Truckload Authority - Winter 2014/15

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Chairman Dunn shares
a holiday greeting with
his three-legged “best
friend,” Dylan.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for joining us yet again for another edition of Chat with the Chairman.
First of all, Merry Christmas to you! Please
tell Truckload Authority readers what this
time of year means to you.
Well, Micah, thank you very much, Merry
Christmas as well. You know it’s a fabulous time
of year, and it’s all about family this time of year.
The things that really brighten my day are watching
the little ones running around that are just
beaming with Santa Claus and all the great things
that are happening this time of year. Not having
grandkids of my own, I don’t experience that on a
daily basis, but I do see it through others. It’s all
about family and tradition and praising the birth
of Christ.
How will you and your family be spending
the holidays this year?
We should be home this year. Sometimes in
the past I’ve traveled, myself — not the family
— and I go to my brother’s and we go to a high
school basketball tournament, believe it or not.
We used to do it with my dad for a number of
years between Christmas and New Year’s, and
that’s the way we spent the holidays. It would be
a great time for us to be together. My assumption
is I’ll be home this year. The mornings are not
quite as early as they used to be when my kids
were much younger and they were up before the
sun came up and you could get coffee brewing,
but hopefully it will be chilly, we’ll have a nice
fire going, some good coffee on. We’ll spend the
day together cooking and laughing. I’m looking
forward to that for sure.
What are some of your favorite holiday
memories as a child?
It’s really just family. Just getting together,
not just immediate family, but extended family.
That was a fun time. We’d wake up early in
the mornings and play Santa Claus. And then it
was run back upstairs, get cleaned up, put your
good clothes on and we’d pile in the car and go to
grandma’s house, which was a good 45 minutes
to an hour away. Extended family was there and
we spent the entire day there. I certainly wish we
could bring some of those days back, but unfortunately
I’m getting older like many of us do and
you just move on.
Do you and your family have any special
holiday traditions that you carry out
each year?
My mother always stuffed my brother’s and
my stockings with chocolate-covered cherries.
I’m not sure why, but they stuck. My wife still to
this day stuffs, at least my stocking, with chocolate-covered
cherries to bring back fond memories.
Not that I eat them, but that’s just a great
tradition that comes to mind. The other thing we
do as a family, we do early morning Christmas
unwrappings and go straight into late breakfasts
or brunches and then have a late afternoon big
meal. It’s really just gathering as a family and a
celebration of each other. Our family has grown
this year. We have a new daughter-in-law who
joined the family November 29. So we have a
new stocking we’ll be hanging above the fireplace
this year. So that’s exciting.
Now many drivers do not get the
opportunity to be home for Christmas.
How can companies help drivers get home
more at Christmastime?
Certainly at our company, and I would encourage
all companies where it’s feasible to do so, is
to make a commitment to get them home. Our
modeling operation is that they’re home. They
need the time off. We run pretty busy most of
the year and certainly run the factories right until
they shut down at Christmas, so they’re tired and
need to be home and ought to be home with their
families. So I certainly encourage all companies
to bear that in mind when it comes to that time
of year. We all need breaks, we all need rest and
that’s a great time of year to do so.
36 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2014-15