this week on "press here" what it's like to ring the bell on the new york stock exchange, as a ceo takes his company public. a trucking school leader tries to figure out the cause behind the trucker shortage. and one of the world's experts on electric cars tells us what you need to know before you buy. that's this week on "press: here." good morning, everyone. i'm scott mcgrew. we've heard lots of reasons for the log jam at the ports, too many ships, not enough cranes, no place to put the containers. and the lack of empty containers to put back into the system.

but the key has got to be trucks, trucks to get those containers moving out of the ports to you. we have the trucks but apparently what we don't have are truck drivers. tra williams has made a living feeding truck drivers into the system. he's a logistics expert and book author. but most importantly he teaches people how to drive trucks. tra, good morning to you. tell me about the size of this problem. what are we dealing with? >> it's hard to overstate the problem really. america needs 1.1 million truck drivers in the next decade. that is 110,000 a year. that is 350 a day every day for the next ten years. so, the need can't be overstated. >> now, i understand truck driving is a pretty good living in the sense that it makes a fair amount of money, doesn't it? why have the problem with attracting new talent?

>> the problem we've been building over the past two decades, there's been a shortage of drivers since the late '90s. and no one really knew that skpiets a testament to how good our shipping logistics were. most of the country was unaware until last march when everyone was looking for products on their shelves. now what we're experiencing is the demand has been shifted post-pandemic because everyone is having things delivered to their home and likely will not return to their older ways. so, the demand is such now that it is exacerbating a long-existing problem. >> i realize lots of industries are having problems attracting talent, regardless of what it is they do. >> right. >> but i've seen it was commercial labor statistics -- bureau of labor statistics -- said truck driver pay is going up 21% since before the pandemic. so, clearly just more money is not bringing people into the system.

>> no, it's not. in fact i live in florida where the average cdl holder has a salary of roughly $80,000 a year. most of our graduates have two or three job offers waiting for them before they complete their training. it's not the money that is the challenge. it's a generational and cultural divide where there's this narrative where being a professional driver is a low skill, low wage, low education career. that's simply not the case. we need to make sure we're educating a younger generation on the enormity of the opportunity that's presented to them. >> i had seen that there had been a number of jobs, welder is another one that just pays tremendous amounts of money. but, yes, there has been this push in america in the last 10 or 20 years to put people into college instead of necessarily trade schools with some sort of bias, honestly, towards white

collar jobs as opposed to blue collar jobs that pay much better. >> sure. certainly. america needs electricians. they need plumbers. they need masons. they need carpenters. they need truck drivers. these are people that built and continue to build america. america wasn't built by someone who was insta-famous or a youtube influencer. i think we need to make sure we're conveying the opportunity that the demand is such that the opportunity is enormous. so, for those younger folks who may be considering a career change, even if you don't want to do this permanently, there's just a really unique opportunity right now to come into this industry, make a lot of money and have a career that you can fall back on. >> now, there must be something that existing truck drivers are leaving because the american trucking association says the turnover rate at the largest trucking firms is upwards of 90%. what are people discovering in the trucking industry, hey, good pay, you get to work mostly on

your own and set your own hours. and they still don't like it. >> you know, i think that a large percentage of the existing driver base, ata will support this, are aging out of the industry. 10,000 people in america turn 65 every day. 1,200 drivers retire every week. this is just the flow of natural demographics that's occurring. and the 1.1 million that i mentioned to you earlier is made up -- 54% of that is because of retiring drivers. so, we're in a place where an enormous amount of drivers are retiring and demand for drivers is increasing. >> if i talk to a truck driver, what would be his or her biggest complaint? >> you know, the drivers on the front line are going -- really dealing with the logistical challenge in the worse possible way. they're waiting in their trucks on the clock for the limited number of hours that they're allowed to drive while one crane is addressing three ships with thousands of containers. and it wasn't their fault that

this was created. the problem was created by the individual truck driver. and they're certainly wasting a lot of time in ports waiting for the opportunity to earn money. and timing out as a result, not able to earn the dollars they traditionally would if they'd drive a mile. >> the federal government limits the amount of time a truck driver can be at the wheel, whether that's sitting, staring at a crane or actually on the road. >> that is right. >> we talk about automation, self-driving trucks. they will come eventually. it's not a matter of if. it's a matter of when. what are you seeing and hearing about that and do you think there are some people who think to themselves that here's a job that eventually will be replaced. why would i want to get into that? >> i can say definitively that there have been a handful of startups, one out of silicon valley, who spent an enormous amount of money, very nearly a nine-digit number, trying to

automate this system. and i think what we can say fundamentally is we're just not there yet. it's one thing to ask an automation to drive down an interstate without causing an accident in straight line from jacksonville, florida to san diego. it's another thing to ask that automation to exit an interstate and enter into urban and metropolitan traffic, navigate their way through that traffic to a yard where it has to back into a dock. and all along the way you're expecting somehow for that automation to pull off and be recharged or refuelled, certainly fiat had going to make its way across the country without stopping. so, we're just a long, long way away from that happening. >> finally, tra williams, if someone is interested in becoming a truck driver, how much is that going to set me back? >> in florida tuitions range between $6,000 and $8,000 for a 160 program and your cdl class

license. they'll go to any employer who has a finishing program to teach you the more nuanced aspects of driving. >> excellent. tra williams is the ceo of fleet force truck driving school, educating us on the need for truck drivers in the system this morning. "press: here" will be right back.

♪♪ welcome back to "press: here." the bay area company, user testing, went public a few days back. and its employees rang the bell on the new york stock exchange as part of that celebration. it looks like they had fun. i spoke to the company's ceo andy mcmillan shortly for their moment in the spotlight. congratulations on your ipo. i want to start with the experience of being on the new york stock exchange. i used to work on the chicago board of trade, but 9/11 and

then covid really shut these places down to the public. what is it like to be at the new york stock exchange and be a part of that? >> yeah. it's incredible. i mean, there's so much history here and pomp and circumstance as well. it's been unbelievable. i mean, it's something we see on television. it's something we think about in business of just being able to get to this point. and to be here in this place on this day is -- it is really quite incredible. >> and your task is to press a button to ring the bell. it's nothing more complicated than that? >> you have to do it at exactly the right time. they give you a little bit of stress about you've got to do this at exactly the right moment. outside of that, it's a moment to celebrate. >> i would imagine even something that simple can make you nervous. i know i've talked to guys on the nasdaq whose, my only job is to sign my name, but actually

practiced it. >> it's a simple thing and i need to do it right, but boy, i need to do it right. i think i escaped unscathed and enjoyed the moment. >> you did price slightly below range. you're offering a fewer shares than you were expecting. what was the thinking behind that? >> the thinking was we've done that in the past when we've raised private rounds. we focused on the right investors. we had the opportunity to price the stock where we thought it made sense to get the book of investors we wanted coming into the ipo. and we're really excited about the group of investors that stepped forward. i think we traded right in that price range today. so, i think it was the right price with the right group of investors and a really successful day for us. >> and you've had quite a few rounds. am i mistaking in thinking you had a round f? >> yeah, we did a round with insight partners and a lot of our existing partners in

february of 2020. so, that was our most recent private round. we used that to just continue to accelerate the growth of the company to get to today. >> i spoke with a number of ceos as they take their companies public, and one of the big concerns when you're leading employees is that instead of thinking about, you know, where do we need to take the company and what are we doing next, they have one eye in the corner on cnbc. how do you then handle a company full of employees in a publicly traded company? >> yeah, i mean, culture is something that builds over time and it's both the environment you create and it's also the people you hire. i think our company in particular i feel is blue collar in our approach. i think we're very focused on building a great product. we're focused on doing a great job with our customers. i don't think, for example, we're an overly marketed company. we're just focused on getting in and doing the right things. i don't think being a public company will change that. it will incentivize us to double

down and stay focused. >> nick meta, who is a fantastic leader, said you run an authentic, very human company. what does he mean by that? >> that's a lovely compliment and nick is fantastic, just a great human being. i think it means at our core we're a company that helps our customers connect with real people and get opt-in feedback. it's really about building empathy. and then inside the company, our number one company value is be kind. and we mean it. it is a company that i joke is a west coast tech company with midwest values. it is focused on treating each other the way we want to be treated. i love the fact we can take a culture like that and show everyone you can scale that to being a public company on the new york stock exchange. >> speaking of being midwestern nice, i grew up in grand rapids, michigan. you'll be glad to hear i am not a wolverine. you are a michigan state grad.

people outside of michigan cannot possibly grasp the level of rivalry. they'll point to stanford-cal, right? but it's just not even close. >> i'm actually married to a wolverine -- >> oh, no. >> yeah, so football saturdays are intense in our house. it is something special. >> it is, indeed. andy mcmillan, best of luck to you, ceo of using testing. i appreciate you're being with us this morning and the best of luck as your early days of trading. "press: here" will be right back. this is elodia. she's a recording artist.

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welcome back to "press: here." there has been a lot of movement in the electric car and truck space. rivn is now on the stock market. it had a bigger valuation than ford or gm. biden's infrastructure bill means countless new charging stations. and so many new models giving tesla a run for its money. if you're in the market i thought you'd like to hear some expertise from one of the people who made this revolution possible. anil pariani is the decree of amp, which works in the battery space. he holdings 40 patents. anil, thanks for joining us.

tesla has been around for a while. electric cars are no longer new. but it just seem, just judging from my parking lot at work, there's just a new enthusiasm for electric cars. they're very main stream. >> it is. i kind of used this analogy. back in 2007 apple came out with an iphone and in 2009, everyone was walking around with smartphones whether it's android or iphone. we're going to see the same thing with electric vehicles in the next few years. >> if i'm poking around a car in a car lot, what should i be asking the car dealer? this is all going to be new terminology to us, right? we understand what horsepower is or how many cylinders a car has. are all electric cars the same or is there something we should be asking, hey, does this car have x? i don't know what x is. >> you know what, i think in general the public has had a percentage that evs have short range and something we've called

range anxiety. that really no longer exists. once you have a vehicle that goes 200 miles on a charge and can be fast charge in less than 30 minutes, that's no longer a case. so, in some ways, there's a lot of compelling products coming out from volkswagen and tesla. it's going to be like going to the mall and buying a shirt. now people are buying cars for the styles, the way it functions, the way it looks. and there's a lot of options for the market, and i think that's the best thing for society and all the electric vms our country is trying to serve. >> i think most of us were aware that change would be a question. charge time, is that going to be a thing where one car charges faster than other? >> yes. there is new technology being developed on the battery backs that allow the battery backs to charge in 15 minutes or less. and those -- there are stations

actually that do that. there's a few models that can -- for example, porsche, hyundai has also announced some things in that level. so, those are really -- the manage of the 15-minute fast charges are when you go on the long trips. but to be honest it's a little bit overrated because -- and every use case is a little bit unique. 90% of ev users charge at home 90% of the time. and when you charge at home, people ask, how long does it take to charge? it takes about 10 seconds, the amount of time you plug in because you plug in when you get home from work. in the morning, it's ready. >> i myself have a plug-in hybrid, and i found out how expensive it was to bring a 240 outlet to over where i was going to charge it. it takes overnight but i wasn't driving the car overnight. it works perfectly fine for me. >> yeah, plug-in hybrids are very flexible. they're actually much more complicated than a pure electric

vehicle because you have to manage both the battery and the engine. so, i feel that's a stopgap technology. >> for sure, for sure. so, as i'm looking at these new cars, there's nothing -- and i'm going to go back to i understand what horsepower is, or at least i pretend to at the car lot. there's nothing i need to know, no hidden -- oh, that car does not have this technology and that's going to make a big difference, that when it comes to things outside of the styling of the car or the safety features or those sorts of things, there's nothing i particularly need to worry about this brand has that but that brand doesn't? >> now people aren't buying electric cars because they're electric. they're actually buying them because they're fast, they're sleek, they have lots of interior volume. they also all inherently have nice infotainment screens. tesla has -- that was a game

changer for the tesla model s. and you'll see a lot of companies are doing that to try to level up on tesla. >> now, you were at tesla for quite some time. what sort of lessons did you take away from your time at tesla? >> you know what? we definitely had a silicon valley culture, and that was new for me from being traditionally from the auto industry. and the biggest thing is having small teams with eight players. and steve jobs quotes, everyone circles around large teams with b players. so, when i was employee number 220 when we launched the model s, we were about 600 or so employees. just really, bright, energetic, enthusiastic, smart people. and it's amazing when you put a group together like that, game changing technologies can be created. >> we've had a couple of car companies, electric car companies, that didn't make it. but it looks like some other car companies will.

rivn hit the market with great enthusiasm. at least investors. we'll see about the buyers. does that encourage you about the future of cars, that these companies are coming online and apparently being successful? >> yeah, and i think the biggest thing is the investment community is backing them. so, i think electric cars, the technology was there. i want to say 20 years ago. but there wasn't the will to really invest until tesla changed the mindset. so, really it's a benefit for not just the car companies but for society as a whole that the investment community now has the eom starts. and you've got to realize tesla is the first successful car company. a lot of people have tried in the last 100 years. so, the thing is what people don't understand but making a car is much easier than making a gas car. that's why you've seeing all these startups. it's one moving part versus 100 parts. >> what are you working on at

amp? what made you leave tesla to start your own company? >> right now you can see everyone is trying to be like tesla or better than tesla. there's a saying, when there's a gold rush, don't go mining for gold. sell pick axes and blue jeans. and you can think of us as the levi's of electric vehicles where we're allowing all those companies, filling in battery management and charges technology to allow them to drive farther, charge faster, let their battery last longer. >> and we've got big chargers coming with that infrastructure bill. >> yeah. the infrastructure bill, there's going to be a lot of investment on the charging side. i personally feel there are some things that are amiss, presently dictated. and i can kind of dive in on a couple key points. >> yeah, give me a couple examples. >> yeah, right now, i think the most important thing we want to see for society is blue collar workers, everyday people being able to buy and afford electric

vehicles. now, actually there are a lot of portable use electric vehicles. but typically if i'm working in the city or nearby city, living in armt pa, living in a condo, i don't have an easy place to charge. i may not even own the parking spot. there needs to be incentives and changes on it to allow incentives for workplace charging. at the end of the day whether i go to an office or factory, if i have an electric car, there for eight hours, i can simply plug in. that is completely missing. on top of that, the emphasis is on having credit cards into charging stations. no one carries around credit cards as much as we used to. we have -- whether it's phones or apps or things that can automatically authenticate when you plug in and bill you, those things need to be thought of in the future. so, there's some adjustments that need to be made in order to see electric vehicles really amass adaptation, especially the blue collar workers that we want to see buy electric vehicles. >> i would love to see that too.

i appreciate you joining us and filling us in on the technology. anil pariani is the ceo of a.m.p. "press: here" will be right back.

♪♪ that's our show for this week. my thanks to my guests. and a reminder to you, we have a sister podcast called "sand hill road." it's all about venture capital and the people and personalities behind it i think you would enjoy. my thanks to my guests, and

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damian trujillo: hello and welcome covered california. this way to health insurance. to "comunidad del valle" i am damian trujillo. today, we're putting wreaths across america, honoring our fallen veterans this christmas on your "comunidad del valle." ♪♪♪ damian: we begin today with the make a wish foundation. we're joined here on "comunidad del valle" by the arias family. leonardo arias gonzalez is my special guest, and his mom and dad are also with us, karla and josé gilberto. welcome to the show, folks. karla arias: thank you. gilberto arias: thank you. damian: all right, well, i want to ask you, karla, tell us about leonardo's situation and how the make a wish foundation