Jan Carter Gives A Shoutout!

Check out this feedback from Alan Carter's wife after we celebrated with him(shown on the right with the confetti) as our CCF/Automotive Driver of the Year:

So proud of my hubby, Alan Carter, and his award!! I have to 'share' him with the company so it is delightful to know he is appreciated. Jan 

Kudo's to Tosh

Check out this note we received from David Morris concerning the work that Kristi Tosh delivered on our Q4 Truckload Rally:

Kristi:

Just a big kudos to you and everyone that put together the rally yesterday.

Especially appreciate you reaching out to me and recognizing Corey Lawrence, the visiting contract carrier.  It just so happened that he was visiting on same day as the rally, but his reaction was so good, we maybe should consider bringing contract carriers in when those occur in the future.  He is currently contracted for 5 trucks, but as we were leaving the rally he said, " man I like this.  I'm ready to go buy 20 more trucks."  Obviously it made a big impression on him that I think will pay big dividends in the future.

Again, job very well done !!!

Truckload Q4 Rally-Support Person of the Quarter

Truckload Q4 Rally---Super Bowl for a Super Team

 

Two rallies were held to recognize our two year turnaround and all the men and women that helped provide stability and success for our Truckload business unit.

 IC/LP Contractor Will Harris and Automotive Asset Driver Alan Carter enjoy their moment at our Q4 Truckload Rally.  Both represented their groups as our IC/LP Contractor and CCF/GP/Automotive Drivers of the Year. We are always thrilled to recognize our driving PROFESSIONALS.

Truckload President Shelley Simpson and Senior Vice President Greg Breeden admire the award presented to Alan Carter during our Q4 Rally. 

How It's Done

Creating PeopleNet / OBC Masters:

With the recent success of the Lowell Driver Experience, it felt only natural to offer the same learning experience to our Front Line Fleet Managers. So we did...

Our goal is to allow our managers to see what our Professional Drivers see on the Peoplenet units.

 Our very own Truckload Safety Manager Bo Hardy gives an up-close first hand lesson on how to properly use our PeopleNet units. 

The Results Are In

 2015 Contractor of the Year is Will Harris 

Will Harris , Kids; Willaya, Tayshawn, Tamia, and Wife Tamisha 

Will is unlike any other contractor you meet; with his excellent safety record, perfect on time service, and great business sense, Will, understands how to successfully operate as an Owner Operator all year long. Will has become a huge contributor to the success of our growing number of contractors by working with our IC/ LP recruiters as a liaison for future Owner Operators. 

Will also helps coach current contractors to be more successful by acting as a mentor and speaking to them on the phone, teaching and guiding by example. Will constantly steps up to the plate when he is called up, he has participated in multiple video shoots here at Corporate for IC/LP business training and our February Safety training. He is not only well known by the entire department but he is highly respected as well.

We are honored and thankful to have Will Harris on our team and we are incredibly proud of all he has done to become the success story that he is. Congratulations Will Harris.   

Go West Lady E!

The storm that impacted our country even put a halt to the progress of Edwina.  On a tour of the Eastern United States with our Sports Authority trailer to McDonough, Georgia, Edwina saw the fury of Jonas first hand.  The above is a picture of tractor #328160 just south of Lexington, Kentucky.

Shifting Priorities

Automated manual transmissions (AMTs) and their fully-automatic brethren are projected to gain significant ground in the North American truck market over the next decade, according to new research conducted by global consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.

The firm predicts that AMTs and automatics will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.9% and 2.9%, respectively, through 2025, while manual transmission demand will shrink by 2.7% over the same time period.

By 2025, Frost & Sullivan expects the market share for manual transmissions among North American medium- and heavy-duty trucks will decline to 43.5%, while AMT market share will climb to 29.4%, with automatics at 27.1%.

Kentucky Snow Update

Here is the scene from Louisville, Kentucky on Sunday.  Our drivers were safe and sound.  Many in Kentucky were not so lucky.  Check the below:

 A blizzard that's wreaked stranded hundreds of drivers on a 30-mile stretch Interstate 75 in Kentucky for hours overnight.  No injuries or deaths were reported and the highway reopened by 9 a.m., according to the AP. About 17 inches of snow fell on the area between Friday and Saturday.
The backup on the interstate started with vehicle accidents caused by snow.

Kentucky State Police Capt. David Jude told CNN that there was "truck after truck after truck and cars sliding off the roadway."

"We're going car to car now to get people off the road," Jude said.

Police and the National Guard went out onto the snow-covered highway to check on those stranded in their cars, and the Red Cross set up shelters. Emergency crews passed out food and water.

A band that tours nationally to play weddings and other events live-tweeted their experience being stuck in the storm and posted videos on Facebook and YouTube.

They went out in the storm to play music for trapped motorists

New Jersey Snow Update

We just got a update from Al Pashley, the Maintenance Supervisor in East Brunswick, New Jersey.  He advised us that most of the yard is clear, the fuel island is accessible, and the vendor is still working on the C&S lot and the trade parking lot.   The team will continue to fine tune the yard throughout the night and tomorrow morning. We will be behind on B-Services.  Maintenance will approve some overtime to get back on track. Vending / bathrooms and break room are still fully operational for our Professional Drivers.

Don't Miss Out...

SUBJECT: Truckload – A Special Invitation!

All Truckload drivers are welcome to join us next Monday night, 01/25/2016 at 1830 CDT for our Q4 Driver Briefing Update – A Live Webcast.  We’ll be streaming a live video feed with guest speakers: Shelley Simpson, Steve Rogers, and Heather Wright for the latest company news!

Don’t miss a Q4 financial update from Shelley Simpson, CMO, EVP, President of Truck and ICS of J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc. Heather Wright, Director of Truckload will also be on hand to discuss service and trailer updates.

Steve Rogers, VP of Truckload will give us an update on key operational performance metrics and achievements. This will include the age of equipment, utilization, safety performance, fuel, philanthropy events and communication endeavors …along with much more!

Please use this opportunity to communicate your questions or suggestions to us.

REGISTER AT:  www.trucktalk.jbhunt.com

LIVE WEBCAST DATE and TIME:  January 25, 2016 at 18:30 CDT (1630 PDT, 1730 MDT, 1930 EDT)

Don’t have web access? Dial in: 1-866-462-8898. Thank you in advance for joining our Q4 Driver Briefing Update - A Live Webcast. Don’t forget to spread the word!

Steve Rogers

     Vice President Truckload Operations

          J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.

Glass Door Review

Glass Door Review

Happy About the Experience

We received this from one of Week #6 Lowell Driver Experience participants:

Christina,

I just wanted to express my gratitude and thank you for a great time yesterday at corporate headquarters. I thought your team did a great job giving us an all encompassing tour of the organization and I came away very encouraged about J.B. Hunt and everyone on staff there. Going into it I was a little skeptical, but after it was all said and done I thought it was a great experience! Again, I just wanted to thank you for the stay in the hotel, the food ,the gear, and the knowledge that was shared that will help us be successful in our jobs. I hope to work for J.B. Hunt for a very long time.

Sincerely, 
Lance Thorson

Building a Team

CCF Driver of the Month: Keisha Brown

Turns out it is easy to become friends quickly, especially when you get along as well as Keisha Brown and her Fleet Manager Stacie Bergquist. The two spent the last two days getting to know each other and sharing stories. They agree it is nice having a strong working relationship with people you can trust and depend on. 

The Experience is the Priority

The Lowell Driver Experience Session 6

With temperatures in the high 20's to low 30's it would not have been the best experience had we stuck with the original game plan. In keeping with the concept of creating a great day of team building, safety training and learning, we opted to go with Plan B in Lowell on Thursday.  We focused on inside working sessions of learning and getting to know the team we work with every day.

Electronic logs are always a hot topic in the Lowell Driver Experience.

Driver Bill McElroy gives Bo a run for his money with some great Peoplenet questions.
True learning tells us more you ask, the more you learn. 

Even our Truckload Driver of the Month Keisha Brown, decided to join in while in Lowell for her B-service.  KeishaShown here with fellow drivers David Ball and Filmon Ghirmai of our Southeast team. 

We have noticed the size of our group is increasing each week. For the first time we are hearing drivers asking to attend and participate. The Experience is needed and we are thrilled with the results. Great drivers make up great companies.  We are continuing to prove it every week.  

Instead of being out in the cold we focused this week more on how to make minor repairs to our trailers and trucks in the toasty warm Training and Development Building (AKA old corporate). 

Lance and Jessica are going over the process of dispatching a truck.  

Laura and Mr. Bill enjoying a good conversation as they meet for the first time. 

Mandie Hudson and the bearded man Josh McLeod are all smiles. 

OM Ryan Ardary, FM Roy Paquet and Driver Erick Jackson, 

FM Zach Race was our shuttle driver for the day and was an awesome teacher as he pointed out the details he sees with driver Filmon Ghirmai. 

Go Find An Empty Trailer

Here are photos of one of our trailers after installation of Orbcomm hardware at Alliance, Texas.    There were 5 trailer units that received Orbcomm installation yesterday and we are expecting another 10 by the end of the week.  We will have a total of 15 trailers installed this week with Orbcomm.    Next week we will install another 15 in Atlanta, GA with Skybitz hardware.  These are all a part of our pilot test for Trailer Tracking.

These two pictures show the device hardware that helps us communicate with the satellite.

The camera below tells us the loaded/unloaded status and if the trailer door is open or closed. 

Jay Johnson in Concord, North Carolina

Jay Johnson took the time to visit our orientation site in Concord, North Carolina.  We orient our Professional Drivers at an off-site hotel site.  These are known as remote sites. 

Here is the training technique for logging using a Peoplenet unit. 

 Three Safety instructors teach the class.  These folks include Willie Graham, Steve Poston, and Delano Burnell.

As you can see the class size is certainly more manageable than the larger groups in Atlanta, Georgia.

Here is an example of the ready line in Concord at our shop location.  Our new tool for Tractor Utilization helps identify every one of these tractors that have been on the yard for 4+ days without a dispatch.  In our specific situation Truckload has used the tool to minimize the amount of trucks over 90+ days.  We have one unit in this category as of today and are using a FIFO methodology for truck assignment.  The lone unit that has been identified as a 90 day no dispatch tractor is in our CCF Walmart Dedicated fleet.  We will get this unit moving immediately in another CCF or Network area.  It is not healthy to have a truck sit for this amount of time in the middle of winter. 

The tractor shown below is one of our brand new Automated Manual Transmission tractors known as a DT12 model.  We have successfully filled every one of these units with recruited driving talent that has never used a manual transmission.  Just think---Freightliner owns 38% of the market for Class 8 manufacturing and 60% of the tractors they build have AMT features.   

Jay is pictured below with two Professional Drivers.  Mark Henry is shown on the left and Clarence Thompson is on the right.  We are also looking at modernization projects at the terminal including the scan station.  

Development Is Key

As we were working in the Training and Development building on 71B today, the above sign made us pause for a moment.  Our Truckload team values the ability to develop their skillsets.  Please make sure we are taking advantage of training courses that are being offered during the 1st quarter of 2016.  Our Training Manager Kayla Hubbell can help you sign up for these courses if you have any questions.  

Kayla is now a welcome sight in our new Training Lab on the 4th floor of our building.  The Lab is not completely finished, but you can see Deb Beecher and Bo Hardy taking advantage of the setup.  This is a lot more useful to our folks than a mail room that was built for 1989, right?

Elevation Lunch and Learn's

Last week we hosted 3 specific Lunch and Learn sessions with our Truckload folks to give updates on our Elevation revenue and cost items.  Our classes were very interactive.  Pictured above you can see Ryan McGuire covering Revenue items that are currently In Progress. 

Our Best Recruiter

Tuesday proved the recruiting tenacity of Cary Stokes, our CCF Operations Manager.  Cary needed senior driver perspective to help validate routes for our new startup with Pactiv.  He saw the opportunity to bring on Edwina Webb and Dean Kane, both Professional Drivers for our Western Regional Fleet.  Edwina was in town to film an interview to be used by Women In Trucking.  She also was pulling the Sports Authority trailer below to McDonough, GA.  This Field Day trailer is going to be used at the local stores in the Southeast for The Sports Authority.  Dean is our Driver of the Month in the Western Network Fleet.  You can say Cary is a good judge of talent, right?  

A Reminder of Our Recent Past

In 2015 Truckload was involved in a fatal collision with a New Jersey city employee in a bucket that looked much like this scene above.  The blogger saw this unfold on 71B in Lowell today.  The worker was not protected by a coned off lane, so it was very similar to the situation we saw in New Jersey.  Our drivers face many challenges every single day.  So, when we go collision free like this Tuesday it is amazing to imagine how many situations we avoided like the bucket truck above.   

Truckload Standouts - December 2015

Congratulations to our winners...