[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Vet Voices, a podcast produced by Warner Enterprises, where average is for other people.
Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, coast guard. Let your voice be heard on Warner's veteran podcast.
Now buckle up and get ready for the host of vet Voices, Greg, Johnny, and Adam.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: All right, everybody, thanks for joining us today. Today in the room, we have Nathan Myskuyer, newly appointed president and chief legal officer. We also have Greg and Johnny, and I am Adam. Nathan, thanks for joining us today.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: Thanks for having me, guys. Appreciate it.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: So I think the best place to probably start here is, would you just give us an overview of who Nathan is? What did you do before you came to Warner?
How long have you been here at the company? All that good stuff. What's the 101 on Nathan?
[00:01:04] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. So I grew up as a kid who knew? I always wanted to be a lawyer, which is a strange thing to think of as a teenager, but had a mentor in my hometown, small hometown of Neely, Nebraska, who was the lawyer there, and idolized that guy and thought, that's who I want to be when I grow up. So went to law school at Harvard in Boston, knew I wanted to move back to the midwest. My wife and I moved to Kansas City in the late ninety s, and I started practicing law at a law firm of 300 ish lawyers, which will come into play later. Was there for seven years, on the verge of making partner, and realized that making partner to law firm is a lot like being in a pie eating contest where the prize for winning is more pie. And so I realized that I don't really think that the finish line is something that's for me and a place I want to get to. My wife and I had a couple young kids and a third on the way, and I wanted a little better quality of life, work, life balance.
We're both Nebraska kids. Wanted to move back to Nebraska. So I applied at a couple of places. Interestingly, Warner Enterprises and Berkshire Hathaway, those were the two blind resumes I sent.
I had a connection with the general counsel of Warner at that time, a guy named Dick Reiser, from when I was in college and got an interview here, got a job offer, frankly, at both places, and chose trucking over Berkshire Hathaway.
The transparent answer of the why there is compensation.
It seemed like both jobs were about the same in terms of what the day to day would be. But I got a better offer at Werner. So it's nothing more philosophical or deep than that. And started at Werner in 2005. So I've been here 18 years and change just to clarify real quick, sorry to interrupt you.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Yeah, that was the year I graduated high school. Just want to throw that into the universe.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: I needed one more reason not to like you, Adam. So there it is, which is kind of like Derek's career path of he was going to either go into investment banking or into trucking, and ended up in trucking and it turned out pretty well. So kind of a strange coincidence there, maybe. So. I've been here 18 years. Started as a litigator handling truck accident cases and some employment discrimination work. Early in my career.
Really found my groove in the truck accident side, both handling the litigation and working with the safety team and the operations team to try to prevent accidents, trying to be a little more proactive and really enjoyed that, which helped me grow in terms of my connections across the organization, helped me grow in my commitment and connection to drivers.
And 18 years later, here we are. Never thought I would be here. Never thought I'd be the head of the legal team, let alone the president of the company.
Super humbled and honored to have been chosen for this role and excited about what the next decade or so will hold for all of us.
[00:04:14] Speaker C: So talk to us a little bit about how does a small town kid in Nebraska end up in Boston? At Harvard.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: Yeah. So I really have been a perfectionist my whole life. So grades were important to me, even as a young kid, and into college. So I had a great GPA, grade point average in college. And really the two metrics that you're judged on, on your law school application are your GPA and your LSAT score. So the law school aptitude test. And so I take standardized tests well. Got a great LSAT score, had a great GPA. Those are your two metrics. Law schools don't get very deep on this. They look at two numbers on a piece of paper. And so I got into Harvard in the mid 90s.
Little daunting for a kid from a town of 1500 people that moved to Boston. My wife went to country school and grew up on a farm. For her to be in Boston was a daunting experience too, but great for both of us.
It was life changing, not just because it was Harvard, but just living in Boston as a 22 year old kid, newly married, and it was a formative time for my life. I knew I didn't want to live there. The people in Boston, not quite my jam. I'm more of a Nebraska kid, more of a midwesterner, frankly, that fits well with trucking. Is being a little more down to earth kind of a no bullshit sort of approach to life instead of someone that seems like they're always trying to get one over on you. And the people at Warner certainly fit that same mold.
[00:05:39] Speaker C: So 30 years ago, when you're walking into your first party at Harvard which I'm picturing in my mind has to be just awesome what does that scene look like as you're walking through the door?
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Yeah, great question. So the first party, I remember it where we were all supposed to go around and kind of introduce. It's the where are you from?
What's your degree in? And what's something interesting about you? And as we're going around the room there's somebody who literally had a Nobel prize, someone who had like three master's degrees somebody who had graduated from Cambridge, meaning the other Cambridge, somebody who had served in the bosnian conflict.
And the boulder is rolling toward me and I'm thinking, I got nothing. I'm a kid from Neely, Nebraska and I have an accounting degree. That's boring. And so literally, my fun fact was I grew up in a town of 1500 people in rural Nebraska. And you would have thought everyone in the room thought that was fascinating because they don't know anybody from a town of 1500 people or anybody from Nebraska.
So it's interesting how the things that we all think are very common as Nebraskans. You end up in New York City or Boston or Chicago, even Chicago. Those things can set you apart as a unique character.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: I'm trying to find Neely on the map. How do you spell Neely?
[00:07:01] Speaker A: N-E-L-I-G-H.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: It's not how I would I know at all.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: Neely, you pronounce my Skyer wrong and you can spell Neely wrong also, I.
[00:07:11] Speaker B: Would argue I probably spell both of those.
Yeah.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:17] Speaker C: So when you're thinking back to maybe your beginning years here at Warner what were some of the kind of key challenges and achievements that you were able to accomplish?
[00:07:26] Speaker A: Yeah. When I started, the reason that we needed another litigator was we had 400 truck accidents that were in litigation at the time. So 400 lawsuits pending around the country that were hard to get your arms wrapped around. We had one lawyer and eight claims people that were handling those lawsuits and that's not a viable way of handling litigation. So it was very reactive. We were chasing our tail. We were a step behind. And so we added another lawyer, me, to try to get on top of that. Early on in my career, the other litigator was Jim Mullen and Mullins. And I said, look, this number of 400 is not feasible. We need to get it to a number that we can actually manage and actually know what's going on with our files. And so 400 became 300 became 200, and at one point, it got down into the high double digits, 90 ish.
And the idea was that allows us to pay attention to what really matters, that allows us to not get distracted by all of the noise. And so a real big achievement that I'm still proud of is getting that number to a more manageable number. And, oh, by the way, eight claims professionals became four. We have four people doing that job now. They're all great, and they do a great job, and they stay on top of their files. And it allowed us to be more intentional, be more strategic about the way we were handling litigation. By the way, some cases have to get tried and go to a jury trial, and sometimes those go badly, which we've experienced here at Warner, and that sucks.
But the ability to make strategic decisions that are principled and are based on facts and not based on emotion and not based on reactive behavior, and where we sit now and have been here for ten years, probably, in terms of the litigation count, is something I'm super proud of. And even a young lawyer, me, had the ability to make a difference there, which I suppose the takeaway is, regardless of what your job is here and where you are in the, you have the ability to make a difference and make things better for yourself and your team a year from now, five years from now, ten years from now. And if we can all make small improvements every day, every week, it really adds up over time.
[00:09:42] Speaker C: So for Adam's perspective, and maybe the listener's perspective, how many cases or pending files does Warner typically have on an annual basis?
[00:09:51] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
[00:09:51] Speaker C: We had 400, and then we got that down to high.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: Ninety s. Yeah, we've settled in at about 130, which is higher than I would like, and my team knows that's a little higher than I would like, and they're probably sick of me saying that. But in comparing to other large truckers, we're better than average. I would say average is for other people, and so we're better than average.
It's a dogfight out there in the claims and litigation world, and especially on personal injury cases, there's a lot of crazy results out there, and so we're having to fight maybe harder and longer than we would like on some cases. So 130 ish is the current settle.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: In point, so you don't have to scroll too far on transport topics or freight waves to read about nuclear verdicts, to read about the litigation landscape that exists specifically in certain states. But what have you seen in your 18 years? Progressively, I'm assuming, from when you joined to now, it's gotten worse. Any color on that, of what you've seen?
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Yeah, it's gotten worse. And be careful about saying it can't get any worse. Not that you said that or that I would say it, but there really isn't an improvement coming until we as truckers and we as reasonable people dig in and start giving feedback to the people who make the laws, the judges who make the decisions. And once we start explaining what those verdicts do, by the way, what those verdicts do is they shut down trucking companies. So people who have real jobs and people who we all know as our neighbors lose their jobs. I'm not saying that's happening at Warner, but a lot of truckers have gone out of business because of those kind of verdicts, the insurance prices that go up and affect all truckers. And so that means that we have to charge more to our customers for the services that we provide in order to recoup our costs. And that trickles down to people buying diapers and medicine and eggs and the common things that everybody needs, and prices get higher because of those verdicts. And we truckers and me, look in the mirror, have to do a better job of getting that message out to the average folks in the world, because otherwise, you hand out funny money as a juror and you think that it doesn't really affect you. And it does, and so it's gotten really bad. Plaintiffs lawyers are really emboldened by those big verdicts that you read about in the news. It's not just a trucking problem, by the way. Union Pacific got hit for $700 million on a case where a woman got drunk at a bar, went stumbling home, sat down on the railroad tracks, and got hit by a train at night. And union Pacific got hit for that big of a verdict on a case where I think anybody who just heard those facts would say, well, that person made poor choices that affected her own life and the lack of personal responsibility. I'm getting a little preachy here, but the lack of personal responsibility in our society is pretty disturbing. And if we keep going down that path, it ends in a much worse way.
[00:13:04] Speaker B: So, impossible question to answer, possibly.
What's somebody in the safety department? What's a driver? What's somebody in recruiting? What are things that, meaningful things that we can do in our day to day that help with that? If there is anything?
[00:13:21] Speaker A: Those are great questions so I would say those of us, which is everybody in the company, everybody has an impact on our safety culture, whether it's the way you're driving into work yourself and are you texting while you're driving? Are you distracted by something else? Are you shaving or something that's bad?
Again, let's look in the mirror first. Let's all be responsible for our own safety. And by the way, let's reflect that to the world around us and those in our community. And lead by example. That's one, two.
The cultural statements that we make. Nothing we do is worth getting hurt or hurting. Others have those actually matter to you. So if you're in the billing department and something comes up that suddenly you think, ooh, that actually has a little bit of a safety element to it, don't just let that run through your brain and then move on. Stop and think about what you can do to improve safety and the culture of safety. And again, talk to a driver, anybody. Talk to a driver and explain to him or her how much we care about their safety. That's not the same thing as just saying, hey, be safe out there. Little throwaway line, right? Say, hey, we care about you, and we want you to get home safely to your family. And so, because we care about you, please don't cut any corners today.
Something that is more meaningful than a throwaway line or something on your signature block.
Let's actually mean it when we say it, and let's take action. Yeah, right.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: You mentioned commitment to drivers earlier in your part of your intro. What was that aha. Moment for you when you joined a trucking company and realized that that commitment is a very real thing?
Any stories that helped you along that way?
[00:15:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, let me take it a little bit of a different way. So I tell my teams that early on in my career, I had kind of a crappy attitude about my role at the company. I came in thinking, I'm a lawyer who happens to work at a trucking company, which is a terrible attitude to have.
Doesn't make me a bad person, but that's the wrong attitude to have maybe makes me a bad person. Thanks, Greg. And so I spoke to the it department last year at a town hall, and similar question. And I said, look, you're not an it professional who happens to work at a trucking company. You're a trucker who happens to work in it. So for my team of lawyers, we're truckers who happen to be lawyers. And if you can start your career, by the way, again, accountant or safety professional or recruiter or whatever it is. Start from the perspective of I'm a trucker who happens to be in this particular area, really a better place to start from in terms of your commitment to what matters at the company and your commitment to people.
So that's something that took me a while to learn. And I don't know that it was an aha. Moment of I'm screwing stuff up here. It was more of a watching the people around here who were successful and figuring out how they were successful. Angelo Gibson, who's a dear friend of mine and has been for my whole career, really exemplifies that in a perfect way. Like Angelo will give up his own personal time and will answer a phone call at 02:00 in the morning and will jump in on something to help a driver at any moment. And I always thought, man, that guy, that commitment, that level of commitment to the people on our team, who, by the way, are often over the road and often not around their family and often not near the lifeline, helping out that person when they need it the most makes such a huge difference. And so that's something I'm committed to. And my new role as president and chief legal officer is to be out and about more often. I've done it in the last several years. I've really focused on trying to get out, talk to drivers, listen to drivers and find out what's concerning to people to ease some fears. And by the way, if fears are legitimate, then let's find a solution to those fears to make sure that they can get better.
And I got an email from a driver this morning who reached out to me on LinkedIn to congratulate me for the promotion. And he and I have a meeting set up in two weeks, maybe three weeks in Omaha when he's coming through to sit down and talk. He said he's got some ideas. I'd love to hear his ideas.
And Warren is his name, and I'm super excited about that conversation and plan to do a lot more of that over the coming months and years.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: Ask
[email protected].
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Maybe it doesn't have the ring to it, but we'll get there.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: So you just touched on a lot of this, but I'll ask it just to give you an opportunity to expand on it if you'd like to. What's your leadership philosophy?
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Yeah, that's an interesting question. I get that one a lot and have for the last several years. I suppose the best way to answer it is servant leadership, which sounds cliche and I hate the fact that it sounds cliche, but never ask someone to do something that you wouldn't be willing to do yourself.
Adam, you know this story, but Adam and I were traveling together on a business trip where we were both ending up in Houston, and I needed a ride to a place, and my Uber didn't show up, and I was going to be running late to my event, and Adam stuck around because he wanted to make sure I was going to get to where I was supposed to go, and Adam drove me. So Adam was my Uber driver to get me to my meeting. He had extra time built into his day.
[00:19:03] Speaker C: That's a good use of his mean.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: Let's be honest, it didn't pay. Doesn't. And I don't tip very well either. You did get five stars, and so I have done that for other people, I guess is the point of don't leave somebody hanging. You've got a teammate. Whether that person's above you or below you on the chart doesn't matter. You've got a teammate who has a need and being willing to step in when there's a need. Adam exhibited servant leadership there, but that's my answer, is I feel like the exhibiting for others what you expect from them. I go on terminal visits with Derek, and if you really watch the way Derek behaves again, a lot of life is about your observational skills.
Watch the way Derek acts at a terminal visit. And if there's a plastic bag that is blown up against the fence and is kind of an eyesore and everybody can see it, Derek will take a detour and go walk over and grab it and wad it up and put in his pocket, and then when he gets to a trash can, he'll throw it away. And that level of attention to detail, doing it yourself, caring about how do we look, which, by the way, is a veterans thing, right? I mean, you guys, more than anybody, care about am I buttoned down? Is my stuff in order? Am I wrinkled?
Am I put together the way I'm supposed to be put together? And by the way, that doesn't mean that you've got everything figured out, but if you pay attention to the little things, a lot of the big things will follow in suit. So long way around the barn, too. Servant leadership is my answer there.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: It's a great answer, and it's really easy to say to your point, it's cliche, but it's really easy to say out loud. It's a whole other thing to actually do it well. And I think that's one of the things I appreciate about all of the Warner leadership team here is that's instilled in our culture. I think the other thing you mentioned, terminal tours. One of the things that I like to see on the terminal tours is there's a couple vps, Derek, you. There's a lot of people that go, and almost to a t, every single person on those from the leadership team is always in listen mode. It's not necessarily, hey, show up and hear me talk, Derek. I have some things to share. It's, hey, I want to talk to the drivers. I want to listen to the issues that are going on. What are we doing well? What are we not doing well? And that's a large portion of those events are spent in that listen mode, which is an awesome thing. Whether you're a safety specialist or a driver or a maintenance technician, that connection is real on those visits.
[00:21:40] Speaker A: Yeah. The boss likes to say, God gave us two ears and one mouth in that ratio for a reason.
[00:21:46] Speaker C: Use them appropriately.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: Yeah, and use them appropriately again. It's cliche, right? And it's a little funny when we're all sitting here leaning into a microphone and talking. So the mouth is probably engaged a little too much here. But it's something that watching the other successful people here over 18 years has taught me, stop and listen. And by the way, it's also make sure people feel seen. It's not just make that they feel heard. It's, I see you again, cliche stuff, but be present. So when we're at a terminal, usually we're on a tight schedule. Usually we've got it somewhere else. We got to be by 04:00 this afternoon to stay on our schedule. Often we're running late and we're trying to make sure we can get to all the stuff. And if you just blow by everybody that's at that terminal who was there to talk to you or to get five minutes of your time, you just blow by everybody. What did you really accomplish? And so being intentional about, I'm going to stop and talk to as many people as I can. As you said, everybody is charged with, hey, you're there for a reason. You're not there to just go see a terminal. You're not there just to go meet with people you've already met. Like, you see somebody who has a need, stop and hear about it. By the way, we can't solve every problem, but at least make sure people.
[00:23:00] Speaker C: See and ask questions.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Right.
[00:23:02] Speaker C: I mean, get out there and ask everyone questions, right?
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Yeah. What are we doing well?
[00:23:07] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: What are we doing wrong?
And then as long as we can, don't read your own press clippings. Don't just go out and say, hey, tell me something great about this company, or, hey, what do you like about Werner? Because then you're trolling for compliments if you say, what can we do to make your life better? That's a pretty simple question, and someone.
[00:23:26] Speaker C: Will give you empowering somebody to help make a difference. So let's talk a little bit more about the support for veterans. So you're someone who we know is highly supportive of veterans. What are some initiatives or policies that you're planning to continue or to introduce here at Warner? To continue our aid of veterans and to continue to put focus on veterans.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: We probably need a new vp of field in government recruiting. That might help things.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: Step one, write that down.
Yeah, in that question was the word continue. And I guess I would emphasize that. So I think we do a good job. We can always do better.
We talk about the importance of veterans in our leadership team. Our chief operating officer is a veteran. Greg, you're a veteran. Adam, you're a veteran. Angelo Gibson, I mentioned earlier, it's not a coincidence that people that tend to be good leaders have a veteran status in their background. That's not mean we've got good leaders on the executive team, including Derek, not a veteran, but who supported veterans. So I would say continuing on where we are is the most important part. Making sure that veteran related legislation that, Greg, you and I work on together. So, you know this, that things that we can do to make sure that veterans that are cycling out of the military have a place at Warner if they want one, have an opportunity. By the way, that's not always drivers. Might be a mechanic, might be in an office spot, might be in a leadership role that we're thinking about. All of those opportunities across the organization, I think we tend to default to, oh, yeah, we can get drivers. That's important. And we need those drivers who are team first, mission focused. We talk about this again, Greg, you and I talk about these things of the mission centric personality of veterans. It's not all of them. It's not all of you, but most. That's something that's impactful to the entire organization and people who like Angelo, who say, I've got a team member who has a need, and he's in Wilkesbury, Pennsylvania right now, and there's nobody there to help him. I'm going to engage, and that's a veteran type attitude.
So I would say continuing on the path that we're already on, not deviating from that path, and making sure that veterans always have a home here at Werner. And frankly, Adam was talking earlier about the way we interact with people at terminal stops or dedicated sites. I think we do a good job. We could do better of making sure that we stop and acknowledge and recognize veterans at every one of those stops, because again, it's not lip service.
If you are focused on it really all the time, people then start to realize that it's not lip service.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: Out of order here. Craig jumped to the veteran piece pretty quick.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:26:35] Speaker C: Shocking. You're going to go out of order?
[00:26:37] Speaker A: Objection. I want to put the system on.
[00:26:39] Speaker B: Trial in the book written by Nathan Meiskeyer. When you talk about your time at Warner, best day and worst day.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: Well, that book's not fully written, so let's start there.
Best day, man.
[00:26:57] Speaker C: I mean, today is right up there.
[00:26:59] Speaker A: It might be today.
[00:27:02] Speaker C: Let's acknowledge the elphin in the room.
[00:27:05] Speaker A: It can't get better, man. I feel like my answer is corny. My best day is the first day because looking back on it, when I'm writing that book, which three people will read, by the way. One of them's my wife.
[00:27:20] Speaker B: None of them are in this room.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: What?
[00:27:22] Speaker B: I'll read it.
[00:27:23] Speaker A: Johnny will read it. Johnny likes bad movies and probably likes.
[00:27:26] Speaker B: Bad books as long as there's an audiobook version.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: I'm probably in first day because at the time, you don't know it. At the time, I didn't know it, but it was a life changing moment for me.
And thinking of what that little bit of snow rolling down the hill turned into by the time it got to the bottom of the hill is something I'm still struggling with, dealing with, really grasping.
So that's first day is best day. I know the worst day so far. The worst day was the day of the $90 million verdict in Houston, which was May of 2018. But it was the fact that on a case where, for people who don't know, a pickup came through the median on the interstate in Texas, ran into our driver. Our driver was maintaining his lane, driving well below the posted speed limit, and even after getting hit by the pickup, he did not lose control and brought his vehicle to a safe stop.
Tragic results from that in terms of child dying and another child with severe brain injuries. So horrible results. But to get the phone call from Houston that we had lost a $90 million verdict really was the worst day.
You have core memories in your life, and the next few hours of that day are core memories. Talking to seal Warner multiple times, talking to Derek multiple times.
And the life lesson of, look, you can wallow in your self pity for 12 hours sometimes there's a 24 hours rule, but I needed to be back on the horse the next morning.
And tomorrow, you better reengage and start working toward a plan here. By the way, that was coming up on six years ago, and the case is still on appeal, and we're still working on it and have a strategy that we've been implementing for six years, five and a half.
But that day was really rough on me, frankly, was really rough on a lot of people around here I care about, including Jamie Hamm, who testified at that trial and did a great job and got beat up by the lawyer who doesn't have a soul in my mind.
And she and I went out after work with another coworker and had a cocktail and tried to catch our breath a little bit after getting kicked in the gut. But again, you got to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep going. But that was a rough day.
And frankly, looking back on it six years later, that was industry changing.
It was a wake up call for all of us in trucking about what's going on out there. We all knew it at the time. People talked about it. There were small whispers, and that's gotten really loud over the last six years. And people look back on that case. I'm not proud of this, but people look back on that case as kind of what started it.
And so I guess if there's a tiny silver lining to a big cloud, that would be it. But, yeah. Interesting question, Adam.
Well, let's shift gears.
[00:30:42] Speaker C: Let's get back on hug, you know, as we think about the vision and kind of future plans, let's talk about some short term goals. So, as the newly minted president here at Warner enterprises, what are your immediate goals for the team?
[00:30:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I would say so. If you've read any of the press release or watched the video that Derek and I pumped out after the announcement was made, really, the immediate goal is to take some of the load off of Derek. Derek's been the president for 13 years. He's been the CEO for almost eight, and been the chairman of the board for maybe three, if I've got my math right. That's a lot of responsibility for one person to have, by the way. We've got the best leader in the industry, and that's not something that's a Warner only held belief, but a lot of people in the industry believe that, but just giving him a little bit of relief is the immediate goal. So I've been doing a lot of travel already in the first few weeks. I got a lot of travel coming up in the next six weeks. I can't really see my calendar past six weeks because it's so muddy. But trying to take some of that off of Derek so that he can focus on the big picture, strategic things that matter, and continue leading us in the right direction. As everybody knows, it's a tough time in trucking. It's maybe the worst, lowest part of a freight cycle that anyone's ever seen, at least in the last 40, 50 years. So people that are still in the industry have ever seen. And so the immediate goal of making sure that people know how much they're appreciated for getting us through this rough time, making sure that people realize that better times are ahead. If something's cyclical, that means that there's an uptime coming, and it really is coming.
But we've just been at the bottom for a long enough period of time that I think people are worn out by it and just trying to re energize the team and make people realize, help people, not make help people realize that better times are ahead. And we're well positioned to be a part of that in the upswing that's coming.
[00:32:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I've been in this business for 23 years, and this is the worst side of the cycle that I've certainly seen. And you can see it in the faces of the associates around the building. I mean, when you walk around their building, you can tell that people are doing their job as best as they possibly can. They continue to demonstrate excellence every single day. But the grind is real, and you can certainly see it in their faces, in their attitudes.
Shout out to everybody that continues to put it in every single day, this is bad, but this will get better, and it will turn, and it will be happier. Times are ahead.
[00:33:26] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think in talking to drivers, the drivers feel it, too. A driver who during the COVID years, knew that he was going to get a load immediately upon delivering the load that he was under. And now maybe it's a few hours of having to wait to get assigned that next load where we in the office are working our butts off to get that driver another load, because it's better for us. If that person's fully occupied, it's better for him. He's going to be happier and more productive and make more money. So, all good? If we can keep drivers occupied. And I think drivers have figured out that it's, again, team sport and we're working hard together to accomplish all the same goals. Rowing in the same direction, by the way, back to veterans that the mission and teamwork side of it. And as long as we're all focused on each other and helping each other up when we need, we'll get through it again. Better times are coming, and we've been in the bottom long enough that I think we can officially say it can't get any worse. I know that's risky to say, but I know that's Johnny's fault. It is.
[00:34:33] Speaker C: Adam's only a shade over 23 years.
[00:34:35] Speaker A: Old, so, I mean, it's not aging well, but we'll get there.
[00:34:42] Speaker B: So covered some immediacy. Right. Need to get out of the cycle that we're currently in. Long term, five year plan, three year plan. I know that that's something that we talk about inside of these walls quite a bit, whether that's from Derek or from you. What is that? Three year plan. Five year plan. Where are we heading?
[00:35:00] Speaker A: Yeah. So this downturn in the cycle has created a blip on that. We were well on target. In fact, we were ahead of pace, and this has caused a little bit of a pause. We still have visibility to that five year, $5 billion landing spot.
I suppose the easiest answer, and let me be clear about this part, there's no hard left turn coming with my being named president.
Derek and I have talked about publicly that one of the reasons that Derek chose me and the board appointed me was that my vision and Derek's vision are very well aligned. So it's not going to be him pulling in one direction and me pulling in another. So I want to be clear about that to start with. So next three, four, five years, if you read the news, lots of friends shoring and near shoring. So basically, manufacturing moving to North America that used to be in China or somewhere else, offshore, meaning lots of new opportunities coming from Mexico and frankly, domestically of new shippers and customers that we need to be out and chasing and making sure we're ahead of. So something that I found interesting from our sales team was there are truckers in Mexico who are trying to find out that next new customer that they should be chasing, and they're looking at a building that just got built and trying to figure out what's going to be manufactured there in the near future. Our sales team, thinking more proactively, is researching who bought the real estate where there will be a plant manufactured sometime soon. Where there will be something shipped eventually so that we're out in front of that curve. So I'm very impressed and proud of our sales team and especially our team in boots on the ground in Mexico. So I think you're going to see a lot of cross border opportunities that are coming.
We've got a lot of great connections in Mexico. Obviously, when Derek started here 25 years ago, might be tomorrow that he started our mexican operation. And 25 years in, we've got a really strong cross border truckload presence, maybe the strongest and largest in North America. So I think that's a place where we need to continue to focus.
And frankly, even on things like recruiting the drivers that are closer to the southern border, we already have a very strong footprint there on the roadmaster side and on the field recruiting. But making sure that we're recruiting folks in the right places to help shore that up, I think, is all part of the strategy. Yeah.
[00:37:37] Speaker C: So we've talked a little bit about veterans and opportunities and the company's inclusive nature for veterans. Let's talk a little bit. What ways do you specifically see veterans playing a role here at Werner in the future, especially when you think about their commitments to inclusion, their commitments to safety, their commitment to having that mission first focus.
[00:38:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I think you stole all of my answers. Well done, Greg.
Here to push you. Yeah, thanks. Or just give me all the answers and then just I'll repackage them.
The best part, I think, about working with veterans like you guys is the fact that it's not about you, it's about the team, it's about the other people in the room. It's about the mission, which is what you just said, the mission focus.
And so it's frankly heartwarming to me to work with more and more veterans all the time on the leadership team across all of the leadership levels.
And it's not hard to pick out the person who is a veteran who served.
And so what do I see? Veterans roles. I think we've already grown in terms of veteran representation at all leadership levels, including Eric Downing, our chief operating officer.
And that's absolutely something that we will be intentional about. Again, it's not a, let's force veterans into a position where they don't a, we know that they fit there and let's make sure that we're leaning into those skill sets.
Adam asked earlier about my own leadership style, and I mentioned servant leadership, but, boy, I think veterans somehow get that ingrained in them in boot camp or something, because that's the way veterans at Warner sure seem to serve each other.
And it's something that, frankly, I try to model. I'm not a veteran. My grandfather served in World War I. My father in law served in Korea. I've got two cousins, that one that served in Vietnam and one in Desert Storm. So lots of people who were very close to me and have meant a lot to me in my own personal development, who I try to model my own values after.
And it's probably not a coincidence that that's a Warner culture moment as well.
[00:40:10] Speaker B: Greg, what unit were you in in World War I?
[00:40:13] Speaker C: I knew that was coming. Adam, I was going to say, do you recognize the names of all those wars that were before 19? 85, 80.
I've got a belt that's older than 86.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: You went belt? That's probably more politically correct than underwear.
[00:40:30] Speaker B: You guys took it there. I just walked in the door.
[00:40:35] Speaker C: There's age and then there's experience.
Let's talk a little bit more about maybe some personal messages. We get into a closing here. Is there a personal message or a reflection that you would like to share with our audience, our veteran employees, our wider Werner audience specifically?
[00:40:53] Speaker A: Yeah. The first message is, I'd just like to say thank you. I don't take my appointment to being president of the company lightly.
It's a reflection of a success of an awful lot of people. And frankly, the three of us like to joke around. We've known each other a long time. But frankly, including both of you two, the success stories, I think you would find this at every level in terms of the executive team and the vice presidents and on down to directors that stop and ask somebody, what's the explanation for your success? And I think all of us would say, well, it's the team that has helped me get here. And by the way, I don't just mean people on the legal team and the risk team and the HR team, those teams that report up through me. I'm talking about everybody, drivers, mechanics, people that are in the intake department, everybody across the board. So I just want to say thank you. That's my first thought. My second thought is, and Greg, you and I talked about it a little bit ago, that this has been a rough last twelve months, maybe 18 months that we've all been dealing with, and we're all kind of worn out by it. And I guess my thought there is the turn is coming and it's no longer years out, it's months out. So be prepared for when the time comes, and let's be ready to run together and make sure that we're all going in the same direction.
Let's work hard to pick each other up. When your teammate falls down, you don't keep on running past him or her. You stop and pick that person up, make sure they're okay, and then you start running again as a team, as a unit.
And I'm super excited about what the next twelve to 24 months will have for the company. I think we're well positioned to be in a strong place into the positive turn in the cycle. But, Greg, you mentioned 23 years here. I've been here 18 years. We've both seen some rough times. The great Recession was not a fun time to be in trucking either. And yet a couple of years later, remember how great things were. And same thing in 2018 19. And things were a little rough. And then heading into the COVID years, we were.
[00:43:13] Speaker C: I was listening to talk radio the other morning, Adam. That's where they talk.
They talk on the radio. And I was reflecting and listening, and they were talking about America, and they were talking about, as we reflect back on all the things and challenges that the country has faced, and you think about the time that we're in today and how politically divisive we are and maybe we're not under the best economic circumstances right now, or we're struggling a little bit and world perception or what have you. Then you think back and you go back to, oh, gosh, the civil war was a terrible period of our history. We got through that. And then you move forward into the Great Depression. We get through that. That was no picnic. World War I, World War II. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. And as we move forward in time, this will be another period of time where we had a challenge. We met the challenge, and now it's time to move forward, and we will move forward.
[00:44:10] Speaker B: I'm still trying to figure out, what kind of car do you drive that you have a radio, am. Radio am. Seriously, do they make those these days?
Nathan, what kind of car do you drive?
[00:44:21] Speaker A: I'm a proud Buick driver, which people love to give me crap about that.
[00:44:26] Speaker C: My almost 80 year old father drives a Buick.
[00:44:28] Speaker A: My first car was a Buick when I was a teenager.
Look, I'm frugal. I'm not quite that frugal.
[00:44:38] Speaker C: So what's the thing about the Buick and the little ovals in front of the motor? I mean, my dad tells me that the reason he drives a Buick is because his dad had a Buick and the significance of the ovals in front of the motor there's three on each side if it's six cylinder, and there were four on each side if it was an eight cylinder. How many ovals do you have on your Buick?
[00:45:00] Speaker A: Wow.
I'm going to have to go check. Can you guys pause?
I'll be right back. What an oval is.
[00:45:08] Speaker B: Did they not teach shape in grade school?
[00:45:10] Speaker A: That's awesome.
Yeah. I'm a proud Buick driver. And screw you, Adam.
I'm not compensating for anything. That's what we've just figured out.
[00:45:21] Speaker B: Not that I would ever, ever play this game, but it pays to know what car your bosses drive so that you know when they're in the office, when they're not.
[00:45:32] Speaker C: It's all coming full circle now, isn't it?
[00:45:34] Speaker A: Now I get it.
Pretty easy.
[00:45:39] Speaker C: That's a pretty easy one. To be distinguished.
[00:45:41] Speaker A: There are probably more teslas in the Warner parking lot than there are Buick, which is a little frustrating to me.
I hate you guys.
[00:45:50] Speaker B: To compensate for the Tesla with the 6.6 liter, right?
[00:45:54] Speaker A: Exactly.
Burn them on our ESG journey, Adam Cassidy. Adam's going to host the environmental podcast next.
[00:46:04] Speaker B: Can you put two pallets of popcorn in a Tesla?
[00:46:08] Speaker A: No. Or in my buick? No, probably not.
[00:46:10] Speaker B: But it'd be comfy. Whatever you could get in there.
[00:46:12] Speaker A: It's like driving a living room.
[00:46:19] Speaker B: Nathan, thanks for the time today. I greatly appreciate that you spend an hour with us.
[00:46:24] Speaker C: Unlike Adam's time, we know your time is valuable, and we appreciate you carving off a few minutes and spending it with us and our listeners.
[00:46:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I appreciate it, guys.
I mean it. You're both my friends.
And really, the veteran community here at Warner is something that I'm proud of. I'm proud to be a supporter of all of you. And I guess my ask of anyone listening is two things. One, if you see a time where you feel that veterans are not being appropriately appreciated or recognized, please raise your hand. And by the way, that can be with to me personally, and if you see a way that we can do better, even if we're getting an a on something, there's another notch up there. Raise your hand there, too, because I don't think we can ever do enough to recognize and thank our veterans. So thank you guys, for your service.
So that should wrap up our vet.
[00:47:24] Speaker B: Voices podcast here for Werner Enterprises team.
[00:47:27] Speaker A: Thanks so much for listening today, brave.
[00:47:30] Speaker B: Men and women of the United States armed forces and our allies all over the world, we salute you. Make sure to buckle up and drive safe out there.
