Motor Oil supply Crisis: Fact, Friction, and What Happens Next [THA 489]

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2:05Hey, look, I have got a show on oil. Hmm. Interesting. I've done one a few years back with Lee Rodas. And Lee, you're back here for one important particular reason. I saw you last Friday and we were sitting with a group of independents. We were chatting about oil. And you started to bring all your background information and what's going on. And of course, Lauren Fix is with us, widely known as the Car Coach, nationally recognized automotive expert, journalist, uh, author, television personality.

2:36She's the editor-in-chief of the Car Coach Report and regularly provides insider commentary on vehicle reviews, consumer buying advice, and industry trends across major media. And she's gonna be on TV show news channels today. I know for sure. And Lee, territory sales manager, Decman Oil. Oh my God. So here's what happens. Lauren writes an article, The Great Motor Oil Panic is Mostly BS and Drivers Are Paying the Price.

3:05And I had just booked Lee to come on. I read Lauren's article and I said, could you come on? And she was able to work this out on like a 24-hour notice. For us to get together and start talking about some of this craziness that's going on. So are we really facing a motor oil shortage, guys, or is this just overstated? Who wants to start?

3:27Are there shortages? Absolutely, there's some shortages. The supply is becoming very tight, and as a result, the pricing is going sky high. All of that is 100% real. It's happening. It's a worldwide global oil market, and as much as we can drill and produce crude oil here, we just don't have the capability capabilities to refine enough of it. We do sell it internationally also, and there's other regions of the world that are needing it.

3:54And so if these oil companies are selling a lot of the crude and a lot of the product overseas and internationally, with that said, we're not going to see customers parking their cars because they're running out of oil. They will be able to get oil. It's not that they can't get the oil, it's just they're going to be paying a very high premium for some period of time in order to get it, but we're not going to run out.

4:18That part's not quite accurate, but there are certainly shortages and supply constraints. You know what I keep thinking? These ivory tower public relations people that have the word profit in, in their title somewhere along the line, and they were basically stopping to think. It says we're crazy if we don't do something about this. And I'm not saying, Lauren, you brought something up in your article about the toilet paper thing.

4:42Let's go there. Okay, do you remember during COVID you couldn't get toilet paper? You'd go to your favorite grocery store and they'd be like, you can't get it, you can only buy one package. Then you go to like Costco, BJ's, wherever, and you're like, oh, you can't get it. I'm thinking, this is weird because that flu that was going around didn't cause you to go to the bathroom more.

5:03Made money, the paper companies, they were making it as fast as they could. Actually, I know a guy who made millions and millions, probably billions of dollars, who's in Wisconsin, and all they do is produce toilet paper for multiple brands under multiple names. So who's making money here? This is the same kind of mindset. And I know we were talking before the show with Lee and with Carm.

5:23So we have to think about this. So we only get 3%, just 3% of our oil from the Middle East. The rest comes from here, Venezuela, Canada, wherever. And if you take crude oil out of the ground and you process it 5 times, it becomes diesel, which most of it we ship to other countries. Why our diesel prices are so high, again, is a whole other conversation.

5:43But I think they're artificially inflated as well. And then if you process that crude oil 7 times, you get something called heptane, which is gasoline, which you pump into your car, which again is artificially inflated prices because these speculators go on a global market and they're saying, oh, we can't get oil, which is not true because oil comes from other places and we are an exporter of oil.

6:03Again, what is going on here? So to me, I always say follow the money. It sounds like a money grab. And in this case, with the oil shortage, we're talking about engine oil specifically in this section. I want people to realize that if you have some of these newer cars, you get great fuel economy, they're hybrid vehicles, and they use, like, really odd combinations of multiweight oils, like 0W-8 or 0W-12.

6:27Like, these are not normal things. When Carm and I were young, because, Lee, you seem younger than I am, we used either 10W-40 or 20W-50. And, you know, maybe there were a few others, especially if you're using a diesel engine. But now they've got all these mixed multiweights in order to get you the optimum fuel economy, the least amount of friction in the engine.

6:47And a lot of these are aluminum engines and they run really hot, so you could run other multi-weight oils. But what they do at the service facilities, especially at the dealerships, is they go, this car was designed for this specific oil, which is extremely specific. Typically they're synthetic. Again, that's not crude oil coming out of the ground, it's synthetic, so it's man-made.

7:08And there's just a little bit of it that comes from a type of fuel or additive that comes from the Middle East in some cases, but also made here. So why are the prices high? And that's why I start calling— wait a minute, is this a toilet paper shortage? Are they artificially inflating this in order to gain what Carm said, profits? Follow the money.

7:27There's a lot of money going. So is there truly a shortage? Maybe in some of these odd multi-weight combinations, but there are other alternatives. So when you go to the dealer or a customer comes in and they're like, "Ah, that's gonna be real expensive," and the customer pushes back, you can just say, "What other options do I have?" But if you don't offer it and they don't ask, nobody goes there.

7:49Lee, you were telling me before we turned on the record button, all you've been doing for the last couple of weeks is telling stories. What do you hear from all your clients, which are the people who repair vehicles? I've had to refine the story because it can take a while to tell the whole story, uh, depending on who wants to know how many details, but At the end of it, really, it boils down to there are shortages.

8:12Now we have to separate fuels from lubricants and the problems in the pricing that we're seeing with diesel fuel and gasoline is a different issue than what we're seeing with the finished lubricants. And although most people think that, you know, synthetic oil, all synthetic oil is manmade, the majority of what we're seeing, like the 0W-8s and the 0W-12s, 0W-16, even a 0W-20, the majority of those synthetics are Group 3 synthetic.

8:39Which still comes out of the ground. I would say 99% of the oil that's used commonly comes out of the ground. And even if it's a full synthetic 0W-20, it still starts in the ground. It's just the refining processes, whether it's hydrocracked or solvent refined or however you refine that, is going to lead to the end product. So a lot, you know, it's coming out of the ground and we're going to see fuel, diesel and gasoline, that those prices will drop rapidly whenever there's an agreement that's longstanding and and lasting, we'll see those prices come down.

9:13But finished lubricant side, the Group 3 base oil is our primary issue that we're seeing. Group 3 is made in your 08s, 012s, 016s. And to your point, we absolutely can use other products. And I think Toyota just put out a TSB saying, you know, use 016 if it's a 08. And most of those products are used to meet the company's CAFE, the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards.

9:38So, when you go from a 0W-8 to a 0W-16 or 0W-16 to a 0W-20, that car might eke out another, you know, 500 feet per mile because there's less fluid friction and you get better emissions and fuel economy. And that's really what's driving those super ultra low viscosity fluids. And I think that's the key word is what we're seeing, the problems we're seeing are primarily with the ultra low viscosity, the super lightweight stuff, the ULV transmission oils, those type of problems.

10:06The supply is tight, but it's there. We don't anticipate any issues in supplying our customers with whatever products they're going to need on a go forward. So interesting, team. Here's the consumer not listening to Lauren and Lee right now. They're just listening to what's going on in the media and all the junk and the crap that we keep hearing. And is this going to put us into a Oh my God, I can't get oil, or I'm just going to go to the local store and buy cases of this stuff.

10:35Lee, you were telling me that you even have some customers buying extra cases of product and you're starting to limit them, right, Lee? Again, back to the toilet paper, there is absolute hoarding. People are trying to hoard motor oil right now. I'm a sales guy, and if somebody calls me and wants 20 drums of a product, I would love to sell it to them.

10:55The problem is That's where you impact the supply chain because somebody got 20 drums, now you have 20 other customers that bought one drum, typically, historically, and we have to tell them no. The other problem is the new business, the phone calls. The amount of strange calls I've had in the last month have been incredible. Again, I'm a sales guy, so I'm drooling over these opportunities, but the truth is we have to take care of our own customers first.

11:22So it's not that we can't sell new customers, but it can't just be, you know, hey, I need to buy 200 gallons of oil from you because I can't get it. I have heard of some pretty big oil change companies, quick oil change, the Fast Lubes that are struggling right now to keep inventory in stock. And they've reached out to some of the independent blenders to get a quarter million gallons of Dexos because they couldn't get it or they want to supply.

11:47So we're going to see some of that hoarding of materials. If we don't keep it in check, it's going to be a bigger problem than it is. But I've tried to really reinforce to my customers Consumers like, it's going to be tight, it's going to be expensive. And that's the real reason why they want to buy it. Because if it's going to go up by $4 a gallon on Tuesday next week, what do you think everybody wants to do today?

12:07All right. They want to order before it goes up. The other issue is historically we get a minimum of 30 days notice prior to an increase. So Petro-Canada, Phillips 66, Kendall, they'll let us know that on this date, 30 days from now, you're going to see an increase of X percent. Usually it's 5%, 10%, but recently it's been 20%, 30%, 35% increases back to back to back.

12:34So it's a wild market. All right, Lauren, what are you hearing because of the article you put out? What kind of feedback? It's been unbelievable. There's been technical service bulletins put out from Nissan and Toyota and Honda and the other brands saying, hey, we're running short of this product. They are, like Lee said, putting out technical service bulletins saying, here's an option to use so that you're not forcing your customers into an option.

12:58What you're hearing on social media— the problem is nobody listens to the mainstream media anymore, which is good for us and Carmen and the rest of it. But what they are doing is going to Twitter and Instagram and Facebook, and I'm getting tons of people sending me messages. Did you see this? Did you see this? We're going to have vehicles coming out of the production facilities with no oil in them, no lubricants.

13:20I'm like, you really think they're going to build a product, an engine with a transmission and all the 9 different fluids with no fluids? That's not going to happen. They're not going to put a brake system together without brake fluid or engine together without oil. And it's not impacting the manufacturers because there are options and they can adjust accordingly. Now, with the corporate average fuel economy that Lee was talking about, that is pretty much pulled under Lee Zeldin.

13:44Who is in charge of the EPA. And because of that, that is actually good for car manufacturers, good for consumers. So you're not forced into a situation where you have to buy a car that gets 55 miles to the gallon. Not that you don't want it, because I love fuel— good fuel economy as well. But forcing car brands to do that, and if they don't make that number, they have a fine.

14:03Well, those fines are out the window. So they were going to produce— all brands are going to produce what you want. You want electric? Great. You want plug-in hybrid? We can do that. You want hybrid? We can do that. And if you're looking at the sales, you're seeing sales are down from a lot of brands because they're building what customers don't want.

14:18If they're building what customers want, fuel-efficient cars that are reliable and efficient, that have some— lately it's been less technology and something that people actually want to buy at a price that they want to spend, then you're going to find vehicles that's going to, you know, be built. However, with this oil shortage, bringing it full circle, they're going to have to adjust accordingly, and they're starting to do that at the factory.

14:40They know that. As Lee knows, they're buying unbelievable millions and millions of gallons of one lubricant in order to put into an engine, because as the car goes down the production line, it's also filled with those fluids. It doesn't go out to final check without fluids in it. I've been to multiple production facilities. I was just at the Hyundai plant in Savannah, Georgia.

14:58Brand new. Those vehicles are being driven off the line, not being pushed off the line. Don't let the social media people, the doom scrollers, of the world because they all share it. They see it and they go, oh my gosh, I'm not going to be able to get oil. I'm not going to change or I'm not going to change my oil, which is an even dumber choice because now you're actually putting wear and tear on your engine.

15:20And when you do decide to get an oil change or your check engine light comes on and it's red, you're going to have a much bigger bill. Good Lord. Yeah, it is what it is, unfortunately. Hey, let's face it, your shop management system is the single most important tool in your shop. Period. NapaTrax has made selecting the right shop management system easy by offering the industry's best, most comprehensive SMS.

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18:36On the web at pitcrewloyalty.com. Has anyone explained to us why the price increases besides the fact that— who said 3% of our stuff comes from the Middle East? The old, we're drilling more oil, we're the biggest oil producer in the US. So when the message comes out, Lee, that says we're gonna have a 20% price increase, is there a justifiable reason behind that that you've been able to read?

19:05Kind of, I guess. I mean, I guess it all depends on what lens you're looking at it through. And again, I'm dealing with— in my everyday, I deal with the suppliers that are basically increasing our price. So when Deckman Oil as a company buys our oil and the price rockets up, here's an advantage we have: we deal with multiple major suppliers, and we can see that it's not in isolation.

19:26We don't have you know, Company A raising us 30% and Company B raising us 5%. It's been pretty consistent. We also deal with some independent blenders and we've seen the same. Part of the problem we have is that the technology that goes into these ultra-low viscosity oils, we are dependent on other countries for the supplies to make them. So we can drill crude oil all day, but we have to get the Group III base oil.

19:56We have to have the right additive supplies and the additive supplies, and a lot of the Group 3 comes from all over the world. Although again, in isolation, I would think the bigger argument is we should be independent with fuel because we can refine that fuel and get it. But on the finished lubricants, we have to separate lubricating oils from fuels, and there's a very big distinction between those two.

20:18So that's really why we're seeing these price increases, because the technology that goes into these oils, we can't make enough of it for our own consumption. And the stuff that we do make, we can sell overseas for a little more, probably. Let's raise the prices on just those tough ones. Is that what's going on, Lee, or not? So what I'm seeing is in the automotive industry, all your synthetic automotive oils, European oils, the ultra-low viscosity oils, those are going up exponentially more than the fleet oil.

20:49So your 1540 motor oil or AW hydraulics, things like that, they're going up. Well, Lee, I got a question. How long has it been for a price increase on these traditional, you know, 1540s, 1030s, 530s? How long has it been since there's been a price increase? Again, everybody's got a great reason to raise prices because of what's going on in the Middle East and we're paying.

21:14And again, does that stuff ever come down? God, I don't think toilet paper's still up there, right, Lauren? It's still there. I think it's softened a little bit. There's coupons. There's still coupons available. Oh, it's softened a bit. I love that. I've seen commercials for soft toilet paper. That's very good, Lauren. Thank you. But Lee, has it been a while since it was a price increase?

21:36And this price increase now is making up for lost time, maybe? Perhaps. So when we look back to COVID, I've been doing this for a little over 12 years. We had never seen anything like we saw during COVID And of course the prices went up. But what we saw was prior to COVID, you would have 1 or 2 price moves per year on finished lubricants.

21:58Those would sometimes be up a little bit or down a little bit, but it was nothing crazy. COVID hits and we had 13 consecutive price increases inside of 18 months. That was painful. Again, here I am trying to get to 300 customers, giving them notice of an increase, but it came every 2 weeks, every 3 weeks, once a month for 18 months.

22:20So it was just so inconsistent and it went way up. Was there a why behind that? During the COVID Yeah. Well, we had tankers full of oil floating off the coast of California for a couple of months. Crude oil at one point hit like negative $40 a barrel. So somebody asked me to send them 20 drums and a check for $1,000, right?

22:39I mean, that's, that's pretty much where we were during COVID This is different. We're not seeing an extended 13 increases over 18 months. We're seeing historically high single move increases of dollars plural per gallon. Historically, when I talk to my customers about price moves on finished lubricants, it's cents per gallon, not dollars per gallon, but that's all changed now. Lauren and Lee, I could feel the cost of transportation and people's wages and things have gone up.

23:09So there's no doubt that there is a, a nominal normal price increase on things. But to your point earlier, Lee, I think you're saying it's a lot higher than we ever expected. If there was a cost of living increase on oil, like everything else, bacon, name it. But now, have you bought meat lately? Oh my God. Now you're in a whole different category of conversation.

23:31You realize, and I don't want to go there because there's apparently a shortage of cattle or whatever, Well, that's a whole nother conversation. Yeah. I just wonder what, with all that we're saying that the industry appreciates, it's the consumer that I'm worried about, that there could be a crazy rush. They're not gonna come in as often as they should cuz they don't wanna pay the price.

23:53Is it, is it we're gonna disregard certain maintenance intervals? Oh, absolutely. And we've seen that already where people are thinking, do I put food on the table? Do I pay my mortgage? Or do I get an oil change or rotate my tires or any type of basic maintenance, anything that's in your owner's manual? And unfortunately, what that does is it leads to a whole nother conversation of this shortage of oil.

24:16I'm not gonna get an oil change. An oil change was $50. I had a deal and a coupon. I bought it online. Now it's $100, just for argument's sake. Yeah, you know, maybe I won't do that. We've got a shortage of used cars, a shortage of used car parts. We've got fires happening in salvage yards. I'm like, it's just, it's a lot.

24:33I cover all that on my Car Coach Reports channel. I will be sharing this story as well on my channel because I think it's important for people to understand the behind the scenes and not just what's up front. And Lee's got a deeper dive because he's like in, literally in the oil. And I think for consumers, they really need to start shopping around, looking for deals.

24:52There really isn't a choice. The dealer might have a better price, you never know, because if they're buying oil right from Deckman they might be able to offer you a better price, but maybe that quick oil change place doesn't, or doing it yourself, you can't locate the oil that you need. So always shop around like you would with anything else. Just to jump in, so I think you're right.

25:09I think the average cost of an oil change is going to be $100, just a 5-quart at a quick lube that, you know, the in-and-out and the, you know, no professional mechanic, just the quick lube oil changes are going to be $100. And most Americans today, if they drive a midsize SUV or a truck, to put $100 of gas into their car, they're gonna drive for 400 to 500 miles, they're gonna go back to the gas station and do it again.

25:34When they go to the Quick Lube and get their oil changed or a dealer independent, they're gonna spend the $100 and they get 5,000 miles before they need to do it again. So when I know it used to be 50 and it's gonna be 100, but it's really in that perspective. And maybe it's because I sell oil for a living and I'm getting crushed by my customers that are, you know, so I'm trying to put it in perspective like, It's going to be more expensive.

25:59The other truth is the people who are most impacted by this are the school teachers, the nurses, the police officers, anybody who can't recover. It's just a cost. It's just added cost to their everyday expenses. A lot of the shop owners, right, if they're going to have to raise their price and cover that cost because they're going to take a bath if they don't.

26:19But, but the end user is really— I mean, they're going to feel it because they're going to pay $100 for gas, they're going to pay $100 for oil change, they're going to go their electric bill, their utility bills. I mean, this is energy across the board and finished lubricants. I don't know if you would call it an energy, but certainly it's a critical supply that everybody's gonna have to use.

26:40Loren, I loved his analogy. $100 for fuel that gets you 500 miles, $100 for an oil change that gets you 5,000. There's a great logical piece of this is why I'm going to do it and I'm not gonna argue. I've gotta keep it going. Customers do it all the time. I mean, I have a diesel SUV and it says to replace— so I replace oil quicker than it says.

27:02You can go 10,000 miles on an oil change. I'm like, in diesel? Not a chance. But I'm using full synthetic and I'm on top of it. But most people aren't in the same situation as me. They got their daily driver, it's a gasoline-powered Honda Civic, and they're like, hey, you know, it says 5,000 in the owner's manual. Nah, go 7,500. It's not going to hurt the car.

27:21You know, and then a lot of these full synthetic oils say you can go 7,500 and they'll go, mm, I'll go 10,000. That's not good because you're actually damaging the engine. And so in the long haul, what you don't realize is that, hey, suddenly you've got a problem and that engine, that bill from your mechanic is no longer just an oil change.

27:38Okay, now you got damage to the cylinders, the vehicle's not running right, you're causing other component issues. I mean, these are the things that no one thinks of. It's a very short-sighted business for consumers. They don't think about tires at all until their tires are bald and they're skating through an intersection. Then they go, you know, maybe I need tires. Or I'm not thinking about an oil change until that check engine light comes on.

27:59I go, yeah, maybe I should do something. They never think ahead, although we as in the industry think about it all the time and remind people, you need to be on top of this. You need to get in front of this. Putting the money in now will save you the money down the road. That's true with anything. You know, if your roof is leaking, get in front of it now and have the roof repaired.

28:16Don't wait till the leak is so bad that your house is getting flooded. Unfortunately for consumers, their eyes when it comes to cars is, I'll get to it when it's a problem. If you're leasing a car, many people will just blow it off, and then the lease comes in for trade, and then they get a bill because they can tell the oil is— and then I'm like, how come I'm getting a bill?

28:35So just because you lease or you don't own the car, you still are responsible for the maintenance, and that has to be forefront. And I guess we continue to talk to people, all of us do in our industry, but I think that the higher price is going to cause people to take a break from spending the money. And that was true during COVID also, when cars got more expensive, everything got more expensive.

28:56It was unexpected. Toilet paper shortage. People were hoarding, by the way, toilet paper to resell it on the secondary market. You were seeing it on Facebook Market, Craigslist, you know, eBay. I was like, buy a pallet load of toilet paper, you know. Just to jump in on a point you made. So I do a lot of fleet stuff also with some trucking companies, and we do a lot with oil oil analysis.

29:19And when I'm talking with the fleet owners, and maybe now more so to the automotive side, is there is no doubt that preventative maintenance will cost 8 times less than reactive maintenance. So if you wait until you can see, hear, or smell a problem, get your checkbook out because it's going to cost you. Yes. So 100%. Great point. There's so much that went on with this episode, and I appreciate you both being here.

29:45From both of your perspectives, let's just discuss something. Panic buys. I think you may have talked about it, Lauren, in, in your article. I can't quite remember. From a consumer's perspective, stop going in there and buying 10 cases of oil. I mean, cuz guess what? In 2 months you're gonna look at that and say, why the hell did I do this? And then you're gonna go out and sell it at a loss somewhere.

30:05And Lee, from all of the clients that you have from fleets and agriculture and shops and dealers, Do you feel or sense— tell me about the words panic buy. I haven't seen people panic buying because of fear of running out. I've seen people panic buying because of fear of the increased price. So one of my best fleet customers was giving me a little bit of a hard time over some products, and I've got some great relationships with this customer, and I was just explaining like, we're doing the best we can.

30:37He let me know that he could buy some of his widgets cheaper elsewhere. And I said, I understand that, I get it, but call them next week and see. And although the consumer certainly wants to shop around, when it comes to supply, now is a terrible time to be looking for better, cheaper, faster, because everybody's in the same boat. And I'm talking from the dealerships to the parts store chains, to the independents, to the trucking companies and the farms.

31:03Everybody's seeing this, maybe more so in the automotive world because of those higher-end synthetic light, ultra-low-vis products, but that's kind of where we're at. Great advice. Really good advice. Lauren, how about you? Panic buys? I think panic buying is always a mistake. I didn't do it during COVID I mean, this is how I see it. If you need an oil change in the near future, so you buy the oil in advance if you're a DIYer.

31:29If you're going to your local place, I'd suggest waiting. The way President Trump works, whether you like him or not, is a lot of things happen behind the scenes that you'll never hear about. You will never hear the results one way or the other. So tomorrow morning you could wake up and everything's resolved and the strait is open, or maybe it's not.

31:46But the fact is, when it happens— and it will happen soon, especially if you listen to the people that are experts in the field like Lee and Carm— you'll find that this could change at any time. And the last thing you want to do is buy pallet loads and pallet loads or 55-gallon drums full of oil and then find out you paid a premium price.

32:04And then of course, a month from now they're like, no, no, we're going to lower the price. You know, we were— because obviously the gas stations do the same thing that the oil companies do. They raise the price based on what it's going to take to refill the tank. And if they know that the tank under the ground where you get your gasoline is going to cost more to fill up, they raise the prices now.

32:21And the one thing you will not see in our industry is a lost leader. An oil change is not a lost leader when they have you come in and they also nail you for brake pads and everything else. They do that at gas stations. But they make the money on the milk and the chips and the beer and whatever else you buy in their little convenience store.

32:38So with that thought in mind, panic buying is probably a bad idea. Just like if you're hoarding gasoline, I promise you that's— and I know people that are, they're buying 55-gallon drums and they got the proper ventilation. You really need to think about what you're going to need and only get what you need because they're, like you said, they're not— it's not going away and there will be alternative solutions.

32:57I'm sure that companies like Deckman are looking at where else can we get these products? Where else can— what can we use in exchange? A lot of companies are doing that. And anytime there's a shortage, there's always another company trying to come up. And if you think— if you think it is like toilet paper, what came out of that was a lot of companies saying, oh, wait a minute, there's all kinds of weird stuff in this toilet paper that could cause all kinds of issues with your health.

33:19Here's another product made out of bamboo. I'm not saying I'm using it.. But there is bamboo toilet paper out there and the prices have come down. Initially it was high because they were starting to make it. So you're going to start seeing alternative products that will work. All this is going to take time, but the goal in it is that this doesn't happen again, because who knows what's going to happen down the road, who's in office, what's going to happen on a global basis.

33:41We can only project and not be accurate. So don't panic buy on anything. It's the same thing that happens with— Carmen and I live in Western New York. When there's a snowstorm and you go to the local grocery store, there's no milk, there's no bread, there's no eggs. And then the storm hits and it's gone. And we're like, you go back the next day and the shelves are bare.

33:58The day after, it's all there. It's all new product is back on the shelf. So who does that help? The grocery stores. In our case, you're helping all these big oil companies, much bigger than Deckman, make a lot of profit. So your best bet is to be patient and wait. Lee's also from Western New York, Lord, too. So there's 3 Western New Yorkers here.

34:18The word I took away from you, Lauren, in that great final dissertation of yours was the word patience. That's true. And I think that's what we need from both the commercial side, Lee, from the consumer side, Lauren, how you framed your article, the great motor oil panic is mostly BS and drivers are paying the price. It's a great article. Go to Car Coach Reports @LaurenFix.

34:43That's your social media, right? All my social media is @LaurenFix. You can go to Car Coach Reports either on YouTube. I'm on Rumble. I'm on every form of social media. I try to get to as many people as possible because the goal is, like Lee and I are both doing the same, don't panic, know the facts. There's all kinds of great content coming out and we just want people to be knowledgeable because as we've always said, as your mother said, as your teacher said, knowledge is power.

35:07Yeah, exactly. And Lee, I love your point during your last piece, and that was sooner or later everything is gonna catch up to itself. You could panic buy or panic buy from this particular reason is I wanna buy it at 50 cents a gallon less. And so I know I'm gonna be making more money on it even though I, I've raised my price.

35:27Is that a great profit strategy? Maybe it is, but I think as a small businessman, you got other things to worry about than that. I love this. Short notice. There's so much going on with this oil thing. I wanted to get this recorded and try to release this hopefully within a week of recording this, cuz we've got so many other things in the fire.

35:47But I appreciate Lauren Fix and you being here. And of course, Lee Rodas from Deckman Oil. And it's been great to have you on the show. Appreciate your input. Thanks for being on board to listen and learn from the premier automotive repair business podcast, Remarkable Results Radio. Get your episodic education on the ARPN listing app at automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com. Also enjoy the podcast on our Carm Capriato YouTube channel.

36:15Carm is all for advancing the professional automotive service industry. Until next time.