John and Aaron start with money – the unbilled extra days, waived overweight charges, and missed fuel fees that John says can add up to 20% of a hauler’s revenue in earned dollars that never get collected. From there they get into AI, not as hype but as a practical tool: quoting, call summaries, dispatch notes, billing exceptions, and collections are all places John says operators can start small without betting the business.
John brings nearly 40 years of technology leadership to the conversation: commanding a 200-soldier signals intelligence unit in the U.S. Army, leading a digital transformation at a $20 billion company, holding two U.S. patents, and now serving as VP of Technology for the Field Services Group at Fullsteam.
He’s spent his career seeing what happens when an industry embraces technology – and what happens when it doesn’t. He also grew up partly in Vicenza, Italy, an upbringing he says still shapes how he separates, and blends, work and life today.
John is direct about the two habits every operator needs to stop right now, why bad operations only get amplified – not fixed – by AI, and why you can’t point AI at a dry-erase board: you need a system collecting your data before AI has anything to work with. He also breaks down the difference between sales-minded and collections-minded operators, and why more activity in a business doesn’t automatically mean more profit.
The conversation closes on a personal note – the life lesson John’s late father taught him, and the question he now poses back to every operator adopting AI: are you prompting it, or is it prompting you?
If you’ve ever wondered whether AI is actually relevant to a hauling, dumpster, or field service business – or just more noise – this is the episode that answers it. No dry-erase board required.
What you’ll take away:
- How up to 20% of a hauler’s revenue can go uncollected – and the billing discipline that gets it back
- The two habits John says every operator needs to stop doing immediately
- Why AI can’t do anything for a business still running on a dry-erase board or spreadsheet
- Low-risk places to start with AI: quoting, dispatch notes, billing exceptions, and collections
- The question to ask before scaling AI: are you prompting it, or is it prompting you?
