Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew - an electric interview

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

In this conversation, we explore a very important conversation and touch on parenting in a modern world, making informed choices around health and wellness, and why legacy isn’t built through grand gestures, but through small, consistent decisions made over time. The daily ride to school is an overlooked public health issue, how diesel exhaust impacts children’s development, and why electric school buses offer immediate, tangible benefits for kids, families, and communities. Duncan breaks down what makes fleet electrification uniquely challenging — and how Highland removes the financial and logistical barriers so school districts can focus on what matters most: education. From local school districts to the global stage of the LA28 Olympic & Paralympic Games, this episode is a reminder that progress doesn’t always mean reinventing the wheel — sometimes it means making something familiar healthier, quieter, and better for the next generation. Love you guys! Shawn & Andrew Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up, everybody? Welcome back to a couple things. With Sean and Andrew. Today's interview is a fascinating one. I have had the pleasure of meeting Duncan McIntyre in person. He is the CEO and founder of Highland Electric Fleets, who is now a sponsor of the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games. And I cannot wait for you guys to hear his story, what he's doing with his company, which is going to change the lives of generations to come. And just his inspiration as to what he's built. Yeah, I'm excited.

I know this will maybe be a different interview than we usually bring you all. But I'm really excited because I think the way Duncan lives his life was something that you and I were like, wow, I would love to capture conversation with him just because he's just really intentional. I don't know how else to say it. He's just a super intentional guy.

And that pertains to how he's raised his kids and done his family life, but also how he's built his business. But then I also think that this interview is important because of what he's doing in communities. And so this is slightly different. It's probably more business oriented than our normal interviews. But we thought it was important because as we were having this conversation with Duncan, I was like, oh, my gosh. Some of these things he's describing, I remember being a problem when I was a kid and finally someone's got a solution for it.

So it's really exciting to hear. I remember when I started working with Duncan and with Highland Electric Fleets, having my eyes opened to things that felt so normal for us as children, but were actually detrimental. Yeah, not good. And to see him be the problem solver for it is really, really special. I cannot wait to see them have a huge footprint at the LA 28 games. They're currently headed to Milan to map out what an Olympics looks like to see if he can learn more about the logistics of going into L.A.

It's interesting. I feel like we kind of walk this fine line of, you know, everyone knows you're an Olympic gymnast. And now you create a lot of family lifestyle type of content and talk a lot about your experience as a mom. And I just feel like this conversation to me was like this interesting overlap of what Duncan is doing with the Olympics and what he's doing for families nationwide. And for those who don't know, Duncan runs a company called Highland Fleets. And what they do is they partner with school districts and cities, nationwide to replace their fossil-fueled garbage trucks and buses with electric, quiet, clean buses. It's so cool and I'm so inspired. It's amazing. And I can't wait for him to explain more. Duncan, I'm so excited to have this conversation with you. It's a pleasure to meet you.

I know you and Sean met a couple months ago. But I would love to hear as you were kind of talking about your kids skiing. I'd love to hear a little about yourself, your family, and then we could talk to business stuff after that. Sure. Yeah, Andrew, great to meet you. Sean, really nice to see you again. And, you know, I'm a Boston boy sort of grew up north of the city. My mom's music teacher, my dad's a doctor. He's actually in his mid-70s still practicing cancer doctor. I've got three siblings. And, you know, we, I think mom ran a tight chip growing up. We, we, we, we, we, spent. a lot of time outside. We certainly, you know, had to take our schoolwork serious, our sports serious, you know, be part of our local community, all that stuff. I think it definitely sort of shaped me in terms of my thoughts on how to be a dad. And my wife, Kathleen, and I've got three kids. We sort of run our house in a similar way. You know, if there's daylight, the kids are

outside getting dirty riding bikes being kids we've definitely focused on you know community and health and trying to be sort of thoughtful about the experiences that we you know curate as we as we raise our kids and grow our family and so no no phones our 14 year olds still grumpy with us all the time that he's never had a phone but it's actually been such an amazing blessing to you know be just have all the other experiences that you, that you miss out on if you're stuck to a phone as a kid. Church on Sundays, you know, a lot of hard work. I think that's kind of, that's our household.

So I'm incredibly blessed. Love every minute of it. And, you know, I think the setting the tone and that mentality definitely helps me shape the career I wanted to have. and, you know, the businesses I've been part of. But, yeah, that's us. We're, we've got three kids, a boy and two girls, 14, 12, and nine. We've got three dogs, and we try to spend a lot of time outside and a lot of time together as a family.

Three dogs? That's a lot of dogs. Three kids sounds managed. We have three kids and two dogs. We're pretty much there. It's economies of scale, though. If you had one more dog, it wouldn't feel. like a lot more dogs.

It's okay. Do you feel the same about kids? You know, we have three amazing, wonderful, healthy kids. And some people, when people with four or five kids or six kids, they say that, but I feel as though I've got just barely enough time

for each of my kids to have personal time with dad. So we're happy with our family. That's great. Yeah. When we were about to have our third child, someone was like, you won't even notice like it's it's not even that much more work and then you're like wow for us it felt like a huge I noticed I definitely noticed but but it's interesting to say yeah you use that word curating experiences for your kid which I've never really heard it put that way but it's so true that

that's what you do as a parent where you're like you know there's a million options of how you can navigate the world or what you could get engaged in but you are choosing from your shortlisting you know a certain amount and that takes an amazing amount of a intentionality and just hearing how you described your upbringing and how you run your household. It does seem like intentional feels like an applicable word there. Yeah, I think it's threading a needle. You've got to read each kid and see what they're interested in. You know, I thought my son, Angus, was going to be really into baseball forever.

And he was into it in Little League. And then he reached a point where, you know, other kids were throwing curveballs. And he said, whoa, this might not be for me. And so there are other sports that are for him. So you've got to read the kids. But you also, I think, have to be really thoughtful and intentional about giving your kids the right experiences that help them build as people and as, you know, thoughtful, kind people who are members of their community and sort of, you know, living around the valley. that you care about as parents. And you can't just follow all the trends.

You have to really think about which of them are right. So that's what we try to do. The intentionality you speak about in parenting and in your family life. I feel like you mirror in your career. And you talk about going against the trends or not always with the trends. Can you tell us about your career, your field, and how you got started in it? I'm happy to. You know, I think that I got some great advice in college, which was around finding something that you're excited about and you're passionate about because it won't feel like you're going to work every day. If you're working in an industry or a space that you really enjoy and you just, you feel sort of you have deep conviction that it's worthy. The outcomes are worthy of all the hard work. So I've had a career in, you know, in a renewable energy and in alternative transportation. And those are things

I've always been really interested in. So I've pursued them. But I've also, you know, I think a long career and a successful career is never a get rich quick scheme. You have to sort of, you have to stay at it through the lumps, the ups and downs. There's industries that are in favor and out of favor. But if they have positive outcomes for the community you serve or for the customers you serve, then you can ride through those ups and downs. And, you know, I'm in the EV space. We serve cities. And cities benefit a tremendous amount from electrified fleets in the form of local health more than anything. But there's lots of other benefits. And it's definitely a space that has had both positive and negative sentiments in terms of public perception.

And so just sticking to the truths and communicating really well and then doing it in a way that you intentionally put your offering out there, you give communities the choice, the freedom to do what they think is best for their community. And so I've focused on, I've focused on building businesses that, you know, I just very deeply believe are good and will rise to the top eventually. And then you have to stay consistent and keep at it, even though it can be hard sometimes. So love what I do. I love the team.

I love our customers, all the people I get to meet. I was in Topeka, Kansas last week with the mayor and the superintendent of schools and the state board of ed directors talking about electrifying that fleet, which went live last week. and they're absolutely wonderful people. And you get to learn about their community. You get to be part of it. And it's just incredibly rewarding. You mentioned tough work.

I know that transportation is a tough industry. What made you want to dive into that industry? You said you had some previous maybe affinity towards it, but also not only just engage in that industry, but join a startup in that industry, which I feel like is a compounded difficulty. Sure. Yeah, it's been, I've been a building Highland for seven and a half years. So it's not that long, but it, you know, in anyone's career, that's a big chunk of formidable years to be focused on one thing.

I've always been passionate. And maybe I get this from, you know, in part from my wife, but about kids health and community health. And if you look at some of the trends out there, you know, my wife got. got me thinking about health in the form of our food like a long time ago. She grinds her own wheat berries. And, you know, it's very intentional about getting microplastics out of our food. You know, the kids go to school with sandwiches wrapped in some sort of paper, essentially. And so there's lots of little decisions you make.

But if you look at health, there's a lot of things we could do better in this country. And if you look at cities, urban areas, high rates of pediatric asthma and kids with major respiratory issues are in cities that have bad air quality. It's not from coal plants. We've moved our power plants pretty far out of cities across the board. It's from tailpipes. And most of that is from diesel tailpipes. And when you really look deep at that, we can solve it with the technology that's available today. And that is in the form of, you know, zero emission fleets.

My son, our son, Angus, was a second grader. And I realized that his mouth was at the same height as the diesel tailpipe on a school bus. And this was, you know, this was almost eight years ago. And I thought about it, looked at it, and realized that all these kids stand there and they breed these toxins. The data is, you know, crystal clear and incredibly compelling that if you can improve exposure to toxins for kids, you know, in lots of incremental ways, you can improve health outcomes. It's an incredible investment that we can make as a society and the next generation. So I was inspired by my son, Angus, and at the time realized we had the technology.

And what was needed was good service providers that could bundle and package the capital, the equipment, and really partner with city's long run to convert everything from garbage trucks to school buses to all the vehicles that run. And then it's a little bit of a leap of faith that you can grind it out over the years and you can raise the capital, build the team and inspire communities to come on the journey with you. So the early days can be dark. You don't have a lot of those proof points, but if you stay consistent and stay at it, you get to, you know, you get to the success stories. So a little rambling, but hopefully that answers your question. No, it's interesting. Hearing you talk about your son and the height of the school bus,

it made me think of this smell that I still vividly remember of for whatever reason. It was more potent when it was cold outside, but I'd walk down to the bus stop. and when like especially there's snow on the ground the bus would pull up and it was like that dusty smell that just i still remember i haven't thought i haven't thought i remember it two decades but but but so if you think about it you remember it because you knew as a little kid that it's not a naturally a good smell that is not meant to be in your lungs it's not meant to be there and kids lungs are uh they are more vulnerable because they're maturing and growing and they breathe at a higher rate, so they're ingesting more of whatever's in their environment.

So the data is really compelling. You know, one out of two kids in some communities have pediatric asthma. It's because of air quality. So we're tackling it city after city after city. So you've kind of summarized it, but for people who don't know, I had the privilege of learning. Give us the elevator pitch on what Highland Electric Fleets actually does. I'm happy to. Cities generally want to improve health.

That's not something that is, that's hugely controversial. And the problem is it's hard. One of the things you can do is you can cut the worst emitting air quality issues out of your community. And a key place to start is tailpipes from diesel trucks and buses, big vehicles. And I'm not proposing everyone's got to get rid of their car, right? I have an EV. My wife has a gas SUV. That's the reality of the practical nature of raising a family these days, and that's great.

But the big diesel buses and trucks tend to harm air quality the most. The problem is cities find it to be too expensive, complicated. You have to design and build infrastructure, and we are an easy button. We make it affordable and simple. and we act as a long-term partner. We're not delivering equipment and saying, see you later, good luck. We're actually paying for all the equipment, new fleets of buses, all the charging equipment.

We're bringing services and technology backbones, and we're offering to partner long run to make sure those fleets work and run smoothly. So we're really all-in partner for communities that want to improve our quality, quality through transportation. There's quite a lot of infrastructure and like facilities that are involved with that. That's not a, that's not as easy as saying, hey, you know, here's your charger for your EV at home. You guys, you guys, you're right.

Yeah, you're right. We do. Wow. Yes. We electrified big municipal depots. Some of these projects are, you know, major 10 plus million dollar construction projects over a couple years, but if you set it up and design it right, you put all the right people and systems behind it, you've got a really resilient fleet that can run for decades smoothly. So it's worth

the investment and it's worth all the work. I'm curious how many, you know, when you work with a city like Topeka, how many vehicles are you substituting? And then also, is there any concern with, you know, you see these garbage trucks out on the road for hours. Are they able, are the fleets that you're providing them with, able to sustain what their needs are for their routes? Yeah, those are, those are the right practical things you have to look at for every city. You know, with Topeka, we replaced about a quarter of the fleet to start with electric, and we'll continue to replace more of that fleet over time, we expect. And, you know, some cities we may start with five or ten electric buses in one city in Maryland. We have over 300 on the road.

And so it just depends on the number of students, the number of schools, the needs of the community. The routes are important to map out. A school bus tends to run 30 miles in the morning and 30 miles in the afternoon. So there's ample range on an electric vehicle. It's no problem. And a garbage truck, tends to run a relatively small number of miles. Now, they stop a lot. So, you know, it takes a while. But when an electric vehicle is stopping, it uses that shift in momentum to recharge the battery. So stop and start predictable routes are very appropriate for electrified fleets.

So you've got to look at the fleets. It doesn't work in long haul trucking today, but it works in most route-based municipal workhorse type That's amazing. Are there also noise benefits too? I've been so fascinated by Babe, it was insane getting on this bus.

It is the quietest vehicle I've ever Again, you remember your childhood. School buses are so loud. Yeah, there's not a lot of conversations when the bus is pulling up. This was serene. Really? Yeah, Sean, you remember, right?

We got on and you don't even know it's on. I was like, it's running? It's just. And this. The smell and again, just childhood memories of like old, dusty, loud, dirty school buses. This was like I was in a whole different world. Wow, that's amazing. It's like out of the jet.

It really is. Some kids call it the magic bus. It's very modern and sleek. They run cheaper. It's a benefit all around. I mean, look, the drivers really like the fact that they're silent with a loud engine. the drivers are constantly yelling to keep the kids from getting too rowdy and sort of keep kids in seats.

And when it's silent, it's a more zen-like experience. Kids who, there's some kids who benefit a lot from having a calm, quiet ride to school. You know, some kids that, you know, have sort of, you know, learning disabilities, these neurodivergent related sort of symptoms, they benefit from a very quiet, calm ride to school. But candidly, I ride in them all the time as part of running this business. And it's never gotten old. I still absolutely love getting in these things. It's a Zen-like experience.

That's amazing. It seems like you started this company in some ways an excuse just to do good for the kids, which is kind of cool. I'm curious if you could explain to the parents. Well, one is that statement true because it feels like, I mean, you've mentioned community many times, but it really feels like that is the mission that is drawing you forward in this. And then I'm also curious, just, you know, you mentioned some of the impacts positively it can have on kids. But for the parents listening, why should they be interested in Highland Fleets and what you all are doing?

Look, I think one of the wonderful things about this country is local communities are mostly self-governing. They can choose what's right for themselves. And that means you've got all these local communities that have their own cultures and their own passions. We live in a small town called Hamilton, Massachusetts. And it's really wonderful to get to know your own. your own community. I started this business because I saw, I saw a problem that I thought I could solve that would resonate in my community, but I also thought it would resonate in almost all communities. It's something that should be kind of universal. People want better outcomes for their kids. They want

reliable, affordable things. Transportation is one thing that every community needs and they need some form of transportation. And so to me, it was a business opportunity, but anchored in a personal mission that I thought was really exciting. And I thought it was something that would get me up every day, get me excited. Look, you also, you set the tone for your kids and you have to inspire your own kids to sort of be the best thing that they can be. I'm inspired.

I'm just like this story is so cool. And how you're talking about it's so real. It's good. Yeah. Look, I love it. And the fact that every community can choose is a good thing. I think that's an amazing thing that we have here in America. But if you can do something that you think is going to be widely adopted and appreciated by lots of communities, then that's great.

And as you scale an industry, you start being more efficient about everything. And that provides more benefits to all of the communities that. are involved because you know you can just do things at scale you can do things even cheaper you can provide you know more of whatever you're providing for less money give communities the chance to put more money back in curriculum school budgets are strained everywhere everywhere across the country and you know the more you can help cities and schools meet their own you know internal budgets by cutting costs somewhere the more they can invest in the things that that they're passionate about.

So that's a really cool thing too. When are you coming to Nashville? I'm actually coming right after the Olympics for a conference, but we would love to come roll the fleet, completely transform the fleet in Nashville. I know our team is talking to folks at schools there, and I don't know where those conversations stand, Sean, but I'll follow up. I'll let you know. I think there's receptivity.

There's receptivity. You've got an amazing community there. I'm sure it's a matter of time before they're on that journey. And then talking about that little exciting thing, you just skimmed over. What's the big announcement with LA 28? So we're, we're, it's a real, it's a real privilege. You know, you grow up, you grow up watching Olympians like you, Sean. And it's like such a magical thing as a kid, right?

So for me, it's a chance to get involved and do something with the Olympics. And so in L.A., in 28, we are the transportation sponsor. We'll run 500 electric school buses to move officials and staff and media and, you know, some other folks around throughout the games. And so we'll run 500 electric buses for six weeks. for the Olympics and the Paralympics. It's a sponsorship. It's a chance for us to showcase the technology and what's possible on a global stage

in an incredibly complex logistical event, right? It's the largest global sporting event, full stop. And so in L.A. is, there's a little bit of traffic in L.A. So there's layers of complexities that we have to work through, but it's really exciting. We're setting up charging hubs all over Los Angeles County. We're electrifying schools all over the place. L.A. has about 100 school districts.

L.A. USDA is one of them. So there are so many kids affected by air quality in L.A. that it's an area we're really focused on. So look, it's exciting for the company. It's exciting for me personally. My family, I think we'll go spend six weeks. out there. My kids have all asked to volunteer for the Olympics. So we're trying to get behind it as a family and make it an exciting adventure for Highland as well.

Well, that's the story. That's so exciting. And having been to a few myself, God bless you for being a part of the logistical behemoth of transportation at the games, especially in L.A. I wish you the best. But I am curious. Is L.A. going to keep the infrastructure you are putting in place? So the short answer is Highland's going to build the infrastructure. We're going to pay for it. And then we're going to use it for 30 years. So everything we build will serve the Olympics for six weeks, but we'll serve school districts around L.A. for 30 years.

And so there's not a stitch of infrastructure. being built solely for the games. Not every piece of it is going to be done in a sustainable way that, you know, is a long-term, has a long-term job. And so, you know, we have our, we have a fleet up and running in Compton that's running beautifully. That fleet is expanding quickly. We have more fleets in the area throughout Los Angeles County that will be coming

online in the next couple of years. So we expect it'll be. all be up and running at schools, you know, sprinkled all over the community. And then when school's out in the summer, these are school buses. They sit idle. So they'll do double duty. And they'll move athletes and families and officials all around LA. So it's a great merit. A couple thoughts. I feel like it is such a beautiful way to parlay the, everyone understands that athletes need to take care of their body. You know, it's like so obvious that we're talking about these world class athletes.

Yeah, let's get them the best food. Let's get them the best training. Let's get them the best air. And so I think Highland using that as a way to say, hey, it's not just athletes that need this. Let's get it for the kids too. It's just a really cool partnership. But it also makes me think of, you know,

Sean's had the opportunity to go to several Olympics. And I remember her talking about Beijing. And I think there was this restraint that the government put on cars and being able to drive like a month ahead of, the game starting to clear up the air quality because of multiple different reasons but then it just gets me pumped about Highland and it also makes me think of you went to

Rio and you're talking about the buses there and like the whole... I wasn't going to tell him maybe I didn't want to put a bad story No no no no just how needed they are it was You couldn't get around without the buses It was so rough The transportation in Rio was rough

And that's why I'm excited that They're going to be part of the solution here Yeah so Yeah look it's It's a logistically complex thing to tackle. But we have all the people skills, technology, backbones to do it. We have all of it today.

So I got really excited and confident that we could just nail this. And what an exciting, inspiring way to showcase the technology and what it's capable of than being able to execute on the Olympics. Every community will believe if they weren't believing before. So we're excited about that. I'm just rambling now, these memories. So we went to the 96 Olympics in Atlanta. Atlanta.

I was five or six. And my only memory from the entire time is the transportation experience, which was we were on the subway. We traded pins, like the Olympic pins you can get with some guys on there. Anyway, I think it's going to be so cool. You guys are going to be baked in memories for all these tourists and fans out there. It's going to be awesome. Truly.

Yeah, it's exciting to stand beside Delta and Honda. and Starbucks as an Olympic sponsor too. It's a chance to elevate the brand and participate in something that's truly worthy. I want to talk a little nitty-gritty business stuff even don't mind answering because you said you said you can help these schools districts save money. And I'm curious, you know, you mentioned you come in, you build the infrastructure, you use it for a long time. But what are like the mechanic? How do you guys work in that regard with the partnership and how much do you save people? Well, if you think about an electric motor, it has very few moving parts and it's incredibly efficient.

It's a lot more efficient than a combustion engine at converting a unit of energy into a unit of propulsion. And that's because it's magnets. There's very little friction, very few moving parts. So there's a more efficient motor is the first piece. As a result, the fuel is about half the price. You charge from your local grid as opposed to at the pump. And the net of that is about a 50% savings on fuel. You also have very few spare parts.

There's no exhaust system. There's no oil changes. There's very little maintenance. And so you can save on maintenance. You can save on fuel. and you can save money on a number of the aspects around how you operate and dispatch the fleet. And the net result is lower operating costs over time. That's hard for a lot of communities to believe.

And so Highland does that as part of our business. We pay for all the equipment up front. And then cities can pay us by the mile, includes the fuel, includes the, maintenance, and we can lock in a rate that's cheaper than running a diesel fleet. Wow. And it's a guaranteed rate for the city, then they can lock in savings. We've got a customer, a public school in rural Illinois that signed our contract. And they said, by signing this contract, we can hire a music teacher that we couldn't afford

last year. That's amazing. And so, yeah. So electrification is just cheaper to run. Do you also factor in health savings in any way? We are passionate about that, and the health savings are significant. But it's really, we found it's difficult for a city leader to pay for that. It's difficult for them to quantify.

They want it, but they need to see cash on the hood savings in the form of a reduced budget. But you're spot on. I think the data that's come out over the last 15 years, is really clear and it's undisputed that if you can if you can clear up the air in cities there's a tremendous amount of health savings and that reduces the burden on the health care system and you know it just also creates quality of quality of life for communities Duncan thank you this is so inspiring and I just really enjoyed hearing you talk about your family the way you've built your business the why of what you like it's cool to hear

people talk about whatever they've built but it's way more inspired inspiring to hear about why they built it. And your story is really cool. I'm pumped to experience Highland Fleets when we go out to LA and excited to meet you in person at some point. But thank you for the time. Absolutely. Yeah.

Andrew, great to meet you. Sean, really nice to see you again. And I appreciate being on. Appreciate the chance to talk to you guys. You're awesome. We appreciate everything you're doing. And yeah, thanks a lot. Thanks a lot.

Have fun in Milan. And you too. Maybe you'll see you there. Sounds good. Love it. Good to see you again.