Auto Care ON AIR
"Auto Care ON AIR" is a candid podcast dedicated to exploring the most relevant topics within the auto care industry. Each episode features insightful discussions with leading experts and prominent industry figures. Our content is thoughtfully divided into four distinct shows to cover four different categories of topics, ensuring collective professional growth and a comprehensive understanding of the auto care industry.
The Driver's Seat: Navigating Business and the Journey of Leadership
To understand organizations, you need to understand their operators. Join Behzad Rassuli, as he sits down for in-depth, one-on-one conversations with leaders that are shaping the future. This show is a "must listen" for how top executives navigate growth, success, and setbacks that come with the terrain of business.
Carpool Conversations: Collaborative Reflections on the Road to Success
Hosted by Jacki Lutz, this series invites a vibrant and strategic mix of guests to debate and discuss the power skills that define success today. Each episode is an entertaining, multi-voice view of a professional development topic and a platform for our members to learn about our industry's most promising professionals.
Indicators: Discussing Data that Drives Business
This show explores data relevant to the automotive aftermarket. Join Mike Chung as he engages with thought leaders in identifying data that will help you monitor and forecast industry performance. Whether global economic data, industry indicators, or new data sources, listen in as we push the envelope in identifying and shaping the metrics that matter.
Traction Control: Reacting with Precision to the Road Ahead
Every single day, events happen, technologies are introduced, and the base assumptions to our best laid plans can change. Join Stacey Miller for a show focused on recent news from the global to the local level and what it may mean for auto care industry businesses. Get hot takes on current events, stay in the know with timely discussions and hear from guests on the frontlines of these developments.
Auto Care ON AIR
HDAW Special: Open Mic Sessions (Part 2)
Part 2 of 2, Traction Control host, Stacey Miller, interviews heavy duty industry experts at Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week about the latest trends and hot topics in the industry!
1:13 Dominic and John Grote, Grote Industries
19:34 Laura Hewitt, HDA Truck Pride
35:40 Bill Betts, Betts Company
53:02 Sam Russo, Pivotree
1:12:44 Tom Tecklenburg
To learn more about the Auto Care Association visit autocare.org.
To learn more about our show and suggest future topics and guests, visit autocare.org/podcast
Welcome to Auto Care On Air, a candid podcast for a curious industry. I'm Stacey Miller, vice President of Communications at the Auto Care Association, and this is Traction Control, where we chat about recent news from the global to the local level and what it may mean to the industry, featuring guests on the front lines. Let's roll. Welcome back to another episode of Traction Control. This is part two of our heavy duty special coverage from HDAW, that's Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week in Dallas. I got the chance to speak with some industry titans. To be honest, I was a little intimidated, but I had a lot of fun learning about the industry, learning about some of the challenges and how these heavy duty aftermarket businesses are working together to ensure the future of our industry and the viability of what it is that we do. I hope you enjoy. Welcome back to another episode of Traction Control, auto Care On Air. I'm Stacey Miller and we're here live at HDAW with Dominic and John Grody. Welcome, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, it's good to be here.
Speaker 1:Amazing to have you here in the studio, two titans of the industry. I'm a little intimidated, to be honest, because this morning Dominic got the. He was a 2025 Hall of Fame inductee, so congratulations on that honor.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I was. It was an incredible honor. If you saw the list of names that were on the board behind me I've seen it before, so I couldn't see it today or this morning it's just an impressive list of people that have contributed a lot to the industry. Some of them were customers, some of them were colleagues, people that we worked with or looked up to when we started. So it's kind of hard to believe that you know I'm one of those guys now, so I've been around long enough to be one of those guys.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's pretty incredible. What an honor. And so, for those who aren't familiar with Grody I'm sure there are very few, but tell us a little bit about the business and your specialty.
Speaker 2:I'll give a little bit and I'll let John kind of put some color into it. So we're a fourth generation family owned manufacturing company focused on lighting and visibility safety systems. We're headquartered in Madison, indiana. One of our things has been innovation, so we've developed, introduced new products to market that were solving some big problems, lighting being one of them, was probably one of the most frequently replaced or failed part on a truck and trailer in the old days.
Speaker 2:It was a bulb, little light bulb, inside a plastic housing that was there for safety and visibility, but the bulbs were always burning out and our father, bill Grody, kind of came up with the idea of using LEDs, which are solid state semiconductors that emit a certain color of light, and it reduced a ton of failure in the industry, in our business. I mean, that was in 89. So we were doing a lot of things before that, but it was definitely a big innovation for us and for our company. Wow.
Speaker 4:The business is focused on really heavy-duty specialists, so we focus on vehicles where the owner is using the vehicle to make money, so uptime is critical. So everything we do really focuses on how do we make sure that whatever we're designing and putting on the vehicle can last in the most extreme dirty kind of rough environment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean uptime is I think it's the word of the industry Uptime is everything honestly right. You know I'm fairly new to the industry. I've only been in about seven years, so I'm still cutting my teeth on everything and learning everything. But um, how critical the heavy duty segment is to the aftermarket is is unreal when you boil it down and you talk about getting all the goods and the services to the places they need to be, on our highways and byways, right like right people underestimate heavy duty right, but we're a force.
Speaker 2:It's a great point because you know when you're on the automotive side, people are repairing their cars. They're using their cars for you know, to get to work, for get their kids to school, for vacations, whatever their mode or need for travel is in a heavy duty. It's B2B.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so you have to keep, you know, keep the equipment moving. You have to be able to uh uptime like we were saying. It's all about, uh, you know, money, safety, delivery and they rely. We either sell to an oem who puts our products on, or we're selling into the aftermarket for a business that's selling to a fleet, so they're all tied together with the um. You know, getting products to where you need them absolutely.
Speaker 1:It's an ecosystem was what our last guest said it's a really it's an ecosystem and everything relies on everything else, so it's very interconnected and you know it's.
Speaker 4:It's funny, I think as we talk about trends it seems especially heavy duty on the road trucking. You see the billboards about truck accidents and people are going. It has a spotlight on it and even in our little town police pull over trucks. They're looking for that vehicle that may have something that's out and lighting is almost like a. It's a flashing signal to a police officer.
Speaker 2:They call it a gateway.
Speaker 4:It's not working Gateway violation, easy for them to see. So then they go around and check everything. So our customers on the OE and the aftermarket, but fleets the big over the road carriers, they need something they can count on. And so that that trend has been you know, hey, we need somebody, we need something they can count on. And so that that trend has been you know, hey, we need somebody, we need something that we know will last when it leaves our yard and it's going to last the whole trip.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. So you mentioned the word trend and everybody's asking okay, what are the trends coming out of HDAW? What are the trends in heavy duty? You know we look at a lot of the stats and the market research on diesel prices and the shipments and stuff like that. But it seems to me there's a lot of technology coming out of this show and this industry that not a lot of people know about. So are there any technologies that are getting you kind of excited for the next couple of years in the industry?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were talking about it earlier. Our 4C product is a smart trailer system and we've developed a brains, almost like a telematics system, for the front of the trailer that can connect all the technology that's out there on a trailer. So tire pressure monitoring, door jar systems, reefer temperature monitoring, backup cameras and obstacle detection systems, special lighting systems, anything that you would want to have a sensor you know the internet of things. So you've got sensor technology. It's on a trailer, but there's a complete disconnect between the truck and the trailer. There's just that coil cord in between. This can take all the data that's being generated on the trailer and send it up via the cloud to a fleet's home base where they're able to look at the data and say, hey, I've got a truck with lights out. I need to do something about that now, before it gets pulled over.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 4:And I think part of the trends also. You see, a lot is moving towards making the roads safer and there's the value of human life and I think the goal is zero accident on the road and it's preventable. So the technology Dominic's talking about helps enable that, so that there's more awareness of things that a driver may or may not be able to see. So, as you get AI and computers involved autonomous driving, lane departure systems all those things are kind of the infrastructure that allows the vehicles to be safer every day.
Speaker 1:I love that. This is the first safety conversation we've had today with all the guests and this is actually really fascinating because obviously these are not small vehicles no. And these are not the only vehicles in the industry. Right, we're talking about construction vehicles, off-road vehicles, right, there's all these very large class vehicles that have safety implications.
Speaker 4:So and the crazy thing on the safety is that we see a majority of the fleets are being hit. So trash trucks, vocational vehicles, mailmen, anybody who's driving A lot of times distracted drivers are hitting a trailer in a truck when they're not doing anything and they're normally they they get blamed for the accident. We have other technology we brought out that gives somebody advanced warning when the trailers and the truck is starting to stop and we've seen statistics where it's dropped the accidents by 30% yeah, and it's taken the cost of the accidents.
Speaker 2:We have one customer where the cost of a rear-end collision averaged about $6,000. And when they were putting this device on, that was giving drivers following him a little bit of a heads up hey, I'm stopping. It reduced it to $600. You're kidding the cost of the accident. So if they still hit the vehicle, they were slowing down. It wasn't just a massive hit, massive pileup, yeah.
Speaker 1:Wow, I mean telematics. It enables so much in the industry, right? So safety, this is one thing we're talking about. Someone else was talking about predictive maintenance, catastrophic failures, being able to identify when something happens before it actually happens Like this, is really powerful. And do you remember there was a time where the word telematics came out and did you maybe think it was a buzzword back then and you thought is this really something we should be focused on? And now, look at all of the different things that it enables.
Speaker 4:Yeah, everybody needs it. And even on the telematics side, which is kind of the basics of what we're talking about, a lot of times, especially with trailers, some of these yards they don't know where the trailer is, so the telematics gives them the ability to find a trailer that was dropped somewhere maybe the yard or the customer's location and the fleet owner doesn't even know where their equipment is. With this telematics now they can find it.
Speaker 1:Wow, I mean, it's these technological innovations. I think that it makes our industry so attractive to newer generations. We were talking a little bit about workforce development earlier, and what can the industry do to bring more qualified talent in and get them passionate the way you guys are and we are about this industry?
Speaker 2:It's a. That's a great point because I've got some kids that are going through engineering school and they look at the. You know what the jobs and careers look like out there and they do internships at our place and they are exposed to more technology. When you think about it Robotics, software analytics, automation through what's going on with autonomous there's a lot of technology applied in manufacturing, but specifically in this industry, and then when you get into the telematics and the analytics side of it, it's another whole world. That's really just getting started.
Speaker 1:And we haven't even said the word AI in this conversation yet have we.
Speaker 4:Right, no no.
Speaker 1:I mean, what's your view on that and how it's impacting what you're doing today, how it will impact what you do in the future?
Speaker 4:I think that the way it will impact we're still not sure how it will because we're not using it right now for our products. But, as Dominic was saying, that predictive aspect, the amount of data and then being able to offer solutions to the fleets an insight that they may not be able to see because I don't know how many sensors are on a truck and a trailer, but there are thousands, so there's tons of information coming at somebody to make a decision, and I think AI will play a big factor in helping people understand what is all this telling me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, deciphering data is no easy feat. Also, another thread of conversation that we've had a lot today like who is deciphering this data? Can AI decipher this data? What is the data in the first place? I mean it's a lot to navigate, especially for a company as large as yours.
Speaker 4:It is and it's funny. You talk about the kind of the tradition and legacy. It started off with a bulb and trying to keep that bulb from breaking, and now we have software engineers that we're hiring and they're developing code to go into the product and also applications for your phone or web app or something like that. So it's, it's evolved a lot.
Speaker 1:I mean yeah that's fast. Yeah, that I mean. That is. That is what we are known for is. Is evolution right? Always finding a solution? We are solution creators and providers, I mean it's pretty fascinating when you sit back and you think from the advent of the vehicle to where we are today and how quickly we engineer those solutions. It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2:So it's that. I think that's been one of the things I've loved about us getting into the smart systems and the telematics is it puts more emphasis on your ability to dig in, peel the onion and find out where the real problems are. You know, it's not like I have a technology here. I want to tell me where I should go. Use it. It's let me understand your problems and then figure out what's the best way to solve them, whether it's AI and telematics or it's something really simple, which this industry loves simple. You know, know as much as you can introduce the best idea. One of my favorite responses to you know, here's this whiz bang thing. It's going to do this, this and this. And the vp of maintenance of a fleet will say well, what I do when it breaks? And you know the. The red flag for them is when the answer is well, this, this is designed so it won't break, and they just kind of look at you and like, sure, yeah, it will break.
Speaker 4:We know it'll break. That's why there's got people who will break it yeah that's yeah.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's amazing. I mean, yeah, the engineering alone. Just it's hard for me to wrap my brain around. You know, I'm a I'm a consumer first, and then I work in the industry too, and it's really cool. I get to bring my passion, which is I used to like diy cars and stuff like that, and now I get to do it like for all the companies that I used to install on my own cars.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like very cool to mill those two things together, but to to see it, to see it happening and to hear you talking about it and then actually be able to physically like lay my hands or my eyes on the innovations on the show for it's pretty, I don't know. It's very humbling to know that that you're a part of this, so I think there's a lot of technology out there leading that and being a part of it's a lot of technology.
Speaker 1:So what do you guys see coming down the road in the next couple of years of for heavy duty? What are you? What are you in tune with? What is your ear to the ground on?
Speaker 2:you're really watching uh, you know, it's this trend on adding the smart systems into people's fleets or customers' fleets. They're really at the stage. There's some early adopters that have been testing and now they're ready to go full boat, but that curve is really just starting, and so I think that's going to be a trend of this idea of getting this more technology on a trailer than you've ever been able to. Wow, and that's going to be. It's going to open up a lot of doors. There's a lot of. It's the wild west right now. There's a lot of players out there that are trying to jump in it. They've got some great ideas, a lot of traditional companies that are trying to bring solutions, and it's going to sift itself out, I'd say, within the next three to five years, on what the market is going to look like.
Speaker 4:Absolutely and I think I totally agree, and I think that a big trend which will continue, especially after the COVID kind of supply chain shocks, is branded product reliability. A customer is going to be looking for who will be here, as Dominic said, when this breaks, who's going to be there to stand behind it, and so they'll look for companies that have been around for a while, understand the industry. There'll be a lot of new players that'll come in with whiz-bang, as Dominic said, technology. But will they be there Because the life cycle on these vehicles or trailers 10 to 15 years. So who's going to be around when it actually does break?
Speaker 1:Right. I mean I don't want to get too deep into this because we're doing an abbreviated open mic today. We're in the cab, in the truck cab, but you mentioned the word supply chain and obviously that's on everybody's minds right now. We've had a lot of black swan events in the industry that disrupt supply chain. We're sure there's going to be more, and then there's a looming threat of tariffs. What is your outlook for the next couple of years? I mean, how are you feeling it's going to be a big one.
Speaker 4:It is a big one, I think it's going to be. There's a lot of noise and we're going to try to filter through it. I think there'll be more dependence on manufacturing in North America. I'm hoping that it's Canada, us and Mexico. We'll keep our fingers crossed because we have plants in all three locations and it's important for us to be able to get that continuity. But I think you'll see a resurgence for North American manufacturing and really reshoring reshoring, as they're saying here, for the reliability, because we don't know what's going to happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'll add to that, in terms of the tariffs, what we, what we've experienced for the last, you know, seven to almost 10 years with the tariffs, since Trump first took office and put the tariffs in China, we've had a lot of time to respond and react and get better on supply chain issues, bringing it home to North America, like John was saying, canada and Mexico. There's certainly a lot of risk there from what the talk is and I think you know risk there from what the talk is and I think you know it's probably going to inflict some pain on our industry because it is so interdependent among the countries where parts are flowing, either to the manufacturers for the trucks, the trailers, the component suppliers, but I think it'll sort itself out pretty fast.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. That's the hope Fingers crossed, so we'll be watching it as closely as we can. Dominic and John, thank you so much for taking the time to share your insights today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this was great.
Speaker 4:Thanks for asking us.
Speaker 1:Cheers. Welcome back to Traction Control. I'm Stacey Miller and we're here at HDAW Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week. I'm here with Laura Hewitt market week. I'm here with Laura Hewitt. She's the vice president of IT at HDA Truck Pride. Welcome, thank you.
Speaker 1:And you get the award for best shoes at HDAW. She's got these sweet Air Forces, they've got the HDA Truck, pride colors and the logo red, white and blue. So I know that's like hand painted logo and like this is so trendy in our industry right now and I'm so jealous Just everybody's in Jordans and Dunks and Air Forces and you look fabulous.
Speaker 6:Thank you. It was time to put the heels away, right, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Gone are the days of trade show heels, and I couldn't be more excited about that.
Speaker 6:And you're killing it in your Nike.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I just got to be comfortable, man. I feel like trade shows have really changed. There's a lot of buzz here at HDAW this year. What have um? What has you excited the most about? What's going on here in heavy duty?
Speaker 6:The people you know I'm sure you hear that a lot, right, but you know the, the people that are here are just like genuinely good people, right, and they want to see each other succeed. Good people, right, and they want to see each other succeed. And you don't always see that in business, right, it's the people. I was telling our intern. I said I want you to pay attention to one thing, and that is how are we all greeting each other as we're seeing each other in the hallways and walking the trade show and out to dinner? And you know, in the lobby and early this morning I said to her, I said what did you notice? And she paused for a second. I said okay, let me help you out. We're hugging each other.
Speaker 6:Yeah, right, like this is a family, this and and that's not normal per se right in the in the business industry, we're giving each other a hug. Good to see you. The first question is usually how is the family? Right, it's, it's, um, there's, there's, there's this intimate, intimate connection that, um, this side of the business has. That that I haven't seen in my career.
Speaker 3:Yeah, in many ways I love the.
Speaker 1:It's a great opportunity to connect. We're so fortunate and that's such a great bridge into that workforce development topic that we just talked a little bit about, so that's absolutely perfect. And then tell me a little bit about what you do at HDA Truck Pride. You've been there for two and a half years now.
Speaker 6:I have, I have and, I'll be honest, I love it Great staff, great team, great leadership. I am in charge of everything technology, so everything from the phone system, printers, our internal business systems, reporting, our websites, no-transcript. So really it's doing what we can from an IT and a technology perspective to help those members along. Some don't have IT departments, actually many don't have IT departments, so we are their first avenue outside of Google, right to help them get what they need, their first avenue outside of Google right to help them get what they need and, even more importantly, helping them assess tools right and what will work for their individual business, because it's not a one-size-fits-all with technology. So you know the role is very vast and ever-changing and busy, you know, as you can imagine. And ever-changing and busy, you know, as you can imagine. But it's a really good time helping the members and getting them to that next level.
Speaker 1:They're very fortunate to have the heft of HDA Truck Pride backing them and bringing those tools. I mean, technology is such an imperative. You know we just had a session this morning on AI and how you could implement it in your business. It's a lot for people to wrap their brains around and e-commerce, which you mentioned, is a really big topic at the show. So any trends or takeaways on e-commerce that you want to share?
Speaker 6:Well, I think it's a must-have, right? It's not a should I, it's a when will I. So we are helping the members that don't have e-com sites, that don't have websites up and running. It legitimizes your business. It ensures that the next generation has an avenue into your business and understands what you have to offer. Because here, pretty soon gone, are the days of people walking into some of these stores and service centers. They're going to shop online first, yeah, right, and they may absolutely and statistics tell us, they absolutely make their way into those buildings, right, but they shop online first, that's right. And they look around. So you know it's necessary to make sure that they can service their existing customers but, even more importantly, grow their customer base. So there's a heavy focus on that and adopting e-com in the heavy-duty industry in general, but specifically in our HTA community.
Speaker 6:Only 13% of IT are women. Is that true? Yeah, 13% of IT are women graduating in IT. I know that because I do job fairs and things like that, but I don't just look up stats all day long.
Speaker 1:Workforce man.
Speaker 6:But we've got to get this young talent and we've got to get women out there and we've got to get our daughters out and expose them to what they can do and they can absolutely make it in this industry. I mean the women that I see here, yeah, they're, they're, they're killing it. Yeah, you're killing it. You know Jackie's killing it. You know and you know Tina Hubbard's killing it. It's.
Speaker 1:it's so fun to see it is how do you feel about like the penetration of women in heavy duty specifically? I know we talk a lot about women in auto care and in the auto care segment and there's a lot of overlap right. A lot of the women here. They work in both heavy duty and light vehicle. But here at HDAW, the women's reception yesterday- was fabulous and it's so refreshing to see I mean, you started in this industry how long ago.
Speaker 6:Man 1995. Oh wow, so refreshing to see, I mean, you started in this industry how long ago, man 1995. Oh wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I started as an.
Speaker 6:IT consultant through PricewaterhouseCoopers way back in the day, and actually it was called Coopers and Libran at that point. Oh wow, yeah, I started to dabble in the automotive industry and living in Detroit.
Speaker 6:right, you can throw a stone and there's somebody you hit that's in the automotive industry either as a supplier working at the OEM side, um, and I started on the light vehicle, um, sales side, uh, working with headquarters. You know all the big guys, ford motor company. I spent all too many hours at headquarters. Um, there weren't very many women. Women were in the roles that you would expect right, marketing and HR and we've seen that change pretty drastically over the course of the last few years, and then even between last year and this year this is only my second actually HGAW with HGA Truck Pride, because only I've been with them two and a half years and even and I don't know if you notice this, but the women's reception from last year versus this year, it's just a different dynamic. Yeah, it's not that there's that many more women there were, but we're more vocal. Yeah, we're out there, we're putting ourselves out there.
Speaker 1:You know, we're gaining confidence in ourselves in this side of the industry and it's pretty cool to watch do you feel like the like the industry has been really supportive of the women's group, because I feel like part of it is also that they enable us to have these spaces and they like the fact that we created these groups and more and more people join and we get to get together and have these conversations like in other industries. I don't know how supportive they are of those things.
Speaker 6:Like I came from another industry and it was a little, a little different you know, in all honesty, I think you know five, six, seven years ago, when we started to create groups, um, you know, diversity groups started, as you know, maybe a woman's group, I think. At first people were a little bit put off, like, well, why don't I get a group, you know, and then let's create another group and another group. And then I think that everyone, whether you're a male or a female, recognized how powerful these women are in these roles and in the diversity and the different thought processes. And they realize that you know, diversity and women specifically in these roles, just takes teams to a whole nother level. Yeah, um, and you know, creative thought, right, and just having different points of view, and, um, and let's call it what it is too. You're right, we, we got to show our children that, that there's so many opportunities for them out there.
Speaker 6:And um, yeah, it's, it's changing. It is definitely changing, and I do really see like I see my teammates right now standing outside this podcast you know, some of the guys were standing around the corner and they're like you go, girl, it's so awesome.
Speaker 1:What great support. I've never felt more supported in any other industry than I have here. I think that's so unique.
Speaker 6:It's not just the men supporting us either. I think it's the women supporting each other. Because, that may have been intimidating 10 years ago. You didn't see it you didn't see it because women were fighting to climb that corporate ladder, so there were only so many spots for women.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 6:Yeah, you know I'm getting old, so I've seen it. You know, over the years, and you know women weren't nice to each other Exactly those high school things came out again In a grown adult woman.
Speaker 1:I know my last industry was very female dominated. It was marketing and PR. Yeah, some software. So it was like lots of males but in the PR segment tons of women and they were very cutthroat, they were very catty. They would stab you in the back and take your role and act like they were your friend. And it was really rough for me in that industry. And then I came here and I was like very defensive and all my, my guard and my walls are up and the women here aren't like that, thankfully.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it is definitely changed. You know it is definitely. I'm so excited for the next generation as I'm, you know, finishing out my career on the side of the automotive industry. You got time to go. You stop that, but, you know, as you look at it, you know it has come so far in 30 years, you know, since I got out of college, and I'm so proud of that and proud of being part of that, and we have to keep the momentum.
Speaker 1:However, how do you think we do that? You know like recruiting and retention in the industry.
Speaker 6:You know, I think what you're doing and getting the word out is super important right. Education right and we say that all the time. So I'm not saying something you haven't already heard, but educating our kids that there's so many opportunities out there for women, young talent. You know different people of all different of all different backgrounds and cultures. Bringing together that diversity to help us be stronger as a community, as an automotive community. So I think that's one I'm really involved in high school programs.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 6:Yeah, doing, doing mentoring of high school kids. And um, how did you?
Speaker 1:you just walked into a high school and was like hey, I want to mentor. Tell me how you got involved in that Cause. That's a really cool opportunity that maybe other people don't know they could do too.
Speaker 6:Yeah, Um. So, first of all, right, Teachers need help. Yeah, Okay, I got to go down that route. My daughter's a high school teacher now, and so I see it. You know teachers need help and you know there's too many kids to one teacher, and and and so I kind of fell into it, because my daughter was asked to be part of a leadership mentoring program in her high school and it was a pilot program at the time and you know this was on 2016,.
Speaker 6:But she was asked to be part of it and I said what the heck is this thing? Right, Like I need to kind of understand this. And at first I thought is this a counseling session? Like what the heck is going on here? And I was so proud that one that she got nominated Right. And so I go to the graduation of the mentoring program and I learned more about it and these kids are getting up there I shouldn't call them kids, but, yes, kids and these high school students are getting up there and they're talking about how, in eight weeks, they see the world a little different and this particular program, which I'll do a plug for, Reaching Higher in Michigan, they take intentionally take high school students with various different backgrounds that don't interact and aren't friends. Really it's like breakfast club on stairways.
Speaker 6:Yeah so so I saw this program and I thought, you know, these are the life skills that we need to teach our kids that doesn't, that isn't in a book, and they're that they need to be prepared to do, whether it's in college or it's in industry, like you and I, you know they need to learn about do, whether it's in college or it's in industry, like you and I, you know they need to learn about. So you know we're teaching them how to brand themselves and how to build strong networks and how to have confidence in their speaking skills and how to do public speaking. And you know, every week we have a topic with the students and God, I saw my daughter change so much over that period of time, so I quickly signed my son up for it, um, and I said I got to do this. I, I've got to do this. Um, I've got to get involved. And um, it's a nonprofit organization and it's it's all professionals that are just going into the high schools and trying to help the kids through the stuff we don't teach.
Speaker 1:Wow, I mean shout out to that program. What an amazing resource. I mean I just want to. The workforce development thing is so important to the industry Like we hear about it every single conference. There's reports published every single year. We need more people, we need more women, we need everything right. Like it's such a tremendous industry. We just need more bodies. So when I hear about stuff like this, like I want to take it and turn it into a blueprint and pick it up and then give it to as many people as possible so they can learn how they can make an impact, because the more people I talk to on this podcast, you really see how passionate people are in this industry about helping bring new talent in or being mentors or wanting to learn more and just really be invested in the future of the industry. It's like something I've never seen before any place else. So I think it's really cool that we just like accidentally unlocked that passion of yours, because I didn't know you were doing that. That's amazing.
Speaker 6:Yeah, you know what I'm going to throw it out there. I'm going to challenge all the leaders that are here today, you know, to get out into your community and give back, because, I'll be honest with you, I learned just as much or more from from these high school students than I actually do in giving back. And, um, they need it, right, they? They don't have the social interaction. They don't understand all the industries that are available to them, um, they don't understand all the options, um, that are out there. Yeah, right, um, they only see what they see on. You know, tech talk, if that still exists and and Instagram and what their friends have told them.
Speaker 6:So that face to face interaction is is what they need to do to be successful in this industry specifically. So, yeah, that's amazing. Kind of cool.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, I love this conversation.
Speaker 6:throw that out there get people to give back take the challenge. You got it first it's an hour here, an hour there.
Speaker 1:I guarantee you that you'll learn more than you really great takeaways today here from Laura Hewitt at HDA Truck Pride. Laura, thank you so much for being on the show. Thanks. It was great hanging out with you. Likewise, thanks for having me Welcome back to another issue of Traction Control. I'm Stacey Miller and I am here with Bill Betts, president of the Betts Company. What an honor. Thank you so much for being here, bill.
Speaker 7:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:So tell me we're here at HDAW Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week. You have Betts Truck Parts and Service, which has been around since 1980, a well-established business. What are some of the key trends that you're kind of monitoring in the heavy duty industry for your business?
Speaker 7:Well, right now we're primarily based in California. We have six locations in the state. We're also up in Portland, Oregon and Phoenix, Arizona, and I think one of the big things for our market that has just recently changed is the California Air Resource Board backing off of their electric vehicle mandate. So that is a big big thing and I think it's a good move. And I think that you know, aspirationally, some of the things that CARB looks to do is wonderful, but then pragmatically, fraught with tons of unrealistic expectations in terms of timeline and available technology and infrastructure to actually pull off what it is they've been saying they want to do.
Speaker 7:Yeah, because those mandates were for heavy-duty vehicles as well right yeah to electrify uh all commercial vehicles wow that, I mean that's a big task, fairly short time frame and then certainly the wildfires going on in california here recently, um, you're gonna really change, I think, some policy and and viewpoints on you know government's role right and, um, it's kind of shining a light on that right now that I think you know. In in the tragedy, I think there can be some really good, um, hopefully some things that come from the tragedy in terms of where government and citizens and whatnot need to come together to figure out how to keep driving things forward in a way that's good for everybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lots of lessons, lots of takeaways are really horrible, horrible event. But um, you know the you know how essential our industry is to delivering goods and services to that affected region and trying to get people back on track. Like couldn't be prouder of our industry for being a part of that.
Speaker 7:No doubt you know, having been, you know Bedstruck Parts, we really kicked off in 1980, but we've been in business for 157 years in the state of California, so we're actually one of the oldest remaining family-owned years in the state of California. So we're actually one of the oldest remaining family-owned businesses in the state. So we're proud to be Californians and once again, we've seen a lot of change in the state over the century and a half we've been there and I think, with what's going on right now, there's sort of some inflection points and big shifts that will come in terms of how the state's really running things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so one of the other things I wanted to talk about is that technology. I mean the word technology is so vague, but technology continues to accelerate at a rapid pace. We had a session this morning on AI. We had a session this morning on AI. I was just reading Fleet Equipment Magazine and they're talking about driverless fleets and how those are starting to penetrate the market. What are you looking at the most when it comes to technology in your company, whether that's internal or external systems?
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's everywhere, and so, because it's everywhere, it can be kind of overwhelming.
Speaker 7:I think um, technology for us is, you know, systems, um, just our ERP system, if you will how we we manage the business, how we look at where's inventory, how do we optimize it. It can work its way into how we're selling um, how we're looking to create warm leads to go follow up on just access to information and being able to pull things to make more informed decisions On the back office side how to process old school paper, scan it in, have optical readers, upload that information right in the system without a human having to enter anything and whatnot. Um, so those are some of the you know, just from a backend business standpoint is where we're really seeing it.
Speaker 7:Then you move into just the technology on vehicles, systems, things and you know the the life of the vehicle and the heavy after in the industry can really be there for like 30 years. So you end up having one foot in the new world and one foot in the old world and kind of coexisting and um, so the good of that is that as new technologies do come in, they can take a while to kind of work their way through the industry. So even though it's overwhelming, there's enough old world type of stuff to keep working on while you kind of get trained up and educated. But there's no doubt, like the skill set of a technician and the skill set of really just anyone is going to have to adapt and evolve as the world's changing. But it's not as if you got to be there next week. These things are kind of it's a ramp up time Decades in the making.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's a good thing, because taking the time to sift through the technologies like there's a lot of noise. I think you said so. You know. Earlier this morning they were talking about how there's 80,000 AI tools and it's like you don't have the time as a business owner to sift through all these tools and figure out what the right ones are and test and trial and fail, like you have a business to run, right? So giving the legacy folks time to figure out what that transition is, bring the knowledge, the historical knowledge, to. Why do I? What are the actual needs of the business and what are the nuances of the business and then what are the actual problems we're trying to solve, and then figure out those tools and those solutions, because there's just so much to shift through.
Speaker 7:You see it on the show floor, how many solution providers there are, too right, so it's a pretty big show floor, yeah, and you know, I mean that's the thing is, everybody's got 24 hours in a day, so how we choose to spend our time, what are our areas of focus? And sifting through all that noise is very, very important, because you could really get distracted out there with a lot of the stuff going on or become very anxious with the what do you want to call it?
Speaker 7:Just these announcements of what AI, where it is, what it can do and whatnot. But you know a lot, of, a lot of venture capital money is going into those things and you know a lot of the businesses that are going into it aren't going to be there at some point. And where does it all kind of?
Speaker 3:end.
Speaker 7:I don't know, but there's certainly things we're doing to use, you know, chat, gpt and other things to summarize documents or help craft responses, and we're playing around with it.
Speaker 1:But using it to increase your efficiency right. Like the 24 hours in a day thing is so true. There's some quote on the internet we all have the same 24 hours in a day. And then there's some quote out there that shames everyone and it goes well, beyonce has the same 24 hours in a day that you do. And I don't accept that because obviously she's got like money and people like don't, don't tell me Beyonce, but yes, we do all have the same 24 hours, but how do we utilize that time to make it more efficient and more effective? What are the things that manual processes that we could remove? How do we automate them? I remember when automation was the buzzword and now automation is kind of like it's it's it's it's not anything new, like we all have ways that we automate our processes, either through software or other tools.
Speaker 7:So learning and adapting and being agile, like we were talking about yeah, and if you can use technology and if I'm a sale, if I'm in a sales role and I can use technology to assist me and I can save a couple hours of my day having to do look up reports or whatever it is, and I can now take those two hours and go make a few more sales calls, then I can maybe increase my sales by leveraging technology to make me more efficient. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:We live in a pretty amazing time. I think about my time back in college and my earlier school days, and if you would have told me that I would have been using AI to generate content, like even for this podcast. I don't have to manually do a transcript for a podcast, it does it for like. It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 7:So I use it to help me with my kids homework. Yeah, no, you don't. As a double check for some of their answers. That's not, it's, it's assist.
Speaker 1:It's assist, it's a parental assist. You deserve that. How many kids do you have?
Speaker 7:Four.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, what ages.
Speaker 7:So I've got a 15-year-old daughter, 13-year-old daughter, 11-year-old son and a nine-year-old daughter.
Speaker 1:Lots of homework in that household. Lots of homework.
Speaker 7:Lots of energy.
Speaker 1:Thank you, ChatGPT. We appreciate you All right. So my last question for you is if there was one thing that you wish more people knew about our industry, what would that be?
Speaker 7:Well, I think that during COVID, people learned about our industry and we heard that transportation is an essential service and it still is. But I think that it kind of falls back into the background. We don't really realize that everything that ends up in your house, that you buy, got to you somehow after being transported either by a ship, by rail, by a truck. That's right, and if that system gets disrupted, so does your life Entire life and we can kind of take that for granted.
Speaker 7:We saw it happen when COVID and supply chains got really hampered, when they got kind of got shut down, so it became an essential service. But we don't. We're not really talking about transportation as much as an essential service as we were during COVID when it was in crisis. So I think it's important that we don't lose sight of its importance to the livelihoods of everybody around the world Could not agree more.
Speaker 1:Did your family get involved in?
Speaker 7:the industry. So this is our 157th year in business. So, william Michael Betts, I was a spring maker in England and then decided to come to the US and brought the trade over and in 1868, set up a spring manufacturing company in San Francisco. So we became the pioneer spring maker west of the Mississippi and at that time we were making horse-drawn carriage springs.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 7:And then it evolved into train and automotive and whatnot, and so Betts Spring Manufacturing is a business we still have today, and we make a lot of springs for the automotive aftermarket, and so that's one business we have. And then Betts Truck Parts and Service is our baby.
Speaker 7:We got into the truck parts business in 1980 when kind of globalization really became a little bit more problematic for us in terms of just imports coming in and really changing the margin opportunity for our domestic manufactured products, and so we started sourcing from different suppliers and got into service, and so today we're in California with six locations and we're up in Portland, oregon and Phoenix, arizona, with parts distribution and then service repair at all of those locations.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. I mean, the importing makes me immediately think about what's going on in tariffs and trade right now. Obviously, it's a really interesting climate. I heard some conversation in the elevator about some of the new executive orders that President Trump was putting forward and everybody was waiting with bated breath on the tariffs, right, because we're really trying to rely on North America but we're trying to impose some tariffs to kind of force some hands to get what we want. How are your feelings about supply chain going into this year excuse me, this year in sourcing?
Speaker 7:It's going to be interesting. You're already seeing it with brake drums sort of on its separate track there, and so there's some big changes coming there. I know that for our spring manufacturing business we do compete with the world and we're fielding a lot of inquiries to onshore coil springs and so for that business I would go holy smokes if we got 100% of some of these opportunities coming in. We'd really have to ramp up. So whether they're doing it sort of as a precautionary and then who really knows what will or won't stick, what's the rhetoric to get other things agreed to? But I do think at least out of some of the countries there's going to be some an expanded tariff. I just think there will be a thing on Canada and Mexico. It's a. It's the he's doing it to leverage some shifts in a deal to try to get some equilibrium in terms of the trade going back and forth. But yeah, it'll be a wild ride. It will, but that's how the world's kind of been really since the onset of even before COVID.
Speaker 7:But I think we're all really used to just having to adapt and respond to changes that are outside of our control, and that's what you know leadership is about. It's just navigating and figuring it out, and then everybody, for the most part, is in the same boat, right? Yeah, things like that do impact everyone. Then it's just a matter of how does that really lead to? What do you want to call it? You know, increased cost of goods or services? And in Trump's mind he's like, okay, well, if we really expand the energy sector to sort of offset some of these other things? That's what seems to be the rhetoric that I'm hearing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean totally echo that. It seems to be a really common thread in the show here is that the whole change is inevitable thing is pretty common. But now more than ever, like the supply chain is not normal. We've got all these black swan events that happened in the industry that we weren't prepared for. But planning and adapting and being agile, I think really resonated with a lot of companies. Because you know there will be another canal blockage, there will be another tariff, there may be another issue where we can't leave the house, hopefully knock on wood because we get sick right Like we have to learn how to plan and prepare for those things and fortify the supply chain. So you know these trucks stay on the road, these goods keep moving across America. Like our industry has a pretty tremendous job to fulfill. I don't know that many people really recognize that all the time. Right.
Speaker 7:Absolutely. I think you know it's predictably, unpredictable and I don't know. Sit in that discomfort and not let it keep you complacent, but also not have you just frantically uh running around like a chicken with your head cut off. You know it's like it's kind of become that the norm has become a normal, not normal.
Speaker 7:So you just got to roll with it and evolve, and you know and for us um being in business for 157 years when all this change is happening. We joke and have fun internally within the company, but we don't make horse-drawn carriage springs anymore. We've been through the pandemic of 1918, every world war. That's life. There's all these things going on. It's our job to figure out how to remain relevant in an ever-changing world.
Speaker 1:Exactly. There are so many other industries, but I'm so proud of seeing our industry. We do it really well. We have to adapt and evolve to technology extremely rapidly. Every single day there's a new technology that's introduced into these vehicles and we have to figure out how do we fix it, how is it going to break, how do we make it better and how do we bring these solutions to the marketplace.
Speaker 7:Yeah, no doubt. And you have the economic headwinds and then you just have call it regulatory headwinds, right, and how those play together sometimes, how they're separate sometimes. But I think that's what kind of makes the current climate even more volatile is just multiple fronts of change, structural change, philosophical views on, you know, whether it's the EPA regulations, global, a national type of priority versus a global type priority, and all of those things converging at the same time, yeah, and also recognizing that where we are today from a supply chain standpoint has really been built over 60 kind of years, kind of post-World War II industrialization really kind of kicked off even more in the 80s, and so now we're kind of at this inflection point of what does that really look like in the decades ahead, exactly?
Speaker 1:It's a really big thing to wrap your brain around. I'm sitting here learning about it and we're really lucky to have companies like you and leaders like you. Like you're invested in the future of the industry. You've seen this for years on end and you are working to really prepare us for the future, so appreciate the work that your team is doing Absolutely.
Speaker 7:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Bill, thank you so much for taking the time to be here. I learned a lot.
Speaker 7:Yeah, thanks, this was great.
Speaker 1:Cheers. Have a good one. So welcome back to another episode of Traction Control. We're here at HDAW, which is the Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week. So everything commercial vehicles, fleets, all of the stuff that goes on the trucks, that keeps those trucks running and delivering all the goods and services that keep America running. So really excited to be here with AutoCare and AWDA AutoCare On Air and with me in the studio today I have Sam Russo who is the head of industry at Pivotree. So Sam thank you so much for being here Welcome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm just excited to finally be here with you guys. I know we've tried a couple times.
Speaker 1:I'm stoked because Sam is just one of these really amazing influencers in the industry. You are so unbelievably passionate about what you do and every time I go on to LinkedIn, you're producing a new video doing analogies between apple pie and pies, which we're going to talk a little bit about here today standards and cataloging standards but tell our audience a little bit about what you do.
Speaker 3:So I'm not really confused like what I do. I don't know what I've evolved into in the past year and a half, but I will tell you. So I've spent two decades in automotive, spent eight years of that in automotive. Data started out a manufacturer, worked for two retailers and then worked for a third party data solution for major motor oil, and between all that I got my master's in it and somehow fell over in the it org and I'm self taught me in aces and pies, which is kind of just evolved to where I am today.
Speaker 3:My husband also owns a performance shop here in or here in Atlanta, and so what makes that unique is I have this end to end perspective. So my husband comes home at night and he complains about the shop and the technicians and the lack of we'll joke about certain softwares where he can't find the products and like I'll be like, well, what is it missing? Blah, blah. And so most cases I'm friends with the people that are doing the data, so I'll let them know and be like there's no, they can't distinguish what's the difference between this turbo system, and so we'll just tell them. So it's an interesting dynamic between me and him because he has a direct resource to where I'm like, full end to end, from product development to data onboarding, all the way through supply chain, to how it's sold digitally, to how the technicians are getting it and how they're using it.
Speaker 1:It's just and I live and breathe it yeah, and you're like me, right, you're kind of like enthusiasts because you guys are installing the parts on your own car right, and then you're also professional working in the industry. So that end-to-end part really resonates with me because I came here and I was the same. I was like I install all these brands on my car. Hell yeah, I want to work with them. Like yeah, it's a very cool way to like bridge your hobby, something that you're passionate about, with what you get to do.
Speaker 3:It makes it easier because it makes it kind of like you find any kind of automotive professional that can. You can stick behind a desk and do data, and then they also know car parts are going to become a unicorn in the industry. That's right. It's good job security it really is.
Speaker 1:So you said something, um, that blew my mind and you said you were self-taught aces and pies. How did you self-teach yourself xml and all this? I took the the Aces and Pies 101 course. It was not easy for me.
Speaker 3:It did not exist when I started doing this, so I was a data manager at Omix ADA Rugged Ridge, which is based out of Suwannee, georgia, so if you like Jeep off-road parts, you're going to know who they are and started as a data manager and what I was doing was just managing product data like anybody else 1,000 products, maybe 2, 2000 products, in an Excel sheet. It's perfectly fine. You don't need a fancy system. Sometimes Standardize the data, and then I'm going to give you the whole story as to why it escalated is my second day on the job, I found out I was pregnant Wow and so didn't know what to do with that. Hid the pregnancy for 20 weeks, but what happened was during that time, nothing like having a child would drive you to be more successful, and so I pushed myself so far in that role that no one could cover me, and so no one could cover me. So therefore I could work on maternity leave wow because, maternity leave is unpaid.
Speaker 3:And what happened was is when I was managing the data. We were working with SEMA data co-op at the time and we had like just columns and whatever. Like the team of data co-op sheet is just like in a flat file with all the pies, elements and like you see, like the coded four, coded MKDA, and you're like I don't know what this means. And so like I went around and like Googled, I was like Googling this stuff and you guys, it's like not realizing that this is not public knowledge and this is terrible. Um, but I googled it and somebody was forward facing with documentation and so I was like what is this? It was old, but I found it and then started just digging it.
Speaker 3:And then I was lucky enough, at when I wanted to understand every data point that we were managing, that I had a uh, like an account rep at sema data co-op who was helping me through it. So I'd email her and be like what does this mean? And she'd tell me what does this mean? And then, like I'd take it to the next level. So, like all the regulation, I would google it and be like what are the regulations? Blah, blah, and so like I took them from till. I took them like platinum status at SEMA data co-op in like three months and then nine months later I was on maternity leave and got headhunted and was at genuine parts company by the end of the year.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:And so from then on out, once people know that you can do aces and pies and you're just like I, get this, cause I already understand fitment data. I understand car parts, so, like I already know, like I, when I interviewed for that job, he tested me on Excel. The it manager tested me on Excel. He's like you're. I found every data error in excel file. But then the big one was he gave me a printout front and back of just car parts, like pictures of them, and he's like identify every car part on this sheet and I passed that he's like easy and he's a mentor to me to this day and he uh literally said he was like I'll teach you the rest and I had like a fine arts degree in field marketing.
Speaker 3:and now look at me now like data data manager, like expert in data management and automotive industry and it just goes to show you like you got. Sometimes you got a higher on potential, yeah, cause you just don't know where you could take somebody. Just because they don't have the background, does it mean that they can't really drive change in the short period of time I think I prefer the title data czar, like maybe you need like a crown like data crew chief.
Speaker 1:data crew chief.
Speaker 3:Yeah, here we go. I'm a data crew chief because it's like a pit crew I love that it takes a lot of moving parts.
Speaker 3:It takes a lot of moving parts, a lot of data owners to do what we do and sell parts. So it's a pit crew data ownership. If you look like at the, so I did a whole thing. And if you look at the F1 industry, there's a whole story on this. It's really awesome.
Speaker 3:There's this surgical hospital in Europe. It's somewhere in the Netherlands or in England, I'll get it wrong. Anyway, they were not. They were part of the NICU. Their job was to save babies, right, most important job in the world right. And they, for whatever reason, from when they get, from when the baby gets on the ventilator and gets hooked up, is like a dire need. It's like within seconds they have to have it all hooked up. And they were losing babies, right, because it wasn't doing it.
Speaker 3:So they started looking. They thought outside the box, right, like, take off your blinders and think outside, look at other industries, see what they're doing. They noticed that McLaren F1, f1, f1, actually, sorry, the Ferrari F1 team, red Ferrari F1 team. If you watch an F1 team, it's not so much the vehicle who has the best vehicle, who has the best vehicle, who has the best driver. It comes down to the f1 team and who has the most, the fastest f1 team which really makes or break whether they win the race or not. And so when you look at f1 teams, everyone on that team knows exactly what they're there to do. You got the wheel guy. You got the guy that's checking the lug nuts, refilling the fuel, checking the car to make sure that nothing's loose. They all know exactly what they're doing in that moment because it because time is money, or time is everything for them. Same thing comes to when you're saving your babies. Now we're not saving babies, but the same thing comes to here.
Speaker 3:When you're a strategy in a business to be the leader in the forefront for hyper-personalization in customer selling, everyone has to know why they're here and what they're doing. Catalog team's here to make sure the data's great, because we need data to sell more parts. Category team's here to identify what we're going to sell within a business that's going to make us win. We don't want to sell everything. Why would we sell everything? It's too much. So you got to start treating your business and that's why I say I'm the data crew chief, because I'm the curator of all those different things, because it's it takes, and pivotry is the pit crew that helps the, the companies in this industry, win the race of digital channel selling, and that's where that comes from, wow.
Speaker 1:I love that you said that and as you were talking, I was thinking about the product data also being really important. All those different roles, right, the product fitment, the attributes. If you don't have someone who understands all of those things, if you don't have all of those things and you don't have this complete catalog, then you're not going to have this complete race car, you're not going to have this complete parts data in order to get the right part to the right place at the right time, like I see why you're so passionate about this, like really digging it.
Speaker 1:So part of what we're here talking about is what what is trending right now in heavy duty. What can we look forward to? And one of the things that I've seen you talking about recently on your LinkedIn is parts data for heavy duty parts and the PI's application for heavy duty. So I know that the industry has been working to adopt those standards in order to create those efficiencies. But kind of like what is your view on how heavy duty is doing with parts cataloging and what's to come in the future?
Speaker 3:It's interesting because I've spent majority of my career in the in the aftermarket, but on the light duty side right the light duty performance side and then now I've spent the past year and a half um on the heavy duty side, because we have a lot of heavy duty customers and when I came to Pivotry I had to tell them that I was like you guys don't have automotive customers, you have heavy duty customers.
Speaker 3:You're like what's the difference I was like why don't you ask them that and see what they say? I was like it's different, it's the bigger one. I would say is there's there's a vast digital maturity is disparate. So if you look across the industry and I always look across aftermarket as a whole so you have heavy duty, light duty and it's just disparate. Like even light duty is like 10 years, maybe not that far, maybe they're like five years now behind digital maturity right, like where they're at. They're not going to be like as mature as like a target or like a true retail where they're doing that hyper personalization of the customer experience where they know exactly what you want to buy before you do. I can't go on an automotive website today and know that they're going to know what I need to buy before they before, before I do. Right, like they don't. They're not leveraging the data that way. So that's a light duty thing is taking it to the next level.
Speaker 3:But in the heavy duty industry they're still struggling to get basic attributes today, like we're here with all the major manufacturers, right, and I can tell you that there's some out there that are not giving data points that they that are necessary to sell the products I can go up to most of the retailers and the receivers and the members groups and they're going to be have the same story that man, their data is not great, I can't get their data points, and so it's a really a challenge to understand. And that's what Pivotry is here to fight for is like basic data points, like just getting product description and pricing is like hard in this industry, much less getting features and benefits, marketing fluff, 360 images, videos, like you got to be. They're gonna look at you like yeah, bro, I'm not, I'm not doing that. I'm here's your part number and your product description and maybe some basic attributes. Then you feed in oh well, can you give me fitment data?
Speaker 3:And most of these guys are like no, because we don't run on your make model. I'm like cool bet, that's fine. I was like well, I'm gonna do a small plug. We got this equipment mapping you could use that. You want to check that out? And so I think there is this understanding and I spent the last year understanding this, because I was here last year and everybody was like we aces and pies doesn't fit for us. And I'm like okay, great, like let me know where, because aces and pies me right, like I'll bring my people, you bring your people and we'll hash it out.
Speaker 5:We want it to work for you guys right.
Speaker 3:And so I led two groups last year on this and come to find out that it wasn't really an issue with the standards, it was more visibility, education and awareness of how to use it and what to use it. And what's important and I think what a lot of people do here is data management's hard. It's just hard, yeah, especially when you have to deal with a bunch of supplier and you just don't know. And then if you don't find, like somebody who's really good at data, that really understands it, and then god forbid you find somebody that's good at data and automotive because those are unicorns, they're here. Some of those young people coming out of northwood could do it.
Speaker 3:Um, it's like a data mountain and, as you know, if you just constantly look at the top of that mountain instead of this first step in front of you, you're never going to get it done. Like you just got to start, yeah, the Fitment one's harder, but you start with product data, just getting a basic feel of product data and how to sell your products, because if I don't have the data points to sell your products, how am I supposed to sell them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and all we want to do is sell more parts. And how do you communicate to manufacturers or folks that are trying to get more into the adoption? And they need that education or they didn't have the visibility into why this was so important, like what's one takeaway or one thing that you would say to them, that's, you know, if there's one thing that you could be doing for your business that you're not right now, that would make a tremendous impact. This is the thing that you should be doing to prepare for this?
Speaker 3:because make sure you got the data points, because I know we're talking about ai tomorrow and I love lauren trummel, but the one thing that ai will show you real fast is how bad your data is, and because if you don't have a data foundation, you're not gonna be able to do any of this innovative stuff. And if you're thinking that your competition's doing it, I'm gonna tell you right now they probably are, so you're gonna get left behind. You. Better start today. Just do something standardize all your product descriptions. I'm doing it for my husband right now, because he's selling parts on e-commerce and he's like can you help me?
Speaker 3:I'm like, yeah, but I can help you, that's fine and I'm like looking at this distributor that's in the performance side I won't say who it is and I'm like man these product descriptions are. There's no standardization whatsoever, everything's everywhere, and so like I'm like running through that for him, but she just I started. That's how I started Standardize your product descriptions, whatever it is, brand, sub-brand, part type, baby steps, fluff at the end, start there and then you have standard product descriptions and everything looks the same on your website and then from there start building out attributes. Don't try and do it all at once. Then you'll get overwhelmed and when you get overwhelmed you quit. You're like I don't want to do this, it's stupid, step by step.
Speaker 1:You've got to make it digestible, right? Like you said, it's troves of data.
Speaker 3:Small goals. By the end of by May, I will have standardized product descriptions for all 2000 products.
Speaker 1:Great, I think that's excellent advice, and you know, it brings me to this other thing that you've been doing, this little teeny thing called e commerce, which is not a small thing, it's a massive thing, but a huge, a huge deal for the industry, no matter what part of the supply chain that you're in right. So tell us a little bit about how standards catalog data is all related to e commerce and why that's important, particularly for heavy duty.
Speaker 3:So for like digital channel selling, which is what we call it. I think that's like the mature way of saying it, because the reason why we say because when you say e-commerce, you kind of think about more B2C, but here it's predominantly B2B. Now, granted, there's some of them are out, there are B2C, but we're in a B2B world right now. So when you say digital channel selling, that could be whether through distributors, receivers or retailers. However, you digitally sell things and so you have to have the data for that to be able to be findable. So if you don't have the data points for me to be able to find the part, then I'm not going to find it. So one example you can give is so I know motor oil and so I always fall back on motor oil is like if you don't have like motor oil weight, container, size, brand, sub brand and viscosity and I'm on there looking for a 5w full 40, full synthetic well, if I type in 5w 40 in the search bar but those aren't data points, aren't actually filled out or in any kind of format, I'm not going to find it right. But you know what? If one supplier does have it filled out but the other supplier doesn't, guess who's going to get bought? The supplier that has it, because I can find it.
Speaker 3:Now, the next thing that is from. That's like basic channel selling. But what I'm challenging and advocating for this is this industry needs to start looking at other industries and how they're championing hyper personalization for the customer experience. Yes, there is a lot of true retailers that are doing hyper personalization of the customer experience to take online selling to the next level leveraging things like ai, but leveraging like your habits. So when you go on tiktok or you go on target or amazon amazon, better one, right they're gonna know the history of what you sold. So when you go, on.
Speaker 3:Target or Amazon. Amazon, better one, right? They're going to know the history of what you sold. So when you go on there and you log in, it's going to say it's going to give you things that are tailored. The algorithm knows what it is that you buy. So I will die on this hill because my husband complains about it every night, like if I could help the shop. Software solutions, leverage AI to be able to do suggestive selling for the service writers. But also I have this vision that one of these e-commerce and it could be in heavy duty as well is like taking it to the next level. We're not just selling parts for sell parts. How do we go out there and hunt for people? Our industry is so disparate.
Speaker 3:A car ownership is the most annoying thing in the whole wide world. From buying a car, whether it's fleet or whether it's this, buying a vehicle is annoying. You go to buy a vehicle, then you resell the vehicle. You have to maintain the vehicle and most of those maintenance records are on a notepad in your glove box or it's on an app, and so like blah, blah, blah. So what if you tied that information to your VIN of the vehicle, the same way we tie medical records to your social security number. So now the maintenance records of that vehicle travels with the VIN. So if I go to O'Reilly'scom and I type in the VIN, it's going to give me the year, make, model, but it's also going to give me, like this, history where it knows that it had an oil change or you pivot on that, and I've logged into this e-commerce site and it knows that through sales data, it knows that six months ago I bought a brake fluid and brakes six months ago. So when I log in there six months from now, it's going to suggest and be like hey, I think you did a brake job, do you need to do another one? So it's going to do suggestive selling. Because what I think is in 2020, we learned that we did not. We didn't have to go into stores anymore and that didn't go away. We were all just like great, I don't want to go in the store. That sounds terrible, and so now we have to figure out that's not going to go away and, if anything, it's going to get s, it's going to get elevated.
Speaker 3:People want more. They want to feel the personalization of talking to somebody behind the counter in a small town that knows everything about you, but behind their screen on their phone. So you've got to start thinking about getting your data foundation, because you can't build a house, an e-commerce house, without a great data foundation, and so if you don't have the data point, you can't start doing this hyper-personalization that AI can help you do, whether that's through chatbots, whether that's through suggestive selling, whether it's through email marketing, where you're reaching out to your customers, b2b or whatever and you cannot do this without a data foundation. It always falls back to the data and people look at data as a tech debt and they won't focus. Let me throw a million dollar software at it. It's not going to solve your problem, you're still going to have to do the data.
Speaker 1:Don't let your house of cards crumble unless you have the right data foundation. There's like a house of cards joke in there somewhere. I'm not sassy enough to come up with a good one on this spot, but that's a great takeaway Hyper-personalization the foundation of data for your e-commerce house. And you said something about AI and it made me think. A lot of people are daunted by AI, but it's going to find out a lot of the mistakes in your data. I immediately thought, like for those trying to simplify or figure this thing out like AI is working smarter, not harder so, like check it out, I tell people old AI, new AI.
Speaker 3:So everybody, when you say AI here, they're thinking the generative AI and the robots they're going to take over the world. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the stuff that we were doing like 10 years ago with machine learning and Python, and you can leverage AI and machine learning and Python and we do every day at Pivotree to help you clean the data. So you're looking at a data mountain. Most of that you can automate if you got the right person behind you or the right pit crew to help you out.
Speaker 1:That's right. And if you want the right pit crew, the right chief, please check out Sam Russo on LinkedIn. That's Russso at PevoTree. Yeah, cool Sam. Thank you so much For being here today. Yeah, thanks.
Speaker 5:Well, hey, it's definitely an important Piece of the business. I mean, all you gotta do is Look at your fact book and you can figure that out. Exactly, yeah, there's 2-3% Of the vehicles are in the commercial side and it makes up 100 Billion of the vehicles are in the commercial side, and it makes up a hundred billion of the 500 billion.
Speaker 5:So do the math on it it's uh, 20 of the of the dollars and only two or three percent of the units so the price per unit is eight to ten times higher wow and if, if you do both sides of business, like I have for 20 plus years, uh, and no light vehicle and heavy duty, you see it in in the parts, Um, just like on the Timken side, it was awesome because it was 16 wheel positions for bearings on on, you know, in high volume, so that was great. Breaks is the same kind of thing right. So you just see much higher volume going through there and, uh, you know the thing that makes heavy duty so much different than the light vehicle you've got. It's an asset for somebody and uptime is key and critical total cost of ownership. And they do preventative maintenance, they don't wait for a breakdown.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 5:And they care what kind of parts go on that vehicle. So, unlike light vehicle, where you go, you go in and get something fixed on your vehicle. If you're do it for me, then you don't. You don't know what kind of parts just want on your vehicle and consumers don't know fleets. No, they want to know. You know. Uh, you can see it different. Different uh conference, but uh, tmc conference for sure, when all the technical and purchasing directors get together. It's a lot of conversation about that.
Speaker 1:The preventative maintenance aspect is really fascinating to me, because we were talking a little bit about buzzwords with another guest and there are a lot of buzzwords that maybe when they first came out they thought, oh, it's just like a trend, and then they became really lasting impacts on the industry and one of those words was telematics, way back when that word like it was what does this mean? It's really hard to understand. And now, telematics is part of how these fleets keep rolling. They use that for predictive maintenance right On the parts, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 5:Yeah, when I was at HDA Truck Pride in 16 to 18 timeframe, it was huge coming through there, you know, and it's a great thing to have. If you have one of the parts that has some kind of CPU on it, that has a sensor that's getting the feedback to you know where the data's going, it's a great opportunity to sell a lot of parts.
Speaker 1:So the parts with the CPU. That immediately makes me think chips, supply chain tariffs. I mean, how worried do you feel about the industry in the coming months, years? Obviously, we've got a new administration. We've got the looming threat of tariffs. It's a pretty big conversation here this week.
Speaker 5:It's huge. I mean the dollar impact could be substantial. I you know just my hypothesis. For what it matters, I think that they're going to. He's using the threat of tariffs as one thing. I think he'll put some in there, but I don't think they'll be as high as what they're talking about 40, 50, 60%. That's just my estimation. I think we will see some. I think they're really trying to curtail parts coming from China through Mexico and then into the States. It's just some of my assumptions and what I've seen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're following that really closely. We're monitoring the impacts. Obviously there's a lot of talk but nothing has happened yet. I did hear some executive orders were published yesterday, so we're going to go through that and make sure that we're on top of that as possible.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean the cost. If we do see it, I mean all costs are going to go up so I mean, um, you know, I first time I ever saw the bumper sticker was in australia, at a trade show, and uh, it says if you bought it, truck yep, yep, so obsessed with that, yeah so you think about it.
Speaker 1:It's very true it's very true, it's. It's something that resonates, resonated a lot throughout show. Everyone's been talking about how essential the industry is, the vitality of the goods and services People don't know outside of this industry, right? Think about your Amazon packages, think about your groceries. This is what this industry enables, what you contribute to every single day.
Speaker 5:Yeah, the price of eggs would be higher than they are right now if it wasn't for our efficiency.
Speaker 1:It's expensive to hit those protein goals, yeah yeah.
Speaker 5:So I'll tell you, yeah, for sure. But one thing you know, I think this is 19 or 20 years coming to HDAW, and before that it was CFS, which is Council Fleet Specialists, before some of the trade industries came together and just to see the change in the 20 years of walking out here, you know just, it's changed so much.
Speaker 1:It hasn't changed as much as what Apex has changed in 20 years, but the change is happening and it's, you know, instead of 20, 20 year delayed in heavy duty it's probably down to 10 or 12 yeah so, from from what I've seen, are there any changes that were surprising to you, like you thought, oh, this one isn't gonna stick, and then it it kind of took hold or just something that maybe you didn't expect.
Speaker 5:Oh, not too much really, because because I mean, if you again, if you want to see what's going to happen in heavy duty, watch life vehicle, some of the differences because of total cost of ownership. The other thing in this industry is the regulation. You know that's happened with. You know, when it came down and said, hey, we're going to have this stuff, this blue stuff, called death, you know it's kind of what's all that going to entail? That was something that we probably didn't understand what that was going to be.
Speaker 5:To actually see a truck rolling down with the secondary tank on it and it's got a blue cap, and you know, first people are like what's that? So now you walk to the floor and there's all kinds of things on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what technology has surprised you the most? Or maybe are you the most excited about coming up in the next couple of years? We talk a lot of guests talked about ai. Some we're talking about, uh, autonomous fleets. Like that's an interesting one.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean autonomous fleets. You know, I I've got some friends in san francisco that are using the uh, the, the autonomous Ubers or what's it. I forget what they call that one.
Speaker 5:But so it's going to be out there. You know it's just a matter of time. Most of our vehicles have it on it now, but they still require us to drive them, so of course, yeah, so I guess probably you know the AI conversation this morning was interesting to see the capabilities of what they can do, and you know, it's just like anything else. I've sat through some of those before you got to fact check your AI too, right?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 5:Because you never know what could come out of that. It may not be accurate.
Speaker 1:It lies. Yeah, yeah, I've tested some stuff on chat, gpt and I got a little nervous with the stuff it gave me because it literally made up a fact. And then I tried to ask it for the source or Google the source to find a source to attribute it to in the content that I was using, and no such thing existed and I thought, oh, this is scary.
Speaker 5:Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, I've used it some, but just to see what they're using it for. And you know, there's some responses I get every once in a while from the team that I'm going wow, that's, that's pretty quick, and you know, I know where they're coming from.
Speaker 3:So, it's.
Speaker 5:I'm glad they're using it, I'm glad we're getting the information and just got to fact check it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's good. Any other ways that you know you've seen teams using AI in heavy duty that have been really interesting to you.
Speaker 5:I mean catalog and the capabilities of that is probably the biggest thing.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. You said the word catalog, so now I've got to ask about data and the importance of data. Yeah, because data has been a big one.
Speaker 5:You know that's probably one of the biggest changes that's seen in this industry and that's been a big one. You know that's, that's that's probably one of the biggest changes that's seen in this industry, and it's it's for the good right. You know, when you deal with a distributor and you say, hey, you know you're doing such a great job here, why don't you expand? The first answer is I can't get good people. All right, well, neither could AutoZone or any of the retailers that expanded. But their catalog system and the information is all right there in the system on the computer. They can turn the screen around and say do you want good, better or best? And here's your price points and here's your romance language that says what's the difference between?
Speaker 3:these things.
Speaker 5:We have not adapted that as quickly and in heavy duty. They're starting to make the traction with the aces and pies and the data standards, which is awesome and you know it opens up more competition, but someone's going to do it anyways.
Speaker 1:So I mean and that's what the industry is all about is competition.
Speaker 5:Absolutely Wow.
Speaker 1:So you said something and again, like these are all really interesting topics Everybody's been talking about the same thing, like everybody's got their their foot on the pulse of this but uh, can't, can't get good people into the industry. What, what do we need to do from your perspective, or what is your opinion on how we can kind of turbocharge our workforce development? Because every single person I've talked to is this industry is incredible. I'm here for life. This is why and it's like how do we like bottle that passion and just unleash that on all these folks that are looking for new and different careers, especially, you know, vocation wise?
Speaker 5:Well, you know, I think the catalog one is a great one we just talked about. You know, people are not going to sit behind a counter and memorize parts and that be their institutional knowledge of the industry and they can memorize part numbers like they used to Generational learners. Don't do that. I mean we don't even know people's phone numbers anymore, right?
Speaker 1:Oh, it's weird, it's all in the system.
Speaker 5:I mean, we don't even know people's phone numbers anymore, right? Oh, it's weird, it's all in the system. And so I think I had that discussion with a distributor five or six years ago and he was bringing in Northwood students at that point in time but he was putting them on the counter and they were transforming the way they were doing business. He got the point on the catalog and that's the way he's grown. They're employee-owned and they probably have eight or nine different locations in Florida now. So they're doing a great job and it's great to see. He's been in the industry four years but he's adapted to it. That's one where you go out and you get the students and once you bring them in and you can get them in and you don't have to say this is the way we've always done it. Yeah, um, then then you can, you can keep them in here. And again, you know, 20 plus years ago, 25 years ago, first heavy duty show, I was a young guy. I mean, I was like in my 40s.
Speaker 3:I'm like where the hell all these old people?
Speaker 5:come from now. Now, I may be one of those, but uh, it's, it's. It's great to see younger people and more diversity out here. Uh, and it's you know. I have this conversation over dinner every once in a while on how do we do these kind of things, how do we get more people into it? And it's you know, you just got to show them. You know how it is. Once they're in this one, people don't want to get out.
Speaker 1:It's really cool to see Northwood students or someone come to Aftermarket 101. They're right out of college, they're brand new to the industry. They are just so full of life and passion and excitement for what we do. Once they get it, it's just getting them there. I told a couple of newbies to the industry last night for what we do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, once they get it, it's just getting them there. Yeah, and I tell them, I told um, I told a couple of newbies to the industry last night um, you know, you guys are really lucky to be here and they're like, we know it's amazing and I'm like, I'm really glad that you guys are here because you know you're paving the way and, like you have to spread the word because we need more people like you hey, the the leaders Tomorrow the lot program on Monday afternoon.
Speaker 5:That was awesome. I participated in that. I love doing those and sharing your experience with the industry to the younger people in the group and a lot of them were the students, and it wasn't just Northwood, it was Ferris State, it was. I forget where they all come from. And then they look you up on LinkedIn and then you start the conversation. So it's great to see that adapting and evolving. We didn't have that, you know, 10 years ago, so it's a great, great way to bring people in and get them interested.
Speaker 1:I heard a rumor that that reception had like double what it was last year and that just made me so proud.
Speaker 5:I think it was. I wasn't able to do it last year and that just made me so proud. I think it was. I wasn't able to do it last year but Tammy did and she said it was much more crowded. And I mean they were. She was tracking me down to get there. I was tied up in another meeting and I get in there and I'm like holy cow, I mean it was, it was busy.
Speaker 5:I mean, there was three to four people per person, so you know anybody that hasn't volunteered and you want to give back to this industry.
Speaker 1:It's a great way to do it. I really appreciate the call out for that too, because I think we need we have a lot of great mentors in the industry and it's not all that. It's not that much of a time commitment, right, like you're a busy guy but you take the time an hour here and there to talk to some young people. Like, tell me a little bit about your mentor experience to talk to some young people.
Speaker 5:Tell me a little bit about your mentor experience.
Speaker 1:What on Monday, just in general because you're a mentor to quite a few people. You're an industry titan.
Speaker 5:I love to spend time with our younger members in our team wherever I've been, being able to share experiences with them, and the best thing about being a mentor is they give back to you as well.
Speaker 5:Right, you learn about what they're thinking about, what's going on and from their perspective and you take that and you and you continuously learn and uh and move forward with it. So, uh, you know, I was very fortunate coming up through the career. I'd uh and had some at Honeywell way, way back almost 20 years with Honeywell. At that time it was frame filtration and I had a mentor who was president of transportation $4 billion piece of business for Honeywell and I got it because of a success on the Honda business. But anyways, it was great to have him. I learned so much from him on how he mentored and he took me to the next level in Honeywell and enabled me to run a business unit at Bendix a long time ago on light vehicle. So it's been great and I always use that and say, hey, that was an opportunity for me and I love giving back to people in the industry that I can share some experiences with.
Speaker 1:Really really fortunate to have that kind of influence in your career, because it only really takes one really good manager or one really good mentor to really set your trajectory and then recognizing that you want to do that for other people Like it's very humbling to hear it from you and to recognize that mentorship is a two way street. Right, we're here to learn from each other.
Speaker 5:It's not just mentor, mentee.
Speaker 5:The other thing in the industry it's great and I've seen more of it um is is getting involved in the industry. You know auto care, bema, cvsn, whatever the group is, whatever industry you're industry, you're working in to get involved. And that's a great way to get back as well. And you know somebody, and I know somebody very well that I gave that advice to a long time ago, right, yeah, she was like, hey, what can I do different? And she's like I said get involved in the industry. So she goes what she goes to. It wasn't called women in auto care there, it was Women's Board or something right so she goes and she came back and she goes it was terrible.
Speaker 5:I said why she goes. They had a dress for success. She goes. I know how to dress. I said well, get in there, get involved and change the agenda. And, as you know, the difference she did and that was a great thing that she did, because we had mentoring and Honeywell and she was able to bring that into women in auto care and I think that's it's been a great starter for us in the industry to get more and more mentoring, like what we saw on Monday night.
Speaker 1:So absolutely yeah, it was awesome, really fortunate and like the rest is history. Like you said, right, it just takes one person, one bold person.
Speaker 5:Well, you know, you gotta got. You got a file. It's going to be a good idea, but uh, and people you know need to embrace and engage.
Speaker 1:So it's great to see the transformation absolutely, yeah, all right, I got one last question for you, and that is what is one thing that you wish more people knew about our industry, that maybe they don't know or that we should emphasize more.
Speaker 5:You know, I think it's not just being a mechanic, it's truly a technician. The capabilities and the computer skills and electronics and everything you need to understand is way more sophisticated than you think. And if it's not, and you don't believe it, open up the hood of your car and you can't figure out what to do. And try to go talk to your service technician or your service writer at a shop and they're going to say they are knowledgeable right.
Speaker 5:When you get the video on what they inspected on your car and what needs to be replaced, I mean that's phenomenal so I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like the best technology. I never knew how comprehensive our industry could be until I went to my local repair facility, uh, not too long ago, and they had that new report and I was like this is great, I can actually see the cracks in my belt, like just so much more visibility into what's happening. Yeah, training.
Speaker 5:Training is key and critical so and it's, it's funny, it's uh.
Speaker 5:I'll share one last story and then you can give me any more questions you want. But on my uh, sunday morning round of golf with some people I play with back home, uh, I was playing with two doctors and uh and private investment bankers and whatnot all these people that play around this golf course and we're sitting there one day we're on a 15th green and we hear this big noise. It feels like a tree crashed or something. And the group in front of us was on 16, and we see them and they're out talking to this guy in a truck and it was a pickup truck, that was a AAA truck, of all things, and the guy was broken down on the side of the road and they let him use the phone because it was kind of remote, didn't have cell service. So they're sitting there saying, hey, we think the two doctors are looking at him, hey, we think this guy's uh on something. You know how the heck can you wreck on that road, or?
Speaker 5:you were distracted all these assumptions and I'm going, I go. Hopped over the wall, looked at it and said, hey, the guy's got a wheel off situation oh and he goes.
Speaker 5:What I said? I said, hey, where is that your front tire, front right tire making a lot of noise? And he goes yeah, I said you had a bad bearing. It broke, came off, it was lodged underneath the back axle and then the doctors and the attorneys and, uh, bankers are all going. How do you know that? I said I've been in the business. You guys always want to know what I do in the aftermarket. I know these kind of things and I work for a bearing company.
Speaker 3:That's amazing.
Speaker 5:So we get back up and the doctors were still there, we had to pass them and they came back up and we were having a cocktail in the 19th hole and they're going hey, how do you know that guy? I mean, we went back through these. I still think the guy was on drugs. I said he wasn't on drugs, man, he had a wheel off situation. Simple stuff. So for all summer they kept telling me you know, I've been called Tommy boy before.
Speaker 3:I prefer to go with.
Speaker 5:Tom Sr now. But anyways, know, but anyways, uh, you should have told me that. Yeah, yeah, so that's a great story. I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I sold filters and brakes in ohio for real about the kitchen yeah, you totally inspired someone to know a little bit more about vehicles and maybe help someone out someday and I think that's really amazing.
Speaker 5:I still argue with them about electric vehicles, but that's okay, amazing yeah oh, tom tecklenberg, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Industry Titan here on.
Speaker 5:Auto Care.
Speaker 1:On Air. Appreciate you being in the studio today.
Speaker 5:Thanks, stacey, it's great to be with you.
Speaker 1:Cheers. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Auto Care On Air. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast so that you never miss an episode, and don't forget to leave us a rating and review that helps others discover our content. Auto Care On Air is a production of the Auto Care Association, dedicated to advancing the auto care industry and supporting professionals like you. To learn more about the association and its initiatives, visit autocareorg.
