Nation Safe Drivers Interview with Richard Holland

The following is a production of Gear Head Media.

All right, welcome back to the all automotive podcast. I'm

your host, Matt Clausen. And today, today we got a guest. His

name is Richard Holland. He is currently the CEO of a company

called Nation Safe Drivers and we'll get into that. He's also

helped endurance warranty come into the forefront of extended

service contracts and become one of the better ones. And also

he started his own tech company. So sit back and relax. Fasten

your seatbelts. I'm glad that you were all here. And welcome to

the all automotive podcast.

Alright, well, Richard, welcome to the show. First of all, I

was looking over your your background and stuff. And I

guess we'll start off with what what started you in this

process to do what you do with Nation Safe Drivers?

Okay, great question, Matt. And let's appreciate the invitation

to join you on your show today. Yeah, that's that question a lot.

And over the course really of my whole career, I've been in the

automotive industry. Maybe I have motor oil in my blood. I

don't know. I love cars are people love to talk about cars.

And so it's just an enthusiasm you have about it. So I was

approached a couple of years ago to come down to Nation Safe

Drivers, lean in on capitalize frankly on a lot of the

experience that I had over my career. And it's been a great

place. They're headquartered down here in South Florida and

home for me is Utah. So a winter in South Florida. So I'm

pretty darn appealing. And when you look at what we do, we

really are advocates for the motorist. And it's something

that I believe in really all my career so excited to be here.

Yeah, and thanks for coming on the show. And and I was we were

talking before we got on about some of the background and stuff.

And talk about a little bit about I know I have I have an

episode where I talk about extended service contracts and

what to watch out for and what to be aware of. And recently,

we've had experience with endurance warranty. Talk about

how you brought that company from a small in its infancy to what

it is today and one of the better extended service

contract companies.

Yeah, I think listen, that was a great experience. I was there

three years. It was I stood on the shoulders of those that went

before me. I don't know that back in the day, I would have had

the same courage that Paul did to launch that business. But when

they decided to bring in professional management when I

joined them. When you look at what an extended service

contract is designed to do is to really help de risk those

mechanical surprises and expensive surprises that motorists

can have. And so a lot of it was awareness getting it out there

that it was available. Most people are presented the

opportunity to get one of those service contracts when they

acquire the vehicle. Today cars are on the road 10, 11, 12

years, even longer, well outside of that original purchase

experience, and lived with a lot of exposure. And so we would

promote that and work through that we restructured the way the

team was organized, we came much more forward leaning on

trying to to get those presented and get people under

protection, that business exploded. Right, we probably

tripled the size of that business in three years. So we just

got that anymore, we'll cover it under of the SC is great

experience, they're their partner today, we're actually a

partner with them on one of the key benefits of service

contract. And that is when something unexpected happens. How

do you get it from wherever you are to the shop to get it

repaired?

Yeah, so talk about offering that we do now at Nation's

Safe Driver. Yeah, so talk a little bit more about that. I

know, in my research, I did a little bit more research as far

as is what Nation's Safe Drivers does. And it's something

that you're you primarily are in dealerships, correct? And yes.

So you're you're giving the customers like a roadside

warranty or a what exactly are you guys doing?

Yes, what we do is is so Nation's Safe Driver really has two

sides to the motorist ownership experience. One is is that we

help de-risk the unanticipated and then we do that through those

insurance like products like a roadside or like a vehicle

service contract. That's our risk business. Our recovery

businesses is when it does happen. And the motorist is

stranded on the side of the road. They have someone that can

call and so they would call us and we do that is on the benefit

for really hundreds of businesses out there who have

embedded that benefit into some of their offerings. So they'll

call us will arrange a service provider to reach them on the

side of the road. They might be able to do some light repair

there. Maybe they need gas. Maybe they just need the jump of

their car. Maybe it's a flat tire. They can do that on the spot.

But if it's something where the mechanical integrity is in

question, they'll load it up on the wrecker or a flat bed and

get it towed to the service provider of their choice, maybe

back to the dealer. Really, there are a lot of options there.

But it's how do you get them off the road safely and get their

car to where it can be repaired?

Right, exactly. And and there's things like when you buy the car

brand new, the extended the

you have a warrant, the vehicle warranty will give you this

roadside. So when you're buying purchasing a used vehicle, and

you go into that FNI department and they're looking at you as

far as this is what you're going to pay. And here's some other

things that we offer. You know, that is something. You know, I

totally agree with that because it's like, Oh, come on, folks,

we've all done it. I've run out of gas. Real. And, you know, I

work on cars. Yeah, it's always the unforeseen at the least

convenient of times.

And whether it's a flat tire, or it's a tire change, or nobody

wants to be broken down on the side of the road, number one,

and number two, they want to have that security in the fact

that they've got this to fall back on.

Yeah, that's exactly right. Well, it's, it's, listen, it's

911 for mechanical failure. And so you call somebody and

somebody, listen, the first question that we would ask a

motorist, are you in a safe place? Yeah, you feel safe. And

if you're not, we take, you know, accelerated services, we'll

get, you know, we'll call dial 911 and make sure that we get

them safe. But once we've make sure that we've got that

covered, then it's like, now let's get your car tour, we can

get it back on the road. And it's largely going to involve

getting a service department involved, whether it's an

independent service center, or a franchise dealer. And how you

get it from the side of the road to them is this what the road

side service provides.

Now, is nation safe drivers partnering with certain tow

companies or certain companies that offer towing? I know

triple A is a big one.

Yeah, so you have yeah, you have triple A, which is a big

direct to consumer, you have the OEMs that you made reference

to that do it as part of their warranty, they actually will

contract with us for the providing of that service. And

what we are is as a facilitator. We technically don't own a

single wrecker. Right. But we have partnerships with 50,000

of them from coast to coast. And so we have every zip code in

the country covered. And when we dispatch a tow to them, it's

done digitally goes right in goes out to their systems right

onto the their cell phone or a smart device in the record says

here's a here's a tow that needs to be accomplished. And the

process begins. And of those 50,000 partners, I would guess we

have somewhere around 250 ish records at our fingertips to get

out there and get just get you off the road.

Yeah, that's good. And that helps out the consumer to feel

safe as far as Yeah, this was purchased when I bought this used

car. And it makes me feel comfortable now that it's worked,

it works, you know, that it's not just, you know, calling the

record yourself, because, you know, I'll tell you that

experience, we were I was, we were going camping. It's not far

from here. We towed the truck towed the camper to the camp

ground. I was like, Well, I'm going to run into town and get

some food. And then I'll be back. So I had my son in the car,

pull onto the highway. And he wasn't even paying attention to

the being out of gas. So ran out of gas, got a five gallon

rescue. But you know, you're on the side of any busy highway.

And that's can be scary at times. So the comfort of knowing

that you've got something there and a number that you can call.

And a lot of times I tell customers this all the time

because we offer them, you know, towing as far as being in a

general radius of the shop, right? Yeah, it's just like, if

you've got a problem, you call us, we partner with, we don't own

a record, we're, we're not in the, you know, record business,

we, we call one of the two or three companies that are in in

our town and we dispatch them and we pay for the tow and then

we'll take good care of them. If it is a situation where, you

know, we did something wrong, then obviously, then, you know,

we're not going to, we're going to take care of that tow as

well. But tell us a little bit about some of the products. And

I know we're talking about roadside assistance. Is that all

it is? Or just there are more things that you guys are doing?

Well, we in that family of businesses, you have the road

side. And again, it can come into what we really call a tow or

a soft service, which is some of those on the side of the road

repairs or recovery efforts, get you some gas, change the tire

for you. We also leverage that same network and that partnerships

to do vehicle logistics. And so if we have some companies that

they will actually put them on a transport and they might go

from coast to coast. It's maybe one of the big national

dealership groups that needs to redistribute or inventory is.

And since we're experts at that, we do the logistics on that

aspect of it. Oh, that's cool. If we get past that recovery part

of our business, get into the risk ones, several of those are

solutions, comparable, similar to we're most familiar with a

vehicle service contract. But there are other items you might

have, we have tire and wheel, maybe the biggest one today,

where people are having challenge in their motor, in

their vehicles is a windshield product. And I know we might

have it in your PNC insurance, but we actually offer a separate

windshield solution since that seems to be ever increasing

exposure for motorists and windshields have gotten to be

hyper complicated. Yes, it's no longer just a clear piece of

glass, I got to be able to see through.

All right. Well, you got to thanks to some of the yeah,

you got the calibration now for all of the active accident

avoidance technologies that are embedded on a car. And so

windshields have become a really, really significant piece of

it's not mechanical, but a serious component of a vehicle

today.

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Yeah, and people don't understand that the the ADAS

systems that are on these cars are very complex.

And also, you know, I've had my I own a 2024 Chevy Silverado

and, you know, I've said this before on one of my other

podcasts, it's got forward collision avoidance.

So it's got this, these red flashing indicators.

If you're too close or if you're not hitting the brakes and

they see it sees you're coming up to that it put the brakes on.

Yeah, it was well, it's all dependent on, you know, right

behind that rear view mirror is the sensors for that the lasers

and the radar, right?

And if whatever reason, the replacement glass isn't tuned

for that and those haven't been calibrated to compromise those

systems.

Here you have a confidence that they're going to bail you out

when you're not paying attention.

But boy, it could be defective on you.

Right, and the correct and you're right, the correct windshield

and a very reputable company is needed in that situation because

you can't just pull the windshield out and then because

the camera is up there in front of your rear view mirror and that

camera sees forward so it can dim your headlights, stop you if

needed, tell you how close you are, help with your adaptive

cruise.

So there's so many things and I totally agree with that.

As far as the windshields are concerned, it's

you're right.

I think there's one other part that I hear motorists vent their

frustrations about there's, you know, there's a difference

between OEE and OEM replacement glass and the OEM has certain

engineered specifics and maybe it's heat tolerances.

It's part of the insulation on the car.

The biggest one I hear is the noise, the sound deadening and

an OEE lacks perhaps that.

So all of a sudden they get their windshield repaired and they're

like, wow, this car is the road noises.

I never noticed it before.

And when people ask me about it, I will frequently ask them how

recently did you replace a windshield and they're like, oh,

I did that a month or so ago.

Now I hate my car because it's so noisy and I'm like, well, the

problem is that you could have probably should have stuck with

OEM glass and the difference isn't that much.

It's worth the investment to make sure you ensure your

satisfaction with the operability of that car.

Yeah, absolutely.

And there's there's lots of other things that the windshields do too.

You know, they're reflective for your heads up display.

They are UV protected for your windshield wipers.

Yeah, exactly.

So when I worked at the at the GM dealer, we had a Buick, we had Buick.

And one of the things Buick started doing to make their cars more comfortable

and you're talking about the sound deadening stuff is they laminated

both front windows on the four door cars.

And people don't realize that, hey, that that deadens the sound.

And that's, you know, the windshield is a big deal because it's it's laminated.

So if something hit it or you got into an accident, it's not going to shatter

and, you know, do a Takata airbag on you or anything like that.

So it would, you know, that's why it's laminated.

So it doesn't separate itself, but it's also laminated to keep the noise down.

So if that's a that's another product, that's great.

Yeah, it's a sophisticated piece of a car down.

If you look at the sort of the rise of EVs, most of them are replacing

the headliner in the roof with glass.

For a couple of reasons, one to just improve the headroom

because now you're sitting on the batteries.

But the other is that it's less it's less of a manufacturing process

to install that full ceiling of glass and charge an option charge for it.

But so I think we're going to find glass is going to become a much more prevalent

part of the car construction and something motorists over the life of their car.

They just got to be more sensitive to it.

It's not mechanical, but it is an integral part of the car.

Absolutely.

So we touched on we just touched on this EV stuff

with more of the electric vehicles coming into the forefront.

Are there any challenges

that you guys see with these couple of them?

I'll tell you the first one, and it's probably not obvious to most.

They don't put a spare tire in there.

And so if you have because they've got to save weight, right?

Right. For them, weight,

lower weight means increased range and range being the big challenge with EVs.

And so no spare tire.

So if you get a flat tire someplace,

you need roadside that to come out, either repair the tire

and most likely to replace the tire or tow you to a tire center.

So again, as these EVs age, you know, there's not only

the question of the battery life, which they've made leaps and bounds

with that over the last couple of years.

They have.

But this also presents a challenge to where, you know, I don't know

that Tesla or or any of these manufacturers are going to keep.

Extending this down the road.

So your nation's safe drivers is, hey,

you know, that's something you might want to add.

You buy a used EV.

You know, you get a used EV.

You need to get you need to have roadside protection.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

Because it's it's that.

Listen, you're in the repair business.

You're an expert at it.

You know, the brakes wear faster on an EV because the car weighs so dang much.

And I think, you know, the state of Utah, for example, they

they actually rescinded the vehicle inspection required to renew

your registration there a few years back.

And what we're seeing is is an increased lack of maintenance until it's a catastrophe.

And so I think there's just his ownership of the underlying vehicle changes.

There has to be a different awareness of what the maintenance is and what my risks are.

But yeah, absolutely.

And the the thing about it is, is I don't and we've talked about this

in some of my owner groups and so forth about, you know, vehicle inspections

and state inspections.

And there's several states that do it.

North Carolina, Pennsylvania, a lot of the New England states do it.

I know in Pennsylvania, you can't even have like a rust spot on your car

that you've got to fix that in order for it to pass the inspection.

So the the thing about in our area is we they've never done that.

So you're right, these cars, the people come in with these cars and it's just like,

you know, we had one the other day where the customer wore through

where the brakes out so bad that the the brake pad came out and spun around.

And the whole face outside face of the rotor was was down to the fins and beyond.

And it was just not going to do a really costly repair.

Yeah. And if you're doing a yearly inspection, which I guess

it's going to add cost to the consumer.

But man, don't you want to be safe on a roll?

I don't know. Well, or even if, you know, I think there's a lot of service

centers that do a complementary inspection when you just have maintenance

forms, right, whether it's just having the fluids refreshed.

But at least semi annually, it's probably worth a visit to the entire center

and just say, can you do an inspection on this car?

And most of them it's complementary.

Yeah. And to check that out and just know you have a problem, get it solved ahead

of time. It saves you a big costly repair and while at the same time,

makes your car roadworthy.

Yeah. So the state inspections, that's that's interesting.

I didn't I guess I didn't know that Utah rescinded that.

And that's the first thing that that's come up.

And it's like my brother lives in the Cleveland area and they have to do

emissions testing and I'm in a state where that's not a thing either.

So so their vehicle can't have a check engine light on or it can has to pass

these carbon tests, they stick something up the tailpipe and it runs and whatever.

So, you know, keep that in mind when you're when you're out there looking

for your used car. So when we're talking about nation safe drivers, is it just

like cars, automobiles and trucks and light trucks that you guys are involved

with or do you do like boats and power sports?

We do some power sports, really anything that is a transportation device

work other than a big 18 wheeler, right? We to do that.

So everything think about your big mobile home all the way down to

gosh, a scooter everywhere in between, we have a way to help with those.

Awesome.

So let's talk a little bit about what a typical day for Richard Holland looks like.

I know you're in Florida and you know, so you got two houses.

How long are you in Florida?

I spend the majority of my time in Florida.

Part of that is being relatively new to this position and this is a company

that's sponsored by a private equity firm and they're the ones who recruited me.

And usually it's a really clear mission to come in.

This business maybe wasn't performing it their expectations.

So how do you come in and tune that up?

So you spend a lot of time at the office with the team working with them.

And Florida is a pretty darn nice place to be, especially in the winter months.

I love it down here, but a typical day here starts pretty early.

You know, I'm usually at the office sometime between seven and seven 30

and here till six or so every day.

And I start my day with a session with my T leadership.

We call it a stand up.

Earlier in my career, I was in technology development and it was a practice

that we developed there is working with engineers.

So it's been modified and adopted here.

And what really the question is, you know, what are we going to get accomplished today?

Make sure everyone's clear on what their mission for the day is and we resolve any

challenges that maybe would impede that.

Then the rest of the day is spent interacting with the team.

It might be briefings, it might be offering counsel, it might be approving

recommendations that they're having or a lot of time spent with customers.

You know, how do we do better?

How can we help them be successful?

How do we fulfill their brand promise?

And the day goes by fast and it's challenging work, but enjoyable and

really pleased with the progress that this business is making.

And I guess, you know, so this is a career that I really enjoy.

And the fact that I get to do it around the automotive.

Yeah, I think I look back on my career.

I've probably personally been in somewhere around 6,000 dealerships.

And every one of them is this fund, you know, it doesn't matter what they sell

everywhere from, you know, in Acura to, you know, high line vehicles.

It's just they all are unique.

I think I find an artistry about all of them and they have a various niche.

But it helps to be passionate about cars.

Yeah, absolutely.

And so you got the products that do other things other than cars.

So we've got a hold of that.

Some of the things that I've been doing lately with my team is we've been

talking roughly about how we interact with our customers and how we

we get feedback from them.

We ask them for reviews.

We we talk with them.

You know, I had a recent review where our shop is located.

It's right in front of a outlet store.

And this woman had had her vehicle not start and she thought she needed a battery.

So I walked over there because it wasn't very far.

Figured quickly that it did need a battery and then got got her brought over or jump

started so she could come over and then her mother picked her up and we got a

battery in there.

But she was very thankful and very upfront about how friendly I was and how much

I talked to her like she was just a normal person.

And so that's some of the things that we've been working on.

What are the things that you work on with your team that gets you 260 something

growth in a previous role?

So I think part of it is is treating every customer engagement as a moment of truth.

So here we would say, gosh, when somebody calls, first off, you can assume they're

in a stressful situation.

It's an unexpected frightening experience to have your car, frankly, not be

world-worthy for whatever reason.

And so we say, regardless of the voice you hear on the other side of the phone, what

you should picture in your mind is your grandmother.

This is your grandmother.

How would you expect your grandmother to be treated?

How would you like her to be safeguarded?

How would you like to make sure she gets high integrity service from whoever it

happens?

Yeah, I say that all the time.

I mean, when you think of it, the world like that, this is my grandmother.

It just elevates your level of service and interaction with them, right?

You have a softer tone.

You're more concerned.

And so we've spent a lot of effort and time on soft skills to have that happen.

Now, not all motorists want to talk on the phone.

Ironically, there's a whole cohort of motorists out there that says, gosh, I

would prefer to manage that myself.

And so we acknowledge that when they call, they can say press a one and you

can manage this all yourself.

And the next thing they know, they have a one time use app on their phone.

They can track where the record is, when they get to them, the ETA, where their

car is after it's been picked up.

And they actually have, for them, that's their preferred way.

They like to be more in control.

To your point about doing the surveys after we do a closed loop survey on

everyone, because we're looking at ensuring that the service was completed

to their satisfaction, helps us also evaluate the service provider network,

make proactively changes that we might need to at the time.

But I think as much of it, everything is just turning.

I mean, you hear the expression, this is not personal, it's business.

We're saying the opposite.

If it's not personal, it's not business.

And so let's make every one of these moments a truth count.

Yeah.

And so that's one of the things that we talk about too.

When we talk to our customers, they call or they're on the side of the road or

first of all, are you okay?

Are you in a safe spot or is everything okay?

Because you're right.

It is a very stressful situation.

I have another short little story I'll tell you about going to my son's graduation party,

which was in town, and we had a ride back.

So we had the ceremony and did all the stuff at his graduation party,

and we were loading up, putting a bunch of stuff in my truck, and then we were on our way home.

And then I just heard this bang underneath the truck, and I'm like, okay, what's going on?

And then tire pressure monitor starts going off, and it was just like 2010-0,

and I'm in the left lane on I-94.

And by the time we got off the side of the road, and of course, it was the right side

tire, which was nice enough for that so that I'm not out.

Yeah, that was helpful.

Yeah, I'm not out on the side of the road facing traffic.

But damaged the tire and so forth like that, but it would have been really, really nice

because I was in a shirt and tie in my suit.

I was like, okay, well, I guess I'm getting dirty.

And that would be, listen, you could call roadside.

Granted, you might have to wait a few minutes for them to get there,

but then they would blunt the traffic by pulling out proactively, creating a barrier between you

or between traffic and the car, and then safely be able to change that tire.

I've had a very similar experience to you.

We were headed from this office to the airport to do some travel up north and had a same thing.

Tire pressure indicator went off.

We pulled over to the side of the road and I'm like, gosh, I am unequipped to make this change

right here.

And we requested roadside and they were there in a matter of minutes and got us back on the way.

We made our flight, right?

So that was helpful, but it's one of those things that

frankly, it's never top of mind until it's needed.

And it's just a great ability to know you've got people to call.

Right.

It's there when you need it.

So are there tools that you put in place so that the customers do remember they have it?

I mean, I know we go into the FNI department and they're talking about what we're paying

and how long we're going to pay and then they want to talk to us about the interior care

or the tires or the windshield, let's say.

What tools do you put in place to help the customers?

We partner with who the business partner is that presented it.

So if it's in an FNI office, it's maybe a brand promise from an OEM or a dealer,

or a dealership group, we'll do after sales collateral where we send it back.

We'll send them on their behalf.

And to discuss, it's a little like almost a business card.

You can slip it into your wallet just like the size of a credit card.

So moved one here to say, gosh, we're being able to do it digitally.

Let's put it into your wallet on your smart device because that's what's the other part.

Usually when this happens, it's late at night.

It's dark.

You're thumbing through the glove compartment looking for something to find it.

You know you have it, but how do we make it as convenient as possible for them to realize

that it's out there?

So we look at a lot of those.

But I think the digital wallet will be the one where it's going to get the most traction.

It seems to be early tests are, but that's what's happening.

And then it's a matter of working with really our partners to say,

this is a benefit you need to take credit for, remind your customers, your motorists,

that that's out there.

And if I looked at myself personally, I probably have roadside coverage from

four or five different businesses that I do business with.

My vehicle insurance, the warranty on the vehicle, I think my cell phone company has it.

I have it with my affiliation with Costco.

I mean, there's a number of them where that benefit has been included, but most people

don't know quickly how to get to how I would activate it and put it to use.

Right.

And another example would be the insurance that I bought for our travel trailer

that I specifically went through each one.

And I said, now, does this cover the tires?

Because they said, yeah, it covers the tires.

And I said, now, because when you run over something on a camper,

you don't blow just the front tire.

You blow both sides of the tire, both sides.

And you got one spare.

So that's the thing that I was looking at when I was going for that.

The other thing I was just thinking when you were talking about

the customers and what you have put in place, it's like we put a customer retention management

company in place that texts our customers and asks them, is everything okay with your car afterwards?

You know, there was a lot of times back in the day where I was just like,

can this person just go away and their car can just go away?

Because for whatever reason, we can't seem to get it fixed to their satisfaction.

And now it's a thing where we offer our upfront no holds bar delivery where we're

talking to you about what we did to the car, explaining all the stuff.

So that's really important.

And I like when you were talking about having, doing everything yourself, because they're,

my kids, you know, the whole, there's a whole generation that just want to do things on their

phone. And you're right, they don't want to call on the phone.

They don't want to know, you know, it's not as much.

Once you've requested the service, then they're, my kids or anything like your kids,

there can be a little bit impatient. They're like, I made the request.

I know it's been 75 seconds, but where is that record? Right?

The fact that he's six miles away, but at least it has an ETA and there's some,

there's some sense of ownership when you can at least see progress being made.

But it is a new generation and they'll be more to follow.

Yeah. And it's funny that some, some of the customers I've got, you know, stop.

And then most of the customers we have love that and we can send them their estimates.

We can, we have a management system that's very sophisticated and does a lot of things

that we weren't able to do in years past. And we can just send the estimate to you.

And it's on your phone. It's a link. You look at it and you go, okay, yes, I approve.

And you can sign your name, sign your name on the, on your screen. And it comes back to us

with, we get emails, texts, and then it alerts us in the management system so that we, we

know that that customer has just approved all these repairs.

And so that's really helpful, the technology part of it.

Yeah, I totally, I think we just got to, as providers recognize that our customers have

a preferred way to be communicated. We have to respect that and leverage it.

So what are some of the challenges coming up with some of this technology? Are you guys,

what are you guys doing to get ahead of that?

Well, I think that's where one of the advantages that we have here is, is that both either myself,

I changed out, brought in a new chief technology officer. We come from technology space. And so

where this has been largely, highly performed in the past by people who've come up through the

service space, we look at technology perhaps a little more forward leaning. We have more of a

DNA that is, let's talk about the possibilities. And a matter of those possibilities are really

limited by imagination and ambition. And we have plenty of that. And then we get some good feedback

from our power users and partners out there. And then we roll up our sleeves and build the

technology. So we're fortunate in that respect that we think more like a technology company

and less like a service company. And the fact that we can blend both of those together,

I think will enable us to really be a high value servant to our customers.

Now, are you guys coming up with like a specific app that you guys can,

that customers can download? Like if it's a nation's safe drivers app, then you preload and

put your account numbers in and it knows what products you have. And, and then you can go from

there. That's certainly the one that people ask about my experience has been because the,

it's almost a single use occurrence. So do you leverage technology out there like, let's get

the card of who you call into your wallet. So once you call us, then it's, we're going to text

you a link. The link behaves like it was an app. It looks like an app on your phone. It's for that

service visit. And then it does go away. That seems to be more readily utilized by motorists

than them having to go through the rigor of let me download an app, create an account,

design. We just don't see as much utilization of that one. Now, if we had it, if I was a dealership

group, right, which we're happy to wire frame that into dealerships apps or the OEM apps. In fact,

we have a mouth there where you could be on your OEM's app. Let's just hypothetically use, let's

use Toyota. If I went to my Toyota care app and said, I need roadside existence framed in that

would be that experience from NSD. Not that I'm suggesting that that is one there today. Just

an example. Right. I think what we're saying is that we're a vital link in the delivery process,

but we're happy to let it be embedded in the customer, into our distributing partners applications.

So we're built, it's been built that way to enable them to leverage it and add value to their apps.

Because then we see those apps being on a more frequently used basis. Why we think it's limited

if I went back earlier in my career, we had a premise that we said, gosh, the useful life of

a car is about now, it's about 12 years, but it's maybe a little bit longer. Let's just use round

numbers, 5,000 days. A car's life is 5,000 days. 54 of those is where other than putting gas in it,

that a motorist has to make a decision. Whether it's buy it, insure it, gets light duty repairs

done, major repairs, only 54. And so to get someone to use an app for those 54 days over a 12 or 13

year period didn't seem probable. So we said, oh, now let's just figure out an easy, elegant,

easy, efficient way for them to get the help they need in an app like experience that's virtually

disposable. And that's where we're seeing motorists. That resonates with them. Right?

Yeah, that's a good, that's a great idea. And, you know, we all talk about and have these opportunities

where it's like, oh, there's another app I got to load in and download and create an account and

know that it's even there. I mean, you swipe across my iPhone and I just pulled down and I

show you mine. Yeah, I mean, I'll have more apps on there that most of them I couldn't even tell you

why I put it on in the first one. Yeah. And then I'm like, I was I was going through the other day.

It's like, I can't even believe what's this app? Oh, yeah, that's the app for Monroe.

I used it one time. Right. I've used it. It's like, let's clean up your phone. Let's get some of

these apps. I'm like, Oh, I forgot I had that one. You know, and all these companies that we deal with

and and, you know, we partner with auto value. So we're an auto value certified service center.

So I have the opportunity to speak to a lot of high level people in these categories that

sell parts companies like standard motor products and and dormant and so forth. So I have a lot of

contacts out there and it's just like, everybody's got an app, man, why can't we just get like one

thing that works well and but oh, well, I think a lot of people the premise go back five years.

Have an app. It's like the easy button, right? It'll be this conduit that people will flood to you

and the reality is if you really looked at their user experience, it was a one time use and you'd

be better off just making it really easy for them to do business with you on that one time.

And that's that's something where I have I just opened up my my Chevrolet app and I'm looking down

through here and there's there's different things that I can do. I click on service and I can schedule

a service and then there's roadside assistance and it's like, okay, and it takes you out outside.

And it all it says welcome and then you go from there. So it if that's something you've already

gotten place, that sounds like a great idea to tag along. Yeah, you know, you've got the Chevy,

right? Yeah, you could use it for other things. I have them on the cars that I own.

And I'll be honest, a couple of them, you says go to roadside and it says and here's the number

click to child, right? And I'm like, well, that's not really the experience I want either. So

so those are the ones who we have on our prospect list is like, well, we should

displace this and put this in make this an easy, elegant user experience for your motorists. Yeah.

And that that's, that's what I hear from a lot of people is it's just like, where has the customer

service gone? And that to me, that's when I just took those steps to make, you know, our customer

service just be like, Disney, you know, I mean, yeah, you know, the wall, that's an interesting

reference. And I'll be honest, in our evolution of the leadership team here, I took 22 of them

just in the last 30 days. Since Orlando's close by, we asked the Disney Institute to do a two day

class on just creating those moments of truth and how to master those. And there's no one better

at it than the Disney Corporation. It was a significant investment for this business. But

we look at it and say, this is how we fulfill our brand promise to get motorists safely off the

road and get their car back on the highway. So well, I got a couple of outro questions for you.

And these are some of the things that I put in this outline for you. Do you have a favorite book

right at the moment?

Yeah, that's a great question, because I am a voracious reader. I am reading a book. It's by

Ryan Holiday. And in fact, I have it literally right here behind me. It's called Discipline

as Destiny. And he has a series on what he would call the Stoics. And this one really talks about

temperance and discipline. And he uses his illustrations, lots of very familiar leaders

from now or in history, to stress those points. It's an easy read. The chapters are short. The

principles are sound. And I would certainly advocate that one. We use a couple of others

internally. We use one. It's by a gentleman by the name of Lee Cockrell, former Vice President

of Parks at the Disney Corporation. It's called Creating Magic. It's very customer-centric,

very customer-focused. We use another one in here because we're big on, let's make decisions once,

let's establish a process that's repeatable, that we know works. And it's actually

the leadership style of Nick Saban. And so we use that one. And people like to read it because

everyone loves football. They may not like Alabama, but they all like football. And it's hard to

listen. This is Florida, right? So hard to argue. Those are fighting words. And now he's a car dealer,

right? Thriving car dealer because he's taken that same discipline that he used to develop

elite level football to elite level. He's got a unique mind. He's got a very unique mind.

You listen to him talk about how players, different players and different attitudes and

different skill sets, you can be a good player, but not have the skill set to be a good player.

And you compare people like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady's of the world. You're thinking about

some of those people that just really excel at their position. And that's some of the things

that we're talking about too. And the book I'm reading right now is Jefferson Fisher. It's

the next conversation, how to make your conversations better, how to look at somebody and

if they're having a bad day is that's the person the person you see is might not be who you're

talking to. So and that it's really frankly to make that moment count, right? Yeah, and that sounds

like people are complicated. Yeah, and see, and then and then that your book is is something that

I'm going to dig into and look to. Going around the office, what would be your least favorite buzzword?

I tell you, this is the buzzword that I think is the most misunderstood and it's called transparency.

What I find is there's lots of people profess, let's be really transparent until it talks about

me, right itself, right? I just did an offsite with our operations leadership team last week,

actually brought him out to Park City and we were talking about that. It's certainly a way to get

everyone engaged, everyone fully committed to the mission is you've got to be hyper transparent.

You've got to be willing to share with them everything and everyone was all in and I said,

well, this is what I really want to do is I want to put up the org chart and what we pay everybody.

And so the organization would sell police. Yeah, I think we're overpaying that guy and this guy

should do a lot more for what we're paying him and everyone bristled at the idea. And I said,

that's just a test, right? So we love transparency unless it comes to us. And I said, that's something

we got to figure out. You've got to learn to, I mean, we talk about holding people accountable.

That's the other one that I hear a lot of, we're going to hold them accountable. And it's like,

what does that really mean? And they, the definition of that and the action practical

application of it, there's still, we got work to do there. Yeah. And the mine, I guess would be,

it is what it is. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that one. And it's like in the auto repair business,

it's like, well, it is what it is. It's broken. Okay. Or you got that one or I have one. This

is the way it's always been done. And I'm like, wow, you know, this is way overdue to say, we

should just rationalize, is this the right way it should be done? Right. And you usually find

gold every time I hear that expression to me, that's like a gift. Because it tells me I'm sure

we've gotten leakage there in some form or another. What's the best piece of technology that you own?

Gosh, it'd have to be the convenience of what I have on my smartphone. You know,

I have an iPhone. I travel a lot. I don't think I could live without my Delta app, right? Because

my schedule fluid. Comfort plus. I have to make changes. I want, I apply to be upgraded.

But that, it has my calendar on it, all my contacts, all my frankly mediums to connect with

people are all right there in just the palm of your hand. And if you can use it as a tool versus

a distraction for me, that's my most popular one. You know, I have kids, it's they spend a lot of

their time on Tik Tok or their social network. And to them, it's counterintuitive. It's not a tool.

That's a distraction. And so I guess it comes back, maybe this is why I love this book by Ryan

is it's all about the discipline and the temperance and leveraging the tools.

But, you know, I'm big on communication. That gives me so many different means of communicating

that I really couldn't replace it. And for the, and it's with me all the time in 24 hours a day

and anywhere in the world. Right. It used to be, listen, you went on a vacation, you went to

Hawaii or you went to Europe, you're out of the communication. That's no longer today. The world

is small because of that. I tell you, I'm very thankful that I've got my iPhone because when we

went to London, and I don't know if you've ever been to London, you can ride the tube, they call it

there. Yeah. So, you know, you got your wallet. So no sense in paying every time you go in the

tube, you just click in, you got your credit card, bam, the gate opens and you go in.

Yeah, could not be more. That's just it. I think the convenience of what they've

so much has been compressed into that little tiny device. Yeah. Game change. I couldn't live without

it. Absolutely. If you could have one classic car, American, European, whatever, what would it be?

Well, it's dependent on your terminate, your definition of classic. But for me,

because I'm old enough to appreciate it, I'd like a 1965 Mustang

fastback or two plus two in ragoon red, and black, well, it'd be vinyl interior, but with a

four speed manual transmission. And the reason that one since that was the first car I ever bought,

I sold it when I was 19 for $375 and to replace it today is going to cost like 80,000, right?

At least, right? And 20 times that. Yeah, I know. I had one of those moments, too. I was a,

I had a 69 Chevelle SS 396 and I love that car. Which engine? The 396?

396. Yeah, great powerhouse. Yeah. And after breaking so many things on that car because

the engine was so big and and what do you think there was no tomorrow? Absolutely. Drive shaft

broke on it. No doubt about it. At a four speed transmission, and you know, your buddies are

out there just giving you the sign to smoke the tire. And so that that's my definition of a classic

car. And and I did sell that car once I moved up to Michigan. And you know, if there was a time

machine moment, and I can go back and tell myself not to do something, that would be one of them.

I hear you right there with you. But that's that's one of those things with, I know it paid for

the ring that's on my wife's finger. And we got married shortly after that. So that's

so now we've we've got our own 68 Chevrolet C 10 that we're redoing and she's actually

physically out there helping me school, a schoolteacher getting greasy and dirty. So that's

kind of nice. Well, I appreciate your time. Thank you for telling us. Yeah, thanks for telling us

all about nation's safe drivers. Where can they go to get your products? Tell the people at the end

at the end of our episode here, where can they go to get it? Is it just you can come right to our

website at nation's safe drivers, you can talk to most any dealer that you have in in the space out

there, your insurance providers have it. I mean, it's it's amazing how quickly and readily available

it happens to be. But maybe the easiest one is just come right to nation's safe drivers.

We'll figure out a way to get you involved. Awesome. Well, again, it's nice. It was nice to have you

on the show. Nice meeting you. We appreciate your time and thanks for being on the show.

All right, Matt, thanks. It's been a pleasure. Yep. Have a good day. So yeah, all right.

All right, that's going to do it for another episode of the all automotive podcast.

A big thanks to Mr. Richard Holland from nation's safe drivers for being on the show today.

We really appreciate that. Did you all know that we are on Spotify? Check us out. Give us a like,

give us a follow, give us some fan mail. Until next time. Hey, keep that greasy side down.

Hey, guys, it's Matt Clausen, your host of the all automotive podcast. I've been in the automotive

industry for over 30 years. I've owned my own repair shop for the last 15 years. I was going to

write a book, but I started this podcast instead. So come join me for my take on vehicle extended

service contracts or what to look for when purchasing used vehicle. Like and subscribe to

the all automotive podcast. We're on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening now.

Nation Safe Drivers Interview with Richard Holland

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