Truckload Division Driver of the Month-April 2014

Joi Brown, Dave Reda and Chad Dewey enjoy the Truckload Huddle

 

Please join us in congratulating Dave Reda, our Truckload Professional Driver of the Month for April.  Dave is a proud team member of our Western Fleet.

 

Dave is the model driver for any transportation company. He is a teammate you can depend on to get the job done right. David's service has been 100% for the last twelve months. He has a yearly average of 8336 miles per month, 6.87 mpg and 11.06 total idle. He also runs his logs perfectly. It's a very rare month that he even gets one point. David does all of this while making safety a priority and being accident free! He communicates well, is always pleasant and a true asset to this company!  

 

Dave's results were as follows for April:

 

• Mileage       12, 105
• MPG              7.25
• Idle                24.4
• Variance        2.56    
• #1 -   Driver Scorecard  

 

 

Before Dave was a driver, he worked as a dispatcher for three months. After his brief stint in the office, he went to work in a driving capacity for Swift. He left Swift to work for JB Hunt because the pay was higher. Now that he's been a Professional Driver here for 5 years he says he won't leave because of the great people at our company.

While on time off in Oregon, David enjoys skiing, fishing and golfing. Also, he has some rental property in Southern California that he manages on the side.

 

 



 

Roadcheck 2014

    This year's International Roadcheck is June 3-5, 2014.  

Roadcheck, now in its 27th year, is the largest targeted enforcement program on commercial motor vehicles in the world, with nearly 17 trucks or buses inspected, on average, every minute from Canada to Mexico during a 72-hour period in early June. Each year, approximately 10,000 CVSA-certified local, state, provincial and federal inspectors in every jurisdiction across North America perform the truck and bus inspections.

International Roadcheck 2014 will include primarily North American Standard Level I Inspections, which is the most thorough roadside inspection. It is a 37-step procedure that includes an examination of both the driver and vehicle. Drivers will be asked to provide items such as their license, endorsements, medical card and hours-of-service documentation, and will be checked for seat belt usage and the use of alcohol and/or drugs. The vehicle inspection includes checking items such as the braking system, coupling devices, exhaust system, frame, fuel system, lights, safe loading, steering mechanism, suspension, tires, van and open-top trailer bodies, wheels and rims, windshield wipers, and emergency exits on buses

Hit The Pavement

Both commercial truck drivers and traditional drivers believe that the state of U.S. roadways is a critical issue for safety and quality of life. The Asphalt Pavement Alliance surveyed 3,085 drivers across the country to find out what drivers are looking for in their roads. The following are some of the key findings:

• The vast majority of drivers (84 percent of traditional drivers and 73 percent of truck drivers) prefer that road maintenance take place during off-peak hours.
•  Given 14 choices for officials to consider when building a road, 56 percent of drivers selected safety as one of the top three priorities.
• Nearly 70 percent of drivers report that they are willing to endure periodic delays in exchange for well-maintained roads.
• Drivers (86 percent) and truck drivers (78 percent) both prefer to put funds toward maintenance of existing roads over new construction.
• Just over half of each type of driver supports the development of new or additional funding mechanisms for infrastructure support and construction.

 The survey highlights the public interest in the next highway funding bill, which Congress is currently drafting. In the meantime, the Federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to run out of money by the end of the summer.“These results emphasize the need to increase investment in our nation’s aging infrastructure to put a greater emphasis on a consistent level of drivability for road users,” says Mike Acott, APA president.

GROW America ACT- Detention is a Key Component

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s proposed four-year, $302 billion transportation bill includes a new rule that drivers be paid for the time they’re detained at shipper’s and receiver’s facilities.
The Grow America Act, released by the White House on April 29, states that the Secretary of Transportation may require motor carrier employers to:

Track the on-duty (not driving) time of an employee whose base compensation is calculated in a manner other than an hourly wage, and separately compensate the employee for any on-duty, not-driving period at an hourly rate not less than the federal minimum wage.

 

In a separate analysis of the bill, the DOT explains that drivers are frequently detained for extended periods at shipper or receiver facilities and are on duty but not compensated. According to the analysis:

This situation often results in pressure for drivers to drive beyond the federal hours of services limit as a matter of economic necessity, risking driver fatigue and jeopardizing highway safety. FMCSA believes that safety could be significantly increased if drivers were compensated for these waiting periods.

 

What do you think? Should drivers be compensated for time they’re detained? And, just as importantly, who should foot the bill? The current proposal states that drivers should be paid by the motor carrier employer, but says nothing about charging the shipper or receiver who may have caused the delay.

Here are the main idea/goals that are a part of the proposed legislation:

In addition to providing the four-year funding certainty our states need, GROW AMERICA addresses 12 critical transportation needs.

We encourage you to browse the themes below to learn how our GROW AMERICA bill can improve the nation's transportation system and our economy...

• An overview of GROW AMERICA
• Supporting a healthy environment
• Expanding our ability to move freight
• Growing investment in transportation
• Making critical investments in highways and bridges
• Promoting innovative financing
• Building ladders of opportunity
• Empowering local decision makers
• Creating more efficient project delivery
• Investing in rural America
• Improving transportation safety
• Supporting safe, reliable public transit
• Shaping a pathway to transportation careers

The overview of Grow America is linked below:

http://www.dot.gov/grow-america/fact-sheets/freight

Here is some recent propaganda:

Interesting Perspective Shared With Shippers

I saw this article about creating capacity in a tight markets.  These three tips resonated with me and should with our operators, planners, and drivers/owner operators/carrier capacity:

• Maximize the amount of money a carrier can make – This means more than simply asking a shipper to increase pay per mile. It also means advocating for the carrier, and urging the shipper to reduce loading, unloading and detention time. You may not be able to influence the shipper in every case, but you absolutely should share any information with the carrier about dock conditions or other aspects of the job, even if it makes the freight seem less attractive. Honesty is important to carriers, and they will remember you next time they have a truck available.

• Give your carriers the loads they need – When you make life easier for your regular carriers, they’ll do the same for you when you’re in a pinch. Keep your smallest carriers moving with loads that make a complete round trip to their home base or get them to their next desired destination. Your large carriers want 48 hours’ lead time, a rate agreement for each load, and a single point of contact within your organization, so they can make one call and get details about all the freight they are hauling for you.

• Treat carriers like customers – You always want to maintain good relationships with carriers, but it is especially critical in a tight market. Cultivate carrier loyalty by treating your carriers like customers. Treat them honestly and fairly, give them access to good freight and good information, and they will naturally begin to call you whenever they have trucks available

Maverick 500

Maverick USA CEO Steve Williams said his company could easily use 500 more drivers immediately and shipments are just waiting for trucks, Arkansas Business reported.

“I could easily — easily — use 500 more drivers right now,” Williams told the magazine. “He who has the drivers will have the business. That’s the name of the game.”

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and good drivers have been hard to find for some time,” Williams said. “It’s a challenge that is only going to be met with a lot of additional money for compensation. We are having to bring a lot of nontraditional truck drivers into the field.”

To help get more drivers the company is expanding and improving its on-site training facility. The $4 million expansion will create an additional 13,000 square feet of space; add four classrooms and several bays where students can get hands on experience, according to the magazine.

The facility is scheduled to open June 18.

Maverick ranks No. 84 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.

Driverless Trucks Impacting Capacity

Think driverless trucks are a futuristic fantasy? Plenty of truckload carriers would tell you they have too many driverless trucks today — all parked against the fence for lack of drivers. Truckload carriers say the rising cost of putting drivers in trucks and keeping them is a major obstacle to expanding truckload capacity, even as freight demand and rates climb higher.

Covenant Transport’s recent financial earnings underscore how trucking is being short-seated and short-changed by a driver shortage. In the first quarter, 5.6 percent of the truckload carrier’s average fleet of 2,652 tractors was parked for want of a driver — nearly 150 trucks.

That’s up from 4.4 percent of 2,846 tractors, or about 125 trucks, a year ago. The number of unseated trucks increased, and increased as a percentage of the total fleet, despite a 6.8 percent reduction in the average number of tractors operated by Covenant.

Those unseated or “open” trucks contributed to a 1.5 percent drop for the quarter in freight revenue, to $126.3 million, at Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Covenant. With fuel surcharges also falling, the carrier’s total revenue declined 2.3 percent year-over-year to $161 million.

The drop in freight revenue came at a time when freight demand and the rate environment were favorable, Covenant said, but qualified professional drivers “remained in short supply.”

Covenant, the 15th-largest truckload carrier, lost $1.4 million in the quarter, compared with a $2 million net loss a year ago. The rollout of an enterprise management system at subsidiary Southern Refrigerated Transport cut operating profit by $900,000. Most of the implementation issues were resolved by March, the company said in its earnings statement.

Despite the drop in freight revenue, Covenant, No. 32 on the JOC’s list of the Top 50 Trucking Companies, managed to increase average revenue per tractor per week 1.7 percent to $3,284 and lift average freight revenue per total mile 3.2 percent, so the company is getting more money out of each tractor-trailer as it reduces the size of its fleet.

This year, the company plans to cull more older trucks and buy a smaller number of new ones, reducing its fleet size by 2 to 3 percent. “In the first quarter of 2014, we took delivery of approximately 125 new company tractors and disposed of approximately 300 used tractors,” Richard B. Cribbs, senior vice president and CFO, said in the statement. In 2014, Covenant plans to sell 1,250 used tractors and buy 950 new ones, he said.

Even if unseated trucks represent only a small portion of any one truckload carrier’s fleet, collectively they represent a significant amount of idle capacity that shippers can’t use, said Mike Regan, chief of relationship development at logistics firm TranzAct Technologies.

“We’re not bringing new drivers into this industry,” said Regan, who also chairs the advocacy committee for shipper group NASSTRAC. “I talked with one truckload carrier executive recently who said we’re not hiring new drivers, we’re getting drivers by poaching them.”

The number of heavy truck or tractor-trailer drivers in the U.S. increased 1.9 percent in 2013, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, but is still 6.4 percent below its 2007 peak. Trucking companies will have to raise driver pay by as much as 15 to 25 percent to attract more drivers, the chairman and CEO of Knight Transportation said last week.

“We are very aggressively taking a large portion of what we’re able to receive in terms of rates and making sure that we give that to our driving associates,” Kevin Knight said.

Memorial Day 2014

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the men and women who died while serving in the country's armed forces. The holiday, which is celebrated every year on the last Monday of May,^[2] was formerly known as Decoration Day and originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the war. By the 20th century, Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died while in the military service. It typically marks the start of the summer vacation season, while Labor Day marks its end.

Technology Use in Transportation

Fleet executives said they are increasingly using technology to aid their recruitment and retention efforts as the industry’s driver shortage worsens.

Onboard computers, turn-by-turn navigation, recruiting software and even in-cab cameras can all be useful tools in the struggle to put qualified drivers in the seats of tractors, executives said at the ALK Transportation Technology Summit here May 19-21.

Richie Henderson, senior vice president of administration and technology at J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., described the driver situation as the industry’s “most pressing issue.”

“In this year alone, J.B. Hunt will hire over 11,000 drivers just for turnover replacement,” Henderson said.

The company estimates that it costs between $5,000 and $10,000 to replace a driver in its fleet, factoring in the cost of lost utilization and the price of advertising, training and signing bonuses.
Henderson said J.B. Hunt seeks to improve drivers’ productivity through onboard technology.
The Lowell, Arkansas-based carrier uses the data harvested by those systems to plan drivers’ routes in a way that maximizes their driving time, thus improving their pay.

That’s especially important given the headwinds from the new hours-of-service rules and traffic congestion, Henderson said.

“Through the data discovery tools that we’ve purchased, we have great visibility into driver utilization and how many hours they’re spending on every aspect of their day,” he said. “How we plan the driver’s day is becoming so much more critical.”

He said J.B. Hunt is using social media such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to reach out to the driver community.

April Tonnage Reports

Truck tonnage rose 4.8% last month from a year earlier as carriers distanced themselves from winter’s freight disruptions, setting the stage for more growth amid a strengthening economy.
American Trucking Associations said last week its advanced seasonally adjusted index reached 129.1 in April, an improvement of 1.5% on a month-to-month basis. The April result was the best monthly year-over-year increase in 2014.

“Tonnage has been making solid progress after falling a total of 5.2% in December and January,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said. “April’s nice gain was better than the contraction in industrial production and the lackluster retail sales during the same month.”

ATA’s announcement was issued after recent economic reports that industrial production and housing, two key drivers of tonnage, have perked up. That brightened the economic picture that was dimmed after the dismal 0.1% increase in first-quarter gross domestic product reported April 30.
Costello told Transport Topics that last month’s housing market improvement, as well as a post-winter catch-up effect, helped tonnage last month.

Tonnage has risen 4% since January and has gained 2.9% this year.

Costello told TT he expected that full-year tonnage growth would be 4.5%. Sustained growth similar to the April percentage level would be required for the rest of the year to hit that target.

However, an industry analyst report wasn’t as upbeat.

“The challenging weather in the first quarter created a widespread hope that the economy would broadly accelerate once the snow melted and pent-up demand was released,” Stifel Nicolaus analyst John Larkin said in an investor note.

“General freight volumes are reflective of the mediocre economic growth,” his report said. “While some pockets of economic growth exist [e.g. Texas, North Dakota, Silicon Valley], the average American is still struggling to make ends meet. Their struggles are reflected in the weak sales posted by big-box retailers, of late.”

Memorial Day

This helps put into perspective the "ultimate sacrifice":

The Bataan Death March was the forced march of American and Filipino prisoners of war by the Japanese during World War II. The 63-mile march began with 72,000^* prisoners from the southern end of the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines on April 9, 1942. The horrible conditions and harsh treatment of the prisoners during the Bataan Death March resulted in an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 deaths.

Surrender in Bataan

Only hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Japanese also struck airbases in the American-held Philippines (around noon on December 8, local time). Caught by surprise, a majority of the military aircraft on the archipelago were destroyed during the Japanese air attack.
Unlike in Hawaii, the Japanese followed their surprise air strike of the Philippines with a ground invasion. As the Japanese ground troops headed toward the capital, Manila, American and Filipino troops retreated on December 22, 1941 to the Bataan Peninsula, located on the western side of the large island of Luzon in the Philippines.
Quickly cut off from food and other supplies by a Japanese blockade, the American and Filipino soldiers slowly used up their supplies. First they went on half rations, then third rations, then fourth rations. By April 1942, they had been holding out in the jungles of Bataan for three months and were clearly starving and suffering from diseases.
There was nothing left to do but surrender. On April 9, 1942, U.S. General Edward P. King signed the surrender document, ending the Battle of Bataan. The remaining 72,000 American and Filipino soldiers were taken by the Japanese as prisoners of war (POW). Nearly immediately, the Bataan Death March began.

The March Begins

The goal of the march was to get the 72,000 captured American and Filipino POWs from Mariveles in the southern end of the Bataan Peninsula to Camp O'Donnell in the north. To do this, the prisoners were to be marched 55 miles from Mariveles to San Fernando, then travel by train to Capas. From Capas, the prisoners were again to march for the last eight miles to Camp O'Donnell.
The prisoners were separated into groups of approximately a hundred, assigned Japanese guards, and then sent marching. It would take each group about five days to make the journey. The march would have been long and arduous for anyone, but the already starving prisoners were to endure cruel and brutal treatment throughout their long journey, which made the march deadly.

The Horrible Conditions of the Bataan Death March

Japanese soldiers believed strongly in the honor brought by fighting to the death and anyone who surrendered was considered contemptible. Thus, to the Japanese soldiers, the captured American and Filipino POWs from Bataan were unworthy of respect. To show their displeasure and disgust, the Japanese guards tortured their prisoners throughout the march.
To begin with, the captured soldiers were given no water and little food. Although there were artesian wells with clean water scattered along the way, the Japanese guards shot any and all prisoners who broke rank and tried to drink from them. A few prisoners successfully scooped up some stagnant water as they walked past, but many became sick from it.
The prisoners, who were starving even before their surrender, were given just a couple balls of rice during their long march. There were numerous times when local Filipino civilians tried to throw food to the marching prisoners, but the Japanese soldiers killed the civilians who tried to help.
The intense heat during the march was miserable. The Japanese exacerbated the pain by making the prisoners purposely sit in the hot sun for several hours without any shade -- a torture called "the sun treatment."
Without food and water, the prisoners were extremely weak as they marched the 63 miles in the hot sun. Many were seriously ill from malnutrition, while others had been wounded or were suffering from diseases they had picked up in the jungle. These things didn't matter to the Japanese. If anyone seemed slow or fell behind during the march, they were either shot or bayoneted. There were Japanese "buzzard squads" who followed each group of marching prisoners, responsible for killing those that couldn't keep up.
Random brutality was common. Japanese soldiers would frequently hit prisoners with the butt of their rifle. Bayoneting was common. Beheadings were prevalent.
Simple dignities were also denied the prisoners. Not only did the Japanese not offer latrines, they offered no bathroom breaks along the long march. If a prisoner had to defecate, then they had to do it while walking.

Arrival at Camp O'Donnell

Once the prisoners reached San Fernando, they were herded into boxcars. The Japanese shoved so many prisoners into each boxcar that there was standing room only. The heat and conditions inside caused more deaths.
Upon arrival in Capas, the remaining prisoners marched another eight miles. When they reached their destination, Camp O'Donnell, it was discovered that only 54,000 of the prisoners had made it to the camp. It is estimated that about 7,000 to 10,000 died, while the rest of the missing had escaped into the jungle and joined guerrilla groups.
The conditions within Camp O'Donnell were also brutal and harsh, leading to thousands more POW deaths even within their first few weeks there.

The Man Held Responsible

After the war, a U.S. military tribunal was established and charged Lieutenant General Homma Masaharu for the atrocities committed during the Bataan Death March. Homma had been the Japanese commander in charge of the Philippines invasion and had ordered the evacuation of the prisoners of war from Bataan.
Homma accepted responsibility for his troops' actions even though he himself never ordered such brutality. The tribunal found him guilty.
On April 3, 1946, Homma was executed by firing squad in the town of Los Banos in the Philippines.
* Some sources say 75,000 soldiers were taken prisoner after the surrender at Bataan, with 12,000 of them American and 63,000 Filipino.

Life On The Road Has Changed for Truckers

Dax Williams always loved the freedom of trucking.

It’s not like working in an office, the Sarasota-based, 23-year-veteran of the profession said Wednesday after parking his truck outside the Flying J Truck Stop on Ross Clark Circle. People didn’t look over his shoulder and tell him every little thing to do.
 And while some of that is still true about trucking, life on the road has changed for Williams and other drivers. Pay has gone flat, while responsibilities and regulations have increased. Computers have been installed in trucks, often forcing them to take breaks when they don’t need to, and not letting them take breaks when they do.

Some of the changes have become so frustrating that many experienced and qualified drivers are getting out of the profession, leaving a massive driver shortage that could drive up prices for consumers.

Recent statistics from the American Trucking Associations show about 25,000 unfilled truck driver positions in the U.S, and an estimated shortage of 330,000 drivers over the next 10 years.
What’s more, the ATA figures showed the trucking industry would need to recruit nearly 100,000 drivers to keep up with the demand.

But it’s not an easy sell, even with the sign-on bonuses and guaranteed home time companies like Greenbush Logistics out of Abbeville are offering these days, said Kevin Savoy, vice president of the trucking firm, which hires drivers for its fleet of about 260 trucks.

Savoy, who is also the chairman for the Alabama Trucking Association board, said finding qualified drivers has grown harder these days because fewer people are interested in the business. The pay -- the U.S. Bureau of Labor estimated the mean annual salary for drivers was about $34,150 in 2012 -- is no longer enough to entice drivers to spend weeks at a time on the road, and more regulations have reduced the number of hours driving, but not necessarily the number of hours away.

In addition, more than half of the drivers who remain are over the age of 45 and the new generation isn’t necessarily buying into the profession, Savoy said, quoting statistics from the American Trucking Associations.

“Historically, people that moved into driving professions were people coming off the farm, if you will. They were people with rural backgrounds,” he said. “That pipeline has dwindled.”
Ford Boswell, spokesman for Alabama Trucking Association, agreed.

“The need has grown, but there aren’t as many people wanting to drive,” Boswell said. “You can make a good living doing it, but it’s not an easy job. There’s a lot of regulation, a lot of hoops to jump through.”

As a result, companies have upped recruiting, spending millions on incentives intended to lure qualified drivers to their company, when they could be doing other things that might work better and save money, said Jeff Clark, a Wisconsin-based trucker and blogger who’s been driving for 25 years.
Clark, 55, said there is no shortage of truckers. It’s more like a shortage of good treatment.

“There is no shortage,” he said. “People get chased out of the industry because they don’t get paid for their time. They don’t get paid enough, and they’re disrespected by shippers and receivers.”

“Do you know what the turnover rate in the trucker industry is?” he asked. “It’s about 100 percent. They don’t care about the drivers long term because they won’t have them in a year.”

Clark said companies should start focusing on things that matter, such as programs that would counteract the high rate of obesity and Type 2 diabetes that tend to haunt truckers who don’t eat right or exercise enough.

“They would retain their drivers longer, and in the end be more profitable,” he said.

The job can also be intimidating, Williams said. It took him a good two years to get comfortable driving a 30,000-plus-pound rig.

“I’m 23 years into it, and I’m still learning,” he said.

Life on the road, however, still has the ability to draw people from all walks of life. Williams has met a former doctor, several former lawyers and a school counselor who chucked it all for a big truck and a chance to see the world.

But it doesn’t always work like that, he said.

“’Bout all you get to see is what you can see through your rear-view mirror.”

And The Winner Is............

 

Two Departments.  One Purpose.  The West Side Truckload team brought home the trophy in the 1st annual Wiffle Ball tournament between ICS and Truckload.  It was a great event that was enjoyed by all. 

 West Side happily accepts the trophy in a presentation in our corporate building.  This team played four games and did not allow one run to be scored against them.

 Team #LTWTL was the runner up and played a very competitive championship game.

 Kyle Carlyle takes a wicked swing during one of the earlier games. 

 Jeremy Travis pitches with confidence from the mound and played a mean 3rd base.

 

Some of the fan base from the Pricing and Finance department enjoyed the time to cheer for Team Truckload.

 



 

April Driver of the Month - Walmart/Sam's Club Tannersville, PA

 

All of us on the WMPD account in Tannersville, PA would like to congratulate Jermaine Lewis (LEWJB1) on being our driver of the month for April. Jermaine ran 9,121 safe miles with a 6.42 MPG. Jermaine has a great work ethic and is always willing to help. We are proud to have Jermaine on the account and look forward to many more safe miles ahead!

Feedback from a Professional Driver

We asked for opinions about how our customers could make their facilities more driver friendly.  Here is some feedback that we received today:

The only thing I ask is that our customers just treat us with the respect that they want to be treated with. We all have bad days but we all need to put that a side while doing our job. That is being professional. Unload in a reasonable time or have an empty trailer for us if we drop. Also, maybe remove the trash from trailers! I don't expect them to sweep it out, although would be nice. Just remove the trash. 

Thank you. James Page.

 

Team PCS

Received a nice note from Stacci Hill, a client manager with ICS.  This was received this afternoon:

Great Job TODAY GUYS - You all have done an amazing job this week but especially today with the forecast increases. Hope you all have an amazing weekend! Glad I get to work with each one of you!!

It is inspiring to see all of us working under one scroll!

 

 

Driver Hotline 844-588-8785

Remember,  we are now providing an update to our drivers every week via hotline. The toll free number is 844-588-8785 (844-LUV TRUK).

This weeks call is hosted by Chad Dewey and he touches on the following topics:

* Truckload Safety Performance-May Month To Date
* Roadcheck 2014
* Truck Keys when turning in your tractor for service
* Freight conditions and forecast for the weekend
* April 2014 Truckload Driver of the Month Dave Reda-West Fleet 

We observed our phone stats from last week and 387 drivers called in to utilize the Hotline.  This tool is for you to be more knowledgeable about our fleet's performance and the freight forecast for the upcoming weekend.  Freight should be very strong, so lets take advantage of it.


Thank you very much for the collision free day you provided on Thursday.  That is unbelievable

I want YOUR Feedback

Please give me feedback on a note we received from a very large customer:

I took your feedback to our engineering group regarding the rest space for the drivers.  As I shared, we want to be as friendly as possible at the location.  What would you envision be part of that space?  Restrooms? Vending?  Trying to give more detailed feedback as I think it is a good idea.

 

Also what other things at our facilities can we do to make us a driver friendly location also to reduce costs for both of us?  Again I am talking about our locations not the customer locations.


Our customers are listening.  They are hearing about the driver shortage and want to make their locations "driver friendly."  Welcome news to everyone here at J.B. Hunt.

Please forward suggestions to me @ steve_rogers@jbhunt.com.  We want to give this customer great feedback on their worthy request. 

Good News----We are now CONNECTED

We signed up every J.B Hunt Truckload driver we could for our Truck Talk Blog.  This is a tool that we want our professional drivers to use as an information source and a way to connect to the company.  Read below and you will see how important connecting can be:

Looking good Jay. Just saw you in JB Truck Talk. I have a question though. Where is the gray hair. You should be salt and pepper by now. LOL.

Have a great spring!

Bob Mack - MAKR1 21 Year JB Driver

Many of us from Dallas know Bob and it is always great to connect with him.  The power of the internet is AWESOME!  

News from the Front

This "chatter" came from Spencer Frazier on our internal Salesforce page:


Today I had an opportunity to speak to 100 customers as part of an International Air, Ocean, and Domestic transportation panel with Wolfgang Freese of Hapag-Lloyd and Achim Martinka of Lufthansa. Each of us presented our industry updates.

While the conference has an international focus and the air and ocean guys gave great presentations, the vast majority of the questions during the Q&A session came to me. Customers were concerned about the long term challenges with capacity, drivers, cost tradeoffs and risk.

The questions were like the other examples recently posted on Chatter of how customers are looking to JB Hunt for leadership to help them navigate a capacity constrained market.

Be confident that the value of our ability to provide capacity will continue to increase even as the rates needed to provide that capacity go up.


Our drivers are a precious resource.  Hold on to every driver we can......they are a invaluable part of our company.

Touring a Cascadia Freightliner 60" Tractor in Concord, NC

Jay took the time to familiarize himself with the cab of a Freightliner Cascadia 60" cab vs our current International 56" ProStar +.  Check out these photos of this open Intermodal unit:

 You can stand up in this truck in the morning when you are dressing for the day.  In a 56" unit Jay's feet would be equal to the driver/passenger seats.  If you live in your truck for 2-4 weeks or more, space is vital.

Jay got comfortable in the bunk of this tractor.  Notice the great storage area for clothes and a TV.

More from the Queen City

While Jay was in Concord, NC he met several of our Professional Drivers.  These drivers are the backbone of our SE Network operation.

 Jay spends some time with Kenneth Holmes and Erwin Pompey.

Gaston Hansley gets to meet his Director of Operations.

Justin helps Aaron get his truck fixed before the shop closes at 1800.



Jay Visits the Queen City

Known famously as "a hornet's nest of rebellion" in the American Revolutionary War, Jay Johnson visited the Queen City this week and found it to be quite the opposite.  We have a terminal in Concord, NC and Jay shared some photo's of his time at the facility.  Enjoy:

 A selfie of Jay Johnson in North Carolina

Our terminal facility in Concord, NC

Our maintenance facility in Concord, NC

Freight Index Rises 3%

 

The Department of Transportation’s freight transportation services index rose 3% in March from the same month last year and also increased sequentially.

The freight TSI rose to a reading of 116.7 —just below the all-time high of 117.6 set in November, DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics said May 14.  BTS, which uses a baseline reading of 100 from the year 2000, also said it revised the February index downward and the monthly numbers for October through January up slightly.

March was the second month in a row that trucking and rail intermodal were the fastest-growing modes, BTS said.  “The growth in trucking represented continued recovery from unusually severe winter weather that hampered freight shipments in earlier months. Severe weather can affect the demand for goods to ship as well as the ability to move goods,” BTS said.
The freight TSI is a seasonally adjusted monthly gauge measuring the output of services provided by the for-hire transportation industries. They include railroad, air, truck, inland waterways, pipeline and local transit

They are Listening....

Here is a note we received from one of our professional drivers who listened to our first version of the Driver Hotline:

 

Just wanted to respond to the message you left for us about freight. 1st quarter this year was pretty good. Length of haul was up. I had 544, 729, 562. Miles per day 386, 382, 450. Then April what happened?  311 miles per day. This week I'm on my 7th load for the week and will get about 2640 if I can get this Sunday delivery on Saturday. 

You said in your message you want to maximize our productivity safely and legal. 

I have the ability to run 3000 miles a week but I need cooperation from your end of things to make it happen. Length of haul is key as well as flexible delivery times and a high Drop & Hook rate. These 3 or 4 hundred mile trips to deliver the next day doesn't make a paycheck. 3 to 5 trips and 3000 miles in a week is doable.

You guys are shooting us in the foot in a couple of ways too. With the pay period ending on Saturday is a real problem. In the past with a Monday cut off our fleet manager could set us up for the week end. Now they set us up with a Saturday delivery to get the last trip for the week. Then we are left to the mercy of the night & weekend crew that doles out 100 or 200 mile loads to start the next week off and the your fleet manager is playing catch up for the rest of the week.

 

Second, this decision to not preplan in advance hurts us all. I know you're trying to cut down the dead head miles & reduce costs. But in reality what happens is when you wait till the last minute to plan, what load you have available doesn't fit the hours of service of the driver then it's a fight to get a reschedule. That hurts a drivers productivity and it hurts our service cause the customer doesn't get the freight when they need it. So it's costing you a dollar to save a dime.

 

If I wanted to run local freight, I can go home and do that. I choose to be an OTR driver. It was my understanding that we were reestablishing the OTR fleet. I sure hope that to be true. I'm asking for your help to bring about some positive change to make this happen. 

 

This is excellent feedback and our fellow employee makes some excellent points that we should review as soon as possible. 

Carrier Applies for Exemption from HOS Rules

The public has 30 days to comment on a request from McKee Foods Transportation for an exemption from hours of service rules. McKee has asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to allow team drivers to cut the mandatory 10 hours of rest into two sessions, with each session not less than three hours. The current rules state that a rest period of at least eight hours is required for team drivers with another two hours in the berth or off duty.

McKee states that allowing each driver to switch when they feel tired allows for drivers to use the shorter time periods. It further goes on to say that the exemptions will allow drivers to work together in warehouse functions, which would cut back on unloading time and improve navigation in the warehouse.

In its application, McKee also cites an FMCSA research finding that split sleep is preferable to consolidated daytime sleep if consolidated nighttime sleep is not possible. McKee has offered several safety measures it says will help ensure safe operation if the FMCSA grants the exemption:

• In addition to giving drivers two or three days home time during the week, McKee shuts down transportation operations for 26 hours each week, beginning one hour before sundown Friday and continuing until one hour after sundown Saturday.
• Team drivers will be allowed to drive only 10 hours before completing their 10 hour breaks, rather than the current HOS mandate of 11.
•  All McKee tractors have speed limiters.
• McKee drivers track their duty time and HOS compliance with electronic logging devices.
• The carrier collects behavior-based event data from its ELDs to assist in improving current safety measures used to reduce the probability of accidents.

View from the Driver's Seat

What if this happened to you?  How would you feel?  This happened to one of our drivers this weekend.  It was unacceptable.  He was patient and eventually got loaded.  Would you have been able to contain your temper in the same situation?  Our drivers are the best resource we have in our customer experience we sell.  Treatment like the below would make anyone question their choice of profession.

  

Driver XXXXXXX had major issues getting loaded at shipper. They keep telling him to check back in 2 hours. William said he has been courteous with personnel there each time he has checked back in.

The most recent time he checked in was at 1700 and they told him they were waiting on a truck to arrive so they could unload it and then they would load him. William had called JB Hunt to ask the shipper for update. 

Shortly thereafter, the man at shipper came up to drivers truck, opened the door and proceeded to scream at the driver using offensive and threatening language for being "impatient" and getting JB Hunt involved. He also said "now you are definitely not going to get loaded." Driver did not get the man's name and obviously does not want to ask for it now. He described him as a shorter man with glasses and a beard.

 

 

Joe's Perspective

Jay Johnson received a note from Joe Maceiras.  Here was his opinion of the Million Mile Ceremony and the time he spent in Lowell last week:

It was a pleasure meeting and
talking with you during my time in Lo
well.  I want to thank you for the expe
rience that I had while there. Again, t
hank you from a proud J.B. HUNT employee.

Attitude of Gratitude

Alex Maldonado visited Lowell last week to be honored for attaining 1 Million Safe Miles.  He sent us a note after he left.  Here is what he wrote:

I HAD A REAL
GOOD TIME YEST. IT WAS VERY NICE WHAT
U ALL DID 4 US. THKS LOTS! ALEX :)

 

 



It feels great to have a positive impact on someone that has done such a great job for our company!

 

 

 

 

 

Yu failed, YOU didn't

 

Yu Darvish, a pitcher for the Texas Rangers, had his no-hit game spoiled with 2 outs in the ninth innning.  David Ortiz delivered a single to spoil the no-hitter, the second time Yu has been this close to a no-hitter in the past year.

You on the other hand had great success.  Our Truckload team pitched our version of a no-hitter on Friday.  The Truckload team had ZERO preventable collisions or injuries yesterday.  This is outstanding work by our drivers and our operations/planning team.

 

A Driver's Perspective

Hello,

My name is Shawna Hunt.  I am a Lease Purchase driver.  I like e-logs because of the ease of use.  The e-logs create less clutter and have quick notes for fast logging.  The tool keeps my logs more accurate as far as available drive hours and 70 hour clock.

E-logs make trip planning easier and faster.  The summary screen allows you to see all hours available on one screen.  You still have to pay attention to the buttons and make sure you hit the right ones because that can give you an incorrect hours total.  All in all, e-logs are fairly simple to learn and operate.

I like them and insist that they be on my truck.

Sincerely,
Shawnda Hunt

  

844-LUV TRUK

It is here!  We are now providing an update to our drivers every week via hotline.  The toll free number is 844-588-8785 (844-LUV TRUK).  We will be updating the number on Fridays.  The calls will be hosted by our leadership team so our professional drivers get familiar with everyone here in Lowell.

Our first call is hosted by Ed Page and he touches on the following topics:

*  Truckload Risk Management Performance-April/May
*  4 Million Mile Drivers honored in Lowell this week
*  Freight conditions and forecast for the weekend

We will be observing analytics associated with our call volume on this hotline.  As always, content ideas are welcomed.  This OBC message went out to every one of our professional drivers yesterday afternoon:

                                    
PLEASE TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO LISTEN T
O THE TRUCK GROUP HOTLINE AT 844-588-
8785. THANK YOU AND DRIVE SAFELY.   
                                    
                                    
                                    

 

 

Popup PCS Carrier of the Month April 2014 - CBR Delivering Service Inc.

Byron Munden, Carlos Rodriguez, and Cody Styer celebrate CBR's recognition.

Carlos is a great example of what a professional driver represents to our company.  Carlos always has a good attitude.  He is willing to get the job done no matter how hard or out of the way it is for him.  Carlos is a team player and has been spotlighted before on our blog for outstanding customer service at our Walmart-Tannersville fleet.

Here are Carlos' stats for the month of April:

 

1.       Number of loads moved _49_

2.          Total Loaded Miles _6,532__

3.          Service percentage _98.1%__

      4.         Turndowns or acceptance rate _100%_

Carlos will receive $250 for his outstanding work in April.