Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast

SiriusXM and the Road Ahead_ Safety and Entertainment for Truckers

• John Farquhar & Chris Harris • Season 2 • Episode 104

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In this episode, hosts John and Chris welcome David Boss from SiriusXM Canada and Joe Knuckley from SiriusXM USA to discuss SiriusXM's benefits for the trucking industry. 

The conversation covers how SiriusXM reduces distracted driving, offers consistent coast-to-coast radio, and provides valuable content for truckers. It highlights the impact on driver safety, entertainment options, and potential cost benefits for fleets.

The podcast also discusses SiriusXM's presence in OEM trucks, its ease of installation, and its use in various heavy equipment. Additionally, the hosts discuss its positive effects on driver retention and recruitment.

Reach out to 
David Bos, David.Bos@siriusxm.ca
Joe Knuckley, Joe.Knuckley@siriusxm.com

00:00 Introduction and Guest Introductions
00:56 Joe Discusses Distracted Driving
02:01 David on SiriusXM in Canada
03:01 SiriusXM Content for Truckers
04:49 Benefits of SiriusXM for Drivers
09:04 SiriusXM Installation and Fleet Integration
11:24 Safety and Entertainment with SiriusXM
23:04 Pricing and Fleet Plans
25:56 Conclusion and Contact Information

Your hosts, 
John Farquhar
Summit Risk Solutions: summitrisksolutions.ca
1 226 802-2762
John@summitrisksolutions.ca


Chris Harris
Safety Dawg Inc: safetydawg.com
Chris@SafetyDawg.com
1 905 973 7056


Keeping it Safety Dawg Simple!
#trucksafety #truckinsurance #truckpodcast

Do you need a "Truck Driver Safety Policy?" Get it today! https://safetydawg.com/policy

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

This week on the show, we have two guests. Yes, two for the price of one. Um, and we are discussing the benefits of satellite radio and how they can contribute to safety and driver retention. That's next. Let's get into it. Welcome to the Trekking Risk and Insurance Podcast. Hey boys, welcome to the podcast. We'll start with David. David, can you say a couple of words to introduce yourself to our listeners and viewers?

David Bos, Sirius:

Yeah. Hey Chris. Uh, good to see you. Uh, yeah. David Boss here from SiriusXM. Um, I'm, uh, the, uh, fleet and, uh, retail manager for a business in Canada. Um, And, uh, been with Sirius, uh, coming up on four years, uh, been with Sirius XM. Cool.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Good deal. And Joe, I know you're not from Canada. Can you introduce yourself?

Joe Knuckley, Sirius:

Hey, Chris, I am Joe Knuckley. I live in the South Carolina. I've been with Sirius XM for a little over seven years. Been in the trucking industry for about 15 years. Um, just enjoy doing what I do and working with fleets to, uh, help them better themselves.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Alright, well, Joe, we'll start with you. How in the world are you working with Sirius and helping fleets better themselves?

Joe Knuckley, Sirius:

Well, I'd like to start off with distracted driving. Obviously, 70 percent of all wrecks are caused by distracted driving. So anything we can do to reduce that at all. Um, speaks numbers and speaks volumes. So, obviously with SiriusXM being built into the controls of the steering wheel, helps the driver not obviously look at the, look down at the dial as much, change the dial as much. Also, SiriusXM is coast to coast radio. So, generally they can give five presets and they're able to use those five presets across the, uh, You know, why they're driving across the States and through Canada.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Yeah, it was many years ago when I got a rental car and they had Sirius installed. And it was my first experience in going for a long drive and not having to change damn radio channels. Jesus. David, how does it all work up here in Canada in the great white North?

David Bos, Sirius:

Yeah. Um, I'm calling it. I'm. Speaking to you from Niagara, so it's not as cold, uh, for us yet, but I think it will be soon. And, um, you know, as we come into the, into the winter months, uh, um, you know, I have a lot of customers and a lot of drivers that use SiriusXM. They rely on our, on our content and, uh, our product while they're on the road. So, um, uh, kind of a busy season for us, kind of getting everybody, uh, set up for the winter months.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Well, and there's, you, you mentioned, uh, listeners and everything. There is a, an awful lot, I think, of content directly pointed at the trucking industry in serious. Joe or David, who would like to tackle that one?

David Bos, Sirius:

Joe.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Joe.

Joe Knuckley, Sirius:

All right, Joe. So, I am Valenzuelo. Uh, obviously there is Road Dawg Trucking, which is, uh, pretty much one of our best stations, I'd say our top stations for trucking. It's 24 7 trucking all the time. Uh, anything from women in trucking to, um, taxes, to health, to how to get your business off the ground, um, you know, how to save money. All types of different aspects of the job are talked about on that radio station. So that's a really, uh, it's a great place for truckers to feel it, kind of feel at home, to feel other people in the industry, to understand their complaints, uh, their problems. Uh, and evolve from there, but, uh, it's a great tool, I think, in the industry.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

And before we hit the record button, we were talking about what show is it that has a lot of call ins for the drivers, Dave?

David Bos, Sirius:

Well, there's a few of them. Uh, Dave Nemo's on, uh, right now on Weekday Mornings. Uh, Dave's really popular in the trucking industry. I think he's been in the business for upwards of 40 years. Uh, we've got the, uh, Women in Trucking show, which is on, on the weekends, on, on Saturday, uh, the, and you'll hear some Canadian content as well, and, you know, during the week, we've also, uh, got Casey Phillips on, uh, which is a, a live call in show, and, uh, there's a lot of, a lot of great content there, and I think as Joe was alluding to, the, you know, these drivers are on the road a long time, so, uh, uh, You know, these shows kind of become their friends in many ways. Um, but yeah, a lot of advice just about how to take care of yourself. Um, uh, they're alone out there and, uh, I think it plays a pretty big part. If I

John Farquhar:

could jump in, I was going to say I've, I've got Sirius in my vehicle. Uh, it's not quite the big rig that, uh, that everybody else is running, but I'm quite impressed. You know, that road dog trucking is, is very informative. There's a Ton of information in there, as you mentioned, Dave and Joe, uh, and very impressive. And I do a fair bit of traveling around Ontario and even out to Eastern Canada in my vehicle. And what's interesting is you, you don't lose that station. I could go from here to Toronto and lose the radio station I have locally, but I'm not losing a station. And so I'm not having to search around finding it and going, Oh, I was right in the middle of that conversation. I really wanted to hear what that guy was going to say. Well, that just kind of simplifies it. It just keeps going and going and going.

David Bos, Sirius:

Yeah. It's also, um, A lot less distraction too, right? They, you know, the drivers, when they go out on the road, they, they can preset the channels they want to listen to. Um, and you know, to a certain degree, uh, they're having hands free, uh, control of their audio. So you're not plugging in a phone and trying to drive down the highway with a big trailer behind you. Um, and for the, for the fleets, it's, uh, For the owners of these large fleets or small fleets, it's important for them as well, right? They know that they're, you know, providing a benefit to their drivers that makes them a little bit safer on the road. To your point, it's coast to coast. So, um, it really, they can choose what they want and, and, and hit the highway. And, uh, they also a little more entertainment perhaps than, uh, just listening to their, um, mm-Hmm. uh, their local station.

John Farquhar:

And, and I know when, when I started playing with it and going through it, oh my gosh, the genres of music, the talk radio, the, like, there's so much entertainment. Uh. It fits everybody. I'm sure. I don't know that there's anybody going to be missed in there. So it's very impressive.

David Bos, Sirius:

Yeah, I came to SiriusXM as a subscriber. That's what, you know, so when I started working here a few years ago, I was really excited about it because I was so into the content. But yeah, you'll find you, you, you, you, you'll find it. You know, I like Willie Nelson, Willie's Roadhouse. Uh, but you know, I also like, uh, Hair Nation, which is, uh, uh, you know, 80s, uh, 80s, uh, I guess what used to be called heavy metal, but, uh, but there's a, but you find you drift around the dial too, right? You'll, you'll find what you like. And for, for our folks in Canada, we've also, also have a fair amount of Canadian content. Uh, Canada Talks, Channel 167. There's a CBC. Uh, and some other, uh, options down the dial. And for our US drivers, uh, uh, Joe could speak to it, but there's a lot of, uh, Spanish content, I believe, right, Joe, uh, um, on the dial.

Joe Knuckley, Sirius:

There are, there are 15 or 16, uh, Spanish slash Latino channels throughout SiriusXM and they're continuing to, uh, improve that and add to it as well.

David Bos, Sirius:

Yeah,

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

cool. I can tell you that in that rental car that I had I gravitated towards the comedy channels Yeah, well it kept and I think the reason I did that it kept me engaged

David Bos, Sirius:

Yeah I've, I've recently discovered, here we are talking about just channels now, but here I recently discovered Triumph, uh, and there's Dr. Laura on there, who I used to listen to years ago. Oh, I can listen to Dr. Laura again. You know, so, so yeah, you, you, you kind of, you pick your content, you move around the dial a bit, but there's a lot there. And, uh, the point is, uh, is, is entertainment and content. And that's, that's our. You know, we kind of lead with that and uh, and then it goes into You know, what are the benefits of them having that content? Well, it's distraction free. Uh, you can set your presets. It's coast to coast. Uh, you're not streaming your phone. Uh, you're not, you know, potentially creating an unsafe, unsafe driving environment. You're not meant to be looking at your phone anyway. Um, so, you know, so it controls it. The other, um, The other, I just have stuff here I can show. We're on a podcast so it's easy, but you know, we're in, and Joe, you might be able to speak to this better than me, but about 40 percent of OEM trucks right off the bat, but it's for those trucks that don't have SiriusXM installed, it's very easy. We can get you a new head unit that will marry up with your, uh, your, um, steering wheel controls, uh, or we've got, you know, simple plug and play radios like our, uh, Our plug and play lineup and they, they easily install and you can get a truck antenna that mounts on outside on the mirror if it's necessary. So it's very, very easy to, to install the product and make it work. And, uh, a lot of our fleets kind of mix and match how they go about installing the radios. Um, but I think they, you know, they find how the drivers really enjoy it.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Well, the one part that. I think really speaks to, you know, this is a safety podcast kind of, uh, and speaks to safety is if the driver's mind is engaged, then they're awake. You know, they can better navigate the roads and deal with. The other, I'll be polite today. I don't know why. The other drivers on the road, you know, like, Because that's their challenge is trying to get to the end game safely all the time. And if they're awake and engaged, and as I say, I, I gravitated towards the, uh, uh, the comedy channels to be engaged. Because some of those guys are, God, they were funny. And I don't drive a truck today and my car isn't Tesla compa or sorry, isn't, uh, Sirius compatible at the moment.

David Bos, Sirius:

Comedy is in

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

the top

Joe Knuckley, Sirius:

five, all trucking, uh, topless and two stations. Usually one of the comedy channels. Comes in in the top five. Uh, Fox News is number one. Go figure. Uh, road golf driving is number two. Uh, and then usually, you know, comedy falls in three or four. So very popular. Yeah. And talking about the safety aspect, the thing that me and David have tried to do is, you know, we talked to these fleets and a lot of fleets, you know, they're worried about distracted driving, but they're not providing any alternative. It's, Hey, we've got camera, forward facing cameras. We've got all these tools. We've got all these things, you know, to say, don't do distracted driving, but we're not providing you any tools to actually entertain you while you're on the road. So me and David talked to a lot of fleets and say, Hey, why don't you mandate? You know, Sirius XM throughout your fleet say, Hey, we're going to provide you a tool. This is for your entertainment while you're on the road. You know, no YouTube, uh, music, no Spotify, uh, no Apple music. Cause you're using your phone, but here we've provided you this one set tool. And this is what we expect you to use, uh, while you're on the road. It provides you the entertainment benefit and it reduces the distracted driving.

John Farquhar:

Right.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

And a couple of weeks ago, you just mentioned YouTube a couple of weeks ago on, as a guest, we had Doug Marcello and Doug's a lawyer from Pennsylvania. And he's a truck friendly lawyer. He's a trucking defense attorney, but he mentioned that currently. If a driver is streaming YouTube music, that post crash, when they do the, um, they take the phone and they analyze the phone, all the attorneys see, or all the court gets to see, is the fact that the driver was on YouTube. It doesn't say it was YouTube music. It just says YouTube and so now the driver is going to be accused of watching videos Absolutely, you know, so Sirius would take that away

John Farquhar:

Yeah, big time,

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

you know, go ahead David.

David Bos, Sirius:

Yeah. No, no No, I just you bring up a lot of good points. And I again, I just keep you know, you you mentioned Then the driver being focused while he's on the road or he or she's on the road, um, and how that affects, um, them, them being easily distracted. And yeah, that's exactly it. And, uh, that's why the content's always ever changing. They're, they're, they try to mix up the channels. Um, and in terms of, um, You know, again, going back to, back to our fleets, you're not only just providing a benefit for your drivers, which looks good, right? It's saying, you know, Hey, thank you very much for, for driving, driving with us. And, uh, we appreciate everything you do. So here's the. Here's SiriusXM, enjoy it. Um, but yeah, as you said, it really, it really reinforces, um, the company's commitment to saying, you know what, none of these devices should be plugged in your, none of, no watching videos or any of these things. We're providing you the tools, uh, to be safe on the road. And, uh, I think that that's driven home with a lot of our customers. They really embrace that.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

God damn, David. We've been bugging you for over a year to get on the show with us. And the reason I was really wanted you on the show is I do believe in my core that Sirius can help drivers. Go down the road distraction free. Um, I do believe it's a safety tool. And that's why I wanted you guys on the show. Yes, I know we're promoting Sirius and we're going to talk about it. But, my motivation is to make our roads safer. And I believe Sirius does that. Um, you know, so. Oh, sorry.

John Farquhar:

I'm just gonna say, I can attest to that because with, with, uh, having Sirius in my vehicle, I've got, uh, about five or six presets and everything works for my steering wheel and it's so slick, you know, like, uh, commercial free a lot of the music is, um, you know, I'm in the mood to listen to, uh, Road dog, you know, so I'm listening to something going on. Yeah. And if there's something comes on that doesn't interest me, well no problem. I love blues music over to BB King's Blues, you know, and listening to that and then, oh hey, you know, as it happens, comes on at a certain time of the day on CBCI want to hear that. So it's, it's so cool 'cause it's so easy to get to it and I get to listen to it. Anywhere. Like, so to me, that, that is really a big help. As Chris is saying, it reduces that distraction of me trying to go through the dial. Where are we at? You know, um, this is already set. I got what I like.

David Bos, Sirius:

Yeah. And that's why I think in a lot of ways, um, we've had a lot of success at the OEM level. Uh, you know, as we said, we're in upwards of 40 percent of the trucks that arrive at the dealership. So it's, it, it's, it, it's been embraced, uh, in SiriusXM, uh, you know, obviously been around a long time now, but, uh, on the trucking side, side of the business, it's, it, it's been pretty constant and pretty consistent. Um, you know, and the, you know, there's, there's, uh, other aspects to the program as well. And you know, it's a, we, we like to say it's a highly valued benefit at a low cost. Um, and we can speak a bit to, to, to what that looks like, but our fleet customers benefit from a lot of different perks on the, on the, uh, on the business side of things as well. And that's ranges everything from cost. You know, we, we ha we have, uh, priced this in a way uh, into consideration. Um, you know, we've centralized billing, put all these, you know, I have many fleets that have a couple of hundred trucks. Joe has fleets that have a couple thousand, all of, all of this invoicing is centralized on one, one statement for them. Um, We can do bill quarterly, uh, you know, very, very flexible solutions to, to allow these fleets to be able to manage the account and add and remove trucks as they sell them. Uh, and, and just allow the service to go uninterrupted for everyone.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

And roughly how many stations are there on SiriusXM?

David Bos, Sirius:

There's 150 on the, roughly on the satellite radio in the cab, but There's a number of changes depending on on the chips that you have on your radio But there's also the added perk with the fleet program that we at least in Canada I don't know if you do still do Joe, but we include streaming access with With the service as well. So if you want to pass this out to your drivers when they're off the road They can use their phone or their tablet laying in the back of their truck with their headphones on going to sleep. And they've got another couple of hundred channels at their disposal. So it's, uh, yeah, yeah. Altogether.

Joe Knuckley, Sirius:

There's 465 stations if you include the streaming channels. So yeah, there's quite a few, uh, stations and the way we always pitch the streaming is, Hey, it's a benefit by the, uh, radio subscription for your driver wise on the road. And then when he's not on the road or he's at home. Let them use that app as a benefit. Uh, another added benefit and they can use it in their own car, at their own home, at their barbecue, tailgate, whatever it may be

David Bos, Sirius:

on the boat, whatever they want to do. Right.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Oh yeah. Boat. I never thought it's going to work out in the middle of the, uh, yeah. The water.

Joe Knuckley, Sirius:

That's another big business for us. Voting.

David Bos, Sirius:

Yeah, we've got a huge marine business, uh, uh, because your phone only works so far out. So then you need the satellite radio again. I

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

mean, let's be honest. That's the benefit in my mind of Sirius is if I'm running through the mountains. I'm going to mostly have something to listen to. Absolutely. Stupid question, I guess. Does it work in tunnels?

Joe Knuckley, Sirius:

So in the newer, a lot of the newer vehicles, there's like, uh, there's a five second, um, David, uh, five second buffer. So there's a five to 10 second buffer. So generally it'll work in the tunnel until you get to the other side. It's a very long tunnel then. Yeah. By the end of it, it may cut out for a second or two.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Okay. No, I just, yeah. Was curious, you know, because radio stations don't work in the tunnel.

David Bos, Sirius:

Correct. No, no. And the other, the other side to the business too, you just made me think about tunnels and such, but, um, you know, we're not necessarily just a class eight trucks as well. Um, we're also, I have a lot of mining customers, uh, that drive heavy, heavy, heavy equipment operators, that type of thing that have, uh, so they may have a trucking fleet, but they may also have, A hundred caterpillars or a hundred, uh, uh, heavy excavators and such, and same thing anywhere where there's an operator who's spending a long time in their, in their vehicle, uh, you know, these companies, uh, uh, can, can activate the service in a variety of equipment. So it's not just, uh, it's not just, uh, the truck.

John Farquhar:

Yeah. Well, I was going to say even your farm equipment, tractors, combines, you know, those all got radios in them. And, uh, Hey, if I'm a, if I like Sirius XM, then why haven't I got that in my tractor or my combine, right? So yeah, same thing.

David Bos, Sirius:

Yeah. I think Joe, you were spending some time on the rural side of things as well, right? Like on the farm side. Um,

Joe Knuckley, Sirius:

yeah, I've been spending more time there. I feel like there's an opportunity there. And I think, uh, the same thing, I mean, to avoid distracted driving, provide entertainment. Uh, to keep them focused. Um, I think it's a no brainer, the guy sitting in the fields for six, seven, eight, nine hours, he needs something, uh, to keep them occupied. So yeah, we've been kind of going after that. Uh, I know we have a relationship with John Deere and some other manufacturers.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

I got one more safety question, kind of. Uh, are there, is there a weather station on radio channel? There's

David Bos, Sirius:

not a dedicated weather station on the dial. Um, Road Dawg does give, does give weather updates. Okay.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

I mean, to me, it would be pretty boring to listen to weather across the nation, but, uh, if the bad weather's coming or hitting one area, so Road Dawg would be, uh, alerting the listener. I've actually

John Farquhar:

listened, I've actually listened to some of their, uh, weather alerts, weather forecasts and whatnot. And, you know, they're, they're not telling all regions of North America or the U. S. They're just going, here's where the, the happening is over here. You know, snow and, and ice and whatnot here. But, you know, if it's sunny in South Carolina, yeah, they're not talking about it. They're just saying, Joe, Joe will let you know it's sunny because he's out on the golf course. You know, but other than that, hey, it's snow over here in Washington.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Yeah. All right. What else do we need to discuss here about, uh, Sirius XM and safety for the drivers?

David Bos, Sirius:

Yeah. Again, I just thank you guys for the opportunity to, to bring us onto your, onto your show and onto the podcast. So we, we appreciate it. And again, I don't profess to be an expert in the trucking industry, but, um, I know from The customers I deal with, and they're all very engaged. Um, you know, taking care of their drivers is incredibly important to them, and they're very passionate about it. And the drivers are very passionate about the companies they work for. So we're kind of lucky to that aspect that, um, you know, when, when When we come on board kind of tie help tie the marriage up if anything Um, I guess one of the you know it's worth speaking to price a little bit, but I think um, because there are misnomers that Uh, wow, Sirius XM is going to cost me so much money, uh to add to my fleet. I can't afford that. I like to say um, if you were going to buy your drivers a cup of coffee a week, uh, is that Affordable for you. And if I could show you something that's going to be at least as beneficial as, as that, would that be of interest to you? Plus it's going to build on the safety aspect of your, of your organization and encourage safe driving and help drivers be distraction free. Would that interest you? Well, that. That's us for our fleet plan. We, you know, we, we come in under 5, starting from under 5 a month. Um, and there's no surprises or anything like that. It's, it's, uh, that's the price and it, it pretty much stays that way, uh, uh, for your, throughout your program. Um, the, uh, The drivers that we have, again, if they, if you don't have the hardware, we can help supply hardware so we can make this all very, very easy and very simple and a lot of times we'll work directly with your, your operations team,, or your, , , your, , dealer even to make sure that you've got the right, uh, the right hardware to make this, make it fly.

John Farquhar:

Well, if I could add one thing, I was actually talking to one of your customers here a few weeks ago, and he was raving about it, and he pays for all his drivers to have SiriusXM in the cab of the truck, plus in their personal vehicles, and he said one thing that has really been good for him is Retention.

David Bos, Sirius:

Yeah. Yeah. It's we, you know, being, uh, on the sales side of things, Joe and I promote recruiting and retention outside the safety, right? Promote, promote this cause it helps with your recruiting. It's going to, going to help with your, with your retention. Uh, don't underestimate it. The other, and the other thing I'll leave. We haven't mentioned yet, I guess, is once you sign up with our fleet program as well, we've also got an employee plan that you can send out. So, uh, it's not public facing. It's it's unique to our customers. And, uh, you know what? People want to pay for their own radio. Well, here's a good deal for them. It's not quite as, uh, uh, as, uh, discounted as the fleet plan is, but it's, um, it's certainly, uh, another benefit you pass on to your team as a perk of working at the company.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Cool. Right. And awesome. Is it correct for me to say, if you are a Canadian fleet, reach out to David. His contact info is in the show notes down below. And if you're an American customer, reach out to Joe. Is that how it should go?

David Bos, Sirius:

Yeah, yeah, correct.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Yeah, okay, and their contact info is in the show notes down below. Thanks so much guys for coming on the show this week. Appreciate your time.

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Chris Harris

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John Farquhar

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