Talking Trucks — Maintaining Your Manufacturer's Sanity

I mean, like, gosh, I mean, I could almost think, I don't remember, like, I'm not privy to what was said when we made this request, but I do know that, like, just as an example, we had one of our trucks, one of the most recent ones that came in, we added a seat at, you know, I think it was final inspection that we were like, what, you know, like, you know, you know, let's add, you know, let's add the seats.

So, you know, I mean that, you know, I got to think somebody back at the manufacturers, like, you know, so like, it's just, and that was, that's, that's kind of a, you know, it's not that big of a deal.

I mean, it certainly delayed it getting to us, you know, because now you have to order the seat and, you know, if they don't have it in stock and then you got to do the whole thing.

But, you know, but there are things like that, that, you know, we do that.

We don't always think of what is happening, you know, down the line or back at the manufacturer.

So, Ricky, I'm sure with all the different departments you've worked for or volunteered for over the years, there have got to be some things that you've, over the years, you've been like, I'm not going to do that again because that just led to a very big, they almost killed me when I did that one.

Yeah, it gets interesting.

You know, it's hard to believe we're going to defend the manufacturer, but, you know, we're going to defend them here today.

So I try to help them out a little bit.

I mean, it's a it's very challenging world, you know, and I've said it 100 times is that, you know, and even with you is that.

I don't believe that the customer is king anymore just because of the, you know, since COVID and the things that have happened with the sheer amount of orders that go in.

And, you know, even even in a social media clip that, you know, Fire Apparatus did, you know, for one of my shows, you know, you know, I don't think it gave the full snippet is that.

You know, is that, you know, they are under a lot of pressure just and it's because of the customer.

I mean, we're the ones buying the trucks.

I mean, you know, there hasn't been a problem.

There wasn't a problem before COVID with, you know, hey, we're going to get this many orders.

We're going to get this many orders, depending on who you are as a manufacturer of how many orders you can take in.

And what your staff, your workforce, and your building, and I'm talking about your manufacturing facility, are able to handle.

Nobody was like, oh, yeah, we're not going to be able to get you your truck in 12 to 14 months because we just had so many orders.

I mean, you just never, ever heard that.

Before, you know, but, you know, obviously, COVID was a monumental event in all of our lives.

And obviously, it's still going on today of the things that are happening because of COVID and because of what's happened with our country during that is that, you know, it's had this ripple effect across the entire industry.

And look, I'm not going to get into the, you know, all the lawsuits and all that sort of stuff, because I mean, The buildings are the buildings.

I mean, no manufacturer decreased their building size during COVID.

So their buildings are the buildings.