Bob and I attended a four day trucking seminar (CMC) this past week in Denver. We had an awesome time with the first full day learning the Art of Negotiating. One of the oddest things we learned was to take notes on yellow paper with a red pen to retain about 48% more then you will using a black or blue pen on white paper. We learned that you need to interpret men and women's movements differently and also the tone of voice and to listen to what they are saying. He who speaks first has all ready set them self up in a weaker position. Never assume anything and let the other person speak their mind. We had a couple role playing skits that were a lot of fun to set up and then watch them play o
ut. One skit was to negotiate a better rate from a broker and our table had a ace in the hole with Henry Albert who has been doing this for many years. He was able to get us a pretty darn good rate by letting the broker know we would take a discounted rate for two week to prove ourselves then we would come back to the table and talk. The next day we went over getting your own authority with Rex Evilsizor and in the afternoon we had Bruce Mallinson with Pittsburgh Power. I was a little side tracked as we really do not want more power and at this point I am not real interested in getting our own authority. (that idea scares me to death). The next day Kevin Rutherford started in on us! One of Kevin's favorite tricks is to make us move to another chair. That is very hard to do as once we sit in a chair at a seminar we now take ownership of that space. We went from the back row where our group sat to the front row! We made Kevin pay for this somewhat as we kept raising our hands. Kevin spent a lot of time going over spreadsheets on ho
w to determine good or bad loads, how to improve our existing spread sheets, and how to improve our bottom line. Kevin is also a firm believe in reading and listening to books. He knows we have the best job to get a lot of books read and he had a pretty long list of books he suggested. Ya I know teachers pet but I had all ready read all of those books! The next day was one we had all ready been through on aerodynamics, sweet spots and rear end ratios. I missed most of that day as I was out playing on a computer learning a few new programs.
ut. One skit was to negotiate a better rate from a broker and our table had a ace in the hole with Henry Albert who has been doing this for many years. He was able to get us a pretty darn good rate by letting the broker know we would take a discounted rate for two week to prove ourselves then we would come back to the table and talk. The next day we went over getting your own authority with Rex Evilsizor and in the afternoon we had Bruce Mallinson with Pittsburgh Power. I was a little side tracked as we really do not want more power and at this point I am not real interested in getting our own authority. (that idea scares me to death). The next day Kevin Rutherford started in on us! One of Kevin's favorite tricks is to make us move to another chair. That is very hard to do as once we sit in a chair at a seminar we now take ownership of that space. We went from the back row where our group sat to the front row! We made Kevin pay for this somewhat as we kept raising our hands. Kevin spent a lot of time going over spreadsheets on ho
w to determine good or bad loads, how to improve our existing spread sheets, and how to improve our bottom line. Kevin is also a firm believe in reading and listening to books. He knows we have the best job to get a lot of books read and he had a pretty long list of books he suggested. Ya I know teachers pet but I had all ready read all of those books! The next day was one we had all ready been through on aerodynamics, sweet spots and rear end ratios. I missed most of that day as I was out playing on a computer learning a few new programs.We were out every night for dinner with a great group of people who loved to talk trucks! We talked trucks from 6 in the morning till midnight
at the earliest. We talked on 
how to make our businesses better, how to improve our image, how to be leaders in our field. By the time Thursday was over we were almost brain dead! But what a great week with some very very smart people! We have a lot of new mentors in many areas and all we can do is to keep striving to become as awesome many in our group all ready are.
how to make our businesses better, how to improve our image, how to be leaders in our field. By the time Thursday was over we were almost brain dead! But what a great week with some very very smart people! We have a lot of new mentors in many areas and all we can do is to keep striving to become as awesome many in our group all ready are.Some of the coolest parts of the CMC was getting to drive the new Cascadia of Henry Albert's. Thought Henry and I were going to die a few times as the truck does not take off as quickly as our M2 does due to not having an automatic transmission (Allison). Henry's truck has an automated transmission (AMT) and it takes
some getting used to and I do not want to even go into trying to back the truck up. I know Henry will be wanting to comment that I need a GPS to get around as I took us to the TA twice as I got lost! We were also able to spend time with Miguel from Detroit Diesel and he is just a brilliant sweat heart! If you want to know anything about specing a truck for your operation he is the guy to talk to. Getting to meet Lily in person was also an inspiration as she sure has a lot of drive and can inspire anyone!
Pictures are:
Linda and Kevin Rutherford
Rex Evilsizor
Henry Albert and Miguel Soetaert
Bob and Lily
I've been waiting for these posts. Sounds like it was worth taking a little time off the road. Thanks for the report.
ReplyDelete