From Birmingham, England — 3,500 miles from American trucking — Tony breaks down the word that explains so much industry nonsense: externalities. Costs they create but you pay. While recovering from shoulder surgery that would’ve been ~$30K in the U.S. (and £500 in the UK), Tony lays out how trucking’s “bad math” hides the real costs on drivers.

Using Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground as a backbone, we dig into the LinkedIn math circus, deferred-maintenance shell games, gig-economy exploitation, the coming Crystal Palace of automation/surveillance — and why drivers are treated as the externality in everyone else’s equation.

“Every question you ask is a nail driven up through their floorboards. Keep driving nails. Keep asking. Stay conscious, villains.”

⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 – Intro from Birmingham 04:00 – Song: “Birmingham” – Broken Witt Rebels 06:00 – Quotes: Upton Sinclair & Socrates 11:00 – UK vs. US healthcare math (shoulder surgery) 14:00 – “Non-Domiciled CDL” emergency (and who really profited) 18:00 – LinkedIn Math Circus (Fuller/Miller/Miller) 27:00 – Drive Line: Externalities explained 30:00 – Notes from Underground (the consciousness problem) 33:00 – The Crystal Palace (autonomy, AI dispatch, surveillance) 36:00 – Socratic method as resistance: define your terms 41:00 – Post Trip: Villa train story & collective voice 47:00 – Next week preview (UK ride-along, Magna Carta, Kodiak)

🔎 TOPICS COVERED • What externalities really mean (McDonald’s trash example) • Underground Man’s “curse of knowing” vs. men of action • Craig Fuller’s admission about deferred maintenance & what it hides • The LinkedIn math circus: undefined terms everywhere • How Uber perfected trucking’s exploitation model • The Crystal Palace they’re building (and why we’re the support beams) • Non-domiciled CDLs & chameleon carriers (features, not bugs) • Birmingham train ride: collective voice vs. American isolation • Kodiak IPO timing (Diesel Damus called it)

🗣️ KEY QUOTES “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” — Upton Sinclair “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.” — Socrates

🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES Will Cook — A Driver’s Perspective Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61570019885862

TJ Graff — Star Behaviors Assessment Star Behaviors → https://starbehaviors.com Star Advisor (FREE self-assessments) → https://starbehaviors.com/staradvisor.html

“Big Cal” — Trucking with Coffee and Cal Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564967548222

Chris Barber — Fighting for Freedom Website: https://cbtruckingltd.ca

Mike Ritzema — Superior Trucking Payroll Service Website: https://truckingpayroll.com

Deb LaBree — A Woman Trucker Website: https://awomantrucker.com

Bobbi McGee — A Hard Shell Life Blog: https://hardshelllife.blogspot.com

🚚 UPCOMING TRUCK SHOWS • Barry Trahan’s Louisiana Truck Show — Rayne, LA — Oct 24–25 • Lee Owens’ American Truckers Jubilee — Searcy, AR — Oct 24–25 Full calendar: https://thetruckshowlist.com

🤝 SPONSORS Trucker’s Wealth — Financial strategies for drivers & owner-ops https://truckers-wealth.com

Trans Carolina Permits — Permits, IFTA, compliance since 1977 https://transcarolinapermits.com

True TMS — Cloud TMS: planning, rating, invoicing, reporting https://truetms.com

📬 CONNECT Email: https://channel19experience.com

🎵 MUSIC “Birmingham” — Broken Witt Rebels (support the artists)

#️⃣ TAGS #Trucking #TruckingPodcast #Externalities #NotesFromUnderground #Dostoevsky #CrystalPalace #OwnerOperator #FreightWaves #CraigFuller #GigEconomy #Uber #SocraticMethod #DefineYourTerms #Channel19Experience #CDL #DriverShortage #NonDomiciledCDL #ChameleonCarriers #KodiakIPO #DieselDamus #Birmingham