S1 EP 8

[00:00:01] Speaker A: The best music from the 60s to today. [00:00:05] Speaker B: IPL radio. Hey, good afternoon everybody. Welcome to another broadcast of Talking talk. Sunday afternoons, 3 till 6, 5 till 8, Australian Eastern Standard Time. And this afternoon we have some special guests in the studio. We've got the ladies of transport, we've got Rebecca and Sarah and we'll be talking about road transport, how they got involved in the industry where they're seeing themselves, how hard it is in the industry for ladies. All those tough, hard hitting questions from Talking Talk host Darren Chanter. And we're going to play some great music. Some, we're going to play some, some trucking songs and then we're going to play some ladies trucking songs and then we've got, we're going to be talking about the Lake Perka Lily Red Dust revival. We're going to start on that and we're going to have some guests on that later in a few later shows. Also the guest next week Mr. Ron Simmons will be talking to Ron about Ron and then we'll be talking to Ron next week, the fifth birthday of IPL Radio. Happy birthday. IPL Radio. With Tristan. [00:01:25] Speaker B: Paul and Kaden in the back, we're going to cut a cake. We're going to play some Connie Francis who passed away, some beautiful Connie Francis music. We're going to talk a little bit about motorsport later on, some collectibles. So let's get into it with the ladies. We've got Sarah and Rebecca. How are you guys today? [00:01:45] Speaker C: Good, Darren, how are you? [00:01:48] Speaker B: Fantastic. It's been one of those days, but we're okay. [00:01:51] Speaker D: I'm just a little bit wet. How is it outside? Everybody who's listening? Don't go out there. If you're thinking about going out there, it's raining. Stay inside. The rain's coming in sideways, backwards, every kind of way. Stay warm, turn on talking talk, make a cup of tea and then listen to us for the next three hours. Don't even think about going out anywhere. [00:02:16] Speaker B: Stay warm at home. [00:02:17] Speaker D: Stay warm at home. [00:02:18] Speaker B: Bring the budgies in. Got to bring the budgies in because the budgies went rolling down the side of the house. Steve's going, hey man, I'm trucking down the driveway. [00:02:31] Speaker D: Steve's a budget. [00:02:32] Speaker B: Steve's a budget. [00:02:33] Speaker D: Just in case you didn't know, Just. [00:02:34] Speaker B: In case Steve's a budgie. Our favorite budgie, Steve. [00:02:37] Speaker D: We'll put a picture of Budgie, put a picture of Buddy, Put a picture of Steve up. Show everyone. [00:02:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:42] Speaker C: Put wheels on his cage and it just rolls. [00:02:44] Speaker D: Actually, he, he is A truck and budgie. He has traveled. Steve has traveled from Melbourne, Victoria all the way over here without a blip in the back of the Camry. That's how he made it in the. [00:02:57] Speaker B: Back of the Camry. [00:02:58] Speaker D: Power of the Camry. No, you know, he's just looking out the window, chilling out. Now he's a West Australian bird. I wonder if he realized. Realizes. [00:03:07] Speaker B: What do you reckon, Sarah? That's a pretty easy. [00:03:10] Speaker D: They're a bit dumb buddies, you know, they're a bit small on brain. [00:03:14] Speaker B: But he's smart though. He sits there. He's got his children, he's got his. He's got his wife, he's got his stepsons. [00:03:21] Speaker B: He gets looked after, gets the seeds. [00:03:23] Speaker D: We should do a budgie show. [00:03:24] Speaker B: It's a toast. [00:03:25] Speaker D: Should get him in. [00:03:26] Speaker C: Sounds like a very spoiled budgie. [00:03:29] Speaker B: So, Sarah, tell us a bit about yourself. You're in the transport industry? [00:03:35] Speaker C: I sure am, Darren. I guess a bit about me. I grew up on a farm actually. So I guess that's where the love for being outdoors, problem solving, you know, just that hard yaka kind of stem from. I actually studied supply chain management, marketing and logistics at uni. [00:03:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:00] Speaker C: So I guess that's a bit more about the love for the industry and how it all started. [00:04:07] Speaker B: Awesome. Where did you go to university? [00:04:10] Speaker C: Curtin. [00:04:10] Speaker B: Curtin? [00:04:11] Speaker C: Yeah, Curtin University. [00:04:13] Speaker B: Rebecca, did you go to Curtin too? [00:04:15] Speaker D: I think I went to Curtin. I went in 1989. I majored in tavern. You know, I think that is the tavern still there. [00:04:25] Speaker B: It's a pub. [00:04:27] Speaker D: I majored in Five Dollar Jugs of Beer. That was my major. My minor was in sleeping in and trying to figure out, you know, how little I could do before my exams or before my things were due. And it was the way. It was the way back then, you know, you just. You stayed up late. We stayed. We lived on campus actually, in the top. In the top in Vickers House. Anyone from Vicar's house that's listening should know. And we stayed up late and we, you know, drank wine out of the bag and we just philosophized and we thought we'd probably get through, you know, somehow the grades would be good enough and they'd let us out. Weirdly, it worked. [00:05:09] Speaker B: So your experience at school, Sarah? What? You know, was there many girls, ladies in those classes that you took? Because I could imagine that there probably wasn't. [00:05:24] Speaker C: No. To be fair, in university, I feel like it was probably more of a 60, 40 split, so. More than, I guess, what most people would anticipate however, when it comes to the career progression, I think a lot of friends of mine have progressed in supply chain more in the procurement side of things, looking at contracts, talking to suppliers, where, when we talk transport and trucking, I think that's where you do see that higher differentiation in ratio. [00:06:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Do you find, do you find that. [00:06:07] Speaker B: Do you find it hard, do you find it. [00:06:11] Speaker B: Do you find it hard to relate to? Obviously it's a male dominated society in the trucking, in, in the trucking industry. [00:06:21] Speaker C: To be fair, starting off I did find it quite challenging in some aspects. Just obviously when you spend so many hours at work building those relationships and that cohort. So in my early years I did find it a bit difficult. But as my skill set developed I found that I had a lot more mentors to lean on and that experience I guess shines through a lot more. Like when you are in a room, you're there for a reason, you're at that table to contribute and I think everyone at that table does take on those ideas. It's the insecurities or I guess the mindset when you do start off in the industry is very much, oh damn, this is very male dominated. As my experience in the industry has developed and my skills have become more refined, typically when I speak I don't think the people listening go, oh, she's a female, I get the eyes roll. And if I do come across individuals that are a bit more abrasive in their way of thinking, I guess that's where I've developed a bit more of a skill set within myself to pull people up on that and have a bit of a conversation going. Look, is there, you know, do you have any queries here? Any issues? [00:07:40] Speaker D: 100 and I think if any, any male dominated and you've got like women in the management group and then you've got a male dominated society, it's about the contribution that you're bringing. Like, you know, you could be in a room with all men, whatever, dah, dah, dah. It's about what you're saying, are you making sense? You know, are you making a valid contribution? And I think a lot of people just go, oh, not that, you know, oh, Sarah's a woman or whatever, but just go, oh yeah, Sarah knows what she's talking about. I can trust her with what she's saying, I can trust her with my feedback. So a lot of times you've got a dialogue where you know, someone's got an agenda, someone's got their own point of view and you know, to be in a room where you go, hey, we're going to be doing, I don't know, we're going to be painting the trucks pink or whatever you're saying. If it makes sense to them and you can make a valid contribution and you can say, here's the direction we're going, here's why we're doing things and make it, make it make sense for them. It's about your personal brand, though. They won't think, oh, Sarah's a girl, so she doesn't know what she's saying. It's like, look, Sarah's doing this and this is the reason why. And they'll go, oh, yeah, the last thing we did, you know, really made sense. When it's about, I don't know if you're going to find a lot of that kind of old school mentality anymore. Maybe they would, maybe they think it and they don't say it out loud. But I find it's about the contribution you bring. You can be in a room, you know, you can be the only male in a room full of females and if you're bringing something valid, if you're bringing something that makes sense, you know, they'll go, oh, even though Darren's a bloke, you know, that does make sense. We might, you know, get on board with that. Not about the person, but about how you're contributing to the group. [00:09:18] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. And I do believe that male and female. [00:09:25] Speaker C: Employees or counterparts in any situation have a different skill set and a different way of observing and analysing. And we are able to contribute collaboratively and in a very effective manner too, because it's. [00:09:41] Speaker C: Oh, what's the word? It's complementary. [00:09:47] Speaker B: Okay, Complimentary. [00:09:48] Speaker C: Complementary skill set. [00:09:49] Speaker B: It is a complimentary toolset. [00:09:51] Speaker D: Like, you know, you've got someone like grads coming out of school right now, you know, they're learning the latest techniques and whatever, you know, in trucking or in management, whatever it is. And like, you know, these people haven't heard of it or haven't had the chance to hear about it and they're bringing their own contribution, lifting everyone else up, you know, lifting the whole group up. That's why you find, like, I think there's, I don't know, maybe 15, 20 big trucking companies in Australia and they're all at different levels and that's the reason why they try and get. They're trying to mix up their group. They're trying to get a mix of people in young, old, male, female, people from different backgrounds to make those contributions, lifts the whole group up, you know, that's why you find some people don't. I don't know, I don't know how many places you've worked, Sarah. I've worked a lot of places. I was a contractor for 27 years. And you walk in, you never really know what the group mentality is and what their skill set is. And often the people who are fostering collaboration are the ones that are way down the street. Oh, trucking pun. [00:10:50] Speaker B: Way down the street. So when you, when you guys went to university, Sarah, when you went to university. [00:10:57] Speaker B: Did, did the, the transport companies come knocking? Did they seek out. How did you, how, how was the progression from university to work? How, how did that happen? Is it going to a job fair or was it, you know, you sent resumes out or how was it? Tell us about that. [00:11:24] Speaker C: That is a fantastic question. I know when I was in uni, looking back, there was a lot of anxiety due to the unknown of what the degree could offer and what the career path looks like because the logistics and supply chain industry is very vast, wide, deep it there. The plethora of opportunities within the industry. [00:11:54] Speaker C: Are numerous and so vast as well. So from that perspective it was do I want to pursue procurement contract management negotiations or is it more international, domestic? From that perspective I did apply for a few graduate positions. So Curtin were very supportive with career fairs and the like. So we did have a lot of. [00:12:25] Speaker C: Companies from the industry come in. In the big scheme of things though. [00:12:32] Speaker C: There were a lot more companies from other industries, logistics. I hate to say it was almost more of a back thought. So there were some companies present, there was some information but it wasn't as readily available as other disciplines. Yeah, which was fine. I applied for a few graduates, I applied for a few grad positions at different companies. One in particular was exceptionally competitive. I think There was about 200 applicants and only one position in WA was available. It later was known to me that there was actually two jobs available or two positions in that grad program. I was fortunate enough to go through multiple rounds of interviews and make it to the final three. [00:13:26] Speaker C: But that was very time consuming because I think application started in May and ran until about September. [00:13:35] Speaker C: The final rounds though ended up in December. So it, and to be fair, like to anyone listening who's in university and isn't quite sure where their degree will lead, I think looking at your situation and having trust and faith in yourself and your work ethic is really important. You've been able to progress this far because of the work that you've put in and you have to be able to trust your own ability. There are so many companies out there, so many other jobs as well. So if you get knocked back from one, don't like give up on yourself because there are so, so many opportunities. And at the time I felt like my world was crumbling around me. I've been able to spend eight plus years in the industry I studied for and I adore. So from that perspective. [00:14:34] Speaker C: If you do feel like you've missed out on the one big thing you really wanted, you. [00:14:39] Speaker D: Just don't know what's around the corner 100%. I couldn't agree more. Like, you know, there's always another one coming. You know, there's always another opportunity coming. Even though you spent seven months being screened and da da, da, DA for like two jobs out of, you know, 200 people, you know, be proud of the fact that you got that far. And even being at an interview is great experience, it really is, you know, So I reckon I've been to about 100 interviews and I've got 101 jobs. No, but it's great. It's, it's, it's great to understand that as well. You think probably even grads like looking at even just entry level jobs like, you know, just get in, get in. However, if you're a young person and you're wanting to be in that industry, just get in on the ground level, make your contribution be seen and then, you know, push on from there. [00:15:26] Speaker C: Oh, without a doubt. And just being able to put your hand up and say yes to different opportunities to no matter what comes up is so valuable as well, whether it's driving a forklift or, you know, at a reception desk. I have seen so many people throughout my career that have just started in basic entry level roles, been there for five months, eight months, even two months in some instances, and progressed quite quickly to leadership roles, moved across the country or internationally with some companies. It is a really valuable and booming, vast industry really. [00:16:05] Speaker D: And reception is where it's at. I can tell you that right now because you know everyone and you know exactly what's going on. People got to walk in that front door and if they need something, they got to speak to you. And I reckon that's where you, you've heard you, you know what's happening inside, you know, and then you, if you put your hand up for opportunities, you know, you're there, you're everyone's best friend, I think. And if I was a young person today, if I was like 20, 20 years old and I had no experience in anything. I would get a forklift ticket that is 100% because it's a great paying job. You're in the guts of the business. You're doing things, you're moving freight. You're understand, like to have that base understanding of how the business works. I mean like, like a machine and have that, that is the knowledge that you need to be the BM or you know, that's, that's, that is actually the knowledge that you need. So I would drive a forklift right now. I'm not saying I would be the bm, but clearly. [00:16:56] Speaker D: It'S a matter of time. [00:16:57] Speaker B: I suppose everyone's got the potential to be a bm. [00:17:01] Speaker B: A BM is a branch manager for those people who don't know. I suppose that's a really good explanation of. [00:17:13] Speaker B: Of how. [00:17:15] Speaker B: You started. That's a really good explanation of the hard work. You don't put in the hard work, you don't reap the rewards. You know. [00:17:26] Speaker B: You sort of move into a company, you gather all the information, you suck it all in like a sponge. You know, you take all the odd jobs, you take the jobs that really nobody wants. [00:17:39] Speaker D: That's the key. Put your hand up for things because people are like, oh, you know, Sarah's, whatever the group is going to be like. I remember joining splinter groups for like, you know, like research groups or even like be on the green team or be on the, the team that's exploring X, Y, Z or even just any kind of exploratory team and get involved because then all of a sudden you're finding out about other parts of the business. That's all it is. It's enthusiasm and it's the willingness to do it and what you got up there. [00:18:08] Speaker C: Oh, without a doubt. And the amount of times that I have been asked sort of out of curiosity or more of an expression of interest of, hey, we've got this project, would you be interested in being a part of it every single time? Absolutely. How can I help? How can I support even if I don't get to be on the project, even if I can help out with, you know, that side assistance of whatever data analysis that might need to be run or however, and being a part of those projects just by saying yes has been really valuable experience. [00:18:45] Speaker D: I've run projects for 2070s. I can tell you, like, you get a whole bunch of people in the room at the very start and you go, hey, we're thinking about painting the trucks pink and Brown. And you get a whole bunch of people in the room and then you start hearing about them and those are the people that are engaged in the business and those. And you always get the, you know, when you're in a work group and you always get the same people, you know, the same people are engaged and doing things and enthusiastic about things, and the other people who are going, oh, what time is it? Before I can go, you know, and you know, who's going to, who's going to be at the management. Who's going to be in the management team? You tell me. [00:19:17] Speaker B: You're 100% right. And it's also great to, you know, to start off. [00:19:25] Speaker B: Either as a receptionist or as a forky. Because that's what I said. That's exactly what you said. [00:19:33] Speaker D: He always just says what I say, Sarah, and then he, and then he passes it off as his own work. You know what I mean? I go, I thought I said that. [00:19:41] Speaker B: But it's all. But it's, but it's so true. I mean, I've seen, you know, grads or school leavers come into reception areas and, you know, six months later. [00:19:57] Speaker B: They'Re not there, they're in a team and they're doing. [00:20:02] Speaker B: Some sort of. Working in some sort of part of the business that you wouldn't even think so. But some of those, some of those. [00:20:11] Speaker B: Branch managers and things like that, they're so clued in and to get somebody, they're so clued into their business that they, they'll have a school leaver and, you know, they'll, they'll, they'll chuck them in reception. And at reception you meet everybody. [00:20:33] Speaker D: It's a single swim mentality. You know, managers are generalists, right? They're looking to have people fill roles and they run the machine that's below them, whatever. And then when you see someone walk into your business and they're engaged, they're enthusiastic, you know, they've got some brains, you know, they've got some understanding. You can teach anyone to me, Sarah, you can. I mean, you knew what you wanted to do from, from young. And that's, that's excellent. And it's, it's quite rare actually, because, you know, people enter a business sometimes and they do enter as, you know, someone in operations or just doing a data entry role or a perfunctory role. And then the ones that, you know, do have ambition and capability, whatever, they go, actually, I want to be in costs, you know, I want to be in procurement, I want to be in data analysis, I Want to be in logistics. You know, I want to be in, you know, it. Those people will move around, but. [00:21:25] Speaker D: Can I help you? [00:21:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I completely agree, without a doubt. And I think this is gonna sound a little cheesy, I guess, but knowing what you want to do or what industry kind of comes from knowing yourself as well, because I did 100. For some reason, I always wanted to be an accountant, believe it or not. And. [00:21:46] Speaker D: Every accountant that trained when I was going to school is something else. Sticky man, I'm talking about you. I know you're listening. And he could not get away from accounting for fast enough, could he? [00:21:58] Speaker B: Well, he worked. Didn't he work for a concrete truck? Drive a concrete. [00:22:03] Speaker D: No, no, no. He worked for John Holland. And so they were in construction. He was doing. He was an accountant for John Holland. And as in those days, you had to sort of go away, you know, when you were a grad, you had to sort of go away and do, you know, regional work, whatever. So he was in Port Hedland and he was, he was an accountant and he had to supervise a company called Dick's Pumping Service. And they had a very interesting logo. I think I put it up on the Talking Talk Facebook page in the break. I'll put it up there and you can have a look. And. And I think after he sort of did all that, it was in Port Heaven for quite a while. He went, how can I get out of this? I know, I'll go and study this new thing called information technology. And then he went back to uni. I think it may be 30 years old and. And got an IT degree. Anything to get away from accounting. So I'm glad you didn't choose that, Sarah. [00:22:55] Speaker C: I just realized that it wasn't for me. I can totally appreciate too much personality. [00:23:03] Speaker C: Yes. I. What attracted me actually to supply chain and logistics particularly was the fact that it's fast paced. It's a lot of problem solving. It's. It's thinking on your feet, running with challenges. And I kind of joke at times that you've got to be a bit of an adrenaline junkie to be in the industry because you really do have to be fast paced, like problem solving constantly. And I just really loved that. And then also being indoors and outdoors as well, having the flexibility and the ability to see, sit behind a desk, but then go measure some freight or weigh something or go talk to the guys outside, you know, help drivers, strap, freight it to me. I loved that. I definitely was more of a people person, I guess you'd say Rather than sitting behind a desk. [00:23:57] Speaker B: It's a pretty interesting. There's very few ladies that do that. I mean, you know, I was, there was one lady I saw at a company and she ran like she was the general. Everybody listened to her, everybody. Because I'm scared of her. You know, she was really, really good. And I spoke to her a few times and I went to see her a couple of times, she was great. [00:24:30] Speaker B: And I said to her, she asked me, how did you get here? She goes, well I started in the office, I started behind the desk, I was just shuffling papers and now I'm the loader of this company. Oh well, you know that's, that's a pretty big achievement and you know, and she's proud of what she's done and there should be more of it and the other companies should actually promote that and promote their, the well being of the ladies in the teams. And without the ladies in the teams it doesn't really, it doesn't gel sometimes. [00:25:09] Speaker D: I don't know if they have to do that anymore like because you know, you get attracted to it. I remember I was at Star Trek, There was Lady GMs there, there was lady schedulers there, pallet controllers, security people, people in sorting, people in it, people in scanning, people in data. Actually most of them, most of the place women. I think a lot of them, a lot of the men were drivers because you know, it's a physical job. You're picking up things, you're loading, you know, especially, especially the people on the final leg, you know, they're doing, they're doing the leg from the line hall, then the sort, you know, Annadale Road, Sharp road. They would do the sort there and then all the drivers would turn up. They did the first leg, you get there at like three in the morning and then you, you know, start sorting. Then you start making your deliveries on the final leg. But they were mainly the men. But I think if you looked around anywhere else you'd find a lot of ladies. [00:25:59] Speaker B: So tell us about the chain. So you're talking about the chain, the chain of how freight comes in, how it works. So how does it work, Sarah? So where does it, so where does it start? So where does it start and where does it. Obviously it ends at the consumer. But tell us about the freight system itself. [00:26:23] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. So I have spent most of my career actually working for domestic, in the domestic transport space. [00:26:33] Speaker C: For most, rule of thumb, general freight though it actually starts with imports into Australia. Australia import, majority of the products that we use every day. [00:26:47] Speaker C: So it starts with the imports. I did a little bit, a bit of a stint of my career actually working for Wharf Cottage as well, which was a fantastic opportunity as I look at it, more of a, like a looking glass into international freight movements so that it pretty much starts at the wharf in containers. You'd pick it up, get that to depots, distribution centers which are known as DCs or the receiver, if you will, then depending on the requirements, typically an unpack and then either warehousing or it would go on the truck and then in most cases we'd be transporting that across the nation. So interstate line holes into the capitals which will then be unloaded again into the receiving depots, loaded onto localised rigid or PUD trucks and then delivered to the end receivers. [00:27:45] Speaker B: Interesting. So it's all new. I mean, you know, it's, it's, it's the cog of the country, how the country works these days because, because we don't manufacture anything here anymore. It's all coming via the ship, it's all coming via air freight. You know, everything, sort of most things. [00:28:09] Speaker C: There are still some manufacturing in WA and around Australia still got to be transported though. [00:28:16] Speaker D: Still got to come through a hundred percent. [00:28:19] Speaker C: It really does. [00:28:20] Speaker D: When, you know, people like, you know, you buy things on Amazon or Temu or whatever you're going to buy on and people are just pushing buttons. But the amount of effort that it takes to get there, probably more than more effort's gone into moving it from wherever it came from to its destination, then maybe to even make the item to be produced. [00:28:39] Speaker C: And to some extent I think that's actually a real commendation to the people working in the industry to make it be perceived by society as easy as what it is when once you're actually in the industry, you can identify it's not because every time someone touches the freight, unloads the freight, scans the freight, relabels the freight, they. There is so many moving parts throughout the industry to make something transit smoothly from A to B or to C or to D. So I can totally appreciate there's probably customers sitting at home being like, yeah, but I've received damage freight, I've experienced loss freight like it's not perfect, but I think most of us as consumers can say, I know myself, I can say quite confidently that 9 times out of 10 or probably 99 times 9 out of 100. Exactly, absolutely. That, you know, I do receive what I've ordered on time or in a reasonable time frame. You know, it's in a working condition, it's unharmed. And when you think about how many people it takes and the communication behind that to make that system work, it. Yeah, to me, I'm actually very proud of being a part of the industry and also the people I know within the industry, 100%. [00:29:56] Speaker D: What about automation, Sarah? Like you see all those Amazon warehouses and they've got all the robots moving things around, still has a human being like going, yes, this is the item you were supposed to bring me. Pack it, wrap it, put it in a box, get it out. But like AI and automation, is it. Do you think it'll ever be like robots in a factory lifting up things, moving things, moving forklifts by themselves, you know, any rope? I suppose it will to some extent. [00:30:21] Speaker C: I think so. I. The company I work for in the industry is a bit more old school, I guess. We're very people orientated, very relationship driven. So. [00:30:33] Speaker C: As for AI and technology replacing jobs, I don't foresee that happening in some companies that tend to put their foot down and are more relationship driven and people driven. How I perceive it is because I also studied marketing. How I perceive most things actually is relationships and people. Because, because yes, money moves, but most people will buy from people. It's people consuming, it's not computers consuming. So we can get technology to do a certain percentage, I guess, like it's like anyone's phone really. It's a tool to be used to assist with efficiencies. [00:31:21] Speaker C: As for replacing jobs, I think it depends on the company, it depends on the level of investment. [00:31:28] Speaker C: But then again you still need people to like maintain the machinery, fix the machinery and the like. So I think jobs will always, always be in the industry. They will just change what those jobs look like. Like instead of driving a forklift, if we've got robots running around, then you're just going to have engineers, mechanics, people servicing machines. Yeah. Or you know, you're still going to need somebody to do those quality checks. You're still going to need service support as well because as I mentioned before, we get most things right in the industry. It's never going to be 100%. So when things don't go perfectly, you still need someone at the end of the day to call up and go, hey, where is this? Why is this? Can you help me? [00:32:12] Speaker D: So a human on the other end of the lot. No one wants to talk to a chatbot all the time. Even though I love talking to ChatGPT just to get a few answers and understand things I never knew before. But you know, we, when Skynet Becomes self aware and the Terminators come eventually, unfortunately, it's going to break down and need a human to, you know, put him all back together, isn't he? He just can't keep going. The humans will. That's how we'll, that's how we'll get through. You know, if Skynet does become self. [00:32:40] Speaker B: Aware, what do you think about like, so we've spoken about the automation, the AI. Some companies are all for that. We've been watching in an Amazon. [00:32:52] Speaker B: Series. [00:32:52] Speaker D: That's all humans too. [00:32:54] Speaker B: That's all humans. [00:32:55] Speaker D: They were talking about the Amazon prime days and all the pud drivers, you know, all the people driving and now, I mean it's just ridiculous. Sometimes they're like, you can be a flexi driver for Amazon, so use your own vehicle. You can do it at any time of night and they'll give you that. You can get up at 2 o' clock in the morning as long as you're registered with them. And you can go, here's my vehicle, come in. They'll give you a cage full of parcels. This, this poor man, he did 45 parcels within the downtown Chicago area, got paid $77 because he just couldn't sleep. And he went, oh, I'm going to go. And he was, he was an ex employee who knew he could earn extra money by. But like imagine that. And that's how they, that's how they're doing, dealing with the overflow. They've got whole cages of things which, you know, and if you order from Amazon, you're a prime member. You get your parcel within 4, 48 hours or something. Like some of them is next day you can pay for it, to have it within the hour, you can pay for this, pay for that. So people are delivering parcels at 3 o' clock in the morning to make extra money and people are waking up. When you walk into those big apartment blocks, it's just a wall of parcel. [00:34:00] Speaker B: Lockers. [00:34:01] Speaker D: Yeah. So they just go, parcel locker opens, put it in there. You know, they get a little text going, you know, your parcel is arrived. It's incredible. But there's human toll as well. Like that's not, that's not robots doing that, is it? It's actual humans doing that. And on the prime days, if you order something and you're a member, you're guaranteed to get it in 48 hours. So I guess it's on. It's on them. Jeff Bezos, not a bazillionaire for no reason, right? [00:34:26] Speaker B: True, true. What are some of the Challenges. [00:34:31] Speaker B: What are some of the challenges of the ladies in the industry. [00:34:36] Speaker D: Working with men? Number one, they're a little bit, you know, the ladies, you know, I like to have, my groups are always, you know, heavy on the ladies. Especially, you know, my project groups, my other groups, you know, only because, like, you know, we don't want to have to explain everything to them all the time. [00:34:56] Speaker D: You think I'm joking, don't you? [00:34:57] Speaker B: No, no, you explain. No, we're nice, we're not. You know, it's like when I get, I've told you enough. How many times have I told you? [00:35:05] Speaker D: I, I, I'm actually stopped, I've actually stopped telling Darren things because, you know, you, you probably get there yourself. Like, you know, I go, I've told you already. You asked me the same question about two hours later and I, and I don't answer anymore. I just go, you tell me, that's what I say, you tell me. And he goes, oh, was it this or was it that? I don't do that at work groups. You know, I'll answer them again if I have to. [00:35:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I was probably gonna say listening. To be honest, I don't think there's much of a difference. It's just you treat humans like humans, do you know what I mean? Like you listen to each other, you have respect. [00:35:45] Speaker C: The patience and I guess attention as well. Like I know when I'm busy brained and I'll ask someone something and I'm typing an email as they're replying to my question, I am that person that you know 20 minutes later and I'll. [00:35:58] Speaker D: Be like this, Sarah, I told you 20 minutes ago, don't ask me again. What did I say? No, I know what it is, I know what it is. And I think, you know, when you're really, really busy at work, you know, just being present in what you're doing. I can't stand people to go to meetings and be like this and you're going, and then they put it down and go, oh, we're going to get some minutes or whatever. And I'm like, well, you don't need it, right? Because you were in the meeting, meeting where we discussed what was going to happen. You know, they think they can multitask and we know that some sections of the male community can't do that. No, no, at work, be present. [00:36:36] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's more what it comes back to is just that focus on one thing at a time. [00:36:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:44] Speaker D: Especially the blokes. Oh, sorry, am I being anti Anti sexist. Well, I'm actually just trying to get back some from all those years. [00:36:53] Speaker B: Well, you're, you're. I mean, knowing some of your friends, they're all smart, intelligent, uber intelligent ladies. And then there's, you know, the guys that, you know, sort of are involved also. But, you know, I mean, just knowing your friends. [00:37:15] Speaker D: He's generalizing, Sarah. [00:37:18] Speaker D: He's talking about you. [00:37:19] Speaker B: I just, I just, I just up there in, in it. Smart, intelligent, all university, all degrees. And they've always got, they're always in, they've always got something to say that's intelligent and something to say that's relevant, it's more relevancy like that. It's relevant, yeah. Oh, that's relevant. Oh yeah. Just keep listening. And the guy's just listening. Yeah, that's great. It's pretty, yeah, it's pretty, it's, it's very insightful. [00:37:57] Speaker B: Some of the things. And whether you want grads in a. [00:38:00] Speaker D: Room, you want grads in a room, people have just learned the latest thing about whatever and you've been sitting there for 35 years getting crusty. And then grads come in the room. Doesn't matter if they're male, female, whoever. That's what you need. Just new ideas, new outlooks, new things. More collaboration, more of everything. You know, you can sit any business, you know, even the most hugest businesses in the world, you know, if they don't change, if they don't evolve, you know, they can go under, you know, things, think of things that they thought they were going to exist forever, they don't. Not unless they evolve. [00:38:32] Speaker C: You know, everything without a doubt. [00:38:36] Speaker B: Interesting. So the, the, oh, geez, the fr. I don't know. I mean. [00:38:44] Speaker B: I'm taking it all in today. [00:38:48] Speaker B: I haven't sort of asked these questions or we've prepared some questions and we're talking about things, but the conversation just going in a great direction and the experiences of both of you in the, in the freight and with Australia Post and Star Trek and, and you know, what are some of the other things you've done, Rebecca? You've worked at Linfox, you know, what was that like? [00:39:14] Speaker D: Can't remember what I did for Linfox now. I think it was a compliance project, you know, just bringing them up. But I think Australia Post, when Australia Post and Star Trek merged, and that was probably back maybe 15 years ago, Australia Post knew back then, way back then, that they would be delivering less mail and more parcels. You know, it was very obvious from a long, long time ago. Online. Back then you could buy things on ebay and places like that. But online stores, you know, were just sort of taking off, they were looking at things. So they acquired Star Trek as the biggest parcel delivery service, you know, like to complement then. And you know, I think a lot of posties were in denial. They were like, oh, you know, everyone will write a letter if know, you'll always have, you might not have a post box, you do have a, you do have a post box at the front of your house. But it most likely incorporates a parcel delivery receptacle for it. And so back then they were merging just their technology for tracking. So that's what they wanted from Star Trek. They wanted the parcel delivery service. So it's an overnight service that they do the line haul, the last leg, the sorting. And that was just merging those two pieces of software together. It was a big piece because they got huge sorting facilities in sunshine, you know, Annandale Road, blah blah. They just acquired some German technology there and you know, they made it work in Europe, right? You put it on the conveyor belt, everyone, they chuckle their passes on and then of course, you know, be delivered into the windows of the trucks that would turn up blah blah, how. But to get that type of thing working, you know. [00:40:48] Speaker D: Again, it's a massive machine. It creates massive efficiency, but it needs humans to put it together and to make it work every day, you know, and then you've got people scanning things and people using scanners, people using printers to put on your parcel. You know, it requires a human to engage with that technology at every level. Like if you have a parcel and your printers run out of ink or something dumb or you put a, you put a, put it on like, you know, on a corner or it has a little wrinkle in it, you can't read the barcode and then it can't be sorted and then it's in a bin somewhere and it relies on a human to go, oh, hang on, what's the, where do you put it? Put it in that cage, you know, those types of things. So humans and technology, you know, interacting. You need the humans less and less, you know, at this stage. But that's what that was all about. And I remember looking at this piece of machinery back then I think was a billion dollar machine, I don't know, uber dollar machine. And you know, it was requiring people to come from every part of the world, every part of the globe to make it work. I think they call it the peak period as well. Ppp, peak period. Parcel delivery and so every day that this piece of machinery is not working and there's parcels flooding in and the door, you open the door and it's just covered in parcels for people buying things for Christmas, etcetera, etcetera. Etc. And the machine doesn't work, guess what happens then? You need an army of humans. So you've always got to have contingencies. You know, you've always got to have that, those machines working. And I remember a lot of panic being around Christmas. We would count down for. We would plan for peak, like 250. Basically about now you'd be planning for peak. And when you're in parcel delivery and, and I guess it gets early and early. You've got Black Friday, all these, you know, shopping events. People are buying 24, 7 now. I guess it's just a little blip now. It's just like buying tons, buying a bit more, but get it there before the 25th and then have a Boxing Day sale. Then another big flood of parcels comes. [00:42:52] Speaker C: In, you know, without a doubt. Yeah. Christmas is typically the busiest time in the industry. [00:42:59] Speaker B: Do you guys feel that it started early? Does it, Is it starting? So we're talking about the peak period. Is Christmas, is it starting earlier? It's in your industries. [00:43:13] Speaker C: Is it starting like it is? To be fair though, it's very dependent on economic and market trends. So Covid, I don't know what you experienced during COVID We were in Victoria. [00:43:25] Speaker D: So it was terrible. [00:43:27] Speaker C: It was like nothing I'd ever seen. [00:43:32] Speaker C: Like just freight volumes blew out and supply chain issues throughout the world. It was, I guess in, in some sense it was a phenomenal opportunity to be a part of. And it's such an industry because as you mentioned before, Darren, we're more the people behind the curtain. You know, freight just moves every single day. Most people don't think about it, but when that system doesn't operate, we were so talked about. Most people when I went out, they'd be like, oh, you know, what do you do for job? Exactly. I'd say I'm in supply chain without a word of a lie. Eight people would flock to me and they'd be asking me all sorts of questions about the job that I did, my industry. And I thought, I've never received such attention. [00:44:17] Speaker C: Of interest about our industry before. So Covid were really interesting times. I think we are seeing a decline in the volumes now. It's more turning back to normal, which is really good. [00:44:32] Speaker D: Thanks, Mr. Trump. [00:44:34] Speaker C: The tariffs is a whole nother conversational point of the topic. [00:44:41] Speaker B: I suppose it's sort of being part of that on another level, for myself, it was, it was extremely difficult to, to see. [00:44:55] Speaker B: You know, these people working double the amount of hours because everybody was stuck at home and everybody wanted something. And there was blank sailings. And so a blank sailing was when a ship was coming, but it actually wasn't. So there was a lot of these things that they call blank sailings and you know, containers and then more containers. And then I think there was a photo of. [00:45:28] Speaker B: Long beach in America and Long beach container terminals, like 44km long and all you saw was containers. [00:45:38] Speaker C: Correct. [00:45:39] Speaker B: And it was not, not, not triple stacked, quadruple state. And they just couldn't move them quick enough. [00:45:46] Speaker C: Correct. The bottlenecks in the world, like in the wharfs worldwide, that was not quite a freak accident, but it did. There were bottlenecks that most countries hadn't experienced or seen before. I heard just talking to different customers and knowledge within the industry. Vessels that typically serviced Australia during like prior to Covid America and other countries started actually bidding for those vessels. So those vessels started servicing other countries. So not as many ships were coming to Australia. [00:46:23] Speaker C: For customers that are listening that obviously import and you know, would know firsthand the exponential increase on shipping rates. Containers in some cases went from like $2,000 to 5, 8, 10, 12 for the same size container, same freight movements. So it, it was really. [00:46:47] Speaker C: Interesting. Fascinating. Exhausting. Flat out, all the people working and. [00:46:54] Speaker D: It must have been a nightmare. I mean, and you've got like a, you've got a lot of contingency. Like, you know, when you've got things moving and they're constantly Moving, you've got DCs that are full. And so you, you've got, you know, stores, for example, like, you know, you get the Kmart DC and they probably got like two or three months worth of stock for their stores, you know, on board. But then if you cut it off at the head and then go, right, we don't, we can't have containers because of the cost or da, da, da, da, we've been out bid or it's not coming from where it's coming from. They can service their stores for, for a while, but then it'll, it'll stop dead. It won't stop dead immediately. Like you, you, you'll grab all that contingency out and then all of a sudden you walk into the stores. We were in Victoria and you could literally walk into a supermarket, any supermarket you like, and see nothing on the shelves. And that's because you know, they had enough for a certain amount and then of course you get the uptick in people panic buying a little bit, you know what I mean? Especially like grocery stores, especially in Melbourne. So everyone would be like, oh, I've got a freezer at home, I got to fill it up and you know, I've got to have contingency because we were locked down for 263 days in Victoria over two years. So it was a lot, I know over here it was much less. But you've got people at home, not only are they ordering things and, you know, buying things online, whatever, but they were very, very afraid of what happens if I can't get, you know, and people always use the example of toilet paper. But it was about a lot of things, like if we could only leave at the house for five reasons, like, you know, if you had an emergency, for exercise, for education, if you're an essential worker. And I can't remember the other one, probably just to walk around the block, exercise. And you could go to the supermarket. One person from your household could go to the supermarket once a day. And if you went to the supermarket and you're looking at a shelf that has really next to nothing on it, you start to panic and you start to buy things out of, out of, out of fear, you know, and that's what everyone was doing. And it made the problem worse, right? [00:48:49] Speaker B: People buying. Like there was one, there was odd because I had to go to work every day. One of the very few people that I wasn't. I had to go to work every day. [00:49:03] Speaker B: Some people spent half the time at work, half the time at home, work from home. And then the team switched over. So I had to go every day. And there was one morning I'm just driving past the, the, the, the local Woolies in Wollongar down the freeway and there's a crowd of people, a line, and there was the police there and it was at 7 o' clock in the morning and people were waiting to get in to the, to the, to. [00:49:30] Speaker D: The Woolworths in the town we lived in, Sarah. It was kind of out of town. They were having coaches of people shopping and they would put a coach of all the women who were shopping and bring them to our town and let them out so they could go shopping at Audi or Woolies or whatever because there was stock in the shelves where they were in the sort of cbd. There was nothing there, There was nothing. So it was like a shopping tour but for groceries. [00:49:53] Speaker B: So it was really, it was, it Was like. It was like. If you'd seen the film, like going back, you know, in the 50s, there was a film called on the Beach. And that's what it was like. [00:50:06] Speaker D: Sarah doesn't know what you mean. I feel when the 50s come on, she just went like that. She's very polite. [00:50:11] Speaker A: She went. [00:50:12] Speaker C: She's. [00:50:13] Speaker B: Yeah, she's. [00:50:13] Speaker D: She was like, what the hell? [00:50:14] Speaker B: She goes, what is he talking about? [00:50:17] Speaker C: What year did it come out? [00:50:18] Speaker B: 19. 1960s. It was like I was born in. [00:50:22] Speaker D: 1995, decades before she was even thought of. [00:50:26] Speaker B: I was actually. [00:50:27] Speaker D: My mother was probably not alive. [00:50:29] Speaker B: I was actually. I was actually watching it the other day when you came home. [00:50:32] Speaker D: Were you? [00:50:33] Speaker B: I'm thinking, oh, this is on the beach. [00:50:34] Speaker D: I wonder what you're doing with your spare time. [00:50:36] Speaker B: You're watching that on the beach? [00:50:38] Speaker D: Yeah. Well done, honey. [00:50:39] Speaker B: So on that note, we're going to play some music, some IPL tunes and some trucking songs on IPL radio. [00:50:52] Speaker A: The best music from the 60s to today. [00:50:56] Speaker B: IPL radio, okay. We had some corny trucking songs. And, yeah, the ladies weren't impressed, but they were all right. [00:51:10] Speaker D: What was that last song? I don't even recognize that. What was that called? [00:51:13] Speaker B: It was the bandit from the 1950s. It was a rockabilly song about the Bandit. [00:51:18] Speaker D: Well, as long as it was nice and relevant. That's all we can. That was relevant again for the 50s. Now we're talking about on the beach. Now we're talking about this. All right, we're gonna play some modern music for everyone out there who's listening, going, please, Darren, play something from this century. We will get something new on. [00:51:34] Speaker B: And we've got the ladies back, Sarah and Rebecca. And Rebecca's going to talk about. [00:51:42] Speaker B: How she wanted to be. [00:51:44] Speaker D: Oh, no, not this old chest. No, I just. After 30 years of sitting at a desk, getting old, you know, sitting is the new smoking. Did you know that? [00:51:55] Speaker C: No, I didn't actually. [00:51:56] Speaker D: It is so sitting is as bad for you as smoking. So if you sit. Sit at work. And that's why they have those walking desks standing. You know, you can get up. You can get a treadmill walker for your desk. 100. Because cities, new smoking. I thought I have this idea when I come to WA and I saw an ad and it was Hanson's, you know, they move concrete. Great. They wanted lady truck drivers for their fleet. You didn't have to have any experience. They. They'll give you all the training that you wanted. They wanted ladies of a certain age. I won't say, how old? 50. 50 plus. Good driving record and, you know, nice demeanor and, you know, I think ladies in your 50s, you know, we've gone through menopause, we've gone through all the hard years. You know, all the kids are. Kids are gone. So we're more relaxed and we're excellent drivers. You know, from the last time I was here, I'm a Camry driver. So I'm a very excellent, excellent driver. I've got a sensible car and I'm a sensible driver. So I would be an ideal candidate. And I remember I looked at the ad and went, that's me. I noted down the number and went, when I get to wa, boom. I'm going to get on to Hanson's. Hanson's. If you're listening to this, I'm still actually semi available. You can ring me, we can talk about it. So they'll give you all the training. You don't have to know anything, ladies, about concrete. Maybe give Hanson's a call if you're at a lucid. [00:53:20] Speaker D: Don't have to know anything about delivery. You just know how to be a good driver, sensible driver, and deliver concrete for a living. If you stay on, they'll give you a sign on bonus to stay on six months and deliver their concrete for them. We're better drivers, less incidents on the road. We went kinder to the trucks, you know, nice and clean. You get ladies in there, they're probably like, keep everything clean, keep everything nice. And I think that was a great strategy by Hanson's to, to go out and get the ladies. I wonder if they still do that. [00:53:53] Speaker B: It was the, the pink tissue boxes, the pink socks. [00:54:00] Speaker D: Well, could have a ladies uniform, I don't know. But they were specifically targeting ladies over 50. And I think that's a good strategy, like, you know, get someone who's kinder to your equipment and, and just a, maybe just a nicer demeanor. Like if you were waiting for your concrete load and it was a little bit late and you had a lady of a certain age turn up, you know, you're not gonna be mean to her, are you? [00:54:21] Speaker B: Well, we know. Well, we know what happened the last time you were involved with pouring concrete. [00:54:29] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, I was in there. I, Darren was supposed to be doing it, but the concrete came and I, I was in there. I was in there, Sarah. I had my boots on, I had the big long pole. I was pushing concrete around. [00:54:42] Speaker C: That's brilliant. [00:54:43] Speaker D: Yeah, it's pretty easy for about 10 minutes after that, you probably don't want to be Involved with concrete. It's very hard. Hard business. Hard business. [00:54:51] Speaker C: Yeah, that's fair. [00:54:52] Speaker B: The coffee, the watermelon, the biscuits. The biscuits. Pretty funny. [00:54:57] Speaker D: The man who turned up actually had a little mini mixer and he turned up and he goes, so we had two men on site. Darren was supposed to be the third man, but I end up being the third man. And the eldest one was Dino and he was a veteran, I think he was 85. 85. He had his apprentice with him, Jim, my father, who was 75. 74. 74. 75 at the time. So we had two juniors and then they had me. The man who came in the truck is the. He said, oh, you know, he, he had actually retired. He was just doing the Saturdays as a, as a concrete trial. And he went, I'm usually the oldest man on the, on the site. And I went, not today. You know. [00:55:39] Speaker D: They laid that concrete. No problem, no problem. Had it all done by 11 o'. [00:55:44] Speaker B: Clock. Coffee, coffee, watermelon. Yeah, and biscuits. [00:55:48] Speaker D: Laid concrete. [00:55:49] Speaker C: That's brilliant. [00:55:50] Speaker B: Pretty funny. [00:55:51] Speaker D: And me as the third man and. [00:55:52] Speaker B: Rebecca is the third person. Hey, no, no, no, you made the, you made the coffee. [00:55:55] Speaker C: 100%. [00:55:56] Speaker D: But when I'm delivering concrete. [00:55:58] Speaker B: Well, you're delivering concrete. [00:55:59] Speaker D: I just, I just turn up and do. I haven't had the training, you know, I did cleaning it, but I would just, you know, press the buttons, wait for the truck to be finished and then I guess you get it cleaned out, I guess. I don't know. [00:56:10] Speaker B: You have to hose it, I suppose. [00:56:11] Speaker C: Yeah. But I've heard the mines were looking for female drivers like ages ago too, for very similar reasons. [00:56:22] Speaker D: 100%. [00:56:23] Speaker C: The care, the caution. [00:56:25] Speaker D: We've got a lady hairdresser just left. Manda, if you're listening, you know who I'm talking about. She was a hairdresser from 16 till 54 and then went, oh, I'm so tired of cutting hair and dealing with other people's issues and all the that goes on with being a hairdresser. So she went to Parabidoo, which is a long way, I'll grant you that. Like, like it's not, not going to be for everyone. [00:56:50] Speaker B: No, definitely not. [00:56:52] Speaker D: Not. No offense to all the people or the listeners in Parabidoo. I'm sure it's a lovely place, but it's, you know, it's a long way from here. Isolated and she became a hall pack driver. Lady hall pack driver. She loves it, you know, up and down the mine. [00:57:05] Speaker B: She's got her boots. [00:57:07] Speaker C: It's incredible. [00:57:08] Speaker B: Well, coughed the hair's all in one place. [00:57:11] Speaker D: I think it's highly automated as well. I think a lot of those machine like, like that machine must be worth millions of dollars. Of course. And it's got to go up and down the, the super pit. Up, down, up, down. And she's on board 12 hours a day. You're on board. [00:57:25] Speaker B: She's on, she's got her boots on. [00:57:28] Speaker B: She's not mixing colors. [00:57:29] Speaker D: Hair's done. [00:57:30] Speaker B: Hair's done. [00:57:32] Speaker D: Too many chemicals. You're breathing in those chemicals all the time. Imagine it on your hands and you know, and then you're hearing like, you know, this, this like whoever sits down, sits down in front of you. I wanted to be a hairdresser. Whoever sits down in front of you, that's who you're with for the next like hour and a half. Right? So whatever is happening in this woman's head that's coming out of her mouth, you're hearing about it, right? [00:57:55] Speaker B: Pretty interesting. So Sarah, what are some of the. [00:58:00] Speaker B: Excuse me, like some of the acronym. Like an ftl. What's an ftl? What's, you know, what's stuff like that? [00:58:07] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely, Darren. So unbeknownst to me at the time, to be fair, when I first started in transport, there is almost a whole language associated with it. So you've got. [00:58:21] Speaker C: Particularly like your knud khnum Kannan. So you've got. Your knud is con note undelivered. [00:58:28] Speaker B: All right? [00:58:29] Speaker C: CNTDO is conn note to do Conn note to. To do num is con note unmanifested. FTL stands for full truckloads. LCL is less than container load. So LCL and LTL are practically the same thing. So you've got less than container load or less than truckload. And what that means is you're dealing with either palletized freight, carton freight. It's less than a full load FTL. [00:59:00] Speaker D: And which is not what you want when something goes. You want it to be full. Is that, that's the. [00:59:06] Speaker C: There's no right or wrong. It's just the terminology in the industry. So when we say it's traveling lcl, it just means that it's a loose pallet, it's a carton. That is how we sort of identify the mode of. Not quite the mode of the transport mode is more like your road, you rail, air freight, sea freight. [00:59:30] Speaker C: The LCL FTL is more the consolidation. So a full truckload is typically like your 22 pallets, your bulk load. We're just sending it as a truck really? So then we talk trailer types of a trailer, B trailer. I can completely understand if this is very in depth and a bit bamboozling for the people at home. [00:59:55] Speaker D: Is that the job of the schedulers? Like, they go, okay, we've got all this fray and all the customers want to move all this. And then they, like a jigsaw puzzle, they start putting things in trucks and consolidating and like, oh, we've got a space here, let's fill it up with something else. [01:00:07] Speaker C: Correct. So that's typically how LCL works. So with less than container loads, you might have 20 customers per se. And each customer sends one pallet. So what you do is you'll send a truck out in the local area and you go to each of those businesses picking up one pallet. Now you have a truckload of like individualized pallets that then need to be sorted and sent on. So that truck will then come back to the depot, be unloaded. And most depots have bays where they'd be like, this is for Sydney, this freight's for Melbourne, this freights for Adelaide. And they'll consolidate all that freight and then load it onto a larger unit like your B doubles, which is an A trailer and a B trailer or road trains. Like, yeah, to be trailers. So once you've put all that freight on, then it's more economically viable to send a further distance because you've got more freight traveling as one. So that is all lcl, because it's not all for the same destination. Whereas ftl, which is the team I work with at the moment, full truckloads, we do pretty much engage with customers who say, hey, I've got 22 pallets that all need to go to this one customer in Brisbane. Can, can you help us out? And then that's when we start talking those trailer types of does it need to go in a container or do you just want a trailer? And then we start asking about what kind of trailer is required. There's engage and out of gauge. [01:01:38] Speaker D: So how many variables have we got? Tons. [01:01:41] Speaker C: There's so many options. [01:01:43] Speaker B: But that's awesome because a lot of people would not understand. They would not have no idea. And to enlighten their curiosity, this is enlightening their curiosity because, oh, well, you know my, you know my bottle of mineral water, how do I get it? So you're saying, so the customer comes, got 22 pallets of mineral water, they pick it up, gets delivered to the dc, then it gets stripped apart for the orders. This goes to their, their other you know, this truck's going east, that truck's going west. So these orders go on the east because they're going to the east supermarkets. [01:02:28] Speaker D: That's the job of the schedulers, isn't it? Like, the schedulers have got the crucial job. You got a trailer and a half going. Like, if you've got Linehall goes at 10 o' clock every night and it goes east, west. And they continuously do that. If you've got a trailer going and there's some spare space in it, you've got. You've got money that's been spent on that fuel and that space and that. And that's a lost opportunity, isn't it? So that's like the schedule is making those jigsaw puzzles. You might have to ring clients and go, hey, can we pick something up and bring it? Because you know they've got something, especially that Star Trek they had east, west, every, every night, every day, up north, back forth. And so if they've got something empty, if you've got half a trailer, you just used to. You either want to stop it. And then all of a sudden you got angry customers, right? Because they were like, I need to get this here. You've got a contract with them. And then all of a sudden you didn't fill it because you had half a container left or you only had their pallet, maybe. So it's the schedulers that make the money for the business. They need 100% occupancy in their trailers. Probably the KPI, isn't it? [01:03:28] Speaker C: Utilization is such an important part of logistics throughout. I was going to say every aspect. [01:03:36] Speaker D: I just said in about a thousand words. Sarah said it in five. Five. [01:03:39] Speaker B: Just one. Utilization. [01:03:41] Speaker D: Utilization. That's what I meant. [01:03:44] Speaker C: It's a phenomenal skill, to be fair, when, I'm not gonna lie, when I'm packing the car for a road trip, I actually prefer to pack it because I'm like, guys, come on, we, we need to get this right. [01:03:53] Speaker D: It's a spare 5cm underneath the boot here. Get out then. Get that out. [01:03:58] Speaker C: Absolutely. And I take my hat off to anyone who operates a forklift loading and unloading trucks. They make it look so, so easy. And it's professional. Tetris is how I look at it. So anyone who loves playing Tetris, I highly recommend you give moving freight a go. [01:04:16] Speaker D: Because either at the start of your career, if you want to learn the business, or at the end, I think it'd be a great job for someone who was retired, who had good eyesight, still good dexterity moving freight around. [01:04:28] Speaker C: Great machinery skills. It definitely is a skill deal. But you're so right, utilization is very important because it does. That's such a cost to the business. If you run 5% of every trailer truck. Yeah, imagine that unutilized. [01:04:43] Speaker D: Yeah. Imagine if you had 10 of the. Everything that you've ever moved wasn't you. You know that that's coming off the top. That's coming off the bottom or the top. [01:04:52] Speaker D: Economics. I failed accounts. I think it comes off the top because that expense is there anyway like you're sending a truck to Melbourne and so you've got to spend so much on the driver depreciation, whatever. [01:05:05] Speaker C: It's a built in overhead that will eat away at the bottom line. [01:05:10] Speaker D: That's what I meant to say. [01:05:11] Speaker C: Yeah, I knew exactly what you were saying. Makes sense. [01:05:16] Speaker D: But for all the schedulers out there, you make the money for the company. I mean they've got great KPIs. Probably have a bonus attached to like you know, getting your KPI. Like if we're both schedulers, I get 100% and you get 92%. [01:05:32] Speaker D: I'm gonna, I'm gonna get my bonus. [01:05:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:05:34] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:05:35] Speaker C: Well you deserve it. [01:05:36] Speaker D: Thank you. [01:05:39] Speaker C: Every. Every single trip. [01:05:42] Speaker D: Imagine that. I wonder what the KPI is for. [01:05:45] Speaker C: Line hall. [01:05:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:46] Speaker C: I think it depends on the company to be fair and different internal structures. [01:05:51] Speaker D: I don't know. I've worked for a lot of some companies now be going oh that'd actually we should do that. [01:05:58] Speaker D: No there is. There's a huge disparity like no matter where you go there's a huge disparity like power company A company, company B does it. You know those types of things. There's probably, there's probably a freight company out there that will a lot of them go out of business. Was the last one that went out. [01:06:10] Speaker B: Of business the other day or Don Watson Transport. Don Watson Transport closed down. Express out of Melbourne closed. There's been three or four closed but. [01:06:23] Speaker D: I suppose I'm not saying their utilization was bad. [01:06:25] Speaker B: No it's just the expensive things. It's just, just, just something happened I suppose. You know. Don Watson. [01:06:33] Speaker B: Don Watson Cold Stores. Don Watson Transport they're around for 90 years. [01:06:41] Speaker B: Don died in the 90s in a motor racing accident. Bathurst Mount Panorama had a break disc explode and he died unfortunately. And his son Lyndon took over the business and they tried to keep it going but they were a one up. [01:07:00] Speaker B: One up model and they couldn't compete against the two up models. And the unfortunate thing Is. [01:07:12] Speaker B: So one up is one driver. Driver. One driver. [01:07:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Two of these two drivers. [01:07:19] Speaker D: Correct. [01:07:20] Speaker B: So obviously a two driver setup will move the freight quicker because they don't stop for the brakes. [01:07:27] Speaker D: Yeah. Still cost you more. [01:07:28] Speaker B: Still cost you more but you get there quicker. The oneup driver is what Australians have been used to for 100 years. It's you know, one, one driver driving between Melbourne and Sydney. They have their brakes every five hours and 20 minutes to have a break for 15 and it goes on. They do the log on and log offs but you know Don Watson transfer were well known clean trucks, well presented but they just couldn't compete. XL Freight Express, the same thing. [01:08:06] Speaker B: They couldn't compete in the market but. [01:08:11] Speaker D: They probably get absorbed, don't they? Like all those Watson drivers, those refrigerators. They don't, they don't cease to exist. They just go to the next company. [01:08:19] Speaker B: Their work, it just if, if their work is absorbed by, doesn't stop by other company. Yeah but their big thing was cold stores. So they owned some massive cold stores in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. So they had some massive. [01:08:40] Speaker B: 11,000 square feet cold stores interstate and they just couldn't compete. So you know it's a very difficult situation and I suppose the new model is two up. [01:08:57] Speaker B: And. [01:09:00] Speaker B: It makes companies. [01:09:03] Speaker D: You can charge more if it gets there quicker, can't you Sarah? [01:09:06] Speaker C: You can. So time frames tend to play into price points. So by having two drivers I mean they will need to stop for essentials like fuel and the likes. But the rule of thumb is while one's driving the other sleeping and then they take turns and they swap while your one up driver, as Darren mentioned do have to pull up and, and stop and actually have a sleep and, and follow their compliance with fatigue management and rests and the likes. [01:09:36] Speaker C: However, we have actually seen a trend or an increase in the amount of rail coming across the country because rail, even though it is a slower service by a couple of days it is more price competitive. So yeah, yeah. So I guess road being more efficient or faster is typically more expensive as well. [01:10:01] Speaker D: Especially if you've got something coming from here, going to a Melbourne DC somewhere saying you know, they've already got their loads there, it's not time critical for them to have it. [01:10:10] Speaker C: Well a fun fact actually for listeners at home it's more expensive to get freight from the east coast to the west because most freight coming into the country is like most of the ships birth into Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney. So you'll actually see a lot of people from Perth when we Buy things. It's a. Has to come across the country. Country. So because of the volume of freight coming from the east across to the west, the pri, the road freight prices or rail prices are actually more expensive than what it is to send from the west to the east. [01:10:45] Speaker B: It's, it's, it's, it's actually quite an amount dearer. We had some, we had some freight last year coming from east to west and it was expensive but when I sent something west to east it was half the price. [01:11:05] Speaker D: Was it? [01:11:06] Speaker B: And I. [01:11:06] Speaker D: Was that what they call backloads, you know like. So they've come all this way and they've got nothing to take back with them and they've got to get back. [01:11:12] Speaker B: Yeah, they have to get back. So instead of having a truck sitting there not making money, not earning. [01:11:20] Speaker B: They'Re paying a driver. [01:11:23] Speaker B: It's cheaper to fill it with anything. [01:11:26] Speaker D: Get some customers Sarah, like go hey, if you actually get it delivered here, you know, it'll be, it'll be. All their customers are over there. [01:11:35] Speaker C: To be fair, there are some companies in Perth that strategically import to Perth and then send across the nation because they know that it's cheaper. But again that is dependent from customer to customer situation to situation. If you've got. [01:11:53] Speaker C: The, I guess the network, the infrastructure, the strategy to be able to do that and make sense. But there's also costs involved. If most 98 of your customers are over on the east, it just makes sense to import direct that way. It does depend on the supply chain, the situation. [01:12:12] Speaker D: I just thought I thought of that by myself but of course it's been thought of. But that's like everything Sarah. If you think, think of something like it's probably been thought of before. [01:12:21] Speaker C: Right. [01:12:22] Speaker D: There's no original thoughts anymore. I just thought I invented a new way for people to save money on road transport. Boom. [01:12:29] Speaker C: Well, I think it just comes down to the more you know, to be honest. [01:12:33] Speaker D: That's right. [01:12:34] Speaker B: I don't know anything. [01:12:35] Speaker D: I'll just. [01:12:37] Speaker C: No, but it is, it's fascinating because even I've been in the industry for about eight and a half years now and the amount of stuff I still learn from those who have 20 plus years industry experience, it's. There's always something to learn. [01:12:51] Speaker D: 100. That's it, that's in everything. If you're engaged, if you're there, you know you're going to learn something. She'd probably be the GM sooner when she was just a worker. [01:13:04] Speaker B: Well I knew Sarah. [01:13:06] Speaker D: Now she runs the company. [01:13:08] Speaker B: Now she runs the company. You know, it's interesting that you say it's quicker on the road and the rail. The rail can get really precarious when there's flooding. [01:13:24] Speaker C: That's true. Weather events does impact rail infrastructure a lot more than what the road does. So was it. When did we have those really bad bushfires? [01:13:35] Speaker B: Last year? [01:13:35] Speaker D: Was it last year? [01:13:37] Speaker B: January, February. [01:13:39] Speaker D: Okay. [01:13:40] Speaker C: I mean, we've had bushfires before that have closed down Air Highway. And Air highway is the highway that runs from WA into South Australia? Yes. Yeah. Across. So when Air highway is shut down, there's not very many back roads that drivers can take. It does pretty much shut off. It doesn't shut us off completely, but because you can still go around the top and there. Other roads, but sealed the. Yeah, the closest sealed road is pretty much up instead of down the bottom of Australia. [01:14:14] Speaker B: So. [01:14:16] Speaker C: Only when there's severe severe weather events does road get impacted. Rail can be impacted by extreme heat because the tracks warp. So rail can be shut down for that. Fires again and floods. So rail is. [01:14:34] Speaker C: At the peril A bit more. [01:14:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I suppose, you know, weather events. [01:14:38] Speaker C: Than what road is. [01:14:39] Speaker B: I suppose with. [01:14:43] Speaker B: I deal with a few people that go, oh, man. [01:14:48] Speaker B: We can't get this. You can't get that. You can't get this. I think. Cool. What's the. What's the problem? Oh, the rails out. The. The rail's been washed away. They'll be ready in a week. So you're always in the back of your mind, I'm keeping stock. Like, I'm keeping a level of stock just in case. And it does. I do have the just in case stock because I can't get stuff. I can't get goods. And it's pretty. [01:15:18] Speaker D: Are we talking about the kitchen now? What are we talking about? [01:15:20] Speaker B: I'm just talking about in the kitchen. In the supermarket. In the supermarkets, you can't just, you know, when the, when the shop shelves are empty, there's a reason why. There's a reason. Instead of the trucks, there's a fire, it's a flood. The rails closed, without a doubt. And you notice that on the shop shelves at Woolies and Cole Collis, you. [01:15:44] Speaker D: Are, you know, Woolies and Coles in other, well, supermarkets, other countries, they're doing last leg via drone. And you see it all the time. And I'm just thinking, when am I going to see a drone in Rocco come down and bring a packet of siggies in a goon bag? You know, like, when is that going to happen? [01:16:02] Speaker B: Well, they're not Coming to our place to go to your mom's. [01:16:05] Speaker D: Yeah Bob. And if you're listening, you can't do that. But when are we going to see that? Like it seems like it's quite common, you know they got autonomous vehicles doing deliveries and, and they've got those little robots that running down the street but to Domino's Pizzas inside of them, you know. And when are we going to see drones? [01:16:20] Speaker B: I don't think, I don't think anytime soon. [01:16:22] Speaker C: Here in Australia, I was gonna say Australia, we're still very spread out. We're not as condensed living as some just say. [01:16:30] Speaker D: Plus the wind that was outside a minute ago, drone would be gone. [01:16:34] Speaker B: Instead of going to Beldiva it's going to you know, Bayswater. [01:16:38] Speaker D: I saw a group of pelicans like flying in sideways. Can you imagine you're like you know feeling fifty thousand dollar drone trying to deliver a carton of milk and goon bag packet of ciggies to Robin's house and it's gone. It's gone. [01:16:51] Speaker B: So the Beldivers, it's somewhere over the Kwanana freeway. [01:16:56] Speaker D: I think last leg will be done by something else. [01:16:58] Speaker B: Yeah. It won't be, won't be done by that road vehicle. So. [01:17:04] Speaker B: Where to now? So you're. Where would you like to see your career going? What would you like to be? [01:17:14] Speaker D: Gm? [01:17:18] Speaker C: That's a fantastic question Darren. [01:17:21] Speaker C: Let me have a quick think. [01:17:25] Speaker C: I do thoroughly enjoy the industry. The fast paced problem solving it ever of it all. I've spent significant amount of time in the domestic part of the field. [01:17:38] Speaker B: Yep. [01:17:39] Speaker C: Particularly in sales as well. So business development, customers. [01:17:45] Speaker D: Business development. [01:17:46] Speaker C: Yeah. Which that relationship and people skills, negotiation, all that is invaluable skill set to be fair. I have always been curious as to the international freight side of things. The customs clearance. [01:18:04] Speaker C: Wharf cottage. I've done a little bit of wharf cottage but there's a lot more involved. [01:18:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:18:11] Speaker C: Behind the scenes that goes into all. [01:18:13] Speaker B: Of that and it's a pity that our other guest Samantha was coming in and she got called away and she got called to Port Botany on her ship. So she was stuck in the middle of Sydney. So she couldn't come, she couldn't make it this afternoon. So that would have been an interest. Another interesting conversation, another sideline because her, her experience has been wharf cartage so that would have been. [01:18:43] Speaker D: So why is she in Botany though? She. [01:18:46] Speaker B: She works for another company. She works for a company, Dubai Ports and she just started, she works at Fremantle in the road transportation role and was had. Was seconded to Sydney all of a sudden on Friday. So she's stuck. She's. She's probably there on. At poor Botany organizing something. Sam. But knowing Sam, she'll be on the. On the truck shouting at him. [01:19:12] Speaker D: That's not seconded to Sydney, that is. There's a fire in Sydney. Get Sam over here, sort this, you. [01:19:19] Speaker B: Know what out with the fire extinguisher. Should we. Should get the fire extinguisher. Should we? Hosing everybody down. That one. [01:19:24] Speaker D: She's a fixer by the sounds. [01:19:26] Speaker C: Absolutely. [01:19:27] Speaker B: She's a fixer. [01:19:28] Speaker D: So you could be a fixer. No problem get in solving things. [01:19:33] Speaker C: Well to be fair, I actually spent eight months of my working career under Sam. Oh, so she is phenomenal. Her wealth of knowledge on the industry. [01:19:43] Speaker C: Almost second to none. [01:19:45] Speaker D: So when you've got a blockage call Sam, she. She rocks down there. [01:19:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:19:49] Speaker D: Fixes it all up, gets all the freight out. Go. Yeah, yeah. [01:19:53] Speaker C: No, she's quite incredible. [01:19:54] Speaker B: She's incredible that lady. She's very. Yeah. Well. [01:19:59] Speaker B: Knowledgeable, hard nosed and that's what you need. [01:20:04] Speaker D: Good schedulers, good fixers, good forklift drivers. Boom. And some lunch. And that's all you know. The business run iron and salespeople to relationships. Get that money rolling in. Get that freight. Get that freight. It's all done. [01:20:20] Speaker B: Everybody needs to be fed. [01:20:23] Speaker D: Absolutely. Darren makes some lunch. Everyone. For those people who don't know, I think probably everyone does. [01:20:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:28] Speaker D: So what are they having on Monday? [01:20:29] Speaker B: I don't know yet. [01:20:31] Speaker D: What do you mean you don't know yet? You must have bought it already. [01:20:33] Speaker B: Yeah, menu's out so that's okay. [01:20:35] Speaker D: So you do know. [01:20:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's veal tortellini with toasted prosciutto, sage cream parmesan. [01:20:46] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:20:51] Speaker B: With Italian herb crust bun. [01:20:54] Speaker D: Oh, all right. We'll be there. [01:20:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's. Yeah. So I sort of keep their. Them nourished. I keep the teams nourished. [01:21:02] Speaker D: You find that the teams if you feed them. If you fed me tortellini at 12 o', clock, by about one I'm doing a little sagging in my chair trying to stay awake. Like did they stay away is their little rest zone. Like how do they get through the. [01:21:16] Speaker C: We work in supply chain. [01:21:19] Speaker D: That's right. You get back like. [01:21:24] Speaker B: You get a lot of drivers ringing, all the boys ringing, the phone's ringing. Non stop breakfast lunch bang. [01:21:31] Speaker D: Yeah, I wouldn't give a. I wouldn't give a driver a chicken palmer for lunch. You know you give one of those giant chicken Palmers and then they're on. [01:21:37] Speaker B: The road, like, did a few of those last week. Pretty interesting week. Pretty interesting week last week. Yeah. So look, do you see yourself in management? Do you see yourself. [01:21:50] Speaker D: What are you interviewing Sarah for a job? Like she's going to be the gm? She's, she's got the training from Sarah. She's got, she's, she's, she's moving up the chain. [01:22:00] Speaker C: I mean, to be fair, I have held a significant number of roles in the last eight and a half years. I've remained with the same company. So I joined when I was a grad, worked as sales support. So understanding the quoting, very. [01:22:17] Speaker C: Kind of on the same parallel to reception, if you will. So talking to drivers, understanding operations, measuring freight quoting up, understanding our customer base. [01:22:30] Speaker C: Retention, the basis. Yes. The foundations. It's very important to learn to begin with. Then shortly after starting, I think I was with the company for about six or eight months and we were updating our internal ERP system. Which is. What's the technical term for an erp? Enterprise Resource systems or employment. Employment resources, yeah. Okay, there you go. [01:23:00] Speaker D: It's the software that runs the company. [01:23:01] Speaker C: Correct. So essentially you can have so many different people in the same system and the system updates lifetime, essentially. So we were updating that internally. So Main street was coming online and I was asked, this is one of those projects where I was pulled aside and just had quiet word of, would you be interested? And I said, absolutely. And I was fortunate enough at the time to be a part of learning the system. And in that process of learning the system, I got to be exposed to everyone's role. So it was, what does the operations do? Sales admin from P and L, right down to creating consignment from manual to automatic. So it was really, really valuable to begin with. [01:23:50] Speaker B: It was a fantastic program. [01:23:52] Speaker C: It really was. [01:23:53] Speaker B: It was. It was an awesome program. I suppose, you know, not many people were tapped on the shoulder to work on that program. [01:24:03] Speaker B: I supported that program with some food. [01:24:07] Speaker D: He made cake. Very important. [01:24:11] Speaker B: Kept them. Once again. Once again, I kept them nourished, which is essential. Which is essential for the teams, because the teams still need to be nourished. [01:24:20] Speaker C: Absolutely, absolutely. And considering the amount of hours it took for all of us to test, learn, understand, particularly for myself, because I was so new and early in my career, I did spend a significant amount of time shadowing people, just trying to understand why, what they were doing and what they required so then I could learn. So then when we went live with the system, the idea was that the champions would support and further help with the change management of everyone onboarding the new system. We had two trainers over in Perth when go Live hit but the three champions, which I was one of the we essentially were that extra support for the team. So if the team had basic questions, needed more shadowing, needed more time, anything. [01:25:13] Speaker D: Like that, always need. Yeah, they don't attend their training and they're not listening. They're still waiting for lunch that are we having tortellini. And so they're trying to rush through their training, get to the nourishment and then you have to support them after all. [01:25:26] Speaker B: Morning tea. [01:25:27] Speaker D: Morning tea as well. [01:25:28] Speaker B: Sausage rolls. [01:25:31] Speaker C: It was such a big project but I was fortunate to have been a part of that so early on. And then after that I joined Wolf Cartage and did that for about 10 months of my life. Then I went back to domestic transport, this time in sales as a rep. And about a year in actually I received a phone call from our training team because this was Covid time. No one could travel and our training and development team couldn't get any trainers to Perth for the wharf cartage equivalent of main street. So I actually received that phone call of hey, because you've obviously rolled out this system as a support role and you've also learned at Wolf Cartage can you actually step up and train the system for our Perth team? So that was a phenomenal opportunity. [01:26:24] Speaker C: I did fairly well in sales considering it was Covid. So even I surprised myself to be fair. And then a national role came up based in Perth for training and development. So I actually put my hand up for that and was the state based trainer for two and a half years. [01:26:42] Speaker B: Yep, yep. [01:26:44] Speaker C: Which was phenomenal. I got to travel the country, I got to visit all our branches. I have seen so many different areas of Australia. It's been phenomenal. I even got to roll out a project nationally. It was accepted nationally. So it was. I was unhappy with the way we were doing things. I found it very inefficient. It. A lot of the team had angst against the way we were working but no one really had the time to come up with anything better. Me that being majorly my role. I was the one that really was like we need a better system. So did some R and D. [01:27:30] Speaker C: Pretty much pitched the idea to the team. Everyone in Australia loved it. So then it was the research of okay well let's progress with this. Which direction do we want to go in? [01:27:40] Speaker D: Incredible. [01:27:41] Speaker C: Spearheaded that which was quite working on. [01:27:45] Speaker D: The business by my Calculations by about Wednesday, about half past two. Sarah will be the gm. [01:27:52] Speaker C: I don't think so. [01:27:54] Speaker D: Who else, who else can manifest the change, make it happen, implement things? So many people do the logistics, that's. [01:28:02] Speaker C: True, but I think it does typically take a team. It's a team effort. [01:28:08] Speaker D: That team needs a leader. Sarah. [01:28:13] Speaker C: I have to be fair. I have been asked and offered opportunities to, to move interstate. My family's here, my friends here. My life is. [01:28:22] Speaker D: And you've just bought a house. You haven't even unpacked the house yet. You can't. [01:28:26] Speaker C: It's a working progress. [01:28:28] Speaker B: It's a working progress. [01:28:29] Speaker D: It's a work in progress. Next year, she might have unpacked the house, maybe. [01:28:34] Speaker B: It's always a work. It's always a work in progress. [01:28:36] Speaker C: Yeah, that's. [01:28:37] Speaker B: It's always a work in progress. So. [01:28:41] Speaker B: It'S an awesome. [01:28:44] Speaker B: Awesome. Thank you very much for coming in. It's been another very informative. Informative. It's been super informative because part of talking talk is we talk to everybody. Like some things. Oh, why have you got a girl talking about transport? Well, if you don't get your car parts, this is how you get your car parts. Somebody packs them, they get shipped. You've now understood the whole freight logistics system about getting your car parts from America to Australia. [01:29:22] Speaker D: I'm gonna slip it into some conversation tomorrow. [01:29:24] Speaker B: Go. [01:29:24] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, you know, how's those FCLs? What is it? Oh, let me tell you, because I. [01:29:31] Speaker B: Learned something from talking talks always about love, learning something new. [01:29:36] Speaker D: Thank you, Sarah. [01:29:37] Speaker B: And learning about the trajectory. [01:29:40] Speaker D: I feel it. I feel like you're on the trajectory to the top. I might just hitch my wagon, Sarah. [01:29:46] Speaker C: Remember me? [01:29:47] Speaker B: Hitch the trailer, hitch the dog, hitch the doggy and. Yeah, no, look, it's, it's, it's part of those things was last week we're talking to Craig Dooley from the rubber connection, and he was talking about his freight, and I thought, oh, yeah, we need. We need to understand how our freight comes from America. How it comes. Gets air freighted or sea freighted, where it comes up, things like that. So, you know, I had Sarah on a logistics expert and Rebecca, another expert on nothing. Expert on nothing but an expert on everything. [01:30:24] Speaker D: No, but I think I have the original ideas. And then Sarah tells me it in three words. Yeah, so I thought of this, Sarah. What about if a different truck unloads something and then they distribute and then they consolidated in another warehouse? I just thought of that by myself. Oh, that already exists. [01:30:39] Speaker B: So. So we're Going to thank Sarah and Rebecca for coming in this afternoon. [01:30:43] Speaker D: Thank you. [01:30:44] Speaker B: Thank you, ladies. So we're going to have Tristam, we're going to play some music. [01:30:48] Speaker D: Yep. [01:30:49] Speaker B: Then we have Tristan in and we're going to talk about IPL 15 birthday. We're going to cut a cake. [01:30:54] Speaker D: Oh, happy birthday. IPL. [01:30:58] Speaker D: For five years. That is amazing. [01:31:00] Speaker B: So it's been. Yeah. So we're going to next we're going to talk to Tristam and we're going to talk about the, the last hour of the show. We're going to talk about what's happening. We've got some exciting things happening on Talking Talk. [01:31:17] Speaker B: And we'll hear about those after the music and after the 5 o' clock. [01:31:25] Speaker B: Session of music and the break. We're gonna play some Connie Francis who passed away this week. Some, some, some great Connie Francis music. And we'll go from there on IPL radio. [01:31:40] Speaker A: The best music from the 60s to today. [01:31:44] Speaker B: IPL radio. Hey, hey, hey. Welcome back to Talking Talk with Darren Shanta. And what an awesome hour with the ladies of transport, Rebecca and Sarah. And thank you very much for ladies for coming in this afternoon. You gave us an insight on our transport and logistics sector. How we get things delivered, how we order parts, how we order. And it's talking to a car parts. Everybody loves getting car parts in the mail. Chrome. Yeah, especially chrome car parts, carburetors, wheels. It's great coming in the mail, coming in the post. Courier drops off your mail. So that's been great. So thank you very much ladies. It was another eventful, insightful afternoon. The ladies of transport. And now it's the IPL fifth birthday celebration of the IPL Radio. And in the studio we have Tristan Reddick, JP and Paul, his father. They are, they are the mainstay of ipl inspiring passionate lives. Inspiring passionate lives. Mental health. We talk about, we talk and we do. [01:33:08] Speaker B: We, we talk about it and we, and we follow through with help. [01:33:15] Speaker B: Experiences and. [01:33:19] Speaker B: So welcome gentlemen. [01:33:21] Speaker A: Hey, how you going? [01:33:22] Speaker B: Good mate. It's been another insightful afternoon. [01:33:26] Speaker A: It's been a very fun afternoon of. We've been switching into other room watching you guys and yeah, you guys had a lot of fun. [01:33:34] Speaker B: Yeah, it was great. And. [01:33:37] Speaker B: Tristan's father says Paul. And we've got a cake, we've got a, the, the chef of ipl. [01:33:43] Speaker A: It looks very nice. [01:33:46] Speaker B: A chocolate, it's a chocolate ganache orange scented cake. And yeah, we've got a cake to cut. So tell us about ipl. [01:34:00] Speaker A: Well, I've been a Mental health trainer for the last 10 years. 2019 was, was good, but then Covid happened and disrupted a lot of businesses. I couldn't do group training anymore. We didn't know how long lockdown was going to go for, and a lot of people were really anxious. If you remember the early days of COVID before anyone really knew what was going on, it was a lot of anxiety and we wanted to find a way that we could talk about mental health in a way that was lockdown proof. And so we came up with the idea of a radio station. We had several, you know, we, we had different venues until we found a studio in Leghorn Street. [01:34:39] Speaker B: Yes. [01:34:39] Speaker A: That became our home for, I think it was about two years or so. [01:34:44] Speaker A: Yeah, we started broadcasting 20th of July, 2020 in the studio and, and initially, because a lot of people weren't able to work so they were stuck at home, a lot of people volunteered and we had an information session every week. We had about 15 to 20 people in the group and we just grew so quickly, so rapidly that it became, you know, this, this big station and we were broadcasting five, six days a week. [01:35:11] Speaker B: It's awesome. It's. It's an unbelievable achievement that you, that, that you've done and you've pushed and I just, you know, I just can't thank you guys enough. We had a chat at a Mr. Perfect barbecue, thanks to Mr. Carlos Garcia. And we had a chat and I came in, I sat down in the chair that you're in, and Nick was in the chair I'm in. And we had discussion for three hours and three hours went. It just flew. [01:35:44] Speaker A: It goes. So, I mean, the first two hours of your show went. It felt like half an hour, to be honest. And I looked at clock and it was like two hours. It was. Time goes like. What's the adage? Time goes quickly when you're enjoying yourself. [01:35:57] Speaker B: It does, it does. [01:35:58] Speaker A: It's. It's a fun environment. Hopefully everyone enjoys themselves listening and, and being here. And time just goes really quickly. [01:36:04] Speaker B: Yeah, we had. It was another. It was another very, very interesting show with Rebecca and Sarah. I think. [01:36:15] Speaker B: I sort of had the idea and I've been having these weird ideas and these weird ideas have been coming through. And a couple of weeks ago, we had the ladies in their cars with Julia and Tracy and that went unbelievably well. This has gone also unbelievably well. And yeah, we just, just having a great time and people like. I remember when, when we came in originally and it was all nerves and I'M thinking, oh, God, what am I going to do? How am I going to get it done? And it just, as you said to me and you showed me the ropes, it's become so natural. [01:36:57] Speaker A: And it doesn't feel like. I mean, how many shows have you done so far? [01:37:01] Speaker B: This is my sixth. [01:37:02] Speaker A: This doesn't feel like six, right? It feels like you. You've been with us a year or so. It just. You've got that kind of. You feel easy, you feel relaxed, and it just comes over that way. [01:37:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I suppose. I had had a good chat not long ago to my great friend Mr. Nick Blackmore from Melbourne. He was my executive chef at Free Hills Law Firm. And he goes mad. He goes, it sounds so good. He goes, how many have you done? I said, four. He goes, what? I got four. Yeah. I said. And then I said to him, he goes, have you done it before? I said, no. And he goes, you sound like. I said, yeah, it's, it's, it's weird, isn't it? I said, natural. See, I had one of my cousins ring me and he goes, man, you sound like your great uncle. When he was on the radio in Malta. I'd never even heard he pass on before I was born. But, yeah, it was, it was a. It's. It's been a pretty interesting. Pretty, pretty interesting time. And I can't thank you guys enough. [01:38:04] Speaker A: We can't thank you enough for being involved. [01:38:06] Speaker B: Yeah, it's been great, you know, and. [01:38:07] Speaker A: It'S just like we were saying before, it's funny how you meet people. And we went to Mr. Perfect Barbecue and got talking and, and then we said, you know, and we like, we say to people, just come and jump in and know, we'll give you a tour. Yeah, sometimes people come, sometimes they don't. [01:38:26] Speaker B: Yes. [01:38:26] Speaker A: And I think you came the next day. [01:38:27] Speaker B: And I came Tuesday. I said, oh, I'll come and see you Tuesday. [01:38:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:38:31] Speaker B: And I think you said, what, Tuesday next week? I said, no, no, Tuesday this week. He goes, what are you doing? I said, oh, not much. I'm. I'm sort of at home and I got, you know, I'm. I'm waiting to go back to work, but I've got probably a month to. To sort of sort things in. He goes, oh, you can come here for the other day if you like. I said, sort of came three days and, you know, just fell in love with it and. And then Rebecca said to me, what are you going to do? So I'm going to do this. She has you got a Car club. You started a car club from nothing. You got a radio station, you got a radio gig now you, you, you know you wanted. And then I sort of fell into the antique selling so now I've got my own little pop up antique shop at YTT Antiques. [01:39:12] Speaker A: Oh cool. [01:39:13] Speaker B: Around the back of the studio. Yeah you said that around the back of the studio. [01:39:17] Speaker A: I didn't even know they were there. [01:39:18] Speaker B: So yeah they, the radio station was there and sort of oh this is good. I can get rid of my stuff. Let's sell all our gear that we don't love. Yeah so that was, that was pretty interesting. So you know it's, it's a great thing to be involved with the community. It's a great thing to be, to give back to the community. [01:39:42] Speaker B: And it's also a great thing for me because I came to Western Australia because Rebecca wanted to come back home and I didn't know anybody and there were some dark times for myself. [01:39:58] Speaker B: Where you're lonely and things like that and yeah and now I've met all these people and it's been great and you know I met Sarah at work and there's other people at work and it's been great. [01:40:11] Speaker A: So I love the fact, the word spreading with your show as well that people are talking about it and one. [01:40:16] Speaker B: In the link and stuff so yeah it's pretty interesting. We've got. [01:40:20] Speaker B: Some exciting things happening and we've got the guys from the Red Dust revival lake percalily 2025 I suppose Wilson we'll talk some more about that after the cutting of the cake. But. [01:40:40] Speaker B: The Lake Perculilli racing in the gold fields the other side of Kalgoorlie you know that's probably the one of the oldest racetracks in Australia started racing 1923 and you know it's, it's a great thing in Western Australia because it's their history and you know the Lake Perkins. [01:41:10] Speaker B: You know the gold Fields history. Australian's oldest motor racing track near Kalgoorlie and the goldfields the Goldfields Motorcycle Club ran speed events in 1923. [01:41:23] Speaker B: You know so that's coming on the next couple of weeks and we've got Ash from the Variety Club of the Goldfields he's coming on. Nigel Quick will be coming on from Desert Collectors fame. He made a video about it and we went to see the video when we were in Perth and we met Graham and a few other people. So they're all coming on. [01:41:45] Speaker B: The first week of, first week of August. You know we've had some great people wanting to come on that we haven't been able to fit as yet. [01:41:55] Speaker B: Don behest from the West Australian Historic Touring Car Association. They're coming on the Historic sports sedans Australia. They're coming on. [01:42:07] Speaker B: Morrow with speedway in the Wheat Belt. They're coming on to talk about their, their big event in October. [01:42:15] Speaker D: Okay. [01:42:16] Speaker B: So. And they're wrapped. I mean, they go, we'd love to get involved. They sent me a sort of messenger on messenger and said, hey, can you ring us? Where's this Marawa? I have no idea. So it's pretty, it's pretty interesting. So without further ado, Paul, did you want to say anything? [01:42:38] Speaker D: I'm not much of a talker. [01:42:40] Speaker B: Not much of a talker. No, it's been great. It's been great knowing both of you and we've got some great things happening. So we've got this lovely cake. So Tris, can you cut the cake, please? [01:42:54] Speaker A: I sure can. [01:42:58] Speaker B: There you go. Happy fifth birthday. Ipl. [01:43:03] Speaker B: That's it. No problems. So it's a rich, it's, it's something I, I baked last night. [01:43:14] Speaker A: The chocolate cake looks very nice. [01:43:16] Speaker B: Yeah, it looks very nice. So, so, yeah, so we've got that. [01:43:23] Speaker C: And. [01:43:25] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, it's, it's something that we do on a Sunday afternoon here and talking talk where I, I make some sausage rolls and you know, the, the guys in the booth, Cadence had some sausage rolls. We've had some vegetarian sausage rolls, we've had some potato and it's worth, it's. [01:43:46] Speaker A: Worth switching on Sunday just for the food, isn't it? [01:43:50] Speaker B: It's worth coming just for the food. [01:43:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:43:53] Speaker B: On a Sunday. And K's got not wrong. It's. Yeah. And, and I like doing it because it, it actually, you know, we're a non for profit organization and, and. [01:44:06] Speaker B: You know. [01:44:08] Speaker B: We don't get paid and it's all volunteers and I like, I like to, to make things and I'm a, like I'm a chef and I like to see the, the smiles in people's faces when they have something to eat. And you know, Kaden's really happy because he's gonna have chocolate cake, but he's had some sausage rolls and like they went, yeah. And, and I just think it's just a reward. It's just, I'm just happy for, for somebody there to join me to do the. [01:44:44] Speaker B: Switching so we can record these programs so we can promote the program. So we can promote ipl. So we can promote it. And yeah, I've got some really far out ideas. Some of them are. [01:44:59] Speaker B: Bizarre at times, but when you get a bizarre idea, sometimes that bizarre idea, who would have. [01:45:07] Speaker A: Thought, like just start a radio station. [01:45:10] Speaker A: Like, where did that even come from? You know, I had no experience in radio apart from a couple of weeks at hospital radio. But then it was turntables. Very old fashioned radio. [01:45:21] Speaker B: Yep. [01:45:22] Speaker A: You know, I just, I guess we just kind of didn't think anything could go wrong. That's optimism for you. [01:45:29] Speaker B: It's the optimism. I mean, you know, it's bizarre because I was, I wasn't even thinking about the radio when we had that chat. And then I said to my cousin, he goes, what are you doing? You? I said, yeah. I said, I've had a chat to these people and we're going to do this. And he goes, did you know that your great uncle was a radio star in malta in the 1950s and ran pantomites? I got, okay. I said pantomimes, that's those plays that they have in Christmas for the kids. And I, and I, and I remember talking to you guys, mate, we need to raise some money. Let's have some Christmas pants. [01:46:13] Speaker A: That's one thing. I mean, it's a British tradition as a kid growing up to be taken to a pantomime. It's almost like a rite of passage in, in uk. [01:46:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:46:23] Speaker A: And it's, it's kind of something that's really not as big over here. And in the uk. [01:46:30] Speaker A: A lot of the pantomimes were with Australian celebrities. So neighbors. Because neighbors in Home and Away were so big over there, they used to bring the Australian celebrities over and do the pantomimes over there. [01:46:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:46:42] Speaker A: So it was a good opportunity for us to meet Australian stars who would never otherwise meet them, you know, so it's, it's kind of sad that Australia doesn't really have them as big. [01:46:54] Speaker B: I know, but I want to have a Christmas pantomime. Cheryl, Where's Cheryl? [01:46:59] Speaker A: If you're listening, Cheryl, if you listen. [01:47:01] Speaker B: Cheryl, we're gonna have a pantomime and you're going to be the lead organizer. [01:47:07] Speaker A: Weird though, because the tradition of pantomime is that the men play women's parts and the women play men's parts. [01:47:13] Speaker B: Okay. [01:47:14] Speaker A: So I don't know how that would go over these days, whether that would be not politically correct or anything or how that would work. But that's, that's the whole point of pantomime is the men always wear play the women. [01:47:27] Speaker B: I can play, I can play a lady. [01:47:29] Speaker D: There you Go. [01:47:30] Speaker B: So I've got no. I've got no. Many years ago. [01:47:37] Speaker B: Tony Senesce, if you are listening, in Melbourne, do you remember the Tony Mulio show that in Grade six and John Valella, the. He's a teacher now and he sang Big Fat Woman and the girls dressed me up as a lady and I was the big fat woman and nothing's changed. [01:48:02] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:48:03] Speaker B: And Tony introduced it the, the famous St. Joseph the Worker grade 6, 1983 video that was made, made of the Tony Mulio show based on the Mike Walsh show, AKA Mike Walsh show. And John Valella singing Big Fat Woman and I was dancing next to him. The girls at St. Joseph's dressed me up like a girl, like a lady. And it was a pretty interesting time. So I'll put my hand up. Cheryl. Let's do a pantomime for Christmas. Let's do it. Let's make it, let's make it happen because I'm pretty sure, sure that it will be very, very funny. [01:48:45] Speaker A: I think it would be. [01:48:47] Speaker B: And there's a lot of English expats who will come and I'm sure that if we have some cake and some. [01:48:55] Speaker A: Muffins, we just need, need to find a chef who can make some food for us. [01:49:01] Speaker B: Yeah? [01:49:03] Speaker B: Yes, yes, we need to find a chef. So maybe I'll have to do two rolls that day and I'll be baking muffins and cakes and sausage rolls and we'll do some pizza. [01:49:16] Speaker A: That sounds like a lot of fun. [01:49:17] Speaker B: And yeah, it's, it's always, it's always, it's always something different of. I've been cooking since I was 15 but the, the cars have been great for me since I was 18. [01:49:33] Speaker B: And coming over here, like I said, I wasn't sure what I was going to do and I said to this a friend of ours, Anthony Martin from City Fresh Food Wholesalers, I said, mate, what am I going to do in wa? And he goes, things will happen, mate. And sure enough, you know, we started a, started met Carlos, started a car club in 2024, met the guys in IPL 2025. [01:50:02] Speaker B: Got myself a little antique cast car. [01:50:07] Speaker B: Swap going and Rebecca said, you've got a full list of jobs. [01:50:15] Speaker B: So pretty interesting, pretty happy to be here at ipl. Rocking. [01:50:21] Speaker A: We're happy to have you. [01:50:23] Speaker B: Loving it, loving it. And I can talk, believe me, I can talk. So without further ado, we'll play some more Connie Francis who passed away this week. Connie Francis, an amazing voice. [01:50:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Fantastic. On IPL Radio Rockingham, the best music from the 60s to today IPL Radio. [01:50:49] Speaker A: The best music from the 60s to. [01:50:52] Speaker B: Today IPL Radio well everybody, that's another show done for today. Thanks for listening to Talking Talk on IPL Radio Rockingham. Like our Facebook page and follow us. Thank you all for. [01:51:12] Speaker B: Listening this afternoon. Have an awesomeness week. See you next Sunday with some fantastic guests and even better music on IPL Radio Rockingham. Darren Chanter, thank you very much. The best music from the 60s to today IPL radio.