In this episode of the Fleet Success Show, host Josh Turley welcomes Scott Rood, the newest colleague at RTA, for an in‑depth conversation about his 40‑year career in fleet management. Scott recounts his start as an Air Force vehicle mechanic in 1981, his overseas tours, recruitment stint, and rise to Master Sergeant before retiring after 22 years. He then transitioned to civilian roles, first as Washington State’s fleet maintenance manager, followed by positions at public utilities and county public works, ultimately spending eight and a half years as a county fleet manager. In 2017 a fleet study by Paul Lauria’s Mercury consulting firm led to a consulting role where Scott completed over 100 fleet studies, later moving to RTA to work on software production and client enablement. Throughout the dialogue, Scott emphasizes that many organizations struggle not with their fleet‑information systems (FMIS) but with insufficient training, change‑management, and lack of executive buy‑in. He advocates for creating a “fleet digest” of key performance indicators, applying for the 100 Best Fleets award, and using data storytelling to influence senior leadership. Memorable consulting engagements include a best‑practice project for a Canadian company and a cost‑of‑service study in Texas, both praised for collaborative staff. A bizarre field visit involved a shop with bullet‑hole‑punctured doors in a rough neighborhood. Scott also shares a personal side‑hustle: custom golf‑club repair and fabrication, a hobby that began after a foot injury. The episode closes with a brief promo for RTA Connect 2024 and a warm welcome to Scott as part of the RTA team.
Chapters
Hey, welcome back for another episode of the Fleet Success Show. I'm your host, Josh Turley, joined today in studio by our newest colleague here at RTA, Scott Rood. How are you?
Oh, I'm doing great. This is second day on the job and, you know, a lot of, a lot of stuff to go through right now. Yeah, I'm just trying to, trying to get my feet on the ground here.
Right. So it's definitely been a whirlwind. You know, as you and I have known each other for a few years now, But yeah, you know, we're wasting no time getting you in front of the cameras and, and on the, on the podcast. Want to get our listeners more familiar with you.
Right. And no time to get me on a project too. So that's going to happen next week. And we got a lot of— all excited.
Yeah, that's, that's a good spot to be in. So, yes. So for our listeners, you know, it kind of— if they don't know who you are, haven't met you before, give them a little backstory. Tell them a little about yourself.
Sure. I started my fleet career in 1981 when I joined the Air Force. I started out as a vehicle mechanic, and while I was in the Air Force, I traveled. Let's see, I started out in Alaska, came to McCord here in Washington State.
Yeah.
And then I went to Germany. Me and the wife like Germany, like Italy. So we did a follow-on and stayed in Europe for another tour. In Italy. After that, they put me in recruiting, so I had to do recruiting for about 4 years and try to convince people to join the Air Force. Yeah, yeah, it's just a cutthroat business, but, you know, I survived it. And then I went to Alaska, back to Alaska again, um, in vehicle maintenance, of course. Yeah, uh, got promoted to Master Sergeant while I was up there. Um, then I went to Alaman Air Force Base where I was the base vehicle maintenance manager, and that was how I ended my career. So I retired.
How long, how long was that, that you were in the Air Force?
I was in the Air Force for 22 years.
All right.
From '81 to 2003. So once I decided to retire, me and the wife talked about it and we decided to move back to Washington State. Got a job with the State of Washington General Administration as their fleet maintenance manager. Okay. I did that for about 2 years. They were going through some growing pains because they were growing quite a bit. You know, at that time I went ahead and I was working on my bachelor's and master's degree. I wrote one right after the other.
Well, what was it that drew you to Washington State?
Well, that's where I met my wife. I met my wife at McCord.
That sounds like an awesome story.
Yeah. So it was, you know, they did— they were going to give me a job at Holloman as a civil service. But, you know, me and the wife talked. We liked Holloman. Yeah, New Mexico. But we decided, you know, let's go back to Washington State. We love it up there. So that's, that's why we went back up to Washington State, even though I'm not originally from Washington State. I grew up in upstate New York. Okay. So anyways, yeah, I worked at the state for a couple of years, but I had, you know, I had an ambition to move up in the ranks. So I took a job down in Vancouver. At the public utilities. So I worked there for a couple of years and I was the fleet, the fleet warehouse supervisor. But I wanted to be a fleet manager. Yeah. And then over at Public Works a few years later, their fleet manager left or he retired and I applied for the job and got it. And I worked 8 and a half years for the county. Okay. Then after that, continuing my career, I wanted to go into consulting. Yeah. And then Paul Lauria, he hired me to come to work for Mercury.
What was it? Obviously, you know, Paul Lauria is a well-known name in the industry, one of the smartest guys I've ever met.
Yes, he is.
Yeah. What attracted him to you? Like, how did it—
Oh, so in 2017, he came and he did a fleet study for my county. Okay. So he did the study, he did the outbrief and everything with my senior leadership. And then a year later, the position came available. So I was actually talking to Steve Salzgiver on the phone, and I said, hey, I saw you guys had an advertisement for a consultant. He goes, yeah, you should apply for it. And I was like, well, I don't want to move to Maryland. He's like, well, you don't have to. So about 45 minutes went by, and then I got an email from Paul Lauria and said, hey, looking forward to seeing your resume. Nice. And then it was—
Kind of the rest is history.
Yep, the rest is history.
Fun.
So that's pretty much how I got into, you know, into fleet and then into consulting. Okay. Yeah, well, I was in Mercury. I probably did over 100 studies when I was at Mercury. Yeah. But again, I wanted to change jobs, was looking to come to work for a software company.
Okay.
And you were gracious enough to hire me.
And, you know, for our listeners, if you never had the chance to meet Scott, you know, and I'll tell you, One of my favorite things is we meet on the trade show floors and just kind of, you know, run into each other in the circuit. But you're probably one of the most affable, nicest guys I've ever met.
Oh, thank you.
Very genuine, down to earth, a super, super lovely human being. Right. And so that was the first thing that I noticed about you, right, is just how easy you were to get along with everybody around you. But looking at your career as a consultant, you know, you've done 100 different fleet studies. You've worked in fleet for decades, right?
Correct. Yes.
Why, why this industry? Why do you, why do you keep sticking around for fleet?
Well, this chapter, I kind of— you guys intrigued me because, you know, I wanted to get into the software business a little bit. I know I'll be on the consultant team, but I look forward to working with production and help out there as well. But what the real reason is, when I go out on these studies, I always notice that, you know, the clients, they have a hard time working with their fleet information system.
Yeah.
And what it comes down to, in my opinion, is they don't really know how to use the system to its full capacity.
Right.
So I spent a lot of time, you know, helping guys out in the field on several different software applications, not just yours. There has been others where they just didn't understand it. They didn't know how to get reports. They didn't know how to you know, do inventory. You know, they didn't know how to set up the technicians with iPads on the floor so they could track their billable hours and stuff like that. And then, you know, I spent a lot of time helping them do that. So now what I'd like to do is come over on the production or over into your company and help, help the clients. Um, you know, I look forward to getting out meeting with the clients and help them, you know, understand their fleet information systems better.
Yeah, well, you've got a little bit of an in on the other side of it too, which is, hey, if training is the answer, because most of the time, you know, as I talk to Tony and Steve and Mark and really clients in general, is the FMIS is usually not the problem, right? It almost always is. It's like you haven't gotten the training, you haven't invested in your people enough, and now you're blaming the tool when it's really it's you, right? Like it's you as the fleet manager and you just aren't dedicating the time or maybe you don't have the budget for it, maybe it's not intuitive. I mean, there's legit reasons why you'd want to switch, but 9 times out of 10, you just—
they just don't understand. Yeah. And they have a good system usually, you know, they have a good system usually.
Yeah.
But, you know, like, like you were just saying, they don't get— they don't invest in the training, they don't invest in the upgrades. I mean, there was a lot of them was, you know, they're using, you know, where they still have— they're on the GUI, they're still using the system they bought back.
Yeah. And they never updated.
They never updated the system.
So they're missing out on all that technology that you guys have created, that we have created over the years to make them— to make the systems better.
Yeah, well, I think that's, you know, as I've seen, usually I'll ask— I challenge the sales reps to ask this question. Sometimes they don't, but I'll usually force them to say, hey, ask the question of, well, why wasn't the last implementation a success? You know, like if you're thinking about switching and it's because of training, why is this going to be any different? What are you going to do differently this time? You know, and sometimes I think as a consultant, you guys can come in and it's, it's like, listen to your mom and dad. You don't really want to hear from your parents. You know, the city manager tells you to do something, you don't really want to do it. But a consultant comes in and now all of a sudden you want to listen, right? Or flip it around. A lot of times the fleet managers know what to do, but the higher-ups don't want to listen. They need validation.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's— that happens more times than not.
Which is really unfortunate.
Yeah, it is. It is. They're just looking for that, that looking for us to come in and say, you know, kind of just to verify what they already know. Yeah. And then report that to the senior leadership and they're like, well, we've seen this before, right?
I guess. Yeah. What we said was true, you know? Yeah, we're doing it.
Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, and I can do that and I can relate to them because I went through consultant projects, both, you know, like I said, in 2005 when I was with the state and when I was with Clark County. Yeah. So I kind of knew what to expect.
Where can you get access to insightful keynotes from fleet industry leaders and experts, live hands-on training classes, and the opportunity to network with fleet professionals across the country? Only at the fleet event of the year, RTA Connect 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Join us October 7th to 11th and get the tips, tricks, and tools you need to take your fleet to the next level. Learn the latest best practices to improve performance from RTA's fleet experts. Join hundreds of fleet professionals from every industry to learn everything from employee retention and growth to the latest in fleet tech. Ensure you're building the best fleet in the world at Connect 2024. Registration is now open and class seats are limited. Visit www.rtafleet.com/connect to learn more.
You know, so the last time I had Mercury come in when I was the fleet manager, it was like I already knew what they were going to report on. Yeah, I just needed them to come in and convince my senior leadership, which they did. They came in and they did a great presentation and You know, they— I got what I needed out of, out of this study. And I also got a job out of this study.
It was a win-win-win.
Oh, it was really big win.
And it's interesting though, is that, you know, Mark and I talk a lot about the ability for fleet managers to tell their story and just how critical of a skill set that is, right? To paint the picture, to be able to use words, but also use graphs and charts and data.
Correct.
To be able to tell your story so you can sell your position and convince other people to, hey, line up behind the cause. This is what we need to do. And a lot of fleet managers, we don't get that kind of training. You know, we're not told how to build a nice report that a city manager wants to see. You know, I could do something for a tech or do something for a shop supervisor, but oh, now I got to manage up and do something that—
Yeah, it's just that what I always recommend is to, you know, they create a fleet digest where they have all their KPIs, the ones that mean the most to them, you know, post that, send it up to the senior leadership, show them what you're doing. Yeah. Also, I want to put in that they should apply for 100 Best Fleets too. Yeah. And submit the application because, you know, you get that certain— you get on the list of 100 Best Fleets and then you tell your story. Your leadership is going to start looking at that and they're going to say, wow, you know, we got— we have a really good fleet and we have a really good fleet manager. You know, we need to invest in them.
Yeah. So looking back, 100 different fleet engagements you've done. What's been your most memorable experience? You know, just like the one you look back on most fondly that made, made an impact on you.
It was actually, it was a Canadian company. We did a remote best practices. They liked what we did. So then we went back because they wanted to do more. So we had to go back. We had to actually go on site. So I traveled to Canada and went in there and built them an implementation plan. Okay. They also were looking at an FMIS. So we helped, you know, we wrote that into the new scope. Really nice people. You know, the Canadians treat you really good. And, you know, I really appreciated the, you know, the welcome we got there. Plus, their staff was really easy to work with. So that's probably one of the memorable ones I had. Another one's down in Texas. We did just a cost of services and replacement study, but they liked what we did for them so much it just kept snowballing. We kept getting add-ons and, you know, and the staff there again were really, really nice to work with. So I really, you know, those are memorable ones there.
Yeah, that's probably my favorite is, you know, just getting to know the people because the people in fleet, in my mind, they're just super down-to-earth, salt-of-the-earth type of people.
Absolutely. And, you know, the big thing is when in consulting is when you go in, you have to win them over sometimes because they think you're there to take their job. We're not. We are there to help them improve. And once you can communicate that to them, everything starts to go smooth after that. Yeah.
So a little bit of change management you've had to learn, right? Some— and definitely winning over the people. What's been the most bizarre experience? And you can protect the innocent here, so we don't need any names, but just something you look back on, you're like, wow, that was just—
Well, I went to— we did a study, but I don't want to name where it was or, you know, with the shop or anything.
So we went—
it was in a pretty—
38, I'm sure.
Yeah, it was in a pretty rough neighborhood. And we pulled up to the shop and they actually had bullet holes in the door. Oh, the shop door. So that was like, oh no. And we were meeting with the swing shift. So it was, you know, getting close to dusk. And yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that was, that was a little bizarre.
Well, if there's anything you want our listeners to know about you, what's the one thing you want them to kind of take away as they get their first introduction to Scott Rood?
You know, if you want us to come in and do a fleet study, you know, I'm very upfront with your people. I treat them with respect. You know, I do dig into the data pretty, pretty deep to, you know, to figure out, you know, the state of your fleet. But the thing is, when we're finished, I'm going to give you very implementable recommendations that you can take immediately and start working on to improve your fleet. Yeah.
Well, and I'll say one thing that you probably don't know about Scott. You have an interesting side hustle hobby. Yes. Passion project. Yeah.
You want me to talk about it?
Yeah, absolutely. You're the only guy I know who does this. So of course.
Yeah. So what I do in this, I like to golf a lot, so I play a lot of golf, but I I also do golf club repair. I also do make golf clubs and do fittings for some of my friends and clients, more lately clients. So, you know, if they break a shaft, I'm able to, you know, extract the shaft out. It doesn't matter where it broke on the club. I can get it out and get a new shaft in the head and no problem.
It's like a custom Scott Rood special.
Yes, I like it.
I like it. I thought that was the most fascinating thing. I've never met anybody that does golf clubs.
Yeah, no, I know. I just did it. It was just by accident, basically. It was— I was looking online and I saw this company that was selling, you know, components. And I was like, you know what, I'm going to make a set. You know, at that time I broke my foot and it was, you know, I was down, I couldn't play golf. So I wanted to do something.
Yeah.
And so I went ahead and I ordered everything I needed, made myself a set of irons. A friend of mine at work saw them and said, hey, I want a set too. So I ordered him the, you know, the components. I made him a set and After that, the, you know, word of mouth got out and yeah, I've been busy ever since.
That's awesome. Well, now it's really going to get out. So, hey, well, you know, thanks for taking some time with us this afternoon.
Oh, it's been a pleasure.
Really glad to have you here on the team.
I'm glad to be here.
All right. And with that, we'll tell our listeners, you know, reach out if you have any questions about Scott, want to get to know him a little better, if you want to, you know, hear more about consulting and what it is we do here on that front. Just email podcast@rtafleet.com. Love to hear your questions. Love to answer any here on the podcast. As you know, Mark, Scott, Steve, Tony, they all jump on here as regular co-hosts with me. So anytime we'd love to hear from you. But until next time.
