The Southworth PalletPal® Pallet Inverter is the fast, safe, economical way
to rotate pallet loads. The pressure-adjustable clamp secures loads up to
48" x 48" x 60" and weighing up to 4,400 lbs. and rotates them 180°.
The uses are endless…
• Transferring to or from in-house to shipping pallets or slip sheets
• Replacing damaged items at the bottom of a load
• Turning inventory for freshness
• Replacing broken pallets
For complete details, visit www.SouthworthProducts.com/inverter
making work faster, safer, and easier since 1890
TEL: (800) 743-1000 • FAX: (207) 797-4734
SouthworthProducts.com • salesinfo@SouthworthProducts.com
16-041 Pallet Inverter Ad-DCV.indd 1 2/1/16 9: 42 AMwww.dcvelocity.com MARCH 2016 DC VELOCITY 41
skilled trades, manufacturing, and transportation are great opportunities desperately in need of good PR.
QAnd desperately in need of good folks. A lot of these jobs go unfilled. Over-the-road truckers have been dealing with
a driver shortage for decades, and those
are good-paying jobs.
AThat is right. But how many parents today are affirmatively saying, “Kid,
you know what? You would be great in a
warehouse. You would be great driving a
truck. You would be great with a welding
torch”? They should be, because for a
lot of people, that is everything a great
opportunity ought to represent. It is just
not being put on the table when they are
making big decisions.
QYou have commented that the folks you worked with (during “Dirty
Jobs”) were among the happiest people
in their work that you have come across.
Is that a validation of what you’re talking
about?
AWell, for me it was a surprise, because I showed up with all the bias and
prejudice that defines my life. Like a lot
of people, I would imagine that a guy riding shotgun on a garbage truck would be
dreaming about doing something better.
What I found was a lot of guys in sanitation who looked forward to their work,
who loved the business of doing what
they did, and who were—never mind not
apologizing for it—eager to brag about
it. That is the thing that took me aback. I
was surprised by how many people I met
who were unapologetically proud, almost
gleeful, to be sexing chickens, or working
in a sewer, or repairing water towers or
the skyscrapers in New York.
QIn “Dirty Jobs,” you worked in all 50 states and performed 300 jobs. Did
you touch the logistics world in any of
those roles?
AWell, not to be glib, but I can’t think of a “dirty job” that didn’t touch
logistics. Some of them hit it on the head
pretty hard. Yes, I have done long-dis-
tance trucking. I have worked in all kinds
of factories and warehouses. Finding the
person in the supply chain who is doing
a critical but completely invisible
thing—that was my mission and
then to treat that person like Brad
Pitt, and spend a day figuring out
exactly what it is they did. The sup-
ply chain is such a great place to do
that because it requires so many dif-
ferent links. It truly is a chain.
QThere is some very important work you do that folks who have
seen you on TV might not be aware
of, and that is running the mike-
roweWorks Foundation. Tell us a
little bit about that.
A“Dirty Jobs” was a hit, and I did very well by it. When the econo-
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