Truckload Authority - Winter 2017-18

Christmas Tree Journey | INSIDE OUT WITH SEAN TOWNSEND | CAPITOL RECAP
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION o f t h e Truckload Carriers Association
WINTER 2017-18
In for a
Tesla’s electric tractor gaining quick acceptance
Page | 6
eld mandate
It’s here, but how many
carriers aren’t ready?
Page | 16
critical mass
There’s a slow shift toward
healthier lifestyles
Page | 25
Top 10 concerns
Driver shortage surges
to the top of the list

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WINTER | TCA 2017-18
President’s Purview
Always driving toward
a better tomorrow
T wo years ago, as I interviewed for the position of TCA President, I looked toward the
future and what I hoped TCA could become. I saw the immense potential of this association,
the opportunity to help build the value of our member companies, to make them more profitable,
to help them retain their skilled workforces, and to provide the truckload industry with
a voice that would tell its story loudly and proudly. When the officers graciously offered me
the job, I was ecstatic. While we still have a way to go to fulfill these goals, I am exceptionally
proud of the TCA team and the progress we’ve made thus far.
I could give a detailed list of all that TCA has accomplished in these two years — such as
all that our government affairs team has done to provide a voice for truckload on Capitol Hill,
including our successful Call on Washington, the numerous webinars and other educational
opportunities from our education team, including a brand new insurance program, all of the
successes of the TCA Profitability Program, and much more — but to list all of these accomplishments
I would need a novel-length book. Instead of looking backwards, however, I’d like
to take this space to look ahead at what we will accomplish moving forward.
Our primary focus as an association is to build value. Beyond all that we are doing in
terms of government affairs, education, and TPP, we are seeking to provide more relevant
content for our C-level executives, especially at the Annual Convention on March 25-28.
CEO panels will give convention attendees a window into the minds of some of the most
successful people in our industry. Every person in trucking can learn from these stories,
and we hope to see you there.
We are taking active steps to grow our membership to bring more companies into the
TCA fold and have more voices of the truckload perspective. As membership grows, so will
our engagement across our member companies and Capitol Hill. The more active we are
as an association, the more we will thrive as an industry.
Let your employees know about the opportunities they have with their TCA membership.
Have them take part in a webinar or begin a certificate program. Let your drivers know about
the numerous contests and awards that they can apply for such as Driver of the Year or a
TCA scholarship for their children. Come to our upcoming meetings, including the annual
convention, our Safety and Security Division Meeting June 10-12 in Norfolk, Virginia, and
our Refrigerated Division Meeting July 11-13 in Cle Elum, Washington.
Let’s make 2018 the most active and engaged year in TCA’s 80-year history.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,
John Lyboldt
President
Truckload Carriers Association
jlyboldt@truckload.org
John Lyboldt
Almost There
Ray Martinez, waiting to be confirmed,
speaks to trucking issues.
Page 14
Now Hiring
Industry is faced with growing driver
shortage that may worsen in 2018.
Page 28
Down the Home Stretch
TCA Chairman Rob Penner speaks
about success and goals.
Page 30
TCA 2017-18 www.Truckload.org | TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY 3

T H E R O A D M A P
FALL 2017
PRESIDENT’S PURVIEW
Always Driving Toward a Better Tomorrow by John Lyboldt | 3
LEGISLATIVE LOOK-IN
ELD Mandate | 6
Capitol Recap | 10
Ray Martinez Almost There | 14
TRACKING THE TRENDS SPONSORED BY SKYBITZ
Critical Mass | 16
In for a Shock | 22
Top 10 Trucking Concerns | 25
Now Hiring | 28
A CHAT WITH THE CHAIRMAN SPONSORED BY MCLEOD SOFTWARE
Coming into the Home Stretch with Rob Penner | 30
TALKING TCA
Member Mailroom | 35
Inside Out with Sean Townsend | 36
New Members | 39
Carrier Profile with Earl L. Henderson | 40
Christmas Tree Comes to D.C. | 42
Small Talk | 44
They Said It | 45
CALENDAR
Important Dates to Remember | 46
Phone: (703) 838-1950 • Fax: (703) 836-6610
PRESIDENT
John Lyboldt
jlyboldt@truckload.org
VICE PRESIDENT - GOV’T AFFAIRS
Dave Heller
dheller@truckload.org
FIRST VICE CHAIR
Dan Doran, President
Doran Logistics, LLC
TREASURER
Dennis Dellinger
President
Cargo Transporters, Inc.
SECRETARY
James Ward
President & CEO
D.M. Bowman, Inc.
ASSOCIATION VP TO ATA
Bill Reed Jr., Chairman & CEO
Skyline Transportation
AT-LARGE OFFICER
Dave Williams, Executive VP
Knight Transportation
VICE PRESIDENT + PUBLISHER
Ed Leader
edl@thetrucker.com
EDITOR
Lyndon Finney
editor@thetrucker.com
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
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Bison Transport
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William (Bill) Giroux
wgiroux@truckload.org
VP - OPERATIONS AND EDUCATION
James J. Schoonover
jschoonover@truckload.org
SECOND VICE CHAIR
Josh Kaburick
CEO
EarlL.HendersonTruckingCompany
IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR
Russell Stubbs
Chairman
FFE Holdings Corp.
AT-LARGE OFFICER
John Elliott, CEO
Load One, LLC
AT-LARGE OFFICER
Roy Cox, President
Best Logistics Group
AT-LARGE OFFICER
Mike Eggleton, Jr., Vice President
Raider Express, Inc.
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Cover Courtesy: Tesla
Additional magazine photography:
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Transportation: P. 11, 12
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Trucking: P. 40, 41
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U.S. Senate: P. 3, 14
Werner Enterprises: P. 19
4 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

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WINTER | TCA 2017-18
Legislative Look-In
By Lyndon Finney and Klint Lowry
ELD day has come, and based on information
gleaned from several sources, thousands,
perhaps even hundreds of thousands, of motor
carriers appear to be noncompliant with the
electronic logging device mandate, which went
into effect December 18.
And why is that?
“It’s crunch time but they are listening to
the message of an association [the Owner-
Operator Independent Drivers Association]
that’s doing nothing but throwing Hail Marys,”
said David Heller, vice president of government
affairs at the Truckload Carriers Association,
about two weeks before the deadline. “The
reason they are listening to them is that every
once in a while, one of those Hail Marys are
caught. Ask Doug Flutie about that.”
Flutie gained national attention in 1984
when he led the Boston College Eagles to
victory in a high-scoring, back-and-forth game
against the Miami Hurricanes. Miami staged
a dramatic drive to take the lead 45–41 in the
closing minute of the game. Boston College
then took possession at its own 22-yard line
with 28 seconds to go. After two passes moved
the ball another 30 yards, only 6 seconds
remained. On the last play of the game, Flutie
scrambled away from the defense and threw
a “Hail Mary pass” that was caught in the end
zone by Gerard Phelan, giving Boston a 47–45
win. Flutie said that “without the Hail Mary pass
I think I could have been very easily forgotten.”
To say there have been a lot of “Hail Marys”
in the past couple of weeks might just be an
understatement.
To wit:
• In a letter to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration, Indiana Attorney General
Curtis Hill urged a delay in implementing
the ELD mandate on the grounds it would
place undue burdens on drivers. While other
organizations and coalitions have asked for
the rule to be delayed or even abolished, Hill
was the first elected official to appeal directly
to the FMCSA.
Hill particularly took issue with the regulation’s
reliance on manufacturers to “self-certify”
devices as being compliant with government
standards but with no effective procedures
seemingly yet developed to provide oversight of
the certification process.
Drivers and operators are left without any
way of ascertaining which brands and models
of devices ultimately will pass muster, Hill said,
setting up the risk they could invest in devices
later found to be inadequate.
Hill said while a driver will be permitted to
use paper logs temporarily if a device is found
to be noncompliant, it has been reported that the
motor carrier will only have eight days from the
notification to replace the noncompliant device
with one that is compliant.
• On behalf of small trucking companies, OOIDA
submitted an exemption request to the impending
federal regulation requiring trucks to be equipped
with electronic logging devices by December 18.
OOIDA requested at least a five-year exemption
for motor carriers classified as small businesses
by the Small Business Administration (SBA) that
have a proven safety history with no attributable
at-fault crashes and do not have a carrier safety
rating of “unsatisfactory.”
6 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

Among the numerous concerns cited in the request, OOIDA also
brought up the issue of self-certification of vendors.
The SBA defines a small business as one having less than $27.5
million revenue annually. OOIDA claimed in its petition that most smallbusiness
motor carriers could not afford to make the purchase of an
ELD only to learn later the ELD purchased was not compliant.
• The Small Business in Transportation Coalition (SBTC) said the
ELD mandate will be a big burden on small trucking companies and in
an “emergency petition” asked Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to
grant an exemption for all motor carriers with fewer than 50 employees.
It also wanted Chao to reconsider the mandate insofar as the First
Amendment affords all drivers a right to commercial free speech and to
grant a stay on the December 18 effective date until the secretary rules
on the SBTC petition.
The SBTC says the mandate to replace paper logbooks does not take
into account the impact on the smallest businesses in the transportation
industry and the free commercial speech rights of all motor carriers and
independent drivers.
The organization also took issue with the analysis the Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration used in writing the Final Rule on ELDs,
saying it essentially ignored and disregarded the impact on the smallest
of industry players in an overbroad assessment that places one-man
interstate owner-operators into the same category as other “small
businesses” within the trucking industry.
• The House Committee on Small Business conducted a hearing
titled “Highway to Headache: Federal Regulations on the Small Trucking
Industry.” Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, opened the meeting by saying
the purpose of the meeting was to examine how federal regulations
affect small businesses in the trucking industry.
“Our witnesses today will provide real examples of what it’s like for
small business to navigate the confusing regulatory landscape,” Chabot
said.
Committee member Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., submitted a letter
of opposition to delaying the ELD mandate endorsed by several
organizations, including the leaders of Citizens for Reliable and Safe
Highways, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Advocates
for Highway and Auto Safety, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers
Association, the National Safety Council, Road Safe America and
others, as well as several survivors of truck crash victims, citing driver
fatigue as a leading cause of truck crashes.
• Truck drivers opposed to the mandate took to the streets — and to
truck stops — across the country to bring attention to the mandate and to
their arguments against it.
In interviews with various news outlets, drivers raised talking points
that have become familiar within the industry: that mandating ELDs
places an unfair financial burden on small carriers compared with large
fleets; that the mandate is less about safety as it has been presented
but is more about strict enforcement of Hours of Service rules in such
a rigid way that will cause more problems than it remedies; that ELDs
represent an invasion of privacy; and that the ELD mandate is a onesize-fits-all
rule in an industry where business as usual has far too many
variations from one carrier to the next for such blanket rules.
The protests did garner some mainstream media attention,
particularly local media outlets that covered protests in their areas.
Many of the arguments ELD opponents have been making and refining
for the past two years were heard by a new audience through interviews
with individual drivers at those protests.
The SBTC in part organized the protest and said the group might
try to stage a shutdown December 18 through January 4 to protest the
mandate.
The most telling data come from HELP Inc., provider of PrePass
weigh station bypass and technology services, and CarriersList, a
company formed in September 2016 to connect carriers with shippers
and brokers by supplying them with information such as preferred lanes,
types of trailers, hazardous materials endorsements and other helpful
information.
CarrierLists has some 13,000 carriers, all running between five and
500 trucks with over half a million in truck capacity in its database,
according to Kevin Hill, the company’s founder and president.
“One of our customers’ requests was having up-to-date ELD
information,” Hill said. “So we decided to start asking and take a quick
survey, and that’s morphed into what we are doing now.”
When the company posted the weekly update of its survey November
10, the data showed that ELD ramp-up among carriers was increasing,
but the actual compliance rate was somewhat alarming, Hill said.
CarrierLists had surveyed 3,656 carriers since September 8, the
majority of them smaller carriers, based on the company’s focus. The
surveys found that 49.8 percent of carriers with 20 or fewer trucks (a
total of 2,435 in the survey) had installed ELDs.
Of the remaining fleets, those with 21 or more trucks, 57 percent had
installed ELDs.
The percentage of compliant carriers in the survey had steadily
increased since CarrierLists published the results of the initial survey
September 8, when only 34 percent of the carriers with 20 or fewer
trucks were compliant.
Add in those with 30 or more trucks and the percentage minimally
goes up.
The American Trucking Associations in its “Trucking Trends 2017”
notes that according to the FMCSA, there are 1,558,078 for-hire and
private carriers registered to transport interstate commerce.
Of those, 97.3 percent have 20 or fewer trucks. Based on CarrierLists
data, that would mean there were 761,000 carriers with 20 or fewer
trucks that still had no ELDs.
“Those numbers are frightening,” Hill told Truckload Authority
in mid-November. “Even at the compliance rate in our most recent
survey week (75 percent of the carriers surveyed were ELD-compliant
compared to previous weeks of 68 and 70 percent), the total number [of
noncompliant carriers] is overwhelming, especially when fleets had the
implementation date staring them in the face.”
The fulfillment deadline to be able to get the hardware, install and
program it by December 17 had already come and gone, Hill said.
“And that doesn’t even mention training drivers and dispatch.”
And while the CarrierLists sampling was not scientifically random, Hill
believes the information could be considered “statistically significant,
because we are covering coast-to-coast with a wide variety of fleet sizes.”
The most recent Morgan Stanley survey showed less than 40 percent
of fleets under 100 trucks were compliant.
“When the ELD deadline was less than eight weeks away, our survey
of 1,600 carriers showed only 37 percent of fleets operating five to 100
trucks are now compliant,” said the survey.
“This is a significant increase from our survey in early October,” Hill
said, referring to the survey released December 11. “Eight weeks out,
only 23 percent had, or were in the process, of installing ELDs. Thirtyseven
percent is still shockingly low, though. It looks like the run-up all
the way to the final deadline on April 1 [when the soft enforcement ends]
is going to be one chaotic mess.”
“Anything less than 100 percent is going to be chaotic, but I would
say 75 percent, 80 percent will be compliant as of December 18,” Hill
said prior to the deadline date. “Even if it reaches 95 percent, that’s still
a lot of noncompliant carriers.”
Meanwhile, according to an online poll conducted by HELP Inc.
released December 11, of 1,620 respondents, 49 percent said they had
yet to select an ELD ahead of the December 18 deadline. The survey
occurred between November 30 and December 5.
Only 33 percent of all respondents said they had selected and
installed an ELD, while 18 percent said they had made a selection but
were yet to install them.
The HELP poll also revealed that some trucking professionals are
more prepared than others.
For example, over half of the respondents identifying their position as
fleet managers reported having ELD devices installed and operational,
compared to just under 28 percent of drivers/owner-operators who said
the same thing.
Of those who had not installed an ELD, 68 percent did not plan to do
so prior to the December 18 deadline; 26 percent of these respondents
gave as their reason the fact that they were not convinced the ELD
mandate would actually take effect, and 31 percent said they were not
planning to install ELDs at all.
“It is surprising to see that such a large share of both owneroperators
and drivers as well as fleet professionals see no need or rush
to comply with the upcoming ELD mandate,” said HELP Inc. CEO Karen
Rasmussen. “Whether they are in favor of ELD or not, there is every
TCA 2017-18 www.Truckload.org | TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY 7

indication that the FMCSA intends to follow through with its plans to
require the devices without delay.”
Rasmussen said she believed there is a misconception among some
fleets and owner-operators/drivers that ELDs are expensive and difficult
to install, but that’s not the case.
“PrePass and a few other providers offer ELD solutions that literally
take just a few seconds to install when paired up with a smartphone or
tablet, and the apps cost no more than a dollar per day to use,” she said.
The lack of compliance is not surprising to Eric Witty, vice president
of product at PeopleNet.
“We have anticipated that many carriers would wait until closer to the
deadline to gain compliance,” he said. “As with any new technology, the
adoption rate can be somewhat delayed, particularly for fleets that do
not have any technology in place today and have only relied on paper to
log their Hours of Service.”
Tom Reader, director of marketing at J.J. Keller and Associates, a
national provider of regulatory, safety and compliance solutions, echoed
Hill’s findings.
“We have similar statistics,” he said. “Our customer base is a few
hundred thousand fleets and when you look at the very small fleets, the
one-to-five CMV fleets, we showed that 85 percent did not have ELDs.”
The good news is that the smaller the fleet, the easier the ability to get
implemented quickly, Reader said. “When you have two trucks, it’s not
as painful as getting a 50-truck fleet up and running, and there are plenty
of those out there, too. I was at the American Trucking Associations
Management Conference and Exhibition in October and I had fleets with
more than 50 units that were just looking. They were expected to have
problems with inventory and just the change. This was a change for
drivers and … not just the technology. It’s routing and planning.
“For someone with 20 trucks, if they work hard, they could get up
and running … but getting 20 drivers up and running and using e-logs
… would be a challenge. We’re taking those types of orders every day
and we have quite a few tools to educate and provide self-help, and we
provide our own support. When you have drivers who are on the road
and who don’t come home, how do you train those drivers? That can be
a hard thing.”
“Drivers download apps all the time,” he added. “The difference is
the app has to communicate with the electronic logging device that’s
connected to the engine. There’s a Bluetooth connection there and that
communication produces the electronic log. But at the end of the day,
drivers who are familiar with smart devices are up and running fairly
quickly.”
The challenge, Reader said, will be at the roadside and how the
driver and the roadside inspector communicate and deliver the data as
needed to the inspector.
“There’s a little bit of routine there, but we have help tools and a utility
in our app where the driver can put the device into what we call roadside
inspector mode so the inspector can only see the last week’s worth of
data. That simplifies it so there is not more on display and more to dig
through. We’ve had drivers get up and running within half an hour.”
Witty says PeopleNet had prepared for a last-minute rush.
“While we cannot speak for the industry as a whole, at PeopleNet we
are anticipating a continued demand for inventory. We are committed
to meeting this demand as best we can to help fleets gain compliance
with the mandate,” he said. “For small fleets and those looking for
compliance-only products in particular, we have partnered with our
sister company ISE to offer their ELD solution. This turnkey ELD gives
fleets who have waited to implement a streamlined product that can be
ordered directly through ISE’s website and quickly deployed … .”
As for the reason they have not installed ELDs, most companies
surveyed by CarrierLists said cost is the primary factor, Hill said.
“But I don’t know if that’s a true reason,” he said. “I know that it’s
expensive, but not backbreaking. I think a lot of them were waiting for an
11th-hour reprieve. They are not convinced yet that it’s actually going
to go into effect.
“I think they were betting on a delay… .”
Witty said PeopleNet, too, believes many carriers were hoping for a
reprieve.
“There are some that hoped the mandate would either be delayed
or repealed ahead of the December 18 compliance deadline,” Witty
said.
Duane DeBruyne, spokesman for FMCSA, repeatedly reiterated that
this is a Congressionally mandated rule.
“The ELD rule does not change federal HOS regulations, does not
change HOS roadside enforcement, does not change existing HOS
exemptions,” DeBruyne said. “The ELD rule is estimated to save more
than 25 lives and prevent more than 500 injuries resulting from crashes
involving large commercial motor vehicles. The ELD rule will result in
an annual net benefit of more than $1 billion — largely by reducing the
amount of required industry paperwork.”
8 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

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CapItol recap
A review of important news coming out of our nation’s capital.
By Lyndon Finney and Dorothy Cox
Whether it’s teeth-jarring infrastructure, pondering how to fix said infrastructure, alleviating driver fatigue or simply
smoothing the road to allow truck drivers to go grab a bite to eat, trucking continues to grapple with some of the same old issues
while a Republican-led congress seems in no hurry to lend a hand. Meanwhile, states have taken the bull by the horns and raised
their own road funds by increasing fuel taxes, something trucking stakeholders have said should be done on a national level all
along. And the merry-go-round keeps turning.
Personal Conveyance (gotta eat)
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has
issued guidance on personal conveyance that removes
language concerning laden vehicles. The guidance
has been put out for comment, says David Heller, vice
president of government affairs at the Truckload Carriers
Association.
“This is one of those issues electronic logging
devices have brought to the forefront,” he said. “We as
an industry have become masters of hiding it with the
paper logs. With ELDs, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration realizes this is a bigger problem than
is out there because we are painting pictures of what
actually goes on” with ELDs.
When can drivers take it, how do they take it, how is
it recorded, and what’s the definition of it are the issues
that must be addressed, Heller believes.
“For instance, when a driver is out there and he’s
under dispatch and he’s driving cross-country and pulls
off at a rest area in Oklahoma, at some point he’s got to
be able to take that vehicle to get something to eat.”
The current FMCSA guidance forbids laden vehicles
from being used for personal conveyance.
Here’s the current guidance on the issue:
“A driver is relieved from work and all responsibility
for performing work, [and] time spent traveling from a
driver’s home to his/her terminal (normal work reporting
location), or from a driver’s terminal to his/her home, may
be considered off-duty time. Similarly, time spent traveling
short distances from a driver’s en route lodgings (such as en
route terminals or motels) to restaurants in the vicinity of
such lodgings, may be considered off-duty time. The type
of conveyance used from the terminal to the driver’s home,
from the driver’s home to the terminal, or to restaurants
in the vicinity of en route lodgings, would not alter the
situation unless the vehicle is laden. A driver may not
operate a laden CMV as a personal conveyance. A driver
placed out-of-service for exceeding the requirements of the
Hours of Service regulations may not drive a Commercial
Motor Vehicle (CMV) to any location to obtain rest.”
“Personal conveyance has been a troubling issue
to say the least,” Heller said. “The biggest thought
process is that it’s a gray area of the HOS regulations.
The guidance will have some common examples of
how to use it. Previously, what is interesting about it is
for one, you couldn’t use a laden vehicle for personal
conveyance. It once required the use of a bobtail. But
now there should be some changes to that. But even then,
the ELD will detect the movement of the tractor.
“Drivers do have a life. They have to eat, they have to
be self-sufficient while they are out on the road.”
excessive commute
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is seeking approval from the Office
of Management and Budget for a survey about the amount of time a commercial vehicle
operator should be allowed to commute to work.
The issue of commute time came to the forefront in the early hours of June 7, 2014, when
Kevin Roper’s Walmart truck slammed into the rear of a limo carrying comedian Tracy
Morgan.
The crash near Cranbury Township on the New Jersey Turnpike killed comedian James
McNair and seriously injured Morgan and others. Morgan, a former “30 Rock” and “Saturday
Night Live” star, suffered brain trauma, broken ribs and a broken leg. Of the seven people in
the limo van, only one was wearing a seat belt even though New Jersey requires all occupants
to be buckled, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.
A report by the NTSB investigators said Roper was driving 65 mph in the 60 seconds
before he slammed into the limo van. The speed limit on that stretch of the turnpike is 55 mph
and had been lowered to 45 mph that night because of construction.
An NTSB investigation concluded in August that Roper hadn’t slept in the 28 hours before
the crash.
Roper lived in Georgia, but was based out of Delaware. Officials said he spent a portion of
the 28 hours commuting from Georgia to Delaware to pick up his load.
FMCSA is proposing a survey to inquire about driver commuting practices to fulfill
Section 5515 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act of 2015 (FAST Act).
Section 5515 requires FMCSA to conduct a study on the safety effects of motor carrier
operator commutes exceeding 150 minutes.
Commute time does not count against the 14-hour clock.
“That becomes a big point,” said David Heller, vice president of government affairs at
TCA.
“Why doesn’t it count against Hours of Service because it could be, under dispatch. The
bigger question is where does this stem from? And it stems from New Jersey, because Tracy
Morgan was hit by a Walmart truck and that driver had a huge commute just to get behind the
wheel of that Walmart truck. His commute started in Georgia.”
The agency is proposing to receive comments on the proposal on or before January 26,
2018.
The survey would include the number and percentage of drivers who commute; the
distances traveled, time zones crossed, time spent commuting, and methods of transportation
used; research on the impact of excessive commuting on safety and CMV driver fatigue; and
the commuting practices of CMV drivers and policies of motor carriers.
The administrator would submit a report to Congress containing the findings of the study.
10 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

J. J. KELLER’S ELD INSIGHTS
Tips for Small Fleets
Getting Started with ELDs
Mid- to large-size fleets that have already converted to ELDs are using them
to streamline their business and improve efficiency. Smaller fleets and
independents, however, are struggling to see the benefits of ELDs.
Many are still overwhelmed by the challenge of having to research ELD
providers, afford the startup costs, install ELDs, and implement the system.
If you’re a small fleet or an independent, the following tips can help you get
past those challenges so you, too, can enjoy the benefits of ELDs.
FMCSA said the survey would require a one-time response per commercial vehicle
operator, with an estimated total of 500 respondents (250 each of freight drivers and
passenger bus drivers).
In its request, the agency noted that in the past two decades, as the number of workers
has increased and the distance to affordable housing has also increased in most metropolitan
areas, commuting times have increased overall in the United States.
According to the 2015 Urban Mobility Scorecard, travel delays because of traffic
congestion caused drivers to waste more than 3 billion gallons of fuel and kept travelers stuck
in their vehicles for nearly 7 billion extra hours (42 hours per rush-hour commuter).
FMCSA said the objective of the proposed survey would be to learn more about the
following CMV driver characteristics:
• Work history
• Commuting time, transportation mode, and recording of that time
• Driving schedules
• Rests and breaks
• Miles driven annually, and
• Demographics.
The agency said long commuting times can adversely affect CMV drivers in multiple
ways and cited two examples:
• Compromising off-duty time. Long commute times can reduce a driver’s available offduty
time for sleep and personal activities. This can lead to excessive fatigue while on duty,
creating safety concerns for both the CMV driver and others on the road.
• Impacting driver health. A recent study was conducted that monitored 4,297 adults
from 12 metropolitan Texas counties. In this region, 90 percent of people commute to work.
The study found that the drivers who have long commute times were more likely to have
poor cardiovascular health and be less physically fit. The study showed that people who
commute long distances to work weigh more, are less physically active, and have higher
blood pressure.
Infrastructure
Ah, the Donald J. Trump Washington merry-go-round.
First comes healthcare reform. Outcome: depends on who you talk to.
Next comes tax reform. Outcome: depends on who you talk to.
Third, infrastructure reform. Outcome: depends on whether you’re willing to pay
more in diesel taxes.
Published reports say Trump will release his infrastructure plan in January, but
those same reports issued by Bloomberg question whether a Republican-led congress
will be able to pass a spending plan with enough federal funding if it’s already
approved a tax measure that official estimates say would bloat the budget deficit.
Or did Trump miss his window of opportunity by not including an infrastructure
plan into the tax bill?
“Where is it going, when is it going to come up? If you had asked me that two
months ago, I would say it was more or less a start, but at this point, it’s taking a
back seat to tax reform and then further down the line it may take a back seat to
Know if You Need Them
If your drivers were required to use paper logs, chances are that as of
December 18, 2017, they’re now required to use ELDs. If you think your
drivers may be exempt from using ELDs, you need to quickly find out for
sure. If your drivers are exempt, train them to explain the exemption they’re
using to roadside inspection officers. If your drivers can’t explain it, they
may get cited.
Start Small
Most ELD providers offer solutions that go far beyond the mandate
requirements to include driver behavior reporting, unit mapping, GPS
tracking, and more. To meet the mandate requirements, you don’t need
those bells and whistles. Stick with purchasing what you need, because
most systems allow you to add other features later. This will save you
precious time and money while transitioning your fleet and reduce
unnecessary complexity.
Get In Line Now
Many ELD system providers are currently overwhelmed helping fleets
comply with the ELD mandate, which means you need to get in line now.
The longer you wait, the greater your risk of being in violation of the
mandate. When ordering your ELDs, ask about the delivery date so you
can plan to use the time between your order date and the delivery date
to train your employees on how to use ELDs properly.
Go with Who You Know
Now is not the time to take a chance on a name you don’t know. ELD
providers are not created equal. In fact, some just started selling ELDs in
2017! This is your business, so protect its future by choosing a provider
who is respected and will be around for the long haul.
Follow these tips and you’ll not only be able to get your fleet in compliance
with the ELD mandate, you’ll join larger fleets in benefiting from this
new technology.
To learn about the J. J. Keller® Encompass® Fleet Management
System with ELogs,, see the ad in this publication, visit
JJKeller.com/ELogs or call 855.693.5338.
Fleet Management System
with ELogs
TCA 2017-18 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 11

healthcare reform,” said David Heller, vice president of government affairs at the
Truckload Carriers Association.
“Healthcare got voted down, but it’s got to come back at some point. Something
needs to get done on infrastructure, but can it be done in a timely fashion before
the mid-term elections? “Congress is going to be talking about it in January and
February but then they run into the mid-term elections and they won’t talk about it
at all except under a political platform to help officials get elected.”
Meanwhile, an American Transportation Research Institute report titled “A
Framework for Infrastructure Funding,” concludes that the only meaningful
mechanism for attaining the administration’s vision for a large-scale infrastructure
program is through a federal fuel tax increase, which is exactly what trucking
executives have been saying for years.
The inefficiency of other mechanisms, including mileage-based user fees and
increased tolling, will fall far short of the needed revenue stream without placing
undue hardship on system users.
In addition, ATRI’s report documents that a federal fuel tax increase will
incentivize states to generate multi-million-dollar matches to the new federal funds,
ultimately moving the United States closer to the infrastructure investment goals
proposed by both Congress and President Trump.
“Maybe the most important and unexpected benefit of a federal fuel tax increase
is the hundreds of thousands of new, high-paying construction jobs that will be
produced,” said Dennis Dellinger, president of Cargo Transporters and treasurer
of TCA. “We often assume that the only reason to raise the fuel tax is to lay more
asphalt and concrete. Forgotten in the mix is that tax revenues can simultaneously
produce good roads and good jobs.”
The report further documents the consequences of continuing the “do-nothing”
option. The federal fuel tax has not been raised in more than two decades, resulting
in significant costs to system users, particularly the trucking industry. While the
trucking industry contributes more than $18 billion in federal user fees each year,
growing traffic congestion and freight bottlenecks now cost the industry more than
$63 billion annually. The report also indicates that growth of e-commerce will
likely slow as freight deliveries fail to meet real-time demands of U.S. consumers.
Other key ATRI findings and recommendations include:
• A newly created federal vehicle registration fee would be the most efficient
mechanism to fill funding gaps associated with electric vehicle use. These fees
could be seamlessly implemented using the same systems as those successfully
used to collect state registration fees.
• A bureaucracy as large as the IRS would be required to collect, manage and
enforce a national vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax on the more than 250 million
vehicles registered in the U.S. Additionally, mileage tax evasion would likely
skyrocket under a program that can’t “see” non-paying users.
• The practice of road tolling continues to be an expensive proposition for
collecting highway funds. While several toll systems slightly improved their
administrative efficiency, the majority of toll systems spend more than 10 cents
of every dollar collected on administrative activities. Many systems are losing
money, and almost all privatized toll roads in the U.S. have filed bankruptcy.
Finally, ATRI’s analysis found that many toll authorities have modified their public
financial statements to increase complexity and decrease transparency of revenue
management — which ultimately masks the inefficiency of toll roads.
In terms of secondary benefits from a fuel tax focus, ATRI’s findings suggest
that every U.S. state would experience significant employment gains as a result of
a 10- or 20-cent federal fuel tax increase. In total, states would receive between
$15 billion and $30 billion or more annually through a federal fuel tax increase and
nearly half a million jobs could be created nationwide with a 20 cent federal fuel
tax increase.
According to the literature and public polling data, American taxpayers prefer a
federal fuel tax over other funding mechanisms when the revenue is dedicated to
transportation infrastructure.
fatigued Driving
Fatigued driving is starting to rear its ugly head again and
will do moreso as the industry gets into ELDs, says Truckload
Carriers Association Vice President of Government Affairs
David Heller.
“There’s a ton of things going on right now on fatigued
driving and I’m not sure our industry is up to date on it,”
Heller said. “The in-cab technology with cameras facing
the driver and focusing on the eye movement of the driver is
tremendous, as is the seat or the steering that shakes to wake
the driver up and make them more alert if the camera notices
eye movement that would be similar to that of falling asleep.”
The use of biosensors could even come into play, Heller
said.
“The technology could come from the dairy farmers,”
he said. “Dairy cows today are milked more often than ever
before and affecting cows’ immune systems and making
them weaker. If you know anything about cattle and dairy
farming, if you have one cow sick you have the whole
herd sick. Research data show cattlemen have incorporated
biosensors and are typically detecting changes in activity,
like less moving around or more time spent lying versus
standing or eating. And the biosensors can detect when a
cow isolates itself from the other animals, which is a sickness
behavior. That will allow the cattlemen to segregate that cow
from the herd so that the rest of the herd doesn’t get sick.”
Perhaps then, similar technology could be used to monitor
the temperature of the driver, because physicians say that as a
person remains sedentary for some length of time and starts
to show signs of fatigue, the body temperature drops.
That might include a Fit Bit that transmitted to the
cloud information that would indicate a driver is becoming
fatigued.
“Fatigue on the road surely will be incorporated into
the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration study on
sleeper berth flexibility, because if you start looking at this
now, what we as an industry need is flexibility in the sleeper
berth rule and the ability to stop that 14-hour clock,” Heller
said. “Regulators would say the driver has the ability to pull
over and stop right now, but the problem is the pressure these
drivers are under with that 14-hour clock continuing to tick.”
He laid out a scenario:
“If the driver approached Chicago at 3 p.m. they are
more than welcome to pull over and a take a 4- to 5-hour
nap so they can sleep through rush hour traffic, but the 4-
to 5-hour nap costs them time on the 14-hour clock. So it
reduces their workday to nine or 10 hours. They also lose
drive time. They have the ability to rest but in a real-world
trucking sense they are not going to do it because that 14-
hour clock keeps ticking.”
The National Transportation Safety Board recently
pointed to a case involving a commercial motor vehicle
where fatigue cost lives.
NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt cited fatigue as a
cause of an accident that occurred when a sleep-deprived
driver operating a motorcoach on a California highway
caused a crash that killed four of the 24 passengers.
The NTSB investigators determined the driver, who was
seriously injured, had only about five hours of opportunity
for sleep in the 40 hours preceding the crash, leaving him in
a state of “acute sleep loss” at the time of the crash. There
were no tire marks or other indications the driver took any
action to avoid the barrier after the bus drifted out of its lane.
“Here’s yet another fatal crash involving both a
motorcoach carrier with a starkly evident history of safety
problems and a severely fatigued driver,” Sumwalt said.
“It’s time that the FMCSA moves more aggressively to keep
these unsafe carriers off American roadways.”
12 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

CapItol recap
fuel tax
Commentary on President Donald J. Trump’s supposed $1 trillion infrastructure
plan is — to paraphrase Charles Dickens — a tale of two sides.
Headlines from the media:
• “Trump’s infrastructure plan is actually Pence’s — and it’s all about
privatization”
• “Trump talks infrastructure, but $1 trillion plan is as elusive as ever”
• “Trump’s transportation chief (Elaine Chao) just hyped his $1 trillion
infrastructure plan again. But she offered few details”
• “Trump’s infrastructure plan is a train wreck”
• “Trump infrastructure plan seeks to shift decisions — and bills — to states,
cities”
And there are these from the White House website under the banner phrase,
“Rebuild America’s Infrastructure:”
• Lower the average permit time from 10 years to two years
• Unleash private sector capital and expertise to rebuilding our cities and states
• Invest in rural infrastructure
• Reimagine America’s approach to infrastructure with transformative projects,
and
• Workforce training focused on skill-based apprenticeship education.
All that media/White House gobbledygook aside, building new roads to alleviate
dreaded congestion and repair those that jar motorists’ teeth, does cost money, and
if an infrastructure plan doesn’t include a credible funding mechanism to prop up
the Highway Trust Fund … well, we don’t even have to finish that statement, do
we?
The trucking industry favors an increase in the gas/diesel tax as the best funding
mechanism, and at least two states that have raised the tax on gasoline and diesel
are reaping the benefits.
Two years after Iowa and Nebraska raised their gas taxes, both states are seeing
a flurry of new roadway projects at a time when national infrastructure efforts have
stalled.
The extra revenue has allowed state and local officials to move forward quickly
on overdue bridge repairs and plans for major highway projects.
“It has had a tremendous impact on the investment in Iowa’s public roads,” said
Stuart Anderson, director of planning, programming and modal division for the
Iowa Department of Transportation.
Anderson said he has seen “definitely much more movement” to address road
needs at the state level than from the federal government. Congress approved a fiveyear
surface transportation law in 2015, but the massive infrastructure investment
President Donald Trump promised hasn’t materialized. Recently, the president
promised to unveil the package as soon as Congress passes its tax code overhaul.
Iowa and Nebraska raised their fuel taxes in 2015 with support from a surprising
coalition that included farm groups, truckers and even some anti-tax conservative
Republicans.
Iowa passed its 10-cents-per-gallon increase in February 2015 with backing
from then-Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican. The current rate is 30.5 cents per
gallon. A recent analysis shows the tax has generated an extra $515 million for
projects in all 99 counties.
That May, Nebraska approved a 6-cent, phased-in increase that will fully go
into effect in 2019, when the tax tops out at 31.6 cents per gallon. Once fully
implemented, the tax will generate an additional $25 million annually for the state
and $51 million for cities and counties.
Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts opposed the increase, forcing lawmakers to
override his veto. But the following year, Ricketts led a push to use $400 million
of the new gas tax revenue for highway and bridge projects, and a transportation
grant program.
Officials in southeastern Nebraska’s Nemaha County used some of the revenue
to replace bridges that could no longer safely support the weight of certain farm
equipment, said Marvin Bohling, a county commissioner. Three bridges have already
been fixed and the county is applying for state aid to fix more in the coming year.“We
feel really fortunate we’re able to do this,” Bohling said. “In the long run, hopefully
this will help the economy.”
Bohling said roughly 40 of the county’s 250 bridges are considered deficient,
forcing officials to impose weight restrictions and drawing complaints from
residents who travel them frequently.
“We can’t possibly come up with enough revenue by ourselves to fix them as
fast as they need to be fixed,” Bohling said. “The bridges can’t keep up with the
modern equipment. We hear it all the time — ‘This bridge isn’t strong enough for
my combine.’”
Nebraska Department of Transportation spokeswoman Jeni Campana said the
state is proceeding with design work on several highway projects with the new
funding. The department also received an influx of cash from the Build Nebraska
Act, a 2011 law that diverted sales tax revenue into state and local highway projects.
Anderson said some of Iowa’s new revenue will help pay for expanding highways
from two lanes to four, including the heavily traveled U.S. Highways 20, 30 and 61.
In eastern Iowa, Washington County officials used their share of state gas-tax
revenue to reshape and restore gravel roads that had taken a beating from six
decades of traffic. Some of the money helped cover daily maintenance and replace
out-of-date bridges with culverts, said county engineer Jacob Thorius. He said the
county receives an extra $600,000 to $700,000 a year.
Thorius said the projects helped some farmers operate more efficiently by
allowing them to haul larger and heavier loads. Because of weight limits on one of
the old bridges, some had to make multiple trips to transport all of their grain and
livestock.
“They had to take more time and burn more fuel to get their grain and livestock
out,” he said.
For Boone County, Iowa, the additional $500,000 a year helps officials tap into
federal matching funds to increase the number of bridge repairs and replacements,
said County Engineer Scott Kruse. With more up-front cash on hand, the county can
start work sooner and get federal reimbursement later. The state money also comes
with fewer time-consuming regulations, he said.
“It’s benefited us a lot,” Kruse said. Without the tax, “the backlog of projects
would have just kept piling up. There’s never a shortage.”
TCA 2017-18 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 13

Almost There
By Klint Lowry
T
he Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
is closer to having a new administrator, as
the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science
and Transportation, in a vote on November
8 that was little more than a formality, confirmed
Raymond Martinez, President Donald Trump’s
pick to head the agency.
If there was any drama at all about the vote,
it was whether Martinez would get a summary
thumbs-up or have it come down to a roll-call
vote. He sailed through on a simple voice vote,
without a single senator on the 27-member panel
going on record as opposing the appointment.
From the time Trump announced in late September
that Martinez was his choice to head the
FMCSA, his nomination has received wide support
from people throughout the industry.
Martinez now only needs confirmation by the
full Senate before the post is his.
On October 31, Martinez took questions from
the committee. He shared the hot seat with three
other nominees: former U.S. Rep. Leon Westmoreland,
R- Ga., nominated to the Amtrak board
of directors; Diana Furchtgott-Roth, nominated
to be the Transportation Department’s assistant
secretary for research and technology; and Bruce
Landsberg, nominated to a seat on the National
Transportation Safety Board. The four fielded
questions from committee members for a little
over two hours in a hearing that was shown live
at commerce.senate.gov.
The committee’s tacit bipartisan approval of
Martinez was fairly apparent at the hearing, as he
had a relatively easy time of it compared to Westmoreland
and Furchtgott-Roth, who both faced
rather pointed questioning regarding positions
and statements made in the past.
Furchgott-Roth, in particular, was grilled by
several of the senators on statements she’d made
regarding harassment in the workplace, campus
sexual assault, equal pay for women and climate
change. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., submitted a
statement of opposition from the National Women’s
Law Center to Furchtgott-Roth’s nomination
during her allotted time.
Of the four, only Martinez went through
without a dissenting vote, compared to Westmoreland,
who received 10 “no” votes among the
27-member panel, and Furchgott-Roth, whose
nomination was pushed through along party lines
by a single vote.
Martinez, a graduate of St. John’s University
School of Law, has been chairman and chief
administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle
Commission since 2010. He has also served in
New York as commissioner of motor vehicles and
as chairman of the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee
as well as deputy chief of staff and special
counsel to the New York State attorney general.
At the national level, Martinez has held positions
in the Department of State and Department of
Housing and Urban Development.
In his opening remarks at the hearing, Martinez
stressed that throughout his career he
has made it a point to forge relationships with
thought leaders and research institutions to get a
wide variety of data and insights.
“I have found this open dialogue and cross
pollination of ideas was essential to problemsolving,”
Martinez said. “If confirmed as FMCSA
administrator, I would continue to pursue datadriven
policies.”
Martinez kept coming back to that theme during
the questioning. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., posed
the closest thing to an adversarial question when
he commented that while Martinez has a great
deal of experience in transportation, it has been
primarily in noncommercial transportation. He
asked Martinez if the experience has prepared
him for this position.
Martinez replied his career has given him a
broad view of the traffic safety landscape, including
commercial licensing and vehicle inspections.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, cited concerns from
members of his constituency over the impending
electronic logging device (ELD) mandate, scheduled
to go into effect December 18, and whether
Martinez, in light of the $2 billion it’s been estimated
to cost, believed a delay is in order.
Martinez replied that while he is committed to
upholding regulations, “I believe regulatory reform
should be an ongoing process. If confirmed,
I would look forward to working with all industry
stakeholders. I have heard that this rule could
cause serious hardship to some small, independent
truckers, particularly those working in the
agricultural sector.”
He would want to hear those people out, he
said. After all, “the goal is not to cripple commerce.
The goal is to make our roadways safer.”
Martinez reiterated the point several times
that if confirmed, he would keep an open-door
policy when it comes both to people and data,
and to look at information “through the lens of
safety.”
Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, from Martinez’
home state of New Jersey, peppered Martinez
with what he referred to as a “speed round” of
questions, again hitting on ELDs, as well as the
importance of addressing driver fatigue and
whether he supports requiring automatic braking
systems and speed limiters on trucks.
Martinez said there is “no question” that driver
fatigue is a critical issue that needs to be an
agency priority.
As for ABS and speed limiters, “I believe we
14 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

should look at the cost benefit analysis on that, but I’m willing to look at all
opinions,” Martinez said.
Sen. John Thune, R-S. Dak., picked up right after Booker and asked
about the recent report by the National Academy of Sciences recommending
improved methodology in the system used to establish CSA scores.
Martinez replied that he is in favor of improving the rating system for
carriers and identifying high-risk carriers. He emphasized the importance
of collecting and utilizing data to determine whether regulations are truly
working.
FMCSA only has 1,100 employees, Martinez pointed out. “We rely on
13,000 workers at the state level who are also stretched,” he said. “It’s critical
for the efficient use of our resources to use good data and to use good
models and approaches.”
With something like CSA scores, he said, it is essential the data collected
is accurate, reliable and fair.
“If the data is unreliable, we lose credibility with our stakeholders, we
lose credibility with the entities that we regulate, and we do a disservice to
the public,” he said.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., asked Martinez about a provision in the FAST
Act that made safety scores unavailable to the public, including potential
employers.
“I’m concerned that consumers and businesses would find it difficult if
not impossible to identify safe truck companies without the public display
of those safety scores,” Markey said as he framed his question, adding that
companies have considerably less incentive to improve their safety records
if they are hidden from the public. He asked what Martinez would do to
ensure scores are once again transparent.
Reiterating his commitment to transparency and to the importance of
thorough, accurate data, Martinez said if appointed he would work with
FMCSA staff and with the committee to figure out how to make the scores
publicly available again.
After the hearing, the committee had two days to submit more questions
to Martinez, to which he had until the following Monday to respond. Much
of the questioning followed along the same lines, touching on ELDs and
CSA scores.
Another issue that came up frequently was the driver shortage, specifically,
what could be done to streamline the process of CDL testing so it
didn’t take so long, and making CDLs more available to 18- to 21-year-olds.
To these issues, Martinez wrote, “If confirmed, one of the first steps I will
take is to bring together FMCSA and my former colleagues at the American
Association of Motor Vehicles to address the requirements in the CDL skills
tests to see where we can make adjustments to reduce delays inherent in
the system but still provide an adequate level of testing.
“I know that FMCSA has already taken several actions under its existing
regulatory authority to help address the driver shortage such as outreach
programs to assist veterans [to] become licensed drivers and to permit certain
qualified individuals 18-21 to drive interstate. I look forward to working
with FMCSA to continue these efforts and to identify additional ways to
address the driver shortage issue.”
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TCA 2017-18 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 15

WINTER | TCA 2017-18
Sponsored by
Tracking The Trends
CRITICAL
MASS
Trucking Culture Slowly Shifting
Toward a Healthier Lifestyle
By Klint Lowry
“Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it.”
Not too many years ago, that old saying, generally credited to Mark Twain, could
have described the trucking industry when it came to driver health and fitness. All
that time sitting behind the wheel, not eating right, not enough sleep, too much
tobacco, too much stress — you didn’t need a medical degree to know that couldn’t
be good for a body.
Not that anyone was claiming otherwise. Most of the industry took an “it is what it
is” attitude — that’s the trucking lifestyle, what can you do?
But since the turn of the 21st
century, America’s obesity problem has
accelerated. Studies conducted this year
estimate the national adult obesity rate to
be approaching 40 percent.
As bad as that is, truckers still stick
out from the general population like a
pot belly flopping over a belt buckle.
Nearly nine out of 10 truck drivers are
overweight, and a whopping 69 percent
are obese. Not coincidentally, while the
life expectancy for an American male is
about 76 years, the average trucker can
only expect to make it to the ripe old age
of 61, and to face higher rates of heart
disease, high blood pressure, diabetes
and a laundry list of other debilitating
conditions in that truncated time.
Recognizing the threat to the quality
of their lives and livelihoods, talk in and
around the trucking world has gone from
“What can you do?” to “Something has to
be done.”
Talking about it honestly and constructively is a first step. The question is, what’s it
going to take to get more truck drivers to start doing something about taking better
care of themselves?
Siphiwe Baleka, owner of Fitness Trucking (siphiwebaleka.com), and Bob Perry,
founder and COO of Rolling Strong (rollingstrong.com), have emerged in recent years
as two of the leading voices of authority on driver wellness.
Baleka, a former college swimmer, started driving for Prime, Inc. in 2008.
After gaining 15 pounds in his first two months on the job, he began to study the
physiological effects driving has on the body (see sidebar) and developed a set
of exercise and nutritional guidelines for truckers to counteract the impact of life
on the road. He began teaching the Baleka Method at Prime, Inc. in 2011 before
starting his own company.
He says his mission is “to take the most unhealthy occupation in America and
make it one of the healthiest occupations.”
Perry came from a family of truck drivers. He found his calling after seeing
the toll the driving lifestyle took on
his father. He began Rolling Strong
10 years ago, coaching individual
“Sixty-nine percent of drivers have what
the American Medical Association calls
the disease of obesity, the highest level
of metabolic syndrome and the lowest life
expectancy of any occupation in America.
If 69 percent of your family had a disease,
you’d be doing something about it. That’s
an epidemic. The industry should be
treating this as an emergency crisis.”
— Siphiwe Baleka,
owner of Fitness Trucking
drivers before being hired as fitness
coach at Covenant Transport. From
there he’s developed Rolling Strong,
branching out to other carriers and
forging affiliations with retailers,
pharmacies, clinics and other
businesses.
The mission of Rolling Strong has
always been clear, Perry said. “It’s to
show these men and women simple
tips they can use each day to live
healthier.”
Perry has served for several
years as chairman of the American
Trucking Associations’ Health &
Wellness Working Group. Baleka
and his system have been featured
on National Public Radio and in
Men’s Health, Sports Illustrated and
Swimmer magazines. The Atlantic
declared him the “fitness guru of the trucking industry.”
They’ll both tell you it wasn’t always that way. “Ten years ago, there was a
certain level of driver culture resistance,” Perry said. When he started speaking
at trade shows, he “had to chase people down the hallway. I couldn’t pay people
to come. Now it’s to the point where they’re coming up to me and offering their
cards to get information. It’s very gratifying.”
Baleka agrees that more people are listening, but there’s still that hurdle between
16 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

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Siphiwe Baleka, developer of the Fitness Trucking system,
demonstrates how truck drivers can jumpstart their metabolisms
anywhere with a minimum of space and little or no equipment.
knowing something should be done and getting up and doing it.
“There’s more articles, there’s more awareness, people are talking about it, but
they’re not going beyond that,” he said. Those magazine articles about his training
method draw more interest from people outside trucking who are concerned about
their sedentary lifestyles.
“Why am I getting more business and solicitations from other sectors of the
economy, but not the one that I’m dedicated to helping that needs the most help?”
he said. “That’s what I find perplexing.”
A holistic approach
Baleka believes a unified, industrywide initiative is needed to tip the truck-driving
culture toward adopting healthier lifestyles.
“Sixty-nine percent of drivers have what the American Medical Association calls
the disease of obesity, the highest level of metabolic syndrome and the lowest life
expectancy of any occupation in America,” he said. “If 69 percent of your family had a
disease, you’d be doing something about it. That’s an epidemic. The industry should
be treating this as an emergency crisis.”
As he points out, the health of the industry depends on the health of the people
who make it run.
Drivers need to pass a physical to retain their CDL, and thousands lose them
every year. The whole sleep apnea testing issue is basically a response to the obesity
epidemic.
If the Department of Transportation is concerned enough to set up thresholds for
driver fitness, Baleka asks, why don’t they offer guidelines for how to meet those
thresholds?
“I could tell you the basis of my program in 20 seconds,” he said. “Why isn’t
the FMCSA coming to me saying, ‘Siph, how do we make your program standard
Unchecked, the driving
lifestyle can put you on
the fast lane to poor
health
A former college athlete who came within 1 second of making the U.S. Olympic
swim team in the 100-meter freestyle, Siphiwe Baleka was shocked when he became
a truck driver and immediately saw the toll the job was taking on his body. He has
since made it his career and personal mission to help fellow truckers avoid and reverse
the effects long associated with life behind the wheel. As he developed his Baleka
Method, which is the foundation of his Fitness Trucking program, Baleka looked at
what happens at the start of a typical driver’s career, which he condensed into “The 9
Steps of Creating an Unhealthy, Unsafe Driver”:
1. In the first week of a driver’s career, the stress increases cortisol levels,
initiating the first hormonal change.
2. In the next two to four weeks, irregular, interrupted sleep results in
accumulated sleep deprivation. After just four nights of sleep deprivation,
insulin sensitivity drops by as much as 16 percent and fat-cell sensitivity to
insulin drops by 30 percent. This is the equivalent of metabolically aging
someone 10 to 20 years.
3. After four weeks in the driver’s seat, the hip flexors tighten and shorten,
causing bad posture, improper force loading on joints, and ankle, knee, hip,
lower back, neck and shoulder injuries.
4. After three months, the driver’s serum leptin and serum ghrelin levels
have been altered and the driver’s body is unable to regulate hunger
properly. Glucose reserves are full and the body can only store consumed
carbohydrates as fat.
5. By this time, drivers start skipping meals to keep the truck rolling. As the body
goes into starvation mode, low leptin levels signal to the brain that the body
needs feeding. Thyroid hormones fall, while cortisol and ghrelin hormones
rise, causing lower metabolism and an increase in appetite and fat storage. So,
the driver alternates between starving himself and overeating.
6. After six months on the job, the driver has gained significant body fat while
losing lean muscle. This decreases the body’s ability to extract oxygen from
the blood for the aerobic production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the
Siphiwe Baleka, developer of the Fitness Trucking system,
demonstrates to a truck driver a move for tightening and toning
the core.
cells’ usable fuel for producing energy. The driver feels more fatigued and
has less energy.
7. From six months to one year, a truck driver has now gained 7 percent of his
body weight and has increased his risk for 60 medical disorders, including 12
cancers. Along the way:
• Blood pressure increases by 10 percent
• Blood cholesterol level increases by 8 percent
• High density lipoprotein (HDL, the “good cholesterol”) decreases
by 15 percent
• Triglycerides increase by 18 percent, and
• Metabolic syndrome (a cluster of conditions increasing liklihood
of stroke, heart disease and diabetes) risk increases by 18 percent.
8. Once drivers become “obese” (BMI over 30.0) they join 69 percent of drivers
and have a three-fold increase in the above numbers, and
9. Once the driver is obese, he has a 20 to 30 percent greater likelihood of
developing severe obstructive sleep apnea, and with it a sevenfold increased
risk of being involved in a motor vehicle accident.
18 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

throughout the industry?’ Imagine if NASA sent astronauts out into space without
a spacesuit. That’s what this industry’s doing, sending good men and women out
into a known environment, knowing it’s going to upset their circadian rhythms,
their hormone production.
“Imagine every single day you saw these 3.5 million truck drivers turning on their
metabolism. We could cut the obesity rate in this industry in half in a year or two.”
Perry agrees a widespread cooperative effort is needed to increase a trucking
industry fitness movement. That’s the vision of Rolling Strong, to develop an
“ecosystem” of information and services through partnerships encompassing every
aspect of wellness.
Along with his work with the ATA, Perry has developed relationships with the
Truckload Carriers Association, the American Bus Association and the Commercial
Vehicle Trade Association, helping make the Rolling Strong brand synonymous with
driver wellness.
Rolling Strong has also forged partnerships with companies such as Bayer Health
and pharmacies such as Kroger and Publix.
“We’re connected to 11,000 health-check stations at stores and pharmacies,”
Perry said.
Five years ago, Freightliner teamed with Rolling Strong to develop an in-cab gym
system.
“Who’d have thought a few years ago you could order a truck and opt to have a
factory-installed in-cab gym?” he said. “We actually have our own data code at the
Freightliner factory. That shows how much the industry has changed.”
Perry also points to another corporate partner, TravelCenters of America, and the
StayFit program they introduced in 2011 at TA and Petro truck stops as an example
of how much progress has been made in promoting better health (see sidebar).
In October, Rolling Strong introduced a mobile app through which drivers can
not only set up and track fitness plans, but have access to health coaches; get
customized exercise and nutritional guidance including where to get a healthy meal
based on location; track their diets, workouts and sleep patterns; and earn rewards
points redeemable at a number of partner businesses, including TA truck stops.
Each company Rolling Strong adds to its driver-health ecosystem not only
adds to the value of that company’s service or product, but it strengthens Rolling
Strong’s brand and what it represents, opening the door wider for healthier habits
to increase their foothold in trucking culture.
Driving experience
Increasingly, information and resources are available to those who want to learn
how to lead healthier lives, but teaching and motivating are two different things.
There’s plenty of desire out there, it’s just finding that motivation to get started and
the discipline to keep going once you do.
Baleka believes truck drivers have an advantage in that regard.
“They don’t like getting up at 2:30 in the morning when they’re in North Dakota
and it’s 10 below,” he said. But drivers do things like that, maybe as a matter of
personal pride, maybe because they think they have to if they want to keep their
job. But they do it.
The same holds true for adapting a healthier lifestyle. Maybe a driver has a CDL
physical coming up. Maybe they saw a picture that reminded them how good they
looked 10 or 20 years ago. Maybe it hit them that they want more quality years
with their families.
“Once you’ve concluded, ‘I can’t afford not to,’ you can tap into that discipline,”
Baleka said.
Employees at Werner Enterprise’s headquarters in Omaha,
Nebraska, work out at the company’s onsite fitness center.
The Stayfit logo helps health-conscious drivers spot the
best snack options in TA and Petro travel stops and on
Country Pride and Iron Skillet menus.
TA’s StayFit program
designed to make truck
stops more fit-friendly
Truck stops may not technically be in the trucking industry, but the two are
as symbiotic as industries can be. The truck stop is the drivers’ oasis; it’s where
they eat, sleep and recreate so much of the time.
The amenities truck stops offer play a big role in the quality of life on the
road. With more attention being paid these days to drivers’ health, the larger
truck stop chains have gotten more health-conscious, none more so than
TravelCenters of America has with the StayFit program, launched in 2011 and
now a feature of TA and Petro travel stops across the country.
Tom Liutkus, TA’s vice president of marketing and public relations, explained
that for more than three years TA held a series “driver councils” — informal
lunch gatherings at which company executives met with groups of drivers to
find out what they’d like to find when they pull into one of their truck stops.
One of the things they heard most consistently was that drivers wanted
healthier food choices and someplace to get a little exercise.
“So we built the Stayfit platform in response,” Liutkus said, describing the
platform as having three main planks, the first of which is information.
“We work with Rolling Strong as partners, providing fleets with information
on where their drivers in the Rolling Strong program can find exercise and
better food options while on the road,” Liutkus said. “We also conduct
occasional health fairs with Rolling Strong at selected TA or Petro locations.”
The company’s RoadKing magazine publishes health and exercise articles
featuring Baleka and Dr. John McElligott.
“At the same time, we began to offer more food options on our menus
that were better for you,” Liutkus said. Healthy menu items were added at the
company’s Iron Skillet and Country Pride restaurants, and the stores began
stocking more low-calorie, low fat snacks, all of which, as well as the healthy
menu items, are marked with the StayFit logo.
The third plank is exercise. Fitness rooms have been built at many TA and
Petro locations to use free of charge. Other locations have walking trails,
horseshoe pits and basketball courts, Liutkus said, to promote exercise and
socializing, another often-overlooked aspect of driver wellness.
To see the facilities that are available at any given TA or Petro location, visit
ta-petro.com/amenities/stayfit.
“More and more drivers are taking advantage of the StayFit options,” Liutkus
said. “However, many more need to in order to improve their overall health.
Those that do live healthy are rabid and passionate about having these options
available so they can maintain a healthy lifestyle while on the road. We know
this because they constantly write us to thank us.
“We’re committed to maintaining these options for drivers and for fleets
because we believe in providing an environment that promotes options for
them to live healthy.”
TCA 2017-18 www.Truckload.org | TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY 19

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While drivers are ultimately responsible for their own choices, both Baleka and
Perry believe it’s up to carriers to make improved health an industry priority.
“I feel the carriers have a particularly significant role to play,” Baleka said, “because
all carriers’ businesses are based on three things: a tractor, a trailer and a driver. Of
the three, the driver is the most important but gets the least amount of, for lack of a
better term, maintenance.”
Prime example
Call it luck, call it fate, call it divine guidance, Baleka says, but he believes Fitness
Trucking wouldn’t have happened if he’d been anywhere other than Prime, Inc. or at
any time other than when he was there.
In late 2011, just as Baleka was fine tuning his fitness system, Prime, Inc. founder
and owner Robert Low was about begin a stint as TCA chairman. During a TCA planning
meeting, Low first heard that statistic about long-haul truck drivers’ life expectancy
being 61 compared with the average American male’s life expectancy of 76.
Six years later, Low says he still finds that 15-year difference “very disturbing.”
“I consider our drivers my family, and just like with any family member, it’s
important to let them know they matter and that I care. It’s up to us as an industry to
step up and break the cycle.”
When Baleka presented his fitness program to Low in late 2011, Low made him
Prime’s health and fitness coach. The first “class” in the 13-week program consisted
of 51 employees who lost an average of nearly 20 pounds.
Baleka stayed on for a few more years before starting Fitness Trucking, teaching his
program to fleets around the country.
Gary Danielson is now the driver health and fitness coach at Prime, Inc. He said
about two-dozen employees sign up each time a new session begins. He’s found that
it’s the veteran drivers who come of their own volition. The company makes it a point
to try to get rookie drivers to sign up so they can start their careers on a healthy note
instead of having to unlearn bad habits later.
Danielson explained one of the things that makes the program successful is its
flexibility. It calls for participants to raise their heart rates for 15 minutes at a time
with whatever heart-pumping exercise they enjoy the most.
Prime, Inc. sells folding bikes and other fitness equipment at its company store.
The company will pay for the course and any equipment for any employee who
finishes the whole 13 weeks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has something called the obesity
cost calculator, Baleka said. Any company can use it. With 6,178 drivers at the time
Prime, Inc. adopted his system, obesity was costing the company $6 million a year.
Danielson said there’s one figure that outweighs the rest in calculating the value of
the program — 61 years. “That’s really a Third World number.”
Several large carriers have some kind of health and wellness program, whether
they contract out or create their own. They all approach the task a little differently,
but the ones that are most into it share that sense that they are doing it not just
because it’s good for the company but because it’s doing right by their employees.
Werner doing it well
Werner Enterprises was recognized in 2011 by the American Heart Association as a
Gold Achievement level Fit-Friendly Company for its Werner Wellness program.
“‘Werner cares,’ is one of the things we say around here,” said Stefanie Christensen,
Werner’s vice president of human resources.
Werner Wellness has been available to associates at its headquarters in Omaha
for almost nine years, offering onsite exercise facilities and discounts to health clubs,
health coaching and seminars, annual health screenings and risk assessments, and an
onsite café featuring healthy menu selections.
Werner has recently been working to make Werner Wellness more beneficial to
drivers, said Ali John, Werner’s manager of corporate wellness.
The company installed fitness rooms at seven of its terminals around the country.
Each is equipped with a treadmill, an elliptical machine and a recumbent bike, John
explained, so drivers of all fitness levels can get in some exercise.
Werner has also started a Facebook page for drivers. “Education is a key part of any
wellness plan,” John said. “Our dietician and health coach, she’s constantly posting
things on there.”
John said drivers are still discovering the added amenities. “I think as word spreads,
it will take off.”
Celadon on Highway to Health
Celadon Trucking also has reputation for being ahead of the curve in the area of
driver wellness.
“Celadon works hard to find ways to support drivers,” said Karyn Oyler, vice
president of human resources.
The company’s program, Highway to Health, includes a clinic at the company
headquarters in Indianapolis where employees can get free flu shots and a pharmacy
where they can get many prescriptions filled for free. The program includes a tobacco
cessation program and provides guidance and education in healthy eating, weight
management, chronic diseases, as well as exercise options while on the road.
Oyler said this past year the Highway to Health program has been focused on
two areas: improving diet and getting regular medical care, something drivers are
notoriously bad at.
“They’re behind the wheel, they’ve got a load to deliver,” Oyler said. “Even when
they don’t feel well, drivers will continue to drive the truck. That’s what they do. It’s
in their DNA.”
Celadon drivers can now get healthcare on the road through AnywhereCare
telehealth.
“A driver can be out on the road, if they’re not feeling well they can call and do a
Trying to eat right
when you’re on the
road is no picnic
Diet and exercise — it’s the basic recipe for staying healthy. It’s a simple
formula than can seem impossible to follow in real life.
That’s especially true in a truck driver’s life. Between diet and exercise while
on the road, eating right is arguably the bigger challenge.
Gary Danielson, coordinator of driver health and fitness at Prime, Inc., paints
the picture:
“You’re driving. You’re sitting there, alone,” he said. “It’s tough. You look at
those billboards going down the highway; they show those big, juicy steaks or
big slices of pie. You’re tired, you’re away from home. You feel you’re entitled.
For most people, trying to eat right is a win some, lose some proposition.
Working with drivers, Danielson has a few favorite tips for those who are trying
to watch their weight so they can rack more days into the win column.
1. Watch your portions. “I think we’ve lost our perspective on portion
size,” he said. This is especially true when you eat at restaurants.
“When you go to these truck stops, these delis, the portions are huge.
Everything’s been supersized,” he said. “If you don’t get a big portion
then people think they’re being ripped off.”
2. Keep stoking the furnace. Another advantage of portion control, it’s
better to eat several small meals than three big ones. Danielson likes
to use the campfire analogy: If you throw a big log on the fire, there’s a
chunk left the next morning. “It’s the same way with food. If you keep
putting big logs on, the body’s not going to utilize all that food, so it’s
going to store it all over into fat.” Instead of big “log” meals, he said, keep
throwing “twigs” on the fire and keep the metabolic fire burning hot.
3. Keep track, but keep it simple. Of course, the key to weight control is to
be sure you don’t take in more calories than you need, Danielson said,
but don’t make yourself crazy counting how many grams of carbs and fats
you’re taking in. “The simplest, most important thing, look at your sugars
and look at your protein,” he said. Emphasize protein, minimize sugar.
4. Keep it real. There’s one thing worse for you than sugar, Danielson
said, and that’s artificial sweeteners. “When you have a sugar, at least
your body knows what to do with it.” But artificial sweeteners confuse
the body, so it won’t metabolize them; it just stores them.
5. Watch what you drink. Truck drivers are big sports fans, and they love
their sports drinks, Danielson said. But those sports drinks are laden
with sugar. Drink a bottle of water and you’ll burn five calories doing
it. Drink a sports drink and it’ll take half a day to burn it off.
6. When you do your pre-trip walkaround, add a pre-trip snack
check. Make sure you have something healthy on board for those
compulsive urges or those unexpected road delays.
Finally, he added, don’t sweat the occasional transgression. “You can’t expect
someone to stick to it 100 percent,” he said, but even if you eat right only half
the time, it will make a difference.
20 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

video chat with a doctor,” Oyler said. They can even have prescriptions called into
pharmacies along their route.
Technology applied
For the better part of a century, truck driving had been a solitary profession. With
the advent of smartphones and other technology, drivers are connected to the world
and have access to a world of information. This has been invaluable in the drive for
healthier lifestyles in the trucking industry.
“With apps today, it’s not about trying to get the truck or the truck driver to the
gym, it’s bringing the gym to the truck driver,” Baleka said.
Or as with Celadon, it’s bringing the clinic to the trucker. Or as with Rolling Strong or
individual companies’ programs, it’s bringing information. Companies such as Prime,
Inc. can follow drivers throughout months-long programs. They can set up in-house
competitions and discussion boards so drivers can be part of running group activity.
That’s one of the most important and overlooked aspects of the truck-driver
wellness, Danielson said — social interaction.
“We have safety meetings every Friday,” Danielson said. Many health-related
issues are discussed. The one question they always ask drivers is, “Are we giving you
the mental support?” Do they feel supported? Do they feel that they are cared about?
A long way to go
There’s a lot of talk nowadays, and more is being done to help drivers improve
their health.
Truck drivers are not yet noted for their svelte physiques. But there is a definite
sense of a sea change, a slow, gradual shift in attitudes and practices. A truckingindustry
fitness movement is under way. It’s still young, but it’s “ever-evolving,”
Werner’s Christensen said. “It’s continuing to grow and we look forward to the
continuing evolution so we can continue to help.”
“You can’t quantify it, but man, oh mighty, it’s really important,” she said.
Moving the truck-driving culture to a healthier lifestyle is like an individual who
starts a new fitness regimen. You can’t expect to step in front of a mirror after two
weeks and expect to see a whole new physique. But if you keep learning and working
at it, eventually you’ll see the results in their reflection.
“It’s like anything you roll out that’s new,” Oyler said. “You have your early adopters
… and you’ll have that tail end of the curve, the ones that don’t care and never will.
Chris Gibson of Celadon Trucking gets nutritional tips from
the company dietician, one of the services offered through
Celadon’s Highway to Health program.
“Then you have the majority. Once they see their colleagues losing weight or
getting off blood pressure medication … they see their fellow drivers losing 20, 30
pounds. Now they’re off their sleep apnea machine, they’re like, ‘man, I want to do
that.’”
Ten years after starting Rolling Strong, when he was training drivers one at a time,
and two months after the launch of the Rolling Strong mobile app, Perry sees the
momentum rolling toward a healthier trucking industry.
“It’s moving. We have a lot to do yet, but it’s getting [to be] in that direction.”
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In for a
By Dorothy Cox
esla Chief Executive Elon Musk promised to unveil an electric semi the night of
November 16 that would drive like a sports car, operate more economically than its diesel
counterparts and to quote his Tweet, “blow your mind clear out of your skull and into an
alternate dimension.”
The unveiling went off with much fanfare near Tesla’s design center in Hawthorne,
California — and the truck must have hit all the right notes, because the very next day J.B.
Hunt announced it had reserved “multiple” electric semis and Walmart also got on board,
causing Tesla shares to shoot up 4.5 percent. They were soon joined by DHL, Titanium
Transportation Group Fortigo Freight Services, and Schneider, who also announced orders.
“We believe electric trucks will be most beneficial on local and dray routes, and we
look forward to utilizing this new, sustainable technology,” Hunt President and CEO John
Roberts said in a statement November 17.
A few days later, Navigant Research, a market research and consulting team that
provides analysis of global clean technology markets, issued a report stating the electric
and hybrid truck population “is expected to exceed 1.6 million in the next decade.”
The report added that progress in the electric bus sector may bring down the cost of
key components, which would also benefit the heavy-duty trucking sector.
Navigant’s principal research analyst, Lisa Jerram, said high upfront costs of electric
trucks are prohibitive at present, however.
Musk said at the unveiling that customers could put down a $5,000 deposit for the
trucks, with production to begin in 2019, but he didn’t share how much the machines
actually cost.
For now, the “Tesla Semi” has only a range of 500 miles with an 80,000-pound load,
making it not truly long-haul in the traditional sense.
However, Musk said Tesla plans a worldwide network of solar-powered “megachargers”
that could get the trucks back up to 400 miles of range after charging “for only 30
minutes,” The Associated Press reported.
But for truckers who aren’t making money if the wheels aren’t rolling, that may prove to
be a problem, unless it’s scheduled into their 30-minute break.
The Tesla truck is described in its press material as being “ultra aerodynamic” and
built so that a driver can stand up inside the cab. The steering wheel is in the center, with
a touchscreen panel on either side of the driver to “provide easy access to navigation,
blind spot monitoring and electronic data logging.” Tesla also boasts that the truck’s builtin
connectivity integrates directly with a fleet’s management system while other trucks
“require several third-party devices for similar functionality.”
It will have Tesla’s autopilot system, which can maintain a set speed and slow down
automatically in traffic. It also has a system that automatically keeps the vehicle in its lane.
Musk said several Tesla trucks will be able to travel in a convoy, autonomously following
one another.
22 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org

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Without a trailer, the company said, the Tesla tractor goes from zero to 60
mph in 5 seconds, compared with 15 seconds in a comparable diesel truck.
It does zero to 60 mph in 20 seconds with a full 80,000-pound load, and
climbs 5 percent grades at 65 mph. Four separate motors drive the four back
wheels of the cab, giving it “sports car-like” handling, according to Tesla Motors.
This truck, say its makers, requires no shifting or clutching and its
regenerative braking recovers 98 percent of kinetic energy to the battery,
“giving it a basically infinite brake life.”
According to Navigant’s Jerram, the medium- and heavy-duty truck market
should continue its reliance on conventional diesel powertrains for the next
decade but hybrid and electric powertrain trucks will increase, with volumes
expected to grow from about 125,500 to 1.66 million by 2027.
Speaking of hybrids, this past June Nikola Motor Co. presented a chassis built
from the ground up with the diesel engine and transmission removed and the
cab made out of carbon fiber panels.
The Nikola One as it’s called has a 335-hp electric motor and a dual gear
reduction at every wheel in its 6x6 configuration. The electric motors are
powered by a liquid-cooled 320 kWh, lithium-ion battery pack (over 30,000
lithium cells), which is charged by a Nikola Motor Co. turbine powered by natural
gas or other fuel, no plug-in necessary.
There was quite a bit of interest in this truck, too, after it was unveiled. The
Nikola One can be reserved for $1,500.
Not too many people know the idea for it actually came from a locomotive.
“My father managed Union Pacific” out West, said Nikola founder and CEO
Trevor Milton. “I grew up around locomotives and wanted to make a truck like a
locomotive.”
Company spokesmen said in a news release that Nikola One is capable of
pulling a total gross weight of 80,000 pounds and can run more than 1,200
miles between fill-ups of natural gas (NG) depending on terrain and load.
First, “we designed our chassis from the ground up,” Milton told a reporter
for Truckload Authority and The Trucker newspaper. “Other OEMs are stuck with
using the same chassis. … We have a lower chassis, a new design, and advanced
lithium batteries and turbine technology. We are an Environmental Protection
Agency-certified OEM.”
Most of the Nikola One’s heavy components sit at or below the frame
rail, thereby lowering the center of gravity and improving safety, Milton
explained. “Benefits of removing the diesel engine include a drastic reduction
in greenhouse gas emissions, a larger and more aerodynamic cab and a
significantly quieter and more comfortable ride.”
All that is necessary to make the Nikola One go or stop is the electric pedal
and brake pedal (no shifting or clutches), Milton said, noting that “Nikola One’s
simplified operation will open up the line-haul market to a whole new group of
drivers.”
According to Milton and data on Nikola’s website, the company owns several
natural gas wells across the country and will take NG from these wells and
liquefy it on-site. The fuel will then be transported to Nikola stations once they’re
finished being built.
Since the stations aren’t up and running yet, however, Nikola will be leasing
its trucks to fleets and owner-operators and including “unlimited fuel” as part
of the deal. The lease comes at a cost of $5,000 a month and covers the lease
payment, unlimited miles, warranty, scheduled maintenance and all the NG
needed for the lease period of about five years, saving $420,000 for a million
miles over the course of the lease, said Milton.
Nikola One outputs more than 2,000 horsepower and more than 3,700 foot
pounds of torque before gear reduction and nearly 86,000 foot pounds of instant
torque after gear reduction, he said, adding that “Nikola One incorporates a new
proprietary independent suspension system, based on Meritor’s all-wheel drive
ProTec High Mobility Independent Suspension product line.”
Unlike the U.S. four-wheel market, independent owner-operators, carriers and
fleets need to make money and often operate with a low profit margin, and Baird
Equity Research estimates that the Tesla Semi will be 20 percent less expensive
per mile than traditional trucks. That’s more savings than what Musk, himself,
promised, during the unveiling, which was “at least 10 percent lower than a
conventional diesel semi.”
“We believe the large U.S. market will support sales of the Tesla Semi, as we
think the vehicle should be competitive with many traditional heavy-duty trucks
and exceed performance of existing electric trucks,” Baird Equity Research senior
research analyst Ben Kallo said.
In North America alone, Class 8 commercial trucks account for about $30
billion in sales each year, or more than 250,000 new trucks, according to
Bloomberg.
The move to heavy-duty trucks fits with Musk’s goal for Tesla to be a catalyst
for speeding up the transportation sector’s adoption of sustainable fuels.
Tesla’s entry into commercial trucking comes at a financially tough time,
however. Its first mass-market car, the Model 3, is months behind, and Tesla
is spending a billion dollars a quarter to ramp up production to get it back on
schedule. Tesla has been secretively working on the semi for the past two years
under the leadership of Jerome Guillen, who ran development of Daimler’s
Freightliners before he joined Tesla in 2010, Bloomberg reported.
Automotive analysts see Tesla’s biggest advantage over other truck makers is
that its semi shares some core parts with its Model 3.
Although the market for electric trucks is expected to grow over the next
decade as the U.S., Europe and China tighten their emissions regulations, most of
those trucks are only expected to be able to travel in a limited range of 100 miles
or so, which requires less expensive batteries and enables the trucks to be charged
overnight.
A spokesperson identified only as “Molly” said Tesla Motors and Musk weren’t
answering specific questions such as when and how much the company might
grow the availability of charging stations needed for long-haul trucking or other
problematic issues, and referred a reporter to the company’s “updated” media kit.
But let it be known that according to his Tweets and few comments to the
press, Musk doesn’t see his foray into commercial trucking as a tough sell.
Trucks are “just a very compelling product that has a low unit cost,” he said.
24 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

The driver shortage surged to the top of the
American Transportation Research Institute’s
(ATRI) 2017 critical industry issues report
released recently.
It was the first time since 2006 that the driver
shortage wound up as the top issue.
ATRI opened the survey to all trucking
stakeholders, with 1,557 responding from the
United States, Mexico and Canada.
A majority of the respondents were motor carriers
(50.4 percent), with commercial drivers making
up 35.7 percent and other industry stakeholders
accounting for 13.9 percent.
Motor carriers and drivers didn’t necessarily
see eye to eye on the top issues. While motor
carriers pointed to the driver shortage as the most
critical issue, it was not among the drivers’ top 10
concerns. Electronic logging devices continued
to be their top concern, while ELDs were second
among motor carriers.
Another striking finding was the fact that truck
parking was rated No. 2 by drivers, but only No. 9
by motor carriers.
Among all respondents, the ELD mandate was No.
2, Hours of Service was No. 3.
In 2016, all respondents ranked the ELD mandate
No. 1 and the driver shortage was No. 7.
2017 Top 10 Industry Concerns
1 Driver shortage
2 ELD mandate
3 Hours of Service
4 Truck parking
5 Driver retention
6 CSA
7 Regulations
8 Driver distraction
9 Infrastructure
10 Driver health/wellness.
TCA 2017-18 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 25

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HOS, which was No. 2 in 2016 and No. 1 in both 2014 and 2015, remained high on the list
despite the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s issuance of a final ruling earlier this
year to permanently remove the more restrictive 34-hour restart provisions, including
the requirement for two-consecutive 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. off-duty periods as well as the
restriction that the restart could only be used once every 168 hours.
The HOS rules remained a top concern in the No. 3 spot on the list as motor
carriers and drivers look for increased flexibility in the rules.
The industry’s concern over the driver shortage was accentuated when
trucking industry economist Bob Costello released the findings of his latest
report on the driver shortage, warning that the trucking industry could
be short 50,000 drivers by the end of 2017, up from 2016’s shortage of
36,500 and even higher than 2015’s shortfall of 45,000.
In addition to ranking each industry issue, respondents were
asked to rank strategies for overcoming each concern.
For the driver shortage,
the top three strategies were:
1. Advocate for state and federal authorities to
develop a graduated CDL program to attract safe,
younger drivers to the industry. Trucking stakeholders
have long contended that because drivers cannot
run interstate routes until age 21, many who might
become truck drivers go into other professions.
2. Partner with the U.S. Department of Labor to
formalize a national truck driver recruitment
program. Truck driving is projected to be one of
the occupations with the most job growth between
2014 and 2024. Further corroborating the industry’s
significant recruiting needs is the estimated 890,000
truck drivers that will be needed over the next decade
to maintain the existing workforce.
3. Work with the U.S. Department of Transportation
and the Department of Defense to equalize and
streamline licensing requirements between DOT and
DOD. Some in the industry are looking to the U.S.
DOT and DOD to create a simplified and consistent
set of licensing requirements. Reducing red tape and
the complexity of obtaining a CDL would serve to
remove a potential barrier of entry for prospective
truck drivers.
“Identifying the right mix of partners and strategies
to effectively address the driver shortage is one of our
top goals for the industry,” ATA President and CEO
Chris Spear said.
26 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
2017 Top 10 Concerns by Segment
Overall
Driver Shortage
ELD Mandate
HOS
Truck Parking
Driver Retention
CSA
Impacts of Regulations
Driver Distraction
Infrastructure Issues
Driver Health/Wellness
Carriers
Driver Shortage
ELD Mandate
Driver Retention
CSA
HOS
Economic Impact of Regs
Infrastructure Issues
Driver Distraction
Truck Parking
Tort Reform
Drivers
Top strategies for HOS concerns included:
ELD Mandate
Truck Parking
HOS
Economic Impact of Regs
Driver Distraction
CSA
Driver Health and Wellness
Driver Retention
Transportation Issues
Autonomous Vehicles
1. Continue to push for increased flexibility in the current sleeper berth provision. The current
rule specifies that drivers using the provision must take at least eight consecutive hours
in the sleeper berth, plus a separate two hours either in the sleeper berth, off-duty, or any
combination of the two. Additional flexibility in the rule would allow drivers to rest when
tired and would provide an opportunity for drivers to adjust their driving schedules to avoid
some of the worst congestion chokepoints, the latter being the focus of one of ATRI’s top
research priorities for 2017. An FMCSA pilot study to assess the benefits of allowing splitsleeper
berth time in conjunction with a fatigue management program began in July 2017.
Top strategies for the
ELD concern included:
1. Research and quantify industry impacts
on safety and productivity from full deployment
of ELDs. Selected by a majority (50.8
percent) of respondents again in 2017, the
industry’s belief that research is needed to
quantify the costs and benefits of ELDs indicates
that significant uncertainty remains
about the impacts of industrywide ELD deployment,
ATRI said in releasing the report.
While ELD costs vary, the fixed costs of an
ELD can range from $170 to more than
$1,500 per unit. Research also predicts that
implementation of the mandate will result in
productivity losses of 3 to 5 percent. Yet in
its Regulatory Impact Analysis, FMCSA projects
that the industry will save $2.44 billion
in administrative costs.
2. Assess the landscape of appropriate and
inappropriate uses of newly available ELD
data.
3. Ensure that the implementation window
is not extended beyond December 2017.
2. Research and quantify the true safety and economic impacts of customer detention on
truck drivers and trucking operations.
3. Analyze how highly automated technologies could affect the HOS rules and identify what
research and data would be necessary to justify future rules changes.
Strategies for curbing top parking concerns included:
1. Support and encourage investment in new truck parking facilities. A large majority of survey respondents
(64.9 percent) have continued to indicate that increasing truck parking capacity is their preferred
strategy for addressing the pervasive shortage of truck parking. However, funding for truck stops and
rest areas is usually one of the first items cut during periods of state budget shortfalls. Reopening shuttered
parking facilities and investing in new facilities are the most direct strategies aimed at alleviating
the chronic and growing shortage of truck parking. New research is also exploring the potential for
repurposing vacant urban and suburban land parcels for truck parking.
2. Educate the public sector on the safety consequences resulting from closing public parking facilities
and failing to expand truck parking availability.
3. Research the role and value of real-time truck parking information availability and truck parking
reservation systems.
ATRI always list three emerging concerns based on survey responses.
Economy, autonomous vehicles and diesel technician shortage were 11, 12 and 13, respectively.
A copy of the full report is available on ATRI’s website at atri-online.org.
TCA 2017-18 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 27

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There is a Driver
Shortage and it
Could Worsen
in 2018
So say executives at Truckload Carrier Association
member carriers, who themselves have been able to fill
their seats in 2017.
“This has been one of our better years for retention.
We’re under 30 percent in turnover this year, which
is the best rate we’ve had in several years,” said Andy
Winkler, vice president of operations at Grand Island
Express, which was named the Best Fleets to Drive For
overall winner in the small carrier division at the annual
convention last March. “The recruiting is a little bit of
a roller coaster ride, but we’ve gone through a change
this year as we have sort have focused on social media,
digital marketing and driver referrals, and on top of that
we’ve gone back in to entry-level drivers.”
“To date, we have been able to find the experienced,
qualified drivers we need,” said Jeremy Stickling, vice
president of human resources and safety at Nussbaum.
“I tend to think it (the shortage) isn’t as severe as
everyone talks about. We aren’t really seeing fewer
applicants. If anything, we are probably seeing fewer
qualified applicants. We haven’t changed our safety
selection standards at all, but there are fewer who seem
to meet them.”
Severe or not, Winkler says, there are carriers that
are struggling.
“I think it comes down to how you treat your
professional drivers,” he said. “You treat them as
professionals and you treat them as part of the team
and part of the family, and if carriers out there haven’t
gotten that point. I would imagine they are struggling
because these drivers are going to where they belong,
where they are wanted and where they are needed and
where they feel like they are part of the team.”
Stickling says watch out in 2018, though.
“I do believe that it will be felt strongly in 2018,” he
said. “The shortage has been talked about nonstop for
the last eight, nine years, but it has never been paired
with a major capacity crunch. I think with the freight
market forecast plus the electronic logging device
mandate hitting in 2018, we could finally see the perfect
storm that makes the so-called shortage more ‘real’ to
the industry. If capacity gets extremely tight, the driver
situation will get very interesting.”
The potential for a worsening shortage in the large
truckload segment was punctuated by the most recent
American Trucking Associations report on driver
turnover as the turnover rate at large truckload fleets
rose five points in the third quarter to an annualized rate
of 95 percent.
“Since bottoming out at the end of 2016, the
turnover rate at larger fleets has steadily risen – a
function of an improving economy, rising demand for
freight transportation and fierce competition for drivers,”
ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said. “The tightening
of the driver market has
raised fears about the driver
shortage, which will hit an alltime
high this year.”
Also in the third quarter,
turnover at small truckload fleets
— those with less than $30 million in annual revenue
— dipped slightly, falling one percentage point to an
annualized rate of 84 percent, two points higher than
the same period in 2016.
“Fleets continue to tell us that competition for good,
safe and experienced drivers is fierce, pushing wages
higher in hopes of attracting the best talent,” Costello
said. “However, unless steps are taken to make it easier
for individuals to pursue careers in trucking, demand for
drivers will continue to outstrip supply — eventually even
leading to supply chain disruptions.”
Both Grand Island Express and Nussbaum are using
finishing programs to help them find drivers.
“We’ve always had a driver finishing program,
but the last four or five years we’ve not taken on any
students,” Winkler said. “This year we realized ‘hey,
they’ve got to come from somewhere and it’s probably
better if we train them from the start.’ We’re working
with five different community colleges in Nebraska and
taking those students and finishing up here. Right now,
our trucks are full. These drivers will come to us with a
CDL. They finish at the community school and we’ll take
them and spend four to six weeks with a certified driver
trainer and get them four to six weeks experience.”
Stickling said up until 2016, Nussbaum relied
entirely on experienced drivers to fill its needs.
“We decided to create our own student/finishing
program in mid-2016,” he said. “We will take a student
with zero experience, but also use the program for those
who just need a touch-up. That might mean someone
with seven months experience, someone who hasn’t
driven for five years.
“We certainly haven’t needed students to fill our seats,
but we wanted to open this resource and establish a
finishing program with an eye to possible shortages in the
future. If you go back five to 10 years, we had the mindset
that you hire a driver and have a finished product. In
the last couple years, I’d say we’ve shifted our focus to
becoming a ‘development-based’ company. Rather than
needing to find the perfect hire on paper, we take aim at
individuals who have a desire and willingness to learn.
And then we do our best to put them in a place where
they can grow their skills and knowledge as a professional
driver.”
Just listening to drivers is key to retaining them,
Winkler said.
“We all have the same problems in trucking and
transportation and the same kind of challenges, but
when a driver comes to you with a concern, I think the
difference is did you listen to what they said, how did
you act on it and did you do right by the driver,” he said.
“Sometimes companies get caught up in their policies,
especially at the front-line level, and say ‘we can’t do
that, that’s not our policy’ or ‘that’s against our policy.’
You have to empower those people in the trenches to
make good decisions and do right by the driver.”
As part of its retention efforts, Stickling said,
Nussbaum launched what is called the Nussbaum
Academy.
“We offer our drivers the change to work toward
earning what we call their RED Certification (think earning
practical certification at a technical college),” he said. “If
a driver engages in continual learning and achieves
some impressive results, we’ll continue to bump their
pay, regardless of what the market is doing. We get a
driver who stays with us a long time and continues to
sharpen their skills along the way. The driver gets the
chance to be making well over 50 cents a mile over time
regardless of the driver pay market. Again, the bet we
are making is if we continue to develop our fleet, we’ll
hold on to them longer.”
Keeping promises on home time — something
especially of concern to younger drivers — is important
in both recruiting and retaining drivers, Winkler said.
Because of our traffic lanes, if you are a Nebraskabased
driver, we can have you home weekly very easily,
and the drivers we hire out of state, and we do have
quite a few, if we can’t get them home every two weeks,
then we won’t bring them on.“
But the biggest part of home time is truth in
recruiting, he said.
“Don’t tell that person you are going to get them
home if you can’t and we have a policy here we don’t
miss home time,” Winkler said. “When a driver has home
time scheduled and is due to go home, we get them
home for that home time. We don’t miss those dates.
Sometimes that means we bounce trucks, sometimes we
have to swap loads, sometimes we have to pick a trick
out of a hat, but we don’t miss a home time.”
Winkler’s advice to carriers that are experiencing a
shortage of drivers?
“Start internally. Start within your organization,”
he said. “Try to understand how you really are
communicating with the drivers. Are you solving their
concerns and are you really listening to them? I think it’s
more of an internal problem than anything.”
28 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

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WINTER | TCA 2017-18
A Chat With The Chairman
Coming into
the Home Stretch
Foreword and Interview by lyndon finney
Dave Johnson is an American announcer and sportscaster, best known for his work in horse racing
with ABC and NBC Sports and at various race tracks in New York and New Jersey. His signature line —
“And down the stretch they come!” — is instantly recognizable throughout the sport. For ABC, Johnson
called the Kentucky Derby from 1978 to 1980 and 1982 to 2000, and the Preakness Stakes and Belmont
Stakes from 1982 to 2000. As we near a new year, Truckload Carriers Association Chairman Rob Penner
is coming down the stretch of a most successful tenure. Recently, the Chairman sat down with Truckload
Authority and shared his insights on the work of the association and exchanged Christmas greetings with
TCA members.
30 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

Sponsored by
Mr. Chairman, thank you so much for joining us for another Chat With
the Chairman. First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Tell us
how you will be spending the holiday season this year.
Thank you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!
I am fortunate to get a short reprieve from winter and the office as I
will be spending a couple of weeks in Arizona with one of my sons and
my daughter-in-law, as well as a few close friends and coworkers.
Share with us your favorite family Christmas traditions growing up.
Was there any particular tradition that you’ve sought to carry on?
I have fond memories of Christmas growing up, such as my dad
“coaching” my mom on trimming the tree while he sang and played the
guitar. I remember Christmas Eve concerts at the Lutheran church and
then my brothers and I rushing home for eggnog and gift exchanges.
Family is what is really important to me. I try to spend as much time
as I can with my two sons and my daughter-in-law. My boys are both
police officers so unfortunately trying to get their schedules to align is
very difficult. In any event, we maintain a very close family connection.
Turning to TCA, bring the membership up-to-date on association activity
since our last issue was published in October, including major achievements
that have been accomplished.
legs of the stool for what TCA promises to deliver to its membership,
even though education is considered its own stand-alone leg, it’s
really a part of everything else that we as an association aim to
do: from increasing profitability, to retaining a skilled workforce, to
providing guidance on being the voice of truckload.
I’m proud of what we’ve done as an association in the realm of
education so far during my time as chairman. We’ve ramped up
TCA’s webinar series, providing the perfect platform for getting the
most up-to-date information to the membership, from hot topics in
the areas of safety and retention, to the latest breaking news from
Capitol Hill in the quarterly updates from TCA’s Vice President of
Government Affairs David Heller. That’s why we’ve pushed to have
even more of these webinars, and to make these live events and
their recordings available at no charge to the membership through
increased incentives for our sponsors. In addition, since the last
issue of Truckload Authority, Truckload Academy launched its latest
online certification: The Motor Carrier Insurance Risk Management
Program. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, I urge you to
go to TCA’s online learning platform, The Truckload Academy Ondemand,
and learn how you can better prepare for critical situations
with potentially major financial implications.
Finally, even though my chairmanship is coming to a close, I’m
excited about what’s in store with the future of TCA education. TCA
has begun the development of a new Truckload Academy program
We’ve made great strides both in bringing more voices to the table
and better serving those members. Moving the TCA membership
operations into TCA headquarters will allow for stronger engagement
between the membership team and the other departments, and it was
a decision made easier by the hiring of a new membership director
in Patrick Hardy. Patrick has years of experience growing association
memberships, including at ATA. His sales experience and his knowledge
of the industry gives me great confidence in TCA’s membership growth
trajectory moving forward. One way we have worked to grow membership
and better serve our members is with an event for Canadian trucking
executives, Bridging Border Barriers. This event successfully served
two main purposes: It engaged with Canadian carriers — a segment
of the industry where TCA has major opportunity for growth — and
provided relevant content for C-level executives. This level of content
will be a major emphasis at TCA moving forward, and will be particularly
evident at the upcoming 80th Annual Convention in March. At this year’s
convention there will be a variety of CEO panel discussions, providing
opportunities to hear from some of the most successful members in our
industry about roadblocks they’ve faced and how they’ve grown and
maintained success. I might be a bit biased, but I truly believe that
the content of this convention will be some of the most insightful and
relevant that TCA has ever put together.
As you head into the last three months of your chairmanship, what is
on your agenda for advancing the value of the association to its members?
Simply put, we are focused on delivering on our promise to bring
more value to your association membership and to your company. The
committees and task forces are active and we will have a great annual
convention lined up for you. The association is really expanding its
educational efforts.
Why is it important for members to participate in events such as Truckload
Academy, the TCA Wellness program and the webinars presented by
various members of the staff?
When you boil it down, education is at the heart of what we as an
association set out to do day in and day out, and that’s strengthen our
members’ operations. TCA is committed to being the source of industryleading
educational offerings that are laser-focused on addressing the
real issues that we as members are facing. We all know our time is
critical in this industry, and that’s why TCA values delivering content
built on best practices and key strategies that can actually be used to
make our businesses better. In thinking about President Lyboldt’s four
TCA 2017-18 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 31

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that will be delivered in a blended online
and instructor-led format. The program will
focus on taking the rising stars within your
company and teaching them every aspect of
the business in order to build profitability. I
know this is training that we as an industry
are hungry for, and I can’t wait to see the
results.
Give us an update on the benchmarking program,
how members can become involved and
why they should do so.
With the launch of TPP (TCA Profitability
Program), it has never been easier to
get involved in benchmarking. The TCA
Benchmarking Program has seen great
carrier financial success over the past 14
years, but the growth of the program had
been limited. Since the formal launch of TPP
in July of this year, the Best Practice Groups
(the foundation of TPP) has grown by 55
percent year-to-date, and we are on track
to double within 12 months. This growth has
been fueled by general industry awareness
of TPP, as well as innovative tools we have
introduced to educate prospective members
and to make the benchmarking process
more streamlined. TPP has a sole mission
to enhance the profitability of its members
through monthly financial updates and
comparisons, face-to-face meetings, and inhouse
consulting.
Further, on December 12 we held the
inaugural TPP Profitability Seminar in
Chicago. These quarterly seminars provide
a glimpse of the value of the Best Practice
Groups and getting in the same room
with like-minded professionals, while also
producing constructive and actionable
content for industry leaders to take back
to their respective organizations and build
systems for sustained profitability. We
anticipate that the TPP Profitability Seminars
will lead to increased participation in TPP and
the Best Practice Groups.
The American Transportation Research Institute
in October released its annual top 10
trucking industry concerns as rated by drivers
and carrier executives. Carrier executives
ranked the driver shortage as the No. 1 issue
among that group. As an executive, share
with us your opinion on what the industry
must do to alleviate the shortage.
I would agree that attracting and retaining
drivers remains the top challenge for our
industry. We have to continue to work on
making the job much more attractive. I think
it starts with getting them into our businesses
sooner, before they jump into another career
path. Technology helps us here as we have
much better monitoring, communications
and driver-assist technologies to support
our fleets. Mandatory entry-level training
is also important as we need to ensure
our people are competent in all situations.
Ongoing skills upgrading and development
is also important. I think for the most part,
Rob Penner enjoys a moment of fun with Bison Transport driver Murray Manuliak, who was named the
Truckload Carriers Association’s 2016 Company Driver of the Year
the industry is under-invested here. And of
course we have to increase their earnings
opportunities. Wages and efficiencies have
to improve. We have to make better use of
their time and we have to pay and be paid
for our time.
On the same survey, drivers ranked truck
parking as the No. 2 issue, but carrier executives
rated it No. 9. How serious an issue is the
lack of truck parking in North America?
This speaks to the problem above. We
can’t find drivers and the ones we have
are subjected to ridiculous infrastructure
challenges. We haven’t kept up with our
investment requirements and as a result
we have drivers sleeping on the sides of
our highways and byways and we think
nothing of it. And this problem is amplified
with Hours of Service and electronic logging
device (ELD) regulations. Truck stops and
rest areas are filled to overflowing by 6
p.m. It’s crazy. Our drivers deserve safe
haven and the basic amenities afforded us
all. I dare say, if every one of our politicians,
business owners and shippers had to live like
our drivers do while on the road this issue
would get the attention it deserves. We have
all sorts of infrastructure problems in North
America and the problem is we lump them all
together and it seems we get overwhelmed
to the point where no one does anything. I
would like to think that it is something the
industry can really get together on and start
making a difference. We need to wrap our
arms around this quickly.
As this issue of Truckload Authority goes to
press, the ELD mandate will be going into effect.
Surveys have shown that thousands of
carriers, primarily those with 20 trucks or
less, have not installed ELDs. What encouragement
would you give those noncompliant
carriers to, in effect, “get on board?”
You’ve heard me say this before. Trucking
involves distance AND time. ELDs will
bring time back into the equation and the
data will be a tool that helps us all drive
efficiency into our industry. We have allowed
and sometimes even forced our drivers
to ignore or circumvent the rules and that
has overshadowed the inefficiencies of our
shippers and our own operations. We will no
longer be able to overlook these issues and it
will force us all to be better. We can and will
improve our drivers’ and our own earnings
per day just by putting a focus on eliminating
or being paid for waste in the system. The
time to debate is over; it is now time to get
on board and work on fixing our problems.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
is getting closer and closer to starting
its study on the possible return of a split
sleeper berth rule. Why is it important to the
truckload industry for drivers to be able to
pull over and rest when they are tired and
to be able to stop the 14-hour clock?
We have been on electronic logs for quite
some time and the data shows our drivers
are bumping up against the clock not just
once in a while, rather they are doing so for
32 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

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days on end. They are driving during peak times and in challenging
conditions day after day because the 14-hour window forces them
to do so. It is not logical and it is not right. We are sure the data
will point us down the right path and now that we can trust the
times that are being recorded, we are sure the FMCSA will see it,
too.
TCA’s inaugural Call on Washington took place just as the last issue
of Truckload Authority was going to press. Share with us any
feedbACk you have received from members of Congress and TCA members
who participATed.
As you may know, our inaugural Call on Washington was an
overwhelming success. We as an association were hoping to have
20 members in town and pie-in-the-sky thinking was that we could
pray for 25 members to help tell our truckload story. We eventually
ended up having 32 members participate. Our members took
this opportunity to engage their representatives on the issues
that mean the most to them. ELDs, F4A federal preemption
language, truck size and weight all played a paramount role in
the meetings, to say nothing of our visits with FMCSA and the
Canadian embassy. The feedback has been immeasurable. Why?
Because we told our story. Our membership focused on issues
that were inherently truckload and used this as an opportunity to
define what was important to us. One thing we had not counted on
was the congressional feedback. TCA staff has been approached
by congressional staffers to answer technical inquiries regarding
ELDs, autonomous vehicles, and driver-assist technologies. We
continue to be viewed as a resource by providing responses to
federal issues and taking part in more coalition building than ever
before. This is all happening because our membership has taken
the opportunity to tell our story and share the message of what
truckload truly is.
Just as this issue is being published, the annual Wreaths Across America
dAy will see wreaths placed on the graves of as many as 1.5 million
veterans. TCA is a strong supporter of this effort. Share with us
the significance of this event.
I spoke to this in the last chat. It is our opportunity to show our
thanks and gratitude to all those who have served, who are still
serving, as well as their families. To honor them over the holidays
is especially meaningful. Families gather together to celebrate
the blessings of the season and inevitably, we also take time to
remember and reflect. For the families of those who have served,
to know we remember, respect and honor their heroes brings great
comfort. I encourage everyone to get involved.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and once again, Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year.
34 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org

WINTER | TCA 2017-18
Member Mailroom
TCA
What
events
are lined up for
2018?
In-person events are a great way to connect with your fellow members
and maximize the value of your membership. TCA offers events ranging
from specialized half-day seminars to the Annual Convention, which
keeps attendees apprised of truckload industry topics for the coming
year.
Whether you are an industry veteran or are looking to jump-start your
career in truckload, TCA events offer great opportunities for networking
and education.
80th Annual Convention
First up for 2018 is TCA’s 80th Annual Convention,
taking place March 25-27 at the Gaylord Palms Resort
and Convention Center in Kissimmee, Florida. Industry
leaders will convene to discuss shared goals of
retaining a skilled workforce, amplifying the voice of
truckload to policymakers and improving profitability
in their companies. Over 100 of the industry’s top
suppliers use the exhibit hall at the TCA Convention to
showcase next-generation products and services to
the decision-makers in attendance.
The convention also provides us the opportunity
to recognize the outstanding achievements of our
industry throughout the previous year. Special
recognition is given to the Best Fleets to Drive For,
heroic Highway Angels, the top owner-operator and
company drivers and North America’s Safest Fleets.
Safety and Security Division
Meeting
As an industry, we all share one common goal—
safer highways. TCA’s 2018 Safety & Security Division
Meeting, set for June 10-12 in Norfolk, Virginia,
provides a forum to share best practices of North
America’s safest fleets and to see the latest offerings
from industry suppliers designed specifically for
improving the safe operation of our fleets.
Refrigerated Division Meeting
If your company runs temperature-controlled
equipment, the Refrigerated Division Meeting is for
you! The 2018 iteration will be held at the beautiful
Suncadia Resort in Cle Elum, Washington, July 11-
13. This event remains the premier gathering of
professionals operating refrigerated loads and features
educational sessions, unique networking events and a
golf tournament.
TCA continues to add events to the calendar, be sure to
check out our website for updates.
TCA 2017-18 www.Truckload.org | TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY 35

WINTER | TCA 2017-18
Talking TCA
SEAN TOWNSEND | MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR
BY dorothy cox
What’s a formerly aspiring NFL player turned poet and rapper doing in
the trucking industry?
Consider that Sean Townsend is a man-for-all-seasons kind of guy, the selfprofessed
“do-it-all guy” of the Truckload Carriers Association.
As marketing and communications coordinator, he does just about everything,
from doing videos to writing and editing marketing copy and news releases
to taking photographs.
“I have kind of a hand in everything,” said Townsend, 25. “If anyone needs
help with anything they come to me. I edit most of the communications that
come out of here. I just try to make myself useful and … be as helpful as I can.”
He came to TCA August 10, 2016, and happened to land in the middle of
plans for that year’s Wreaths Across America Charitable Gala, the annual
fundraiser that enables fresh green wreaths to be placed on veterans’ graves
across the country.
“When I got here they were planning last year’s Wreaths Across America
Charitable Gala and they needed some videos done, so I did that. They needed
the program designed, so I did that. I worked with Debbie Sparks [former TCA
vice president of development] to get it all planned and the rest is history.”
So how does the football-playing poet/rapper come in?
Although through school football and making an NFL team was “my
main goal,” said Townsend, breaking his left wrist and sustaining a couple of
concussions playing with the pigskin coincided with a burgeoning interest in
poetry, “so I decided to go to [college] school and follow that.”
He likes that he can use his creativity at TCA and in his spare time loves
writing poetry, coming up with some raps of his own and studying the poetry
of his favorites, beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the more mainstream Gerard
Manley Hopkins, and experimental poets.
He took violin lessons for seven years as a youngster but that soon took a
backseat to football.
“Hip-Hop music,” he said, “is a big part of my love of poetry, so I’ve written
some raps. I used to rap a little bit with my friends and record. Rapping is what
brought me into poetry, the hip-hop lyricism and complex rhyme patterns and
rhythms … .”
One can probably credit his upbringing for his love for words.
“Reading is a huge part of my family. We are all big readers. My first word
was ‘book.’ I’ve lived in a townhouse my whole life and all our walls are lined
with bookshelves and dad loves going to used bookstores and buying as much
as he can. Both my parents are avid readers and indoctrinated me and my
siblings with that.”
His brother Robby, 26, is a school counselor and his sister, Susie, 21, is in her
last year at Mary Washington University studying communications.
Sean chose James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, set in the
Shenandoah Mountains, for college. It’s just a couple of hours away from his
hometown of Alexandria, Virginia, a D.C. suburb.
At college he found the perfect writing program: a major in English
and a double-minor in creative writing and “writing rhetoric and technical
communications.”
Townsend likes to say “English is what I do, creative writing is who I am,
and technical communications is what will get me a job.
“That was my tagline,” he said, and he believes the degree really helps him
with his job at TCA, “having the technical communication minor and taking all
those classes and being able to professionally edit. I took some Web design,
as well.”
There are few other college programs out there, he said, that have the
“wide breadth of knowledge that they teach.”
Fresh out of college, however, Sean wasn’t quite ready to settle down at a
job, and like the beat poets of the ’50s and hippies of the ’60s, he took to the
open road in a van equipped with a mattress to sleep on and saw the sights,
from Virginia all the way out West.
“I had never been west of Wisconsin until that trip,” he said, “so I needed
to see the West Coast. I drove around and slept in Walmart parking lots and
stayed with relatives and took tens of thousands of pictures and wrote a blog
and saw the sights.”
The picture-taking, which he uses at TCA, was actually developed on that
road trip, thanks to his grandmother. “She was a professional photographer
and gave me my first camera as my graduation gift from college. It was like
being thrown into the deep end because I didn’t know the ins and outs of
photography and that forced me to learn it. I bought a new camera recently
with new lenses and I’ve tried to further develop my skills.”
He took literally thousands of pictures in Moab, Utah, “my favorite place in
the world, now,” because of its beautiful orange canyons, bridge and standing
rock formations and pristine mountain vistas. “It gives you a great perspective
on the world, the beauty of it all. I mean, America is just an incredible place,
truly an incredible place.”
He has his adventurous spirit to thank for that.
“I would go into bars, sometimes, and just sit down and turn to someone
next to me and say, ‘I’m not from around here. What do I need to do?’”
That’s why he went to Moab, because until five different people in five
different states suggested it, he hadn’t intended on traveling into Utah at all.
“I wasn’t expecting Utah to be that gorgeous. Just driving down Highway
36 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA TCA 2017-18 2017-18

TCA 2017-18 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 37

Sean Townsend with his mom and dad
during his football-playing years
Sean Townsend, top center, with “The Crew”
70 everywhere I turned I said, ‘wow’ every
second.”
He took three months to see the sights and
time seemed to fly by until it was time to return
to Virginia.
Upon getting home, however, he was off on
another adventure.
“I came back and my best friend was moving
up to the Jersey City/New York area. I had
known him since kindergarten and he said,
‘Hey, you want to come with me and move up
there?’”
So they went, the friend to a job at the New
York Daily News while Townsend snagged a job
with Grey House Publishing “writing a thing
called Cyclopedia of Literary Places” where
he wrote analyses of books and their settings,
mostly novel settings. “I did that for four
months.”
Then came big layoffs at New York Daily News
and Townsend’s friend was part of the cut, so
the two moved back to Virginia.
Needing to save money, he started working
for a staffing agency, bouncing around “from
association to association” working for the
National PTA, the National Labor Railway Labor
Conference and others, “just doing whatever
they needed me to do.”
Actually, that kind of work wasn’t a far cry
from Sean’s growing-up years. “It was kind of
an easy path into the association world for me,”
he said, since both his parents have worked for
associations their entire lives.
His father was deputy director for the
American Historical Association for 24 years
and his mother helped out his dad from home
by editing articles and the organization’s
annual membership directory. His dad recently
took a job with the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences in Boston as director of their
Washington office.
One of the temp jobs Sean was placed at
was TCA, and he found it was a perfect fit. And
the fact that it was part of the trucking industry
didn’t phase him. It was one more thing to
explore and come to know about, another thing
from his upbringing.
“My parents taught me early … to learn
as much as you can about everything, pop
culture, the arts, everything [and] just being
knowledgeable about things. It’s been
something I’ve strived for in my life and it’s
helped me out at TCA because anytime anyone
needs anything, I like to say I’m the ‘do-it-allman’
here.”
Indeed, at TCA, Townsend is one of the
point people for first reads of Truckload
Authority, helps edit communications for the
government affairs team, which is shouting
distance from his office, works along with
Senior Director of Outreach and Engagement
Marli Hall on contests and awards, helps with
the scholarship fund and the galas, does video
for the conventions and galas, plus does the
gala programs and voice-overs, and helps with
marketing for the various meetings.
He’s also utilizing his growing skills with a
camera, having recently flown to Grand Forks,
Q & A With sean townsend
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: 11/21/1992 – Falls Church,
Virginia
MY TRADEMARK EXPRESSION IS: “Incredible”
MOST HUMBLING EXPERIENCE: A three-month road trip
around the country in a minivan
PEOPLE SAY I REMIND THEM OF: Jake Gyllenhaal
I HAVE A PHOBIA OF: Money
MY GUILTY PLEASURE: Chocolate eclairs from 7/11
THE PEOPLE I’D INVITE TO MY FANTASY DINNER
PARTY: Stanley Kubrick, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Alfred
Stieglitz, John Coltrane, Pharoahe Monch
MY GREATEST PROBLEM AS A PROFESSIONAL IS:
Being called “Seen” by all the TCA officers
I WOULD NEVER WEAR: I wear them when I have to, but I
hate wearing ties
A GOAL I HAVE YET TO ACHIEVE: Publish a book
THE LAST BOOK I READ: “They Can’t Kill Us Until They
Kill Us” by Hanif Abdurraqib
LAST MOVIE I SAW: “Jim and Andy: The Great Beyond”
MY FAVORITE SONG: “Phantom” by Tonedeff
IF I’VE LEARNED ONE THING IN LIFE, IT WOULD BE:
I’m trying to learn it
MY PET PEEVE: Not using Oxford commas
THE THING ABOUT MY OFFICE IS: It’s in shouting
distance from the government affairs team
ONE WORD TO SUM ME UP: Creative
38 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

North Dakota, to shoot photos of the Capitol Christmas Tree, which had
made a stop there, then back to D.C. where TCA was getting an award for its
sponsorship of the tree. He also took pictures of the tree-lighting ceremony
while he was there.
“I had been working for random associations so I wasn’t really worried
about the [trucking] subject” of the association, he said. “I was excited to
learn about trucking.”
He knew that trucking was something that’s “such an engrained part of
the country, you don’t necessarily give it a second thought. But coming and
working here for a while I learned there’s so much to it.”
He was pleased to find that there’s a family atmosphere in that everyone
works together at TCA.
“We have a lot of young people here and we work well together. I’m
part of the marketing task force so we get together and talk about all the
marketing we need to do at TCA. I think right now as far as I know we are
working as a team better than TCA has ever been run before. I’m pretty proud
of that. We’re all great friends and have a lot of fun here. I get to work with the
amazing David Heller and I dressed up as Dave for Halloween.”
Being a team member also stems from childhood, as Sean was part of a
tight-knit group called “The Crew” in middle and high schools.
“I could not have imagined growing up any differently because all of us
would come to my basement and we would all sit down and talk for hours.
We have this Facebook thread of 14 people and we would talk to each other
night and day to help each other grow up and get through this weird time of
our lives.”
The Crew is a diverse group, with people of varying races and perspectives
who represent all types of interests, with artists, writers, videographers,
doctors, people in the military and more.
“The things that I love at TCA are … that every day is a new day because
I never quite know what I’m going to do. … We’re moving a mile a minute,”
he said. Which is not unlike what truck drivers say they like about their jobs.
So — a fit all the way around.
A candid shot of Sean
A very young Sean with his parents
Sean with his dad
The Truckload Carriers Association
welcomes companies that
joined our association in
October and November.
FleetSeek
Goldberg Segalla
October 2017
JBS Carriers
Smith-Cargo Transportation
November 2017
Cheema Freightlines, LLC
Searcy Trucking Ltd.
Ficel Transport, Inc.
ONE for Freight
TCA 2017-18 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 39

PROFILE
By Lyndon Finney
Friendship has been described as a relationship of mutual
affection between people, a relationship that is a stronger form of
interpersonal bond than just an acquaintance.
That’s the best way to describe the friendship between Earl L.
Henderson and the late John Kaburick, the 2010-2011 Truckload
Carriers Association chairman who passed away in 2014.
Kaburick had long desired to own his own trucking company,
and as a salesman
of Freightliner
Trucks, Kaburick
and Henderson
became fast
friends.
“Leon (Henderson
went by his
middle name) was
getting a little older
and his health
wasn’t quite as
good because of
the stress and the
amount of work,
so he decided it
was time to get
out,” says Josh
Kaburick, John Kaburick’s
son and
now CEO of the
company. “Leon
and his wife and
my mom and dad
would regularly
do things together
and were on vacation
in Florida. They were walking
along the beach, as my father would
tell the story, and he and Leon struck
a deal.”
John Kaburick set out to grow
the company with the philosophy
of growing it profitably rather than
quickly.
“He wanted to grow it in the
utmost ethical way possible,” Josh
says. “He had opportunities to grow
the company tremendously but
chose not to do so. He just wanted
very consistent, manageable
growth. I have maintained that
philosophy.”
Josh Kaburick grew up in the
business.
Young and still in high school, Josh spent the summer working in
the family business “which involved washing out trailers, cleaning
trucks, cleaning the parking lot, sweeping the shop floor, all those
types of jobs,” Josh said. “Then as time progressed I was allowed
to do a little work in the shop, a little work in the front office.”
Earl L. Henderson Trucking Co.
Founded: 1978
CEO: Josh Kaburick
Number of Trucks: 350
Number of Trailers: 460
Number of Drivers: 345
Divisions: Dry van, reefer
TCA Member Since 1989
Josh went to Western Illinois University on a football scholarship
and after graduation, joined the family business in 2000.
Shortly after he returned, Josh and his father determined that
Josh should succeed him as head of the company.
“But I had to prove to my father I could do it, that I could make
the right decisions and choices at work and outside of work,” Josh
said. “As a student-athlete, he saw that I could be disciplined,
that I could make
the right choices.
I kept up my
grades and
played all the
way through
school. It’s pretty
easy for someone
who is young
and has all the
opportunities to
get off the tracks.
But you have
to continue on
the straight and
narrow. I was
able to do that
and prove to him
that I wanted to
be that person
[to take over the
company].
There are two
sides of Earl L.
Henderson Trucking
— dry van and
refrigerated.
The refrigerated division runs all
48 states, hauling a lot of protein
and produce.
The dry van side runs from the
Rockies eastward.
The two contribute equally to the
company’s revenue.
In October 2015 Earl L. Henderson
Trucking joined with Prime, Inc.
under Prime’s Advanced Fleet
Program.
The program, which is poweronly,
allows Henderson Trucking
to leverage the advantages of a
massive 6,000-plus tractor fleet
with the hands-on and personal
attention of a family-run company to
deliver outstanding performance to
its customers and dedicated and caring support to its employees,
Josh said.
“We’ve known Robert Low (president and founder of Prime and
himself a former TCA chairman) and his organization for a long time
and are in a Best Practice Group with them,” Josh said. “Shortly
40 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

Josh Kaburick, right, with JD Scott, a
driver at Henderson for 11 months.
after the time of
my father’s death,
we were looking
at the marketplace
and I knew they
had the Advanced
Fleet Program. It’s
been very, very
successful.”
On the highway,
don’t be surprised
to see a Prime trailer
being pulled by a
Henderson truck.
“Everything
is extremely
transparent, which
is great. It’s so rare
for us carriers to get
comfortable enough
to be willing to be
transparent like
that, but they are. In
the end you’re still
running your own
company. “The nice
part is you’re now
with a very large
fleet and that gives you a lot of opportunities for your drivers,”
who he says are welcome to come see him anytime.
Josh has built a culture at Henderson around the philosophy of
“work hard, play hard. We’re here early, often here late. We like to
have fun as much as we can while we’re here. You have to make it
enjoyable, but you also have to get your work done.”
Part of the “play hard” philosophy is that the company will
conduct contests throughout the year.
The day of this interview was voting day on “No Shave
November.”
“About 15 of us have tried to grow the best beard we can,”
Josh related. “We’ll have non-participants vote and there will be
prizes. Throughout the month, everyone’s talking trash about
their beards and how it’s growing in. There are side bets and
wagers, just a lot of fun.”
By the way, Josh didn’t win.
Didn’t even place.
Cliff Beckham, the company president and COO, won the
contest.
Matt Morrow, a fleet manager, took second and Ardel Grider in
programing took home worst beard.
But, “we had a lot of fun with it,” Josh said.
The road to
protecting
your fleet
Transportation Insurance
Specialists Since 1970
Joyce Ayres has been driving at Henderson for 13 years.
www.Truckload.org | TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY 41
888-313-3226 www.ecbm.com
Offices in PA & MD

Christmas
Capitol
Tree
1
At a reception prior to the lighting of the U.S. Capitol Christmas
Tree, the Truckload Carriers Association was presented with a 2017 Capitol
Christmas Tree Appreciation Award.
Bruce Ward, founder and president of Choose Outdoors, the nonprofit
organization that oversees the project, bestowed the honor in recognition of
TCA’s continuing support of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree program. TCA’s
Senior Director of Outreach & Engagement Marli Hall accepted the award.
“Without the support of TCA, we could not have accomplished so much on
the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree tour this year,” Ward said. “We now have
so many members of the trucking industry working to make this bigger and
better every year. We’re looking forward to finding even more ways to make
the cross-country journey of ‘The People’s Tree’ an American tradition that can
be shared by millions of people around the world.”
As in previous years, TCA member companies hosted “whistle stops” at points
along the tree’s route. This year’s events included a stop in Grand Forks, North
Dakota, hosted by Britton Transport, as well as a stop in Kansas City, Missouri,
hosted by Meritor and MHC Kenworth.
The tree was hauled by Larry Spiekermeier with Whitewood Transport of
Billings, Montana, in a nearly 100-foot trailer wrapped in banners displaying
thousands of signatures from throughout the tree’s trek.
The Capitol Christmas Tree has been a tradition at the U.S. Capitol since 1964. It
was lighted on the West Lawn of the Capitol by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan
and Ridley Brandmayr, an 11-year-old from Bozeman, Montana.
The tree, adorned with thousands of ornaments and topped by a large copper
star, will be shining brightly for all to see from dusk until 11 p.m. each evening
throughout the holiday season.
42 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

8
2
9
10
3
4
5
11
6
7
1. Hundreds of people attended the tree lighting ceremony on Wednesday, December
6, on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. 2. TCA staff members attended the tree lighting
event. Pictured from left are Tripp Lott, Kristen Bouchard, Ron Goode, Miia Rasinen, Sean
Townsend and Marli Hall. 3. U.S. Choose Outdoors’ Bruce Ward, center, speaks at the
event. Whitewood Transport Inc.’s Larry Spiekermeier, left, and TCA’s Marli Hall pose
with awards. 4. One of Missoula, Montana’s long-standing ballet companies, the Rocky
Mountain Ballet Theatre’s “Engelmann Spruce” dancers wowed the attendees at the
prelighting event on Tuesday, December 5. An awards ceremony and the event were held at
the Wunder Garten in Washington. 5. The Tribal Community of Fort Belknap, Montana, was
in attendance at the prelighting event. 6. “The People’s Tree” arrived on the West Lawn of
the U.S. Capitol on Monday, November 27. Special thanks to professional truck driver Larry
Spiekermeier for delivering the tree. 7. Santa appeared at the event in Thompson Falls,
Montana. 8. On November 7, Montanans joined staff from the Kootenai National Forest and
Choose Outdoors to celebrate the beginning of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree’s journey.
9. Larry Spiekermeier’s wife Mary Ann was able to accompany her husband on a portion
of the trip to Washington. 10. Professional truck driver Larry Spiekermeier of Whitewood
Transport, Inc., speaks Tuesday, December 5, during the prelighting event in DC. Larry, an
owner-operator with the company, helped the tree make the 3,000-mile trek from Montana
to the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. 11. A crane lifts the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree upon
its arrival in Washington, D.C., at the West Lawn of the Capitol building. 12. Attendees at
the Grand Forks, North Dakota, whistle stop sign the banner which lined the tree during
its trek across the country. 13. Special thanks to Meritor and MHC Kenworth, hosts for the
Kansas City, Missouri, whistle stop. 14. Leaving Britton Transport: TCA member company,
Britton Transport, along with numerous sponsors in the Grand Forks area, hosted the 2017
U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Sunday, November 19.
12
13
14
TCA 2017-18 www.Truckload.org | TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY 43

A QUICK LOOK AT IMPORTANT TCA NEWS
SMALL
A QUICK LOOK AT
IMPORTANT TCA NEWS
TALK
Cathy F. Gautreaux
Gautreaux
Cathy F. Gautreaux is the new deputy administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration.
As the agency’s second-ranking official, Gautreaux is principally responsible for overseeing
FMCSA’s day-to-day operational programs and activities, which are performed by more
than 1,100 employees located in its Washington headquarters, four regional service centers,
52 divisional offices and 31 field units.
Prior to being asked by President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao
in November 2017 to join FMCSA in an executive leadership role, Gautreaux had a long and
distinguished career working in law enforcement, regional and national commercial trucking
and in transportation safety.
Gautreaux succeeds Daphne Jefferson who retired from the agency.
Jefferson became the deputy administrator in February 2015 after serving as the counselor
to the chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Transportation in the Office of the Secretary.
As deputy administrator, Gautreaux believes that compliance is first and foremost, and
said she wanted to help motor carriers run safe and successful truck and bus operations.
An agency spokesperson said Gautreaux brings a state’s perspective to FMCSA.
A graduate of Louisiana State University with a degree in criminal justice, Gautreaux
began her career working as a detective in the Ascension Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff’s Office
for four years.
She later joined the Louisiana Motor Transport Association, serving as its executive director
for more than three decades.
Gautreaux is a past national chairman of the American Trucking Associations Trucking
Association Executive Council.
During her career, she has been selected to serve on numerous prestigious national and
regional boards, commissions and task forces addressing the full spectrum of intermodal
transportation issues, including: homeland security, emergency disaster relief, incident management,
commercial vehicle safety technologies, alternative fuels, oversized/overweight
vehicles, commercial driver’s licenses, railroad grade crossings, work zone safety, distracted
driving and other topics.
Gautreaux said whether it is the movement of freight or the transportation of passengers,
her experience has taught her that, at its core, the commercial vehicle industry is ultimately
about the people: the drivers, the small business owners, and the motoring public.
“Gautreaux is committed to keeping our nation’s transportation-dependent economy vibrant
and strong while ensuring that our highways and roads remain the safest anywhere in
the world,” the agency said on its website.
Insurance
The Truckload Carriers Association, in conjunction with the Motor Carrier Insurance Education
Foundation (MCIEF), has released a new certification program dedicated to strengthening
operations — the Motor Carrier Insurance Risk Management Program (MCIRMP).
This eight-part online course empowers participants to make better insurance purchasing
decisions and instructs them on how to improve practices to see measurable results.
The participants will earn the designation of Certified Motor Carrier Risk Specialist upon
completion of the lessons and examination.
“By making the commitment to be more knowledgeable purchasers of insurance for their
motor carriers, professionals are not only showing their dedication to their own career development,
but to the success and profitability of their companies,” said Ron Goode, M.A., Ed.,
TCA’s director of education. “Truckload Academy is proud to be the source of such continuing
education and professional certification for the trucking industry through the Motor Carrier
Insurance Risk Management Program.”
The new offering is divided into modules covering a wide variety of topics, including the
types of coverage needed, key strategies for obtaining a sound insurance program that is
a valuable asset for the motor carrier, and the considerations that go into how coverage is
provided. In addition, participants learn steps to become better insured and the best way to
be prepared for critical situations with potential major financial implications.
“How important is insurance to your trucking company?” asked M. Thomas Ruke Jr., CIC,
CPIA, CWIS, TRS, president of Insurance Business Consultants, Inc. and founder of MCIEF. “It becomes
very important when you have to rely on the promise of protection in your insurance policies.
Then the promise in the policy might be the most important promise made to your company.”
The Motor Carrier Insurance Risk Management Program features interactive modules,
with key words and phrases linked to additional information about the topic, with quizzes
to help serve as checkpoints for understanding. The MCIRMP is the second certification
program from Truckload Academy, with the Certified Fleet Manager Program also offering
credentialing opportunities. Both programs are available at a discount for TCA members, and
can be purchased from TCA’s online learning platform, the Truckload Academy On-demand
(TAO). Once purchased, participants have unrestricted access for one year, and receive a
certificate suitable for framing upon completion of the preparatory course and exam.
For more information on the Motor Carrier Insurance Risk Management Program, and to
purchase, visit TCA’s online learning platform, Truckload Academy On-demand.
44 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

... AND IN CONCLUSION,
SOME LAST WORDS TO PONDER:
“This [commute time] is one of those issues electronic logging devices have
brought to the forefront. We as an industry have become masters of hiding it
with the paper logs. With ELDs, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
realizes this is a bigger problem than is out there because we are painting
pictures of what actually goes on.”
— David Heller
Vice President of Government Affairs
at the Truckload Carriers Association
“I believe we should look at the cost benefit analysis on speed
limiters, but I’m willing to look at all opinions.”
— Ray Martinez
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration Administrator Nominee
“The ELD rule is estimated to save more than 25 lives
and prevent more than 500 injuries resulting from crashes
involving large commercial motor vehicles. The ELD rule
will result in an annual net benefit of more than $1 billion
— largely by reducing the amount of required industry paperwork.”
— Duane DeBruyne
FMCSA spokesperson
“Ten years ago, there was a certain level of driver culture resistance. When I
started speaking at trade shows, I had to chase people down the hallway. I couldn’t
pay people to come. Now it’s to the point where they’re coming up to me and offering
their cards to get information. It’s very gratifying.”
— Bob Perry
Founder and COO of Rolling Strong on driver attitudes about fitness
“I do believe that the driver shortage will be felt strongly in 2018. The shortage has been talked about
nonstop for the last eight, nine years, but it has never been paired with a major capacity crunch. I think
with the freight market forecast plus the ELD mandate hitting in 2018, we could finally see the perfect storm
that makes the so-called shortage more ‘real’ to the industry. If capacity gets extremely tight, the driver situation
will get very interesting.”
— Jeremy Stickling
Vice President of human resources and safety at Nussbaum
TCA 2017-18 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 45

MARK YOUR
CALENDAR
MARCH 2018
>> March 25-28 — 80th Annual Convention, Gaylord
Palms, Kissimmee, Florida.
MAY 2018
>> May 21-23 — 36th Annual Safety and Security
Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona
For more information about these or any other TCA
events, please visit www.truckload.org or contact TCA
at (703) 838-1950.
Visit TCA’s Event Calendar Page
online at Truckload.org and click “Events.”
46 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2017-18

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