The Truth About Docks, Delays, and Driver Treatment with Connor Bradley

In this episode of The Road Ahead & All Things Trucking Podcast, host Summer Gee sits down with Connor Bradley, founder of DockTime, to talk about one of the biggest frustrations in trucking: the experience drivers face at shippers and receivers.

From detention time and parking issues to driver treatment and facility communication, Connor breaks down how DockTime’s newest platform, DockPages, is working to give truck drivers a voice while creating more accountability across the industry. The conversation dives into the realities drivers deal with every day, why these issues have gone overlooked for so long, and how technology could help improve the relationship between drivers, carriers, shippers, and receivers.

Summer and Connor also discuss the future of trucking technology, the importance of driver feedback, and why improving the dock experience matters for the entire supply chain.

Whether you’re a driver, fleet owner, dispatcher, or just passionate about the trucking industry, this episode brings an honest conversation about respect, transparency, and making trucking better for the people behind the wheel.

Sponsored by The Trucker's Network

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

What's up, drivers and industry pros, and welcome back to the Road Ahead and All Things Trucking Podcast. Today's episode is a little bit different because we are doing an interview with the one and only Connor Bradley from DockTime. Connor, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_00 0:19

One and only. What uh what a what a great uh uh d description, but I'm doing great. Thanks for having me, Summer.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

All right, let's get straight into it. So, what originally made you want to tackle detention and dock inefficiency?

SPEAKER_00 0:33

For sure. Um, so I think so. Both my co-founder and I, uh Tim, uh, we both came from trucking backgrounds. I worked on the kind of the equipment side for a little while. He actually has an over a hundred year family history in trucking. Um, so when we joined forces, we knew it trucking was the space that we wanted to be in, given our our backgrounds and our experience, but we didn't know exactly the problem we wanted to solve. Um, and so actually an old boss of mine, when I left my my last job to start dock time, he said, I was like, listen, I want to I want to learn trucking. I want to learn the front line. You know, I've kind of been in this like office corporate thing, like not, but not really in trucking. And he said, the best way to do that is you go out and you park yourself at Iowa 80, uh, the largest truck stop in in North America, um, and you and you sit there and you just like listen to drivers. Come in, talk about their life, talk about their experiences. And we did exactly that. We're East Coast based, but we flew out to Davenport, Iowa, um, parked ourselves in there, bought truckers lunch, bought them snacks, um, asked them questions. And there was just this kind of red thread going through all of these conversations, which was the red thread of detention. And they, you know, consistently um were complaining about their experiences at Shipper and Constantine facilities, uh, how long it would take to get loaded and unloaded, the implications to their themselves and as and their livelihoods of that detention, and obviously not getting paid, not getting home in time, and and missing that crucial home time with their family and their loved ones. And as we looked at as we heard that feedback and then kind of looked around, we were like, no one's really going after this. There's like a lot of like AI for logistics was, you know, it was and continues to be like kind of a big focus, but no one was really going after the express. Like, how do we eliminate truck detention from this uh industry entirely? And yeah, it was in those that that kind of food court of Iowa 80 that that we kind of launched the idea, or at least the inkling for DockTime, and and here we are almost a year later.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

So originally DocTime was more geared towards detention time, correct? And and just eradicating it.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Yeah, and and and our our focus is still, you know, it's on our website. Like, this is our core mantra, is like we build products that eliminate truck detention. Like that is the highest level stated goal of our company, is is we produce value by helping trucks get in and out of warehouses faster. Um, where that's the the first kind of product around that, which we still have customers live with today, is dock clock. So helping carriers and drivers understand how much detention time is actually occurring across my fleet and at different picks and drops, and how do I more effectively bill for that? So get get kind of compensated for my time. But as we continued with that product, you know, the the feedback we kept getting was like, this is great, like I'll take more, I'll take more money and I'll take more more cash when I can get it. But I would rather just get in and out of there. I would rather just keep moving rather than you know, bill for a little bit more detention because detention doesn't make up for all those kind of costs that I was mentioning.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

So that brought us to where we're kind of at today is our focus with with Doc Pages, which is um really you can kind of think about it as like Yelp for shipper and receiver facilities. So uh a way for drivers, carriers, all of the kind of asset side of the industry to band together and you know shine a light and increase accountability for the conditions that uh you know, detention and others that are happening at at different shipper and consent facilities.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

Absolutely. So was there a moment where you were like, this problem is bigger than just detention time, which made you pivot to going towards the Doc Pages?

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Yeah, I think um, you know, I think it was like one of those slow burns because actually when we were at Iowa 80, I uh there's a female truck driver, I forget her name, but I like I wish I remembered it because I like we have her to thank for where we're at in terms of this product, but um, I remember her showing me the Google reviews for her next facility that she was doing. She was on there, and like, you know, I she was like, Oh, I like to check out the Google reviews before I go to a place, see if I can get little snippets of of what to expect. And I saw that at the time, and I was like, oh, that's resourceful, that's cool, like that's that makes sense. Um, get as much information as possible. Um, but it wasn't until you know, really like the beginning of this year that we were like, wait, this the industry could use a tool that is purpose built for this. Because you'll if you go onto a warehouse, you'll see drivers kind of like trying to communicate back and forth with each other about like, hey, by the way, like facility opens at 6 a.m. here, or like you need an appointment, or like use the bathroom beforehand because they won't let you. But the tool isn't like it's just not built for it, it's not a uh you know, fleets don't have access to that information. It's like it's not exactly what drivers are looking for.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

It's a hundred percent made for restaurants, let's be real.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Yeah, it's made for restaurants, which is great for if you're looking for Thai food on a Friday night. Yeah, go to Google Reviews. But if you're trying to make a delivery to a national grocery distributor, it's not exactly the same. Yeah, it's not logistical. Yeah, and so we we realized, hey, there's an opportunity to to do this the right way for the millions of truckers across the country who were going in and out of facilities every day. Um and so that's that was kind of the logic that led to DocPages, but really it started with that when we were at Iowa 80, and that woman, God bless her, right? I forget her name again, but she showed me like that kind of inkling of like how drivers are operating today and that they they want this type of product.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Absolutely. And I think drivers listening already know that detention is just one big piece of the bigger issue. So, what are some of the bigger frustrations that drivers deal with that you have spoken to that you don't think people really think about?

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Yeah, I think um there's yeah, detention's a big one. There's also a lot of like kind of amenity stuff. Uh, you know, it can I can I use a restroom there? Uh if I'm gonna be there for eight hours, do I have access to a restroom? That's a huge question that comes up. Will they let me park overnight? So if I'm say I'm getting there the night before and running out of hours of service, can I park on the facility or do I need to find parking elsewhere? Those are some of the tactical ones. But it's also really, you know, sometimes it's the really simple things that that can make or break a driver's day. Um, you see an incredible amount of reviews talking about how friendly or rude the staff was at a particular location. Like there are, I have I have read five paragraph essays of reviews of people talking about how either great Cindy was in receiving and how her smile like made their day, and they they it's a five-star experience because of that alone. And I've seen others where they're like, these people don't know how to like they don't treat us with respect, um, they talk down to us, they you know, they they treat our time like it's totally expendable. So those types of things I think are, you know, the things that we want to capture in this is like, and we actually we have like a 15-point scoring rubric uh that looks at the things like you know, is there a bathroom available? Can you park overnight? But like, does a review say that if a say if a facility staff is rude or not? And then how do we factor that into the overall kind of facility score for how they treat drivers?

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Absolutely. So, in your opinion, like how much does this affect a driver a day? Because a lot of people, you know, you go to a gas station and the bathrooms crappy on a road trip. That doesn't really affect the whole trip to you, but to a driver, it's a lot bigger of an impact.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Yeah, if if you're on a road trip as a you know, you or me are you driving on a road trip, how many road trips do you go on a year?

SPEAKER_02 8:56

Oh, probably at least four or five.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Four or five, which is a good amount. Um, but you think about the picks, the pickups and drops and visiting customer facilities, drivers are doing that, you know, daily sometimes three times a day. Yeah. Um and so, you know, those things, those experience points, I think really compound for a driver. Um enough enough to drive people to, you know, like with the to go back to the Google Reviews example, like they are looking for ways to be heard, and they're looking for ways to kind of express this and and see if there's a way to change this in the industry. Because the unfortunate matter is right now there's not a lot of incentive or accountability for the shippers and the consonnees to kind of provide comfortable work environments for these drivers. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

And historically, you know, drivers haven't had a voice in this part of the industry previously.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Yeah, and it's you know, it and if if they did have it, they're kind of a little bit shouting into the void on like a Google reviews type thing, of you know, that that data's not really being used or being kind of uh put forth to better the driver's circumstances. But you know, our because sometimes we'll get that question talking to drivers or fleets is like, well, why can't I just use Google Reviews? It's like you could, you could leave that review there, but um it's probably not gonna, it's not gonna move the needle. It'll go in there and and no one will ever see it again. But um, you know, we're able to really benefit from the scale. I mean, there are millions of truck drivers across the country, and when you can unify those voices and use that and give that a platform, we think there's a lot of change that can come from that. Uh, and that's what we're trying to do is just give everyone one be the lightning rod for these types of issues uh for folks to to sound off on.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

Absolutely. And I think, you know, that this is where Doc Pages really comes in. So, and for someone hearing about Doc Pages for the first time, simple as it is, what is it?

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Yeah, Doc Pages, uh in one line, I would say it's Yelp for shipper and receiver facilities. So it's a place that you can go. You can go, you can leave a review about your experience. You can see what other drivers are saying about that that facility in terms of how to check in, do I need an appointment? Will they let me park overnight? What documentation are they gonna ask for? All those little tactical things that a driver is trying to plan out as they they plan their day. Um and then I think the other big improvement over um, you know, like uh again, Yelp or Google Reviews, is we want to bring the facilities into this conversation so the the facilities can claim their page and provide that really accurate data firsthand. Um, you know, we'll we'll do what we can to collect driver reviews and and try and figure out what their hours of operation are, things like that. But we want the facilities to be part of this conversation as well, and we want this to be a collaborative effort where you know drivers provide the experience and their kind of their ground truth lived experience, and the shippers can react to that and say, okay, here are the ways that we could maybe make this a better experience for drivers.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

Yeah, absolutely. So, how are you ensuring that the information is accurate and useful?

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Yeah, so first off, um you have to be a registered uh DocTime user to leave a doc pages review. So, you know, we're not you can't just log in and kind of or you know go to the website and start saying whatever you want about people. Like you have to provide a phone number, like authenticate yourself. Um, so that's one. Um I think as we as we go, we will uh you know probably add more measures to we can already police for like if someone's you know, if the same person leaves 50 bad reviews on a wet on a facility, it's like okay, this person clearly has an axe to sharpen, we can just remove those those extra reviews from the from the site. Um and you know, as as time goes, being able to verify some of those reviews. But I'd say the the main thing is, you know, you have to have a phone number, you have to be like a an authenticated user to leave a review in the first place. And if we see behavior that is not ill aligned with the spirit of doc pages, which is you know giving people ground truth uh data about these these facilities and increasing that accountability, we'll take steps to kind of moderate and um and remove like the like the really you know negative uh content that comes up there.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

And and I'd also want to say just that, you know, I know we've talked a lot about the negative so far, but I mean we have facilities on our platform that are 4.95 stars across hundreds of reviews. Like drivers are not only going there to complain. Um, you know, any sure, any type of review site that might skew a little negative, you know, people are a lot quicker to say the bad things than the good, but there are good facilities that are heaped with praise from drivers because of just the the stark difference between what how bad a facility could be and how great and how excellent. I mean, we've seen facilities that they give away swag to drivers, they give away trucker hats, they give away stuff to animals. So um we love to see, you know, creative and fun ways that a facility can kind of you know show appreciation for the drivers that that make our whole industry possible.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Absolutely. And it holds the ones who aren't, you know, up to standard accountable when they're seeing all of these great reviews come in and all of these five stars and all of the things that these good places are doing and making a lot of more money for because they're at a higher standard.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Totally. You know, our goal is to make if you're a good dock time facility or dock pages facility, you should pay lower freight rates than the bad ones because all in, it's gonna cost you less to go into that facility. It's gonna cost you less time. Your driver's gonna have a uh, you know, uh a much better experience. Um, they're not gonna like bang up your trailer. Some of these yards are potholes and and forklifts driving into the side of trailers. So um we're we're trying to price in all of that, what it means to be a good versus bad facility.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

This really feels like it's giving drivers something they've never had before. Why is giving drivers a voice such a big part of your mission?

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Um, yeah, I mean, I think uh I think it's it's twofold. I think one, it's just having been a part of the industry for the past couple years, seeing the past cycle of freight recession, and particularly like the how the job of truck driving has gotten worse over the past years, like I think from just a kind of moral standpoint, it feels good to be able to have a product that we think like has kind of commercial and economic benefit, but also is just like for the hardworking guys and gals that that make this industry possible. So um I think it it just feels good to try and help a profession that has um that has taken a lot on the chin in in recent uh recent times. And then also just like it's I think it's drivers are from our perspective, you know, as a as a company, and like you know, wanting to ensure our um our defensibility, like having a uh user base and and adoption that in such a large population like the drivers really helps us because you know now with like AI and vibe coding, like any like technology or software, you know, someone could kind of replicate it uh easy enough. But what's difficult to replicate is tens, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of drivers all deciding that like, hey, this is where we're gonna use for this um for this issue. That you can't that's harder to displace. And so really I think it it cuts both ways. It it feels good to help uh you know restore a little bit of dignity that to the American truck driving position, and then also it helps us as a company be uh you know more durable.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

Absolutely. So do you think drivers have been overlooked when it comes to feedback in the supply chain?

SPEAKER_00 17:41

100%, actually. And I and I think uh our one of my friends, uh Mother Trucker News, recently launched a similar product that I think is is is getting at the same issue. Um and his is kind of like a feedback, it's like an open feedback tool back to carriers. So he he kind of made this app where drivers can submit like kind of anonymously like complaints or requests, or like, oh, like I wish my company did this this way, or I wish they changed the compensation package this way. And then because he is like the dominant news source, independent news source in the industry, uh and knows every carrier under the sun, he can kind of go back and advocate for the drivers in kind of a similar way of like crowdsourcing feedback and then trying to affect change, just more focused on the carrier side than uh the shippers and facilities. And I think I think all of that gets to like it's you know, folks like Mother Trucker News, folks like us identifying that there is a disconnect between all of the ladies and gentlemen doing the hard work, boots on the ground like every day, and the powers that be in the industry of like I I don't think there is as much connective tissue as there could be between those things. Because and I I you know I also don't want to demonize the people at the top of you know, in the carrier feedback case or like at the shipper and receiver facilities, because a lot of times I I think they don't know that they have these problems. I was at uh Truckload Carrier Association back in Orlando uh listening to one of the one of the major the head of a major truckload carrier talk about how he went for a ride along with one of his drivers for the first time in a couple of years to kind of see firsthand the experience uh that these drivers are living through. And he was taken aback. Like he was like, this is not the trucking that I remember three, four years ago. Um, not just from a you know facility perspective, but like the experience at truck stops, the experience at at auto shops and mechanics and everything in between. Um and you know that that that kind of drift can happen. The people at the top can kind of lose touch with the real day-to-day. And so if there are technology solutions that help the people at the top of the of carrier companies, shipper and receiver companies uh better understand what's going on, boots on the ground, like um we want to be a part of that. And I think that's why you're starting to see some of these crowdsource tools come online.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

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SPEAKER_02 20:59

So have you noticed any of these facilities on your dock pages actually progressively making changes?

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Yeah, so I mean uh first off, we we work we're working directly with a couple of uh shipper facilities that actually like their scores were good. Like to start, their scores were good, but when we kicked off conversations with them, because we have another side of our business where when we identify bad facilities, we say, hey, are there are there is there technology and software products that we could use to help you streamline operations? So not only diagnosing the problem, but helping them fix it. We're working with a couple uh facilities that, again, they had good reviews to start, but they identified what we were kind of developing and said, we think this has a lot of value in our operations. So we've already kind of seen it with our direct customers that um facilities want to improve. And then I think overall. At a high level, like beyond our direct customers. The product is still pretty new, so I think we're we're still seeing how this visibility plays out. But we have identified some of the really best in class facilities. We have a driver ambassador program where we partner with drivers directly to kind of be uh beta testers, users, um, and then provide us feedback on the product. And one of our driver ambassadors brought us to our attention that uh Costco, Costco distribution centers across the country are like world class in terms of how they handle and and treat and respect drivers. So if there's anyone from Costco listening on the distribution center side, I salute you for your efforts.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

Uh, if this podcast breaches Costco, actually email me too, because I'll reach one here.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

You should sponsor the road ahead and all things trucking as well. Um, but uh but shout out you guys for the work you do for getting drivers in and out of of warehouses because that is that's something we're already seeing both kind of through our first hand experience with our ambassadors and the data that we're collecting.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

So anytime something like this is gonna happen, right, there's gonna be a reaction to something new like this hitting this industry. So have shippers and receivers responded to the doc pages? How have they responded?

SPEAKER_00 23:27

I think it's it's um I think it's a mix. You know, if if we're like if you know, if you just think about say doc pages rates 100 facilities, automatically half of them are gonna be good and above average, and half are gonna be below. So generally when we go to someone who's good, they go, Oh, so we're a we're a good facility, you're saying. And then they're, you know, now they're incentivized to kind of use that our data as like a selling point to their customers. It's like, see, like XYZ says we're a good facility, which we're, you know, we're happy to uh support because the the data backs it up. Um where I think there is, you know, some dragging your feet is when we, you know, you cut, when you look at the bottom 50 in my example of 100, and you're like, hey guys, you aren't great relative to your competitive set in terms of how satisfied drivers are coming into your facility, that's where it's a little slower. That's where it's like you get a little bit more um anxiety from the the facilities about like, oh, how is this gonna make me look? What should legal say, etc. Um, but you know, at the end of the day, like we're gonna keep doing it regardless. Like this will, and and so our our focus is is to just continue to get driver reviews and and get to a critical mass point where it's like it's irrefutable. Like whether you're if you're on this uh spectrum, you're and you're uh you're a bottom half facility, the only thing to do is figure out how do I improve and how do we move the ball forward. Um so I I think it's I think it's a mix. It depends like how you know if the facility is a good guy or a bad guy.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

Yeah, it depends on what side of the superhero spectrum you're on. Um so have you had much pushback from the villain side? Would that would in our not exactly villains, but our bottom 50% of this example?

SPEAKER_00 25:22

I think it's it's less pushback, it's more just like we're not gonna engage, we're gonna see where this is. We're gonna ignore you until Yeah, until until it's you know, our until it's irrefutable, yeah. Yeah, our goal is to just continue to bang the drum and be as loud as possible and uh about the you know objective ground source data that we're getting. We're not trying to smear anyone, but we are trying to again elevate truck driver voices and and whatever those wherever that points us in terms of the good and the bad, we want to we want to highlight it. Um and you know, we have I think we have path forward to to do so irrespective of we would love it if the facilities um you know leaned in and kind of were were part of this for the ride and figured out okay, how can I be a better, a shipper of choice, how can I be a uh a good partner to my transportation vendors? Um, but if not, then we're just you know we're gonna keep going. We're gonna keep going until um until we get the change that we want for drivers.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

So do you see this as a disruption to the industry? Do you see yourselves as disruptors?

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Yeah, I I think uh, you know, any uh if you're if you're building technology, you want to be disrupting something. You don't want to build tech, probably don't want to build technology to like reinforce the status quo. I think, yeah, I think there is a disruptive aspect of uh you know the the overall market underpricing how much it takes to serve certain freight and certain lanes because of the facility experience. So, you know, our industry is often thought of in very per mile terms. So, like, okay, I'm going from A to B, it's gonna be 500 miles at $3 a mile, the lane is $1,500. Take or leave it. Um, you know, our our uh position is that that's not enough to effectively price the load and figure out if you're gonna make money on it or not. It's like you need to know the facilities that that's go that they're going to and what that experience is gonna be like and how long it's gonna take. Um and so in that sense, I think we're disruptive to that model of you know, a straight per mile pricing to more what is the what is the fully baked, fully landed cost of of the load.

SPEAKER_02 27:41

So if this works the way that you're hoping, what kind of impact do you hope that Dog Pages creates over like in the long run?

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Yeah, I mean I I think um I think it goes back to the mission. It goes back to eliminating truck detention. Uh there's a you know an ATRI report that was published 12, 18 months ago that says detention it costs the trucking industry $15 billion a year, um both in direct expenses and and lost driver wages and lost diesel and all that, and then also lost revenue. Um, I think they they had a stat in there that said if if all detention time was eliminated, so that's not even like that's like only time over two hours. So if if every pick or drop took two hours or less, you could take seven to eight percent of the trucks off the road. And so you need like that's a lot less capital getting tied up in uh in trucks, that's a lot less, like, you know, people are always kind of perpetuating this uh driver shortage uh narrative. Um, and so you know, think steps are taken to introduce new drivers to that, but it's like okay, now we don't have to we don't have to find drivers that might not meet the the cuff that we want to meet demand because our our circuit is just working so efficiently. Like because of the time savings of eliminating detention, the industry can just function uh a whole lot better. And that's really I think where in five to ten years we'll be the litmus test of did we did we make some changes? Like, do trucks still sit for six to eight hours at a time, um, unpaid, or are they getting in and out faster or are they being fairly compensated for the time that are the the true cost of taking six to eight hours to load a truck?

SPEAKER_02 29:30

Yeah. So I always like to bring every episode back to the drivers who are listening. So if a driver is listening right now, why should they start using doc pages?

SPEAKER_00 29:43

If you're a driver listening right now, uh I want you to know that your voice is valuable, your uh experience matters, your opinion matters, and we at Doc Pages want to give that a platform. Um so if if you're at a customer facility and you've had a negative experience and you're like, will this ever change? Um, I've been in the industry for 20 years, it's always like this. Uh, I I would challenge you to say, no, this can be different. We can enforce a new level of of collective accountability. So again, to that driver, if you're sitting at a stop waiting to get uh unloaded right now, go to docktimeapp.com, search the address of that facility, and leave them a review. Because uh if we all kind of work together, we can we can make some serious change in the industry.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

Absolutely. All right, Connor, are you ready for some rapid fire questions? Speed round, lightning round.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

Lightning round, hit me summer.

SPEAKER_02 30:40

All right. Worst doc experience that you have ever heard.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Um 36 hour detention time. Like came in on a Friday, uh facility was closed, they weren't they weren't opening back up till Monday. Might have been even longer. Um, and that's not even that uh that's not even that uncommon to to, you know, I try try and get their they say the the facility is open till 6 p.m. on a Friday, they close at four, and now boom, you're sitting there all weekend, and you you didn't get to go back home and watch a little Johnny's uh baseball game. So yeah, there are some nasty 36, 48-hour detentions that are that are out there or layovers.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

All right, excluding detention, what is one thing every shipper should fix immediately?

SPEAKER_00 31:30

Just tell your guys, smile. When you're talking to a driver, smile. It's not that hard. It's it's like Subart, you don't understand how many reviews I I see where it's like, this person, they wouldn't smile. They didn't say hi to me when I got there. Some of it's maybe like ventures into little petty stuff, but it is, it really is like sometimes the little things that can just like blow away a driver. So I think like just reminding that um your your warehouse staff, your office staff, that uh you know, customer experience, uh experience to your partners matters a lot. So just toss a smile on the next time a driver walks into the office. I think that'll that'll uh make a big change. And it's and it's free.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

It's free. Smiles are free. I'm gonna make that I'm gonna put that on a t-shirt and send it to you.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

What is the most underrated issue drivers deal with?

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Most underrated issue drivers deal with. I mean, I'm gonna say detention. I'm biased. Um if I maybe if I I'll I'll handicap myself and go outside of detention. I'm gonna say bathrooms. Bathrooms would be a good one. Well, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna not talk my book here and put aside all of the facilities.

SPEAKER_02 32:49

Putting aside everything we've discussed so far.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

Put aside everything we've discussed, I do think it's hard for drivers to price, like especially small guys, it's hard for them to price freight effectively. Like when diesel's doing this like over time and the spot market's doing this, and their truck payment, they're on some, you know, lease-to-own program. It's very sometimes difficult for a small owner op to say, like, okay, I'm looking at this load. Is this good for my business? And you know, with the tools and technology that we have now, there's no reason that that they can't have something over the shoulder to give them more confidence when they bid against freight, um to not take deals that are that are bad for them. So I think aside from detention customer facility experience, uh, I would say that helping drivers price freight, that's that's a tough, tough nut for them to crack.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

Absolutely. One thing drivers wish companies understood.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

Um I think they wish they understood how much time they uh how much time and the impact of being at a customer facility can can screw them up. Again, like, you know, I think the customers even good carriers are not um, I think super cognizant of how much time their trucks and drivers are spending at facilities because it's hard to manage a fleet. There's a lot going on. And I think even less than that, they understand how much that that impacts their driver's uh overall experience. And I think again, it comes back to the home time piece. It's like all of these things, all of these little paper cuts of detention add up to where, you know, if a driver's paid by the mile and there's only a hundred hours in a week or whatever the number is, and now they can only drive 80 because they waited for 20. It's like that is a that's a difference in their check that like they need to like put food on the table, pay rent. So I think the the real ramifications of like what all this stuff, yeah, it's like trucking company profit and loss statements and income statements, but at the end of the day, like that's that ties back to like someone feeding a family, someone being at home with a family. Um, so I think the real kind of putting a premium on the the personal aspects of drivers is is uh important.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

Absolutely. What's the next big change coming to trucking?

SPEAKER_00 35:13

Next big change coming to trucking. Uh doc page is number one, but again, I will uh I'll try and um add a at a slightly different one. Next big change coming to trucking. I mean, it's uh it's I I think it's gotta be autonomous. Like it's gotta be it's gotta be AI. Yeah, it's like you know, there's some of the big uh big name players are they're running a lot of uh lanes down in Texas with with uh you know unmanned vehicles. Um I don't think that means that the the truck driving I think those vehicles are not you're never gonna see end-to-end uh end-to-end autonomous driving. Not for not for at least 25 plus years. So I think that the big thing is like how do how do existing drivers kind of adapt and and reconfigure to like, okay, maybe a lot of the the middle mile, long-haul stuff isn't there, but like, you know, driving from one kind of doing more of like a hub and spoke model than like the the super long-ranging stuff. Um I think that, yeah, I think that's that's gonna be the big the really big thing that that changes this industry over the next five, ten years.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

Absolutely. If every doc was publicly reviewed on doc pages tomorrow, what would change overnight?

SPEAKER_00 36:34

Yeah, I mean I think um I think all of a sudden a lot of facilities would realize I gotta get this this stuff in order, and a lot of carriers would realize I gotta I gotta start charging my customers more because this is this is ridiculous, like what what the hoops we have to go through to service this. So I think revenue would go up for the trucking industry, and I think uh driver experience would also go up.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

Um there would definitely be a mindset change.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

Yeah, if if if if you gave me a magic wand to have uh 10 million driver reviews like tomorrow, um I think at that point everyone's like, okay, the data's uh it's irrefutable. Like we, you know, we we gotta change, we we gotta change our ways. Um, and our goal is to just get to that that 10 million as quickly as possible.

SPEAKER_02 37:25

Are drivers undervalued or just unheard?

SPEAKER_00 37:30

I think undervalued. I think undervalued. Um because even it's tough. I mean, I I'm my mind's going to this the 60 minutes chameleon carriers thing. I don't know if you've seen that that's come out, but like a big expose that that was done on that. And a lot of people in this industry who are not drivers but who are um peripheral kind of players, whether um, you know, whether it be like, for example, foreign dispatchers or these kind of like, you know, uh chameleon carrier companies, like the driver is really just a means to an end for them. Um they don't I think if you talk to a lot of the great trucking companies, they understand how important drivers are. And um, but there are definitely people who just who just see them as an input and don't value them as kind of human beings. So I would say undervalued, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

I I 100% agree with you there. I feel that everyone who is listening is that is a driver is significantly undervalued in this industry and underinformed. I think uninformed is also another one. Yeah. Um what would shock the average person about what drivers deal with at a facility?

SPEAKER_00 38:46

Like it can be prison. Like it truly some facilities, like if you back up to a dock and they're like, okay, it's gonna take seven hours to unload you, you're not allowed to leave the facility. You are temporarily in a prison cell of your own truck because of that's that's the policy that the shipper wants to enforce. Um, and if they don't have a bathroom there, it's like, and you didn't get food before. Like, I mean, imagine, imagine like I put a box in you right now summer, and like in your podcast studio and said, Okay, like give you seven hours. You'd you'd freak the hell out.

SPEAKER_02 39:22

So this sounds like high school again. Please don't do this to me.

SPEAKER_00 39:26

Yeah, yeah. So, but you know, the trucker, that's what like they graduated, like they're they're not supposed to deal with that anymore. Um, but yeah, there's some of the most extreme cases, it can really feel like prison in your own cab.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

So there are platforms like the Trucker's Network, our lovely sponsor, that focus on giving drivers resources and benefits. Where do you see doc pages and doc time fitting alongside tools like this?

SPEAKER_00 39:57

Yeah, I mean, I think uh I think tools like the Trucker's Network and and um you know sites like that are super helpful to have one place to go to have to, you know, if I if I'm a trucker trying to improve my overall experience, um, you know, we need the industry needs things like the truckers network to just be like a basket to hand to drivers. Like, here's how to how to improve your experience. We play, we you know, we humbly kind of play in a very specific thing. If like a driver is trying to figure out how do I make my customer facility experience better, um, you know, Doc Pages, I think, is a part of that is an informational tool and again a tool for them to be heard. Um, but you you need the kind of like catch all, like if a driver can't keep track of all the 50, 100 different ways to uh to make their experience better. So I think the truckers network is a great basket of like this is a hand-picked assortment of tools, products, uh experiences that that help them, and you know, we're just happy to to kind of plug in where it makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 41:05

What's one message you want every shipper, receiver, and driver to hear right now?

SPEAKER_00 41:12

Yeah, I I think um I think detention is a coordination problem. Detention is not something that I know it's been around in the industry for decades, but it is not something that we have to tolerate as the cost of doing business. I think there are ways that trucks can move in and out of warehouses faster, the flow of goods can be more frictionless, and everyone wins. Um, we we don't want to make this a huge finger pointing contest. Obviously, accountability is a part of it, but I think everyone can win in this fight against detention. And that's why, that's why we're we're doing what we're doing, is we're trying to make it a win-win-win for shippers, carriers, and drivers.

SPEAKER_02 41:52

I really appreciate what your company is trying to build because at the end of the day, it's about making things better for the people actually out there doing the job.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

Totally. And uh, if you guys want to follow us along for for this journey, you can find us on socials at Doctimeapp uh is our is our handle. So Twitter, uh X formally Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, we're we're on all of them. Um and if you want to leave a review at a facility, go to DocTimeapp.com. It's totally free for drivers, punch in that address and leave your first review today. Uh, but thank you so much, Summer, for having us on and letting us talk about what we're doing.

SPEAKER_02 42:29

Thank you so much, Connor, for joining us and helping to spread this message and helping to make the industry a better place for drivers who are the backbone of this country. If you liked today's episode, please follow and subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another driver. Until next time, thank you to the people who keep America moving. One mile, one load, one voice at a time.