the area that we do. And, you know, these communities around here, and especially the sales community, it gives back. And that's something that we kind of hang our hat on. You know, as I was saying, we try and help out with the FFA as much as possible because they try and help us out, get the best of technicians that we can get. You know, we haul fruit form, you know, for their fruit sales. We bring it out of Florida form for nothing, you know. You know, recently we donated to. We've been donating for a number of years to reach across America.
We just started that this past year here in Versailles. And this actually is this coming year. Well, this December will be our second full year doing it, and we've actually expanded about 25%. And we just basically keep adding a cemetery. And each one of them is 100% paid for by the community with donations and everything else. So, you know, we do a lot of that local festivals, you know, we go out and donate our time to those. You know, I sent out an email yesterday. I needed nine people to help run a food serving line for one of our festival here in town, and I've already got 18 volunteers. It's great, you know, and it's a great way to get our, you know, the employees together kind off the clock and just relaxed, having fun. You're working, but it's for a good cause.
One of the other things that we've started doing in the past couple years has been touch a truck with our local daycare. And when you get a lot of probably four to four and five year old kids hanging around a truck, they absolutely love it. You know, my wife and I started it, and it's probably one of our favorite days of the year, you know.
So what do you.
You go to the daycare or what?
Yeah, you know, my. My daughter was in the daycare last year. And so they were talking about, hey, would you like to come in and read? And they called it mystery reader day. So my wife and I signed up. So we got to talking about it, and the book we had chosen, which I'm trying to think, it was mailed to us, and it was titled, with any luck, I'll drive a truck. And I looked at my wife and I said, this is perfect. So I went to the director of the daycare and said, hey, we're going to read this. Would you mind if her class and maybe another class that they want to join, and I'll bring a brand new truck out and I'll let the kids climb around it, do this.
And they thought, oh, my gosh, this would be the greatest thing ever. And so that was the start of it. And so this year, they reached out and said, hey, would you read again? Absolutely. I said, you're bringing a truck, right? You want me to. Yes. They said, well, do you think we can get more than a truck? And said, sure, I think we can do that. With their help. And reaching out to a couple different people I knew, we had a giant four wheel drive tractor. We had an excavator. We had a skid loader. We had dump trucks. We had one of our semis there.
Wow.
Gosh, I'm trying to think. We had six different pieces of equipment all sitting there. And so the kids, I mean, they took, like half the classes, the older classes, and just let them run through. You know, it's, again, it's something neat to, you know, you got to teach the kids, you know, that, you know, the air horn sign and, of course, that's their favorite part. You know, you kind of go tone deaf after about the first 15 minutes, you know, just having them climb up in the top bunk of the truck and sitting behind the wheel, they just think it's the biggest thing in the world. And again, it's, as I go back, you know, kind of that message that, you know, we have to improve what we, you know, improve our image as an industry.
And things like that, I think, resonate, you know, within the industry as well as outside the industry and just people's mindsets of what it is. And I believe I mentioned, you know, we did, we do the teachers presentation every year, and, you know, we train, you know, train them in the jobs we have available here. And part of what we do is we put them in a semi. You know, we make sure every one of them is in a semi. And we kind of do the no zone. And to teach them that, you know, hop in this truck, look out of the mirrors and tell me which cars you can see, you know, and we put them in all the blind spots.
And, you know, when you have teachers anywhere from, you know, mid twenties to 60, they're in there going, I never knew. And, you know, so those are the type of things, again that we try and do, you know, to get the community involvement and, you know, just try and educate our community as best possible. Not only, you know, what to do around a truck, but how to be safe, you know. And if we, if by doing that for ten years we save one life, it's well worth it, right?
Absolutely. And the image that you're positively conveying out there is, you know, it's community driven. You're supporting your, the people in your community and just educating them about the industry and about potential and jobs and just sounds like a lot of goodwill that you guys at classic carriers are doing, you've done in the past. And you'll, you're continuing to move forward and really invest in the people. And it sounds like you have a great culture at your company and it would be a good place for anybody to want to work. And I'm sure that those young people that are working for you are telling their friends and you guys are a place that people want to come and work for.
Well, it's actually kind of interesting that, you know, every year we'll kind of get, you know, let's just say half dozen, you know, applications of, you know, possible students that want to come aboard. And, you know, it's kind of a tough choice, you know, because a lot of times there's pretty good applications and, yeah, you know, but it's funny, we'll actually walk out the recent graduates and say, all right, which one of them do you know? And they'll be like, oh, not this one. He's trouble her. You know, she does this, you know, they, and that's a pride thing for them. You know, they're like, hey, I'm happy what I've got. I don't want to see this go away for anybody else. I want the best of the best working with me.
And I think that speaks leaps and pounds about how much these kids care about what they're doing and the opportunities that are presented.
Well, thank you for investing in the next generation and in your workforce and for all you all do to invest in your community and just to make it a better place. And I really think trucking. We're so, we have so many family owned organizations that really want to see their community thrive. And you all, and for sales are obviously one of the standout companies in Ohio that's really just investing in your community. So congrats and all of the successes that you're having and you will continue to have. And it's been a pleasure knowing you for the last four months, and hopefully we'll just continue to get to shine the light of all the good things you're doing. So thank you. And we just want to appreciate our sponsors.
Thank you to advanced training systems and performance Food Group, who sponsor our podcast and sponsor our organization to help us to be able to do what we get to do on a day to day basis, which is to promote as a positive career field and work with schools to help them start programs in mechanics and supply chain and logistics and driving. So if you would like more information about Nextgen, please visit our website, nextgentrucking.org and follow our podcast on all of the podcast streaming applications. And thanks for being here today.