Celebrating 300 Episodes: The Evolution of Our Podcast

Episode 300: Join The Heavy Duty Parts Report as we mark our 300th episode. We’re revisiting our inaugural episodes, including our early interview with Marathon Brake Systems and many milestone episodes along the way. Hear about the stories and strategies that have helped reduce the total cost of operations for fleets, the partnerships that have flourished, and the community we've built in the process.

Show Notes: Visit HeavyDutyPartsReport.com for complete show notes of this episode and to subscribe to all our content.

Sponsors of this Episode

FinditParts: Are you looking to purchase heavy-duty parts and get your commercial vehicle repaired? Get access to the largest source of heavy-duty truck and trailer parts in the United States and Canada. Buy your parts from FinditParts.com

Hengst Filtration: There's a new premium filter option for fleets. If you're responsible for a fleet, you won't believe how much using Hengst filters will save you. But you've got to go to HeavyDutyPartsReport.com/Hengst to find out how much.

HDA Truck Pride: They’re the heart of the independent parts and service channel. They have 750 parts stores and 450 service centers conveniently located across the US and Canada. Visit HeavyDutyPartsReport.com/HDATruckPride today to find a location near you.

Disclaimer: This content and description may contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, The Heavy Duty Parts Report may receive a commission.

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Transcript

Jamie Irvine: 0:39

You're listening to the heavy duty parts report. I'm your host, jamie Irvin, and this is the place where we have conversations that empower heavy duty people. Welcome to the heavy duty parts report. I'm your host, jamie Irvin, and in this special episode, we get to celebrate a milestone that has been several years in the making. Today, we publish episode three hundred. In this episode, my podcast director, diana cut more, and I are going to reflect on the journey that has made up these three hundred episodes. So, without further ado, I'd like to bring our podcast director into the conversation, diana. Welcome back to the heavy duty parts report.

Diana Cudmore: 1:21

Hey, jamie, happy three hundred birthday.

Jamie Irvine: 1:25

Three hundred episodes. I'm so excited. You know what I think back to. When I prepared the first three episodes in preparation for the launch of the show on June 1st 2019, I had no idea what was going to happen, and you know the big question was is anybody gonna listen to a podcast dedicated to just the subject of the heavy duty parts industry? Well, I think, after three hundred episodes, we can conclusively say yes, yes indeed.

Diana Cudmore: 1:51

I think so. I mean we have a core audience of over two twenty thousand people, which is just amazing that we've reached that many people in such a niche industry. I'm super proud of the work that we've done.

Jamie Irvine: 2:04

Well, in addition to that, we're generating over a million impressions a month. You know, I think back to the first year we got like a million impressions the entire year, and the second year we doubled it to two million, and then the third year we tripled it to six million and then this year we are knocking on the door of twelve million impressions in twenty. Twenty three was just an incredible year. Now we're in twenty twenty four and this episode three hundred. It's a special moment in time. I thought we could take some time to kind of show people. Maybe some people who've just recently found the show. They're listening to it regularly but they don't really know the full story and the journey going back. So I'll take it back in time.

Jamie Irvine: 2:44

It's twenty nineteen and I am a sales account manager selling heavy duty parts something I had done multiple times in my career and I was having great conversations with manufacturing reps who I bring into the field.

Jamie Irvine: 2:58

We go, talk to technicians and we have awesome conversations, and I remember thinking somebody should record these and make them available to the industry, and that somebody was me. So I went to work and recorded the first three introductory Episodes in preparation for the launch of the show which happened on June first twenty nineteen, and you know episode one and two. That was just a little introduction to me and my career, giving people a little bit of background and who I was. But episode three Really did kick the show off and that's where I talked about a subject that, as someone who sold parts, was a subject that I talked about a lot and that was lowering total cost of operation and making purchasing decisions on heavy duty parts not based on their purchase price but on the impact on total cost of operation and cost per mile. That episode really did set the stage for the beginning of the heavy duty parts report.

Diana Cudmore: 3:57

So that was episode three, jamie. What about episode four? And don't worry, we're not going to go through all three hundred.

Jamie Irvine: 4:06

Episode four was a special episode as well. It was the first time that I brought on a manufacturing rep. So I brought on marathon break systems and I got a chance to talk to their at that time CEO. He's now retired, but Bob Hicks and I had known each other for a long time. I had actually reliant like the first thousand shoes with marathon break friction material in western Canada, in the province of British Columbia, when I worked for a manufacturer many years before that. So when I reached out to him and I asked him, I told him what I was doing and I asked him to come on. He was a little hesitant because it was something new, but he was willing to support someone who had supported him in the past and we had a great conversation about friction material. And boy did he not disappoint, because that man knows more about friction material than most people will ever learn in their entire career. But that was also a milestone in the journey of the show because that set the stage for all the interviews that would come after it.

Jamie Irvine: 5:03

Bringing on manufacturers was going to be a major focus of mine, in addition to trying to find industry experts and others who could share their perspective. But manufacturers was really important to me because I was a manufacturer early in my career and I worked for distribution companies who relied on manufacturers and I knew the important connection between those two. Now, back then we weren't even recording video yet, so we don't have video of that, but we do have audio clips so you can go back and listen to episode four with marathon break and get All of that amazing content, because you know what, four years later, everything that he talked about is still relevant today. That's awesome.

Diana Cudmore: 5:41

So Tyler Robertson is such a great friend of the show, tyler Robertson from diesel laptops. Now back in episode 13. I wasn't around but, jamie, will you tell me a little bit about that episode?

Jamie Irvine: 5:55

So episode 13 was also a milestone for me in my career. I didn't know Tyler that well at the time and I had no idea what kind of a relationship we were going to forge. But I remember doing a post about diesel emission systems and doing deletes because we had recorded an interview with someone who had talked about that. And I did a social media post on LinkedIn and I pose the question should you delete your D? You know your DPS or your DES system? And he basically responded on LinkedIn with like no, you shouldn't you idiot, because it's illegal. And then I responded and said something along the lines of yeah, but now we're talking. And he was like to shave my friend to shave. And so he looked up what I was doing and the minute that he saw what I was trying to do with the heavy duty parts report, he reached out to me, said I want to be on the show and I want to support you.

Jamie Irvine: 6:43

And so Tyler came on the show for episode 13. We talked about his diagnostic tool company. What I didn't realize and what I didn't realize was going to be so significant about that is that was the first time a guest of the show afterwards reached out to me and asked if I would consult with them, and that was the birth of the heavy duty consulting corporation. Diesel laptops ended up being my first consulting client. Only a few months after I did that interview with him did I quit my job and signed diesel laptops to a long term contract. We ended up working with them for over three years. We helped them to pioneer diesel parts and and we went through many iterations of that software and I was able to work very closely with them for a very long time. It was a wonderful opportunity for me personally in my career, but it also was the beginning Of something completely different, which is the heavy duty consulting corporation, our, our company. Awesome, so let's skip forward to episode twenty seven.

Diana Cudmore: 7:41

We had MGM breaks on the show, and Jamie tell me a little bit about that.

Jamie Irvine: 7:47

Okay, that was an important episode as well, because that was where we started to really focus on this subject of like.

Jamie Irvine: 7:54

It's one thing to understand the concept of lowering total cost of operation, but it's another thing to practically be able to do it with specific parts.

Jamie Irvine: 8:03

And as a salesperson, I had very successfully sold the MGM break line and I used to have this pitch where I had a little notepad and I would go to the hood of the truck and I would Ask the person you know, do you, how often do you change your spring breaks? And they would tell me and usually it was like every year, every twelve to eighteen months because they were buying the cheap ones and how much do you buy the spring break for Trucks in the fleet? How many axles? And I do the math right in front of them and then I would show them that if they would only triple what they spend on the purchase price by buying MGM breaks, they could actually save seven hundred dollars per axle per vehicle over a four-year period. And I sold so many MGM spring breaks because of that pitch, and so I wanted to have them on the show to talk about what it is that makes that product so successful and why it actually does lower cost of operation.

Jamie Irvine: 8:54

So that was a really important episode for me personally because it was great to have them on the show and kind of give them support, but also to have them explain their value proposition to my audience, which was growing and growing and growing at that point.

Diana Cudmore: 9:08

Great. So now we're at episode 51. That was the one-year anniversary of the show, which means, Jamie, you only took one week off during that entire first year.

Jamie Irvine: 9:21

Well, remember, too, the first few months of that year. I was working full-time, I was doing the show by myself at home in the evenings and on the weekends, and, yes, it was a tremendous amount of work and I did only take one week off I believe it was around Christmas time or something like that and I was completely a solo operation at that point. So, yeah, we got to celebrate a one-year anniversary. I actually do believe that in the not the entire year I was by myself because, if I remember correctly, I did hire Taren Hoensen, who is still our audio video engineer today. I believe I hired him in the spring, so it was kind of getting to the one-year anniversary mark.

Jamie Irvine: 10:01

And I remember he was a young guy, 21 years old. He was a carpenter by trade but he was very creative and he was a musician and I knew him from my hometown. So I reached out to him and said, hey, do you want a job? And he goes, doing what? And I told him and he goes, I don't know. So he started part-time. I trained him on everything I knew and he started to support me as we approached that one-year anniversary. But for the biggest part of that first year, yes, it was just me, by myself.

Diana Cudmore: 10:28

Wow, wow, wow, wow. So okay, let's skip to episode 62. Now in episode 62, you interviewed someone from Hadley and that is a really special episode and we found that out very recently. Can you tell me why?

Jamie Irvine: 10:45

Right. So three years later, a major, major national fleet listened to that episode from three years ago and made a purchase decision nationwide on their leveling valves based on that episode. And so we got a phone call one day from Link, which had bought Hadley in the interim, and they asked us could we update the links on that episode page? Because they had purchased Hadley and rebranded and they wanted to make sure people could find this information.

Jamie Irvine: 11:17

Because of that transition in the three-year period, this national fleet had a bit of a difficult time finding the actual information, but what they heard in the podcast had convinced them, and so when I asked them what was going on, they told me the story, and that's just a testament to the value of being on the podcast, because, unlike social media, which has a very short lifespan, podcasts live for a very long time. They have what we call a very long tail, and so what we find is is we find episodes from three and four years ago, from our first season, are still getting three, four, five plays a week, every week. And so for Hadley, which then became Link's, this is something that they're very happy. They came on the show because three years later you know, not only had they had all of those people hear the message in the time between airing it and the three years. But then, even three years later, it was still generating results for them on a nationwide level. How cool is that.

Diana Cudmore: 12:16

That's crazy, and that's such a great example of the impact that the Heavy Duty Parts Report can have. Who knows what kind of calls we'll be getting three years down the line.

Jamie Irvine: 12:28

Yeah, and to me it's a testament to the value of long form content, because in short form content you really can't get into the details and it's very hard to make a real impression on people in a 15 second clip or a 30 second clip or even a 60 second clip. But when you talk for 25 minutes like on our show, the average time is about 25 minutes and you talk about your value proposition in your company and how you help customers in the Heavy Duty Parts Industry and how you help fleets lower total cost of operation, when people listen to that they start to form a bond or a connection to you and to your company and your message. That just you cannot accomplish in any other way other than maybe meeting with them in person. But how do you scale in person meetings? You can't. So this is the best way of scaling that and this, to me, is just a true testament to the value of long form content.

Diana Cudmore: 13:21

That's great. So episode 94 was very special for a really great reason. Can you tell me why?

Jamie Irvine: 13:30

Episode 94 was when our little team of two me and Terrin the editor we grew by adding someone new and that person was you, Diana Cudmore. You joined us and episode 94 is the first time you had an impact on what we were doing and that was great. We hired you as a graphic designer. I think it was like eight hours a week to start and now you've been full time with us and you are our podcast director. So a lot has happened between episode 94 and episode 300, obviously.

Jamie Irvine: 14:01

But yeah, we were very happy to have you join the show and the big reason I hired you, other than your marketing background you nearly have a master's in marketing You'll be getting that soon and you also had some experience. That was worthwhile for us to bring someone like you, with your talents, into the organization. But you also had a family member that was in the trucking industry, so that was like I was sold at that point. So, yeah, it was great to have you join the team back in episode 94. And that brings us to episode 100. When did episode 100 drop?

Diana Cudmore: 14:33

So that was on May 21st 2021. That was a very exciting day to celebrate 100 episodes. I mean not very many podcasts. Get to 100 episodes, right.

Jamie Irvine: 14:47

That's something that's worth mentioning. So the average podcast lasts for six months and airs only 12 episodes. Wow, and so anybody who gets to episode 100 has accomplished something that most podcasters never see, even podcasts that are backed by, like multinational companies. Podfade is what they call it. It's a real thing, and I had personally set the goal. I was not going to stop until I got to a minimum of episode 100. I'm so glad that I did set that goal. I'm glad we achieved it.

Jamie Irvine: 15:18

Now is a great time for us to stop and hear from our sponsors, and then we're going to continue on on this journey to 300 episodes. Let's hear from our sponsors. Are you deferring maintenance because of filter cost or availability? Or, worse yet, are you trading down to no-name filters to try to save a few bucks? Either way, you're rolling the dice. The good news there's a new premium filter option for fleets Hanks filtration. If you're responsible for a fleet, you won't believe how much using Hanks filters will save you. But you've got to go to heavydutypartsreportcom slash Hanks to find out more. That's heavydutypartsreportcom slash H-E-N-G-S-T Head. There. Now we're back from our break. Before the break we were talking about our journey from episode one to 100. Now we're going to finish the conversation and talk about the last 200 episodes. Which episode did you want to highlight next, diana.

Diana Cudmore: 16:16

OneOwait was really interesting. You spoke with Jerry Mead from Hubgroup. This was at a really interesting time when it comes to the impacts of COVID and the supply chain on our industry. How about you, Phyllis?

Jamie Irvine: 16:32

and on that, yeah, If you remember, back at that time, COVID and the lockdowns had shut manufacturing down, shut shipping down and the whole world had basically come to a stop. Getting everything going again was proving more difficult than any of us would ever realize. At the time the supply chain had basically completely collapsed. Parts was a major issue. People couldn't get their hands on parts. I remember people running out of things like 3,600-A drums the most common drum in the world.

Jamie Irvine: 17:03

In episode 108, we had Jerry Mead on. He at the time was the executive vice president of Hubgroup. They have thousands and thousands of trailers and trucks, a very large nationwide fleet. He alerted me to something that was really, I think, an important milestone in my career as well. He talked about parts visibility. He said prior to the pandemic and the supply chain collapsed, fleets were focused on driver shortages and technician shortages, but they weren't really paying attention to what it was costing them when they lost visibility of parts that were in transit to them. The supply chain really, really brought that to the forefront.

Jamie Irvine: 17:46

Fast forward a couple years. I am also not only the host of this show and the CEO of our consulting company, but I'm a co-founder of a company called Visiparts. We are right now building technology. We're working and looking for partners to help build this technology that's going to bring greater visibility to the end user, the people who need it the fleets, the owner operators, the repair shops who are buying the parts. Little did I know, way back then in episode 108, that that one conversation was actually going to lead to many more conversations with fleets and eventually would lead me to getting a company funded by a venture capitalist and being a co-founder of this technology company.

Diana Cudmore: 18:27

That's amazing. It's funny how those little things that you don't even realize they're happening, they then suddenly lead to something huge that's potentially going to change this industry. We'll keep an eye on that. Let's do a big jump forward to episode 200. Now, this is one of my personal favorites. We got to speak with the co-founders of Exos. They're an electric vehicle manufacturer. How about you remind us about that?

Jamie Irvine: 18:56

After the supply chain issues started to ease off and we started to recover from that, then battery electric vehicles became the next hot subject that everybody wanted to talk about. Everybody was really curious about what the impact of having battery electric vehicles replace ISET vehicles so internal combustion engine vehicles in the industry. What would be the impact of that, what's the impact on the parts industry, on maintenance, and what would be the challenges associated with that. We made a conscious effort to try to go and get a battery electric vehicle company to come on the show and really talk about their product and how they saw the impact on the industry, which I thought they did a great job of explaining. That it's a little scary because if they are successful, there's going to be a lot less parts that are needed on these vehicles.

Jamie Irvine: 19:44

I think, though, that Exos is a good example of where battery electric vehicles are really really good that last mile delivery, small routes where they can get back to charging stations easily. Fast forward another 100 episodes, and we're still not in a position where battery electric vehicles can replace long haul applications, so it's going to take some time for this technology to really really find its place in the industry. Of course, we all know about the government mandate, so that'll be interesting. But yeah, that was one of the first times we had a truck manufacturer. Come on the show.

Diana Cudmore: 20:22

Absolutely. They're still making incredible waves in the industry. I really look forward to seeing the next iteration of battery electric vehicles, which will need to be produced to comply with some mandates.

Jamie Irvine: 20:39

The technology doesn't even exist yet to meet the next round of mandates. So it's going to be interesting times.

Diana Cudmore: 20:46

I just read I think that it was from ATRI, the American Transportation Research Institute. They said that, due to the increased weight of the batteries, for every thousand trucks that are on the road now, if all of them were to change to battery electric, we would need an additional 343. So that's what a third extra vehicles to deal with the same amount of capacity 34.3 percent more vehicles needed going to battery electric.

Jamie Irvine: 21:20

That has an impact. I don't care what anybody says. That has an impact on carbon emissions. Yeah, this whole dream of getting to net zero is proving to be a dream and maybe part of nightmare. We'll see how that plays out.

Diana Cudmore: 21:37

We'll see, and maybe by episode 500, we'll have Exos back on. We'll see yeah that's right.

Jamie Irvine: 21:42

They can tell us all about what they're doing. No, and that's one thing I've learned talking about battery electric vehicles over the last 300 episodes many times I've learned that there is a place for this technology and there is a place for it, and we need it and we should pursue it, and I think it's going to make an impact on our climate. But, at the same time, I think we need common sense, regulations and mandates that are going to preserve our ability to support society at large and maintain a level of human flourishing that we've achieved thus far. We don't want to go back on that.

Diana Cudmore: 22:19

Absolutely true. So let's talk about something that's really exciting. Wiotek, our friends of the show, we had an excellent episode where, jamie, you got to tour their entire facility. So tell me about that. I'm so jealous that I didn't get to go.

Jamie Irvine: 22:38

Well, first of all, by this time, and what episode number was that?

Diana Cudmore: 22:41

That was episode 264.

Jamie Irvine: 22:44

Right. So by this time 260 plus episodes we finally were able to have those COVID restrictions ease and travel became a lot easier and I was able to start attending trade shows again and going to locations and this is something I had always dreamed of doing when I started the show. So, yes, the Wiotek tour was great. It was part of the HDA Truck Pride annual meeting. I was there to attend that and I got to go along to take this tour and it had a big impact on me. I got a chance to interview Lauren, one of their students, and I'd been talking about how important it is for us to do more to bring young people into the industry, and so, while touring the facility, I was overcome with this feeling of like this is amazing what they've built here. This is exactly what the industry needs, and I need to do more than just talk about this subject. I need to actually take some action.

Diana Cudmore: 23:42

Yeah, absolutely Now. I just spoke with Cindy Barlow yesterday she is our contact there and she told me a little bit of information about how their diesel technician training works. So they have the basic diesel technician training, they then have advanced and they also have a business aspect for those who maybe want to go into management. And having those three levels of training means that the people who are coming out of Wiotech are really like the crème de la crème of diesel technicians, and we want to support that. We want to put our money where our mouth is. And so, jamie, will you tell me what we're doing to really support diesel techs at Wiotech and hopefully beyond? We'll see.

Jamie Irvine: 24:34

Yeah, so we've established a scholarship for Wiotech students that is sponsored by the Heavy Duty Parts Report and that scholarship will be awarded to two students in the next semester of 2024, which starts, I believe, in January. So we couldn't be happier to extend that scholarship. We hope to grow the number of scholarships we have available to those students exponentially over the next few years. So corporate sponsors anybody want to put their money where their mouth is. Reach out to us, and we would be happy to partner with you on expanding this initiative.

Diana Cudmore: 25:10

Absolutely. I mean, it's so important to really make a tangible impact on this diesel technician shortage and make sure that even kids who might be or there are kids and adults who are going through the diesel technician training even students who might have a little bit more financial struggle to get through we need to help anyone who has an interest in this industry to be able to get through that technician training. That's really important to both of us, jamie, so I am absolutely thrilled that we're actually taking on this initiative.

Jamie Irvine: 25:46

I agree, and I think that just lowering the barrier to entry into the business and capturing the hearts and minds of anybody who has interest in our industry is essential, not just on the repair technician side, but also on the parts technician side. So we're going to be looking for opportunities to support future parts technicians as well. But this is an exciting initiative, very proud of the work that we've done there and can't wait to start making a real impact in 24. So what episode do we want to talk about next?

Diana Cudmore: 26:14

Jamie, the right to repair is something that is super close to your heart and that you have been championing since the very beginning of the show. We have had episodes dedicated to right to repair on episode 117, 257, and 293, which was pretty recent. Jamie, tell me why right to repair is so important.

Jamie Irvine: 26:36

Right to repair is very important because having the manufacturers control who can diagnose and repair equipment not just commercial equipment your personal vehicle, your cell phone heck, even your appliances in your home. We cannot allow legislation to be put in place that precludes there being a independent service channel or an aftermarket parts channel for all of these different components. We need to control the things we buy. This concept that's floating out there that you're going to own nothing and you're going to be super happy. I absolutely, categorically reject that. I've done everything I can as a Canadian citizen to promote right to repair in the United States. It's funny I'm Canadian but I'm doing all this work to actively promote right to repair in the US, because what happens in the US happens in Canada. It's just those two are in lockstep together. If you are a US citizen and you work in this industry, please listen to those interviews that I've done. Click the links, submit the form. We've made it as easy as possible for you. Submit the forms to your representatives. It takes just a few minutes for your voice to be heard. Tell people that we need to maintain an independent service channel and that right to repair needs to continue to be pushed forward.

Jamie Irvine: 28:00

These large manufacturers have employed hundreds of special interest groups and are funding all kinds of different groups to try to oppose right to repair legislation. We, as the people, need to have our voice heard by our representatives. Also, if you own a company, invite your representative to come to your location. Let them take a tour. Explain to them why the independent service channel and the aftermarket is so important. Once they see it, they will champion this idea in Congress. It's very, very, very important and please, if you're a US citizen, take this action, because what happens here in the States is going to affect my country as well. I can't do this. I am not a US citizen. I can't do it for you. I need you to do it. That's very, very important.

Diana Cudmore: 28:49

Absolutely One of the things that I learned from Edward Quo over at CVSN. He told me that a lot of Congress people they just don't know. If they don't know what's going on with right to repair, with the independent service channel and that is being threatened, which is a source of economic growth for the country and for their district, they need to know. It's up to us American citizens. I'm an American citizen. I am going to contact my representatives again and I encourage you to as well.

Jamie Irvine: 29:25

Back in. Like you said, episode 293 was the last time we talked about right to repair, that interview with Ann Wilson. She talked about a congressman who was very upset with his aid staff for not bringing this issue forward because once he found out how many of his constituents were affected by it, he wanted to champion right to repair. The more people in the US who reach out to their representatives the better, because they want to know about these issues and they're just unaware of them.

Diana Cudmore: 29:52

Absolutely Now. That conversation with Ann Wilson is a great example of our coverage of trade shows. Now, jamie, I know that due to COVID, you weren't able to get to that many trade shows in the beginning, but thankfully things have opened up in late 2021, 22, and 23. So, jamie, tell me a little bit about why covering trade shows is so important to us here at the Happy to New Parts Report.

Jamie Irvine: 30:18

Well, yeah, not only was I not able to attend, but one time I thought I was going to be able to go, and then I got exposed to COVID and was not able to travel, so we had to have Tyler Robertson step in and be the guest host for that entire event. That was quite something.

Jamie Irvine: 30:34

But he did great he did great and once again thanks Tyler for always being such a friend of the show. Yeah, the trade shows are so important because it's just an opportunity to get a lot of people together and to have a lot of great conversations in a very short period of time, and that just is so essential for us to keep moving objectives forward, talking about right to repair, talking with suppliers, talking with distribution and dealership groups, talking with the fleets. That conversation sparks ideas and opportunities and business development opportunities for the industry and it pushes forward technology and helps us to orient ourselves as an industry to really understand the threats that are out there to our industry. So these shows are essential and although we do a fair amount of our work remotely, you still need these shows and I'm so glad to have been able to attend them over the last few years.

Diana Cudmore: 31:27

Absolutely. Now one of my favorite trade shows is the Women in Trucking show that was down in Dallas. I was so excited to attend that and to support Women in Trucking. But we've actually been supporting Women in Trucking since almost the very beginning of the show, episode 29. Jamie, how about you tell me about that conversation?

Jamie Irvine: 31:51

Right. So the first time that we talked about Women in Trucking it was with the Canadian division of the Women in Trucking movement, and there's definitely a US organization that really is front and center on this issue. But the Canadian organization represents Canadian women in trucking and as a Canadian I wanted to support them and so I had the opportunity to talk to Shelly and that was great. It was great conversation. It was a great way of bringing awareness to the opportunities that are available to women in this industry, and then later we got to continue that conversation with the Women in Trucking Association in the US.

Diana Cudmore: 32:30

That was such a fun trade show. We've done an entire episode about it at episode 296. So if you haven't go back and listen to that, I'm so glad we've been championing Women in Trucking since the very beginning. So this is it. This is episode 300. Let's all give a round of applause and thank you, Jamie, for taking me through the history of the heavy duty parts report. What's going to be new going forward from episode 301?

Jamie Irvine: 33:02

Well, first of all, I wanted to take an opportunity to just thank our many, many guests, to thank our sponsors throughout the years and without their support we would not be able to have done what we've done and then, of course, our audience, you, who's listening every week. Thank you so much for supporting us In an effort to continue to serve you. We are making some changes to the format of our show going forward in this next season and so, starting in episode 301, we are going to have an opening segment that's going to really help you to understand better what's going on in the industry, what our consultants at the Heavy Duty Consulting Corporation are seeing, what we are experiencing, the threats, the opportunities. We're going to have some really great conversations about that and I think that that's going to add a lot of value to the listeners who regularly tune into the show. We're going to maintain our featured guest spot where we have manufacturers and other industry experts.

Jamie Irvine: 34:02

Come on to the show. We're going to be asking them about the trends that they're seeing as well, and we're hoping that, the way that we put those interviews together moving forward, you're going to come away with like I learned something that makes me better in my job. That's what we're looking to accomplish. And then we've got something fun that we're adding to the format called that's Not Heavy Duty, and we see things all the time that I think to myself that's not heavy duty and we're going to really, really have some fun with that. We're going to show you some things, and I think there'll be an opportunity for us to compare and contrast the right way of doing things versus the way that some people try and the disastrous consequences of not following the heavy duty way. So I think that's going to be something that will be. I think all of us can look forward to that fun little segment at the end of each episode, and I think this is going to make a more engaging episode each week and it's going to bring more value to our audience.

Diana Cudmore: 34:58

Jamie, you've been saying be heavy duty at the end of these episodes. What does that mean to you?

Jamie Irvine: 35:05

So that is something that started. I don't know exactly what episode it was, but I remember, as I was preparing for some marketing that was going to go on our heavy duty consulting website, I started to think deeply about what it means to be in this industry, what it's meant to me over 25 years and what it means to be part of the trucking industry and what role the trucking industry actually plays in society. You hear me say all the time it's the backbone of society. What does that actually mean? I've had the privilege of working with some of the best people I've ever met here in this industry, and so I started to think about the term heavy duty applied to equipment, and that's like it's tough and it's engineered for tough circumstances and it's resilient and it withstands these difficult circumstances when they're operating this equipment in whatever vocation mining, logging on the highways and I started to think about the types of people that I've had a chance to work with over the last 25 years, and I started to think about it in terms of like well, what characteristics are the most dominant in these people? And I started to recognize that there was a correlation between the way heavy duty equipment is assembled and how it operates and its purpose, and the way that heavy duty people operate in their lives.

Jamie Irvine: 36:29

They're tough, they're resilient. They are people who really take on a lot of responsibility in supporting society at large and what they do, and when I started to recognize that correlation, I really wanted to start championing the idea that you don't just work in this industry. You are heavy duty, you're tough, You're resilient, you're resourceful. You are someone who is able to withstand the pressures of living in this modern world that we live in and, let's face it, I think there's some tough times ahead of all of us, so we're going to need to be even more resilient and tough to get through, but I know that people in this industry are up for the challenge, and so that's why we're really promoting that concept. You are not just in this industry. You are heavy duty, and so that's why I like to end every episode with the encouragement to continue to be heavy duty.

Diana Cudmore: 37:25

That's such a beautiful sentiment and I really agree. Some of the people in this industry, most of the people in this industry. They really embody that concept and I couldn't be more happy to be in this industry surrounded by some excellent people making some awesome content that reaches so many people Like this episode has been a long time in the making. It's been a wonderful journey to 300. And thank you, jamie, for letting me be a part of it.

Jamie Irvine: 37:59

Well, it's been my pleasure to have you part of the team and, yes, it's been a long time in the making. We've worked very hard for a long period of time. But episode 300 in many ways it is a milestone, but it's just the beginning. So I'm looking forward to another few hundred episodes at least. Thanks, diana, and we're just going to talk for just a quick minute about how people can follow the show and continue to support our efforts here at the heavy duty parts of our program. So thank you for celebrating 300 episodes with me today. Thanks again for listening to this episode.

Jamie Irvine: 38:31

If you want to follow the show, head over to heavydutypartsreportcom. Click on the follow button. This is going to allow you to sign up to our weekly email. You get one email a week, I promise, just the one that lets you know about all of our new content so you never miss out. If you're enjoying the podcast on the podcast player of your choice, make sure you follow us and give us a review on iTunes. If you're an Apple user and if you like to watch the video version, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel. Thank you so much for your support over the last 300 episodes on the heavy duty parts report. We could not have done it without you and, as always, don't forget, be heavy duty.