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Convention Coverage | inside out with tripp lott | CApitol reCAp<br />
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION o f t h e Truckload Carriers Association<br />
April/may 2018<br />
A rEAL<br />
HONOR<br />
trucking industry veteran<br />
dan doran new tca chairman<br />
In this issue<br />
Parking safely<br />
Diverse coalition grapples with age-old problem<br />
Elephant in the room<br />
Women drivers say safety a priority at work<br />
Student of the Game<br />
Ari Fleischer talks about White House communications
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APRIL/MAY | TCA 2018<br />
President’s Purview<br />
Building Energy<br />
Whew.<br />
After nearly a month, the TCA staff and I are just now getting fully recovered<br />
from the nonstop action of our 80th annual convention.<br />
The feedback we’ve been receiving from our members has validated<br />
how our bodies feel: The new convention format — condensed by a day and<br />
packed full of CEO panels, educational sessions, committee meetings and<br />
receptions — kicked our butts in the most exciting and productive ways.<br />
One of our proudest achievements from this convention was the successful<br />
passing of the TCA chairman’s torch from Rob Penner to Dan Doran.<br />
I cannot think of a better convention to honor these two incredibly hardworking<br />
men.<br />
Rob was a fantastic leader for this association for the past year, including<br />
being one of the lead proponents of the revamped convention format, and I<br />
know that Dan is more than willing and capable of picking up right where Rob<br />
left off.<br />
John Lyboldt<br />
President<br />
Truckload Carriers Association<br />
jlyboldt@truckload.org<br />
Another great achievement from the convention was regarding our government<br />
affairs initiatives.<br />
Once again, our board of directors approved TCA to invoice each of its<br />
members for a voluntary contribution amounting to 20 percent of their dues.<br />
In addition, the board also established a standing committee at the board<br />
meeting for the first time ever. The TCA Advocacy Advisory Committee will<br />
provide guidance for our government affairs team, helping them focus on the<br />
issues that matter most to our members.<br />
I couldn’t possibly list all the achievements from the convention in this<br />
short space, but thankfully, you will read about many of them in this issue.<br />
So sit back, relax, and build up your energy for all that TCA has in store for<br />
you the rest of the year.<br />
John Lyboldt<br />
PRESIDENT’S PICKS<br />
Job-Hopping<br />
It isn’t uncommon to find drivers who<br />
change jobs two or three times every year.<br />
Page 18<br />
Stop Modern-Day Slavery<br />
‘Truckers are the answer’<br />
to curbing trafficking<br />
Page 20<br />
Highway Angel<br />
Challenger Motor Freight’s John Weston<br />
honored for heroism<br />
Page 37<br />
TCA 2018 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 3
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CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD<br />
Dan Doran, President<br />
Doran Logistics, LLC<br />
APRIL/MAY 2018<br />
PRESIDENT<br />
John Lyboldt<br />
jlyboldt@truckload.org<br />
VICE PRESIDENT - GOV’T AFFAIRS<br />
Dave Heller<br />
dheller@truckload.org<br />
AT-LARGE OFFICER<br />
Roy Cox, President<br />
Best Logistics Group<br />
ASSISTANT EDITOR<br />
Dorothy Cox<br />
dlcox@thetrucker.com<br />
AT-LARGE OFFICER<br />
Dave Williams, Executive VP<br />
Knight Transportation<br />
PRODUCTION MGR. + ART DIRECTOR<br />
Rob Nelson<br />
robn@thetrucker.com<br />
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT<br />
William (Bill) Giroux<br />
wgiroux@truckload.org<br />
VP - OPERATIONS AND EDUCATION<br />
James J. Schoonover<br />
jschoonover@truckload.org<br />
FIRST VICE CHAIR<br />
SECOND VICE CHAIR<br />
Josh Kaburick, CEO Dennis Dillinger, President<br />
Earl L. Henderson Trucking Company Cargo Transporters<br />
TREASURER<br />
Jim Ward<br />
President & CEO<br />
D.M. Bowman, Inc.<br />
SECRETARY<br />
John Elliott, CEO<br />
Load One, LLC<br />
IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR<br />
Rob Penner<br />
President & CEO<br />
Bison Transport<br />
ASSOCIATION VP TO ATA<br />
Bill Reed Jr., Chairman & CEO<br />
Skyline Transportation<br />
AT-LARGE OFFICER<br />
Mike Eggleton, Jr., Vice President<br />
Raider Express, Inc.<br />
publication are not necessarily those of TCA.<br />
In exclusive partnership with:<br />
Phone: (800) 666-2770 • Fax: (501) 666-0700<br />
TRUCKING DIVISION SVP<br />
David Compton<br />
davidc@targetmediapartners.com<br />
GENERAL MGR. T RUCKING DIV.<br />
Megan Cullingford-Hicks<br />
meganh@targetmediapartners.com<br />
MARKETING MANAGER<br />
Meg Larcinese<br />
megl@targetmediapartners.com<br />
VICE PRESIDENT + PUBLISHER<br />
Ed Leader<br />
edl@thetrucker.com<br />
EDITOR<br />
Lyndon Finney<br />
editor@thetrucker.com<br />
ASSOCIATE EDITOR<br />
Klint Lowry<br />
klint.lowry@thetrucker.com<br />
PRODUCTION + ART ASSISTANT<br />
Christie McCluer<br />
christie.mccluer@thetrucker.com<br />
NATIONAL MARKETING CONSULTANT<br />
Dennis Bell<br />
dennisb@targetmediapartners.com<br />
PRESIDENT’S PURVIEW<br />
Building Energy by John Lyboldt | 3<br />
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE<br />
Parking Safely | 6<br />
Capitol Recap | 12<br />
TRACKING THE TRENDS<br />
Elephant in the Room | 15<br />
Job Hopping | 18<br />
Stop Modern-Day Slavery | 20<br />
A CHAT WITH THE CHAIRMAN<br />
A Real Honor with Dan Doran | 22<br />
MEMBER MAILROOM<br />
SPONSO<strong>RED</strong> BY MCLEOD SOFTWARE<br />
What’s in Store for TCA’s Safety Meeting? | 27<br />
TALKING TCA<br />
Inside Out with Tripp Lott | 28<br />
The Future with John Lyboldt | 32<br />
Student of the Game with Ari Fleischer | 34<br />
Highway Angel | 37<br />
Top Drivers | 38<br />
Welcome to Kissimmee, Florida | 40<br />
Small Talk | 42<br />
Important Dates to Remember | 46<br />
REACHING TRUCKING’S<br />
TOP EXECUTIVES<br />
T H E R O A D M A P<br />
© 2018 Trucker Publications Inc., all rights reserved. Reproduction without written permission<br />
prohibited.<br />
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and editorial materials are accepted and published by Truckload Authority and its exclusive partner,<br />
Trucker Publications, on the representation that the advertiser, its advertising company and/<br />
or the supplier of editorial materials are authorized to publish the entire contents and subject<br />
matter thereof.<br />
Such entities<br />
and/or their agents will defend, indemnify and hold Truckload Authority, Truckload Carriers<br />
Association, Target Media Partners, and its subsidiaries included, by not limited to, Trucker<br />
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Cover Courtesy:<br />
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Additional magazine photography:<br />
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Associated Press: P. 35, 36<br />
FotoSearch: P. 6, 7, 10, 13, 14, 15, 20<br />
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TCA: P. 3, 5, 29, 32, 33, 34, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45<br />
The Trucker News Org.: P. 3, 18<br />
Tripp Lott: P. 30, 31<br />
“We have been proud members of the TCA for<br />
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associates. I look to Truckload Authority as it’s<br />
AN INVALUABLE RESOURCE – one<br />
that helps to keep me informed of upcoming<br />
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TRUCKING’S MOST ENTERTAINING<br />
EXECUTIVE PUBLICATION<br />
TCA 2018 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 5
APRIL/MAY | TCA 2018<br />
Legislative Update<br />
Parking Safely<br />
By Lyndon Finney<br />
he story is sad, but it probably bears repeating given<br />
the importance of the nature of this article.<br />
Jason Rivenburg, a part-time trucker for VanderVeen<br />
Trucking in Delanson, New York, was hauling organic<br />
milk in March 2009.<br />
His 11-hour clock was about to end, but he couldn’t<br />
find a parking place at a well-lighted truck stop or<br />
rest stop with truck parking facilities, so he pulled into<br />
an abandoned gas station in Calhoun County, South<br />
Carolina.<br />
There on the night of March 5, Jason was murdered<br />
for the $7 he had in his pocket by Willie Pelzer, who<br />
authorities say stalked and then ambushed Rivenburg.<br />
Prosecutors said Pelzer was looking for money to buy<br />
drugs.<br />
Despite the horrific nature of the crime, the case<br />
didn’t gain much attention in the public or trade<br />
media until Riverburg’s wife Hope caught the ear of<br />
two Congressmen from New York — Rep. Paul Tanko,<br />
D-N.Y, and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y, who — about<br />
two months after the crime — introduced companion<br />
bills in the House and Senate directing the Secretary<br />
of Transportation to: (1) implement a pilot program<br />
to allocate funds to states, metropolitan planning<br />
organizations, and local governments that submit an<br />
application approved by the secretary for eligible projects<br />
to establish long-term parking facilities for commercial<br />
motor vehicles (trucks) on the National Highway System;<br />
and (2) give priority to applicants that demonstrate a<br />
severe shortage of truck parking capacity and whose<br />
proposed projects are likely to have positive effects on<br />
highway safety, traffic congestion, or air quality.<br />
Neither the House nor the Senate ever voted on the<br />
bill.<br />
There was never an explanation why.<br />
Perhaps it was a lack of knowledge on the part<br />
of lawmakers in both the Senate and House on the<br />
seriousness of a truck parking shortage.<br />
Maybe it was because Tanko and Schumer failed to<br />
find a measure on which to attach their bill because it<br />
is well known that many important pieces of legislation<br />
are not strong enough to go it alone and are attached to<br />
the coattails of a sure-fire bill such as an appropriations<br />
measure.<br />
Tanko and Schumer introduced Jason’s Law again in<br />
2011 and this time they attached Jason’s Law to the<br />
long-awaited transportation bill, which came to be known<br />
as MAP-21, an acronym for Moving Ahead for Progress in<br />
the 21st Century Act.<br />
“It is the sense of Congress that it is a national<br />
priority to address projects under this section for the<br />
shortage of long-term parking for commercial motor<br />
vehicles on the National Highway System to improve<br />
the safety of motorized and nonmotorized users and for<br />
commercial motor vehicle operators,” the bill reads.<br />
“Jason’s Law” created a pilot program that would<br />
make $120 million available in the form of grants ($20<br />
million per year) for local governments and private<br />
companies to address the shortage of parking for<br />
commercial vehicles on the National Highway System.<br />
As a result of the passage of Jason’s Law, the<br />
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued its<br />
congressionally mandated survey (Jason’s Law Parking<br />
Survey Results and Comparative Analysis), which bluntly<br />
showed truck parking to be a serious problem in the<br />
United States.<br />
The U.S. Department of Transportation and several<br />
stakeholder organizations then established the<br />
National Coalition of Truck Parking whose membership<br />
includes the FHWA, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety<br />
Administration, DOT’s Maritime Administration,<br />
the American Association of State Highway and<br />
Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the American<br />
Trucking Associations, the Commercial Vehicle Safety<br />
Alliance (CVSA), NATSO (which represents American’s<br />
travel plazas and truck stops), and the Owner-Operator<br />
Independent Drivers Association.<br />
6 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
The only public acknowledgement of the work of<br />
the coalition was a report as required by Congress and<br />
issued in June 2017.<br />
Jeff Purdy, a member of the freight analysis and<br />
research team at the FHWA, speaks for the coalition.<br />
“One of the things the coalition wanted us to do was<br />
go out and conduct regional workshops for drivers and<br />
trucking industry representatives about the types of<br />
initiatives we should be working on in 2016 when we<br />
conducted four regional workshops,” Purdy said.<br />
Those workshops were held in Salt Lake City;<br />
Hanover, Maryland; Dallas; and at Grain Valley,<br />
Missouri, headquarters of OOIDA.<br />
“We solicited input from truck drivers and others<br />
involved in the trucking industry for the types of<br />
priorities we should be focusing on,” Purdy said.<br />
“There was brainstorming as to what types of<br />
initiatives were needed in terms of expanding truck<br />
parking capacity, looking at technology such as truck<br />
parking information systems, looking at innovative<br />
funding options, as well as state, regional and local<br />
government cooperation to make sure we include truck<br />
parking in planning efforts from the state level down to<br />
the local municipal level.”<br />
Those areas boil down to the following:<br />
• Parking capacity<br />
• Technology and data<br />
• Funding, finance and regulations, and<br />
• State, regional and local government coordination.<br />
The “Jason’s Law” grants<br />
would provide funding for<br />
several initiatives:<br />
• Constructing safe rest areas that include parking for<br />
commercial motor vehicles<br />
• Constructing commercial motor vehicle parking<br />
facilities adjacent to commercial truck stops and<br />
travel plazas<br />
• Opening existing facilities to commercial motor<br />
vehicle parking, including inspection and weigh<br />
stations and park-and-ride facilities<br />
• Promoting the availability of publicly or privately<br />
provided commercial motor vehicle parking on<br />
the National Highway System using intelligent<br />
transportation systems and other means<br />
• Constructing turnouts along the National Highway<br />
System for commercial motor vehicles<br />
• Making capital improvements to public commercial<br />
motor vehicle parking facilities currently closed on a<br />
seasonal basis to allow the facilities to remain open<br />
year-round, and<br />
• Improving the geometric design of interchanges on<br />
the National Highway System to improve access to<br />
commercial motor vehicle parking facilities.<br />
“The group studying parking capacity is looking<br />
beyond the conventional rest areas for some innovative<br />
solutions such as public-private partnerships with truck<br />
stop operators, and developing low-cost truck parking,<br />
such as if a weigh station is closed to repurpose that<br />
for truck parking,” Purdy said. “They are looking at<br />
increasing more involvement by the private sector such<br />
as shipping companies, distributors, major retailers —<br />
getting them more involved in the process — such as<br />
seeing if some retail establishments would allow onsite<br />
parking if a driver makes a delivery at the end of his<br />
Hours of Service so he can park outside if space is<br />
available.”<br />
Purdy said the second group is focused on<br />
technology, looking at such things as the truck parking<br />
information systems and the types of things the<br />
industry should be promoting and advancing in those<br />
areas.<br />
A third group is looking at funding and finance,<br />
looking at innovative ways to fund truck parking, such<br />
as public-private partnerships between public entities<br />
and truck stop operators to develop additional truck<br />
parking, and innovative financing mechanisms that may<br />
be available to states and local governments as well as<br />
the private sector.<br />
The fourth group is focusing on state, regional and<br />
local government coordination.<br />
“They are looking for best practices for local and<br />
state planning groups to incorporate truck parking into<br />
their state and regional freight plans,” he said. “They<br />
are also working with local governments to promote<br />
truck parking as something that’s<br />
necessary to support our economy<br />
and support retail industries that are<br />
important to local governments. It’s<br />
sort of like an educational campaign<br />
for local governments to build support<br />
for allowing additional truck parking<br />
capacity to be built within their<br />
communities,” which is known be<br />
a major issue when a truck stop or<br />
travel center is seeking permission to<br />
add parking.<br />
Of course, the work of the coalition<br />
hasn’t and won’t yield more new<br />
parking spaces and accessibility to<br />
those that already exist.<br />
The importance of available parking<br />
is readily apparent in these facts<br />
published by the National Cooperative<br />
Highway Research Program, which is<br />
a part of the Transportation Research<br />
Board. They estimate that:<br />
• The absence of rest areas<br />
increases shoulder-related accidents<br />
due to parked vehicles on the side of<br />
the road by 52 percent.<br />
• Reducing driver fatigue accounted<br />
for a 3.7 percent reduction in accident<br />
rates, and<br />
• Motorists’ use of rest areas<br />
reduced accidents by 3.7 percent,<br />
representing a benefit to society of<br />
$148 million dollars.<br />
Tca 2018 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 7
No other organization<br />
may be more cognizant of<br />
the truck parking issue than<br />
NATSO.<br />
“With the issue of solving<br />
truck parking, we still have<br />
a long way to go,” says Lisa<br />
Mullings, NATSO’s president<br />
and CEO. “The DOT has<br />
done a great job of bringing<br />
stakeholders together and<br />
having more conversations<br />
that I think we needed<br />
to have. There are so many groups involved in the<br />
conversation and it’s a complicated issue, so I think<br />
any kind of solution needs to involve a lot of different<br />
groups, from the trucking companies, the truck drivers<br />
themselves, to the shippers/receivers and also the<br />
truck stop operators and state government. There are<br />
a lot of different people and groups involved in this.”<br />
Mullings said fuel contract negotiations between<br />
truck stop operators and motor carriers could help<br />
provide funding for new spaces.<br />
“If the trucking companies would go to our members<br />
when they’re negotiating fuel contracts and say, ‘We<br />
want a part of this for you to provide our drivers with<br />
this number of parking spaces and this needs to part<br />
of this deal with you,’ I think that we would quickly see<br />
this problem — at least in situations where it can be<br />
fixed — fixed,” Mullings said. “I think that would be the<br />
fastest road forward, because one of the reasons the<br />
smaller-size truck stops in late 1990s into the 2000s<br />
did so well was because the price of fuel was the only<br />
important thing to a fleet that was negotiating with one<br />
of our members.”<br />
But, Mullings cautions, the problem is never going to<br />
go away entirely.<br />
“You’re never going to be able to build parking right<br />
outside Los Angeles; you’re never going to be able<br />
to build enough parking right outside New York,” she<br />
said. “There are always going to be places where it’s<br />
going to be difficult because land is very expensive and<br />
there’s no way that someone could build parking for<br />
all trucks to go in and out of these cities. But I think in<br />
all the other instances you could probably fix it by just<br />
doing that.”<br />
OOIDA’s Director of Government Affairs Mike<br />
Matousek recalled an instance in meetings at OOIDA’s<br />
headquarters when a representative of the Missouri<br />
Department of Transportation presented some<br />
interesting concepts.<br />
“He highlighted some things that Missouri has<br />
done to address this as far as converting antiquated<br />
weigh stations into truck-only parking and doing the<br />
same with rest areas, and doing it in a cost-effective<br />
manner,” Matousek said. “Basically, they are tearing<br />
down what needs to be torn down, throwing down<br />
some asphalt or gravel depending on the location, and<br />
putting in a vault toilet.”<br />
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There are locations on I-29 and a couple of locations<br />
on I-70, which are rural, which is a good thing, he<br />
said.<br />
“I thought that was pretty neat for MoDOT to attend<br />
to kind of give a rundown on the things that they have<br />
done. And I don’t recall what the consensus was, but<br />
there were some interesting ideas that people brought<br />
up throughout the course of those four meetings.”<br />
With the Missouri meeting being at OOIDA<br />
headquarters, several association members were able<br />
to attend.<br />
“They told us about all those communities that<br />
don’t want even people who live there to park in the<br />
community,” Matousek said.<br />
There are two sides to the no-parking issue, said<br />
OOIDA spokesperson Norita Taylor.<br />
“There are the city ordinances,” she said. “And then<br />
there’s also the situation where if anybody tries to<br />
open up a new truck stop or open something that will<br />
allow truck parking, there’s the ‘not in my backyard’<br />
mentality.”<br />
Matousek cited a for instance.<br />
“In the City of North Bend, Washington, a truck<br />
stop wanted to expand, basically add a number of<br />
truck parking spots,” he said. “The local officials<br />
there basically came together and enacted a new<br />
ordinance to prevent that. More on a state level, I<br />
was just talking to a member who had mentioned<br />
that Illinois was shutting down a couple of rest areas<br />
[and] Connecticut is shutting rest areas down. It’s all<br />
budget-related, at least that’s what states will tell you,<br />
that they simply don’t have the money to do it. And<br />
on a federal level, look, states have the authority to<br />
spend money with certain restrictions, but really based<br />
on what their priorities are. And some states just don’t<br />
prioritize truck parking enough.”<br />
Scott Hernandez is director of crash standards<br />
“Clearly when drivers<br />
think this is such a<br />
huge issue, they’re<br />
the ones out there<br />
and we need to<br />
listen to that."<br />
— Scott Hernandez, CVSA<br />
and analysis at CVSA, the nonprofit association<br />
comprising local, state, provincial, territorial and<br />
federal commercial motor vehicle safety officials and<br />
industry representatives. The alliance aims to achieve<br />
uniformity, compatibility and reciprocity of commercial<br />
motor vehicle inspections and enforcement by certified<br />
inspectors dedicated to driver and vehicle safety.<br />
“Our interest is just being able to ensure commercial<br />
drivers have a safe place to rest before they get<br />
back out on the highway,” he said. “And if they can’t<br />
get good rest, obviously it jeopardizes safety. In a<br />
nutshell, our primary interest is partnership with FHWA<br />
on this project.”<br />
Hernandez agrees with Mullings that truck parking<br />
will be an ongoing issue.<br />
“I think it’s more of a moving target,” he said. “I<br />
don’t see it as something where someone just says,<br />
‘We’re done working on that.’ The infrastructure will<br />
always change. If you have Hours of Service rules that<br />
change slightly, that can change the night dynamics.<br />
I think we have some work to do in partnership,<br />
obviously, to continue trying to address this issue.<br />
“Clearly when drivers think this is such a huge<br />
issue, they’re the ones out there and we need to listen<br />
to that.<br />
“I think the primary role of CVSA is to make sure<br />
that throughout the United States and Canada and<br />
Mexico there is consistent enforcement and practices<br />
from law enforcement and our membership. And it’s all<br />
in the interest of safety. And that’s what our interest in<br />
this parking issue is.”<br />
Truck parking was ranked the fourth most critical<br />
issue in the trucking industry in the American<br />
Transportation Research Institute’s top 10 concerns list.<br />
It was rated second by drivers who participated in<br />
the survey, ninth by carrier executives.<br />
Survey recipients also tied the parking problem to<br />
electronic logging devices.<br />
“The truck parking issue may gain greater attention<br />
once the ELD mandate is in effect,” the survey report<br />
said. “In ATRI’s truck parking diary research, released<br />
in 2016, commercial drivers who were already using<br />
electronic logs were nearly twice as likely to spend<br />
more than 30 minutes looking for available parking as<br />
drivers who were using paper logs. In that research,<br />
ATRI cited one driver who commented, ‘ELDs leave no<br />
room for dealing with full truck stops, making it nearly<br />
impossible to preplan.’”<br />
Is the truck parking issue even solvable?<br />
Yes, says FHWA’s Purdy.<br />
“I think there’s a lot we can do in terms of<br />
technology to maximize the utilization of parking that<br />
is out there and then looking at innovative ways of<br />
developing truck parking,” he said. “There’s a lot we<br />
can do working together to solve this problem. We are<br />
faced with the reality that truck volumes continue to<br />
go up, the vehicle miles traveled continues to increase,<br />
the amount of freight that our highways are carrying<br />
continues to increase year-after-year. It’s going to take<br />
a concerted effort of both the public and private sector<br />
working together to try to find innovative solutions.”<br />
In the meantime, it’s probably appropriate to say<br />
the truck parking shortage is increasing, too.<br />
All we can do is hope.<br />
10 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org Tca 2018
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CapItol recap<br />
A review of important news coming out of our nation’s capital.<br />
By Lyndon Finney and Dorothy Cox<br />
ELDs are here to stay as the rule’s implementation date this past December and full enforcement date (April 1) have<br />
passed. That doesn’t mean it was all smooth sailing, as carriers clamored for extensions and the Federal Motor Carrier<br />
Safety Administration complied with a guidance to help ease some into the transition. Meanwhile, an amendment to keep<br />
states from enacting their own meal and rest break rules (F4A) were left out of a $1.3 trillion spending measure and a Texas<br />
Republican put forth a bill that would allow drivers to take one rest break per shift for up to three consecutive hours.<br />
ELDs<br />
As the April 1 full enforcement date of the electronic logging<br />
device mandate neared, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety<br />
Administration in mid-March issued a guidance to allow an<br />
alternate electronic logging device phase-in period.<br />
The guidance, a regulatory triumph for TCA, at least in part<br />
stemmed from a waiver request from Old Dominion Freight Lines<br />
in order go give the carrier time to install ELD devices running on<br />
automatic on-board recording device (AOBRD) software.<br />
That would give the carrier and others like it time to work with<br />
PeopleNet to complete the development of software necessary<br />
to integrate ELD data with carriers’ fleet management and safety<br />
systems and fully meet the ELD mandate.<br />
Certain AOBRD software changes must be made by PeopleNet,<br />
including:<br />
• Disabling the “skip feature”<br />
• Limiting the auto-duty status change threshold to 5 miles, and<br />
• Limiting geo-fencing of yard time to 0.5 miles.<br />
Up to 250,000 units similar to Old Dominion’s are said to be in<br />
use in the industry today.<br />
The guidance, developed by FMCSA after consultation with<br />
carriers in the same situation as Old Dominion, allows a motor<br />
carrier that installed and required its drivers to use an AOBRD<br />
before December 18, 2017, to run compliant AOBRD software until<br />
December 16, 2019, according to Joe DeLorenzo, FMCSA’s director<br />
of compliance and enforcement.<br />
DeLorenzo also said that the<br />
compliance rate for the ELD<br />
mandate was hovering at 96<br />
percent, based on data provided<br />
by law enforcement officers<br />
throughout the country.<br />
Based on his conversations<br />
with members, David Heller, vice<br />
president of government affairs at<br />
the Truckload Carriers Association,<br />
said the transition from “soft” to<br />
“full” enforcement of the mandate<br />
has gone well.<br />
“I think everybody’s very<br />
positive,” Heller said. “Carriers are<br />
basically at the point now where<br />
they’re saying, ‘hey, let’s move<br />
forward.’”<br />
Based on the mandate, drivers without an ELD- or AOBRDcompliant<br />
device who are stopped for a traffic violation or an<br />
inspection will be put out-of-service 10 hours for property carriers,<br />
eight for passenger carriers, said Adrienne Gildea, deputy executive<br />
director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA).<br />
“At the end of the 10 or eight hours, the driver can continue their<br />
trip using paper logs, make the delivery or drop off passengers,<br />
but they will not be allowed to be re-dispatched until the vehicle is<br />
properly equipped with an ELD-compliant device.<br />
“If the truck is stopped in an unsafe area, the inspector will<br />
escort them to a safe location where they can spend the 10 hours,”<br />
Gildea said. “We are not going to put somebody out on the side of<br />
the road in the middle of the interstate.”<br />
At the same time, it issued the ELD/AOBRD exemption, FMCSA<br />
also said it was taking additional steps to address what the agency<br />
called “the unique needs of the country’s agriculture industries.”<br />
The FMCSA revealed an additional 90-day temporary waiver<br />
(until June) from the ELD rule for agriculture-related transportation,<br />
including livestock transporters.<br />
However, on March 23 President Donald Trump signed a $1.3<br />
trillion spending bill that averted a midnight government shutdown<br />
and extended the ELD exemption past June to September 30 for<br />
livestock and insect haulers.<br />
That’s because September 30 is when the bill’s spending<br />
12 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
appropriations run out, said Gildea.<br />
Other agri haulers have until June 18 to comply.<br />
Additionally, FMCSA will publish final guidance on both the agricultural 150<br />
air-mile Hours of Service exemption and personal conveyance.<br />
The FMCSA said it would continue its outreach to provide assistance to the<br />
agricultural industry and community regarding the ELD rule.<br />
“We continue to see strong compliance rates across the country that improve<br />
weekly, but we are mindful of the unique work our agriculture community does and<br />
will use the following 90 days to ensure we publish more helpful guidance that all<br />
operators will benefit from,” said FMCSA Administrator Ray Martinez.<br />
As the “full” implementation period began, there were some who were still<br />
trying to derail the mandate.<br />
In March, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., urged Transportation Secretary Elaine<br />
Chao to immediately address “several serious concerns” about the electronic<br />
logging device rule being enforced beginning in April.<br />
“Livestock and produce haulers, farmers and rodeo enthusiasts are rightfully<br />
worried about the new ELD rules, and the DOT has not done enough to clarify who<br />
will be exempted,” Heitkamp said. “A one-size-fits-all approach to regulations simply<br />
doesn’t work in rural America, and this rule clearly lacked input from those who stand<br />
to be impacted the most. I fought to delay these ELD rules, and now the DOT must<br />
take into account the concerns of North Dakotans to properly modify and clarify the<br />
rules so folks out on the road know if they are in compliance with the law.”<br />
“An ELD is merely an extension of the paper log; it’s just done electronically.<br />
Those who are highlighting ELD problems don’t have an ELD problem; they have<br />
an hours of service problem,” explained Heller.<br />
“They’re telling the wrong story and that becomes the issue.”<br />
F4A<br />
After hinting that he might not sign it, President Donald Trump signed a $1.3<br />
trillion spending measure March 23, averting a midnight government shutdown.<br />
But the bill lacked something trucking had long sought and gone to the proverbial<br />
mat for — the Denham Amendment — which would keep states from adopting their<br />
own Hours of Service rules concerning meal and rest breaks and leading to what are<br />
referred to as “patchwork” rules. These differ from one state to the next and more<br />
importantly, from the federal HOS.<br />
TCA Vice President of Government Affairs David Heller said the Denham<br />
Amendment was “negotiated out” of the final budget and a “casualty of war.”<br />
“We took a loss on that one,” Heller said. “I’m not going to lie to you that we lost<br />
that one and we shouldn’t have. We should’ve won it.”<br />
Heller said he felt the amendment just got lost in the quagmire as Congress<br />
attempted to avert the shutdown.<br />
J. J. KELLER’S ELD INSIGHTS<br />
Improving Fleet Compliance<br />
with ELog Reporting<br />
If your fleet is like most, the data generated from drivers’ electronic logs<br />
(ELogs) is overwhelming your staff, particularly if your ELogs record all<br />
vehicle activity. Yet, using your ELog system to conduct targeted exception<br />
reporting can help you identify the compliance issues within that data,<br />
particularly in areas that correlate with crash risks:<br />
• Excessive speed<br />
• Hard braking<br />
• Hours of Service falsification<br />
Excessive Speed<br />
Speed can be a risk factor when your drivers exceed posted limits,<br />
especially in reduced speed zones and when they’re driving faster than the<br />
flow of traffic. By using AOBRDs or ELDs to monitor over-speed, real-time<br />
alerts and accumulated time over the speed parameters you set, you can<br />
take action to reduce speeding incidents that could lead to accidents and<br />
violations.<br />
Hard Braking<br />
Hard-braking alerts are created when a vehicle’s deceleration rate exceeds<br />
a certain threshold, usually set at 10 miles per hour per second. There are<br />
two steps to using hard-braking data successfully:<br />
1. Set the braking threshold correctly<br />
2. Determine an acceptable number of hard-braking incidents during<br />
a specific time span for your operation<br />
Your ELog system may be able to report all hard-braking incidents, but it’s<br />
up to you to determine which ones should trigger corrective action. The<br />
regular and timely use of trended reports and/or real-time alerts for unsafe<br />
driving behaviors can help you reduce hard-braking incidents.<br />
Falsification of Hours of Service<br />
Because FMCSA audits for falsification are different for electronic logs<br />
than they are for paper logs, you may need to modify your AOBRD or<br />
ELD system’s internal auditing and exception reporting to find the same<br />
compliance issues an FMCSA investigator would focus on.<br />
Falsification can be detected through detailed audits of supporting<br />
documents matched against the electronic record of duty status. Some<br />
key compliance exception reports include repeat offenders operating over<br />
hours’ limits, edit patterns by the driver and supervisor, excessive use of<br />
“yard move” and “personal use” special driving categories, and unassigned<br />
driving events.<br />
By using your ELog data to conduct targeted exception reporting, you<br />
can more effectively improve fleet compliance and thereby minimize<br />
crash risks.<br />
To download our “Improve Compliance and Operations<br />
Through ELog Reporting” whitepaper, and to learn about<br />
the J. J. Keller® Encompass® Fleet Management System with<br />
ELogs, visit JJKeller.com/ELogs.<br />
Fleet Management System<br />
with ELogs<br />
Tca 2018 www.Truckload.org | TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY 13
CAPITOL RECAP<br />
“Efforts to get the amendment in the spending bill — or any<br />
other bill for that matter — were far and wide,” he said. “A coalition<br />
that we had developed to work on that was ultimately humongous.<br />
“That being said, it just ended up on the cutting room floor, for<br />
lack of a better term. I know we have supporters on this issue and<br />
we’ve educated Congress. We [the coalition] just haven’t had the<br />
ability to move it through Congress. The hope is that we can get<br />
this passed and stop having to talk about it.”<br />
The amendment was based on California’s meal and rest<br />
break initiative, but it has spread to other states and included a<br />
retroactivity clause that makes its effective date 1994 — or in<br />
essence — as if it had been enacted through the Federal Aviation<br />
Administration Authorization Act (commonly called F4A) of 1994.<br />
That means no one could file litigation for violation of state<br />
meal and rest break laws, as occurred after the Ninth Circuit<br />
Court of Appeals ruled in July 2014 that F4A does not preempt<br />
the application of California’s meal and rest break laws for motor<br />
carriers because these state laws are not sufficiently “related to”<br />
prices, routes or services.<br />
The California law requires employers to provide a “duty-free,”<br />
30-minute meal break for employees who work more than five<br />
hours a day as well as a second “duty-free,” 30-minute meal break<br />
for people who work more than 10 hours a day.<br />
After other states followed California, trucking lobby groups<br />
pushed for an end to what they see as “patchwork” legislation.<br />
Close to 20 states have their own separate meal and rest break laws<br />
outside of and conflicting with federal HOS rules.<br />
Opponents to the amendment say it would keep states from<br />
requiring carriers to give drivers paid meal and rest breaks and protect<br />
carriers from being required to pay drivers for non-driving tasks.<br />
Both the Truckload Carriers Association and the American<br />
Trucking Associations have argued that having one federal rule<br />
across the board and across state lines is the safer and simpler way<br />
to govern HOS.<br />
HOS<br />
With the electronic logging device mandate successfully<br />
implemented, trucking is turning its efforts toward making<br />
needed changes in the Hours of Service regulations, specifically<br />
in the area of giving professional truck drivers flexibility with the<br />
14-hour clock.<br />
Rep. Brian Babin, a Republican from Texas and a member<br />
of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has<br />
introduced H.R. 5417, The Responsible and Effective Standards<br />
for Truckers (REST) Act — legislation that Babin said will<br />
modernize HOS regulations for truck drivers.<br />
The REST Act would allow drivers to take one rest break per shift<br />
for up to three consecutive hours.<br />
The ability to stop the clock is first and foremost in the minds<br />
of industry leaders and drivers, said David Heller, vice president of<br />
government affairs at the Truckload Carriers Association. While it<br />
is the biggest issue, Heller is not necessarily ready to jump on the<br />
bandwagon for the three-hour proposal.<br />
“Obviously, the question becomes why<br />
is a three-hour [break] a good thing, or is it<br />
the right thing,” Heller said. “There’s no data<br />
backing that up.”<br />
Those electronic logging devices will play<br />
an important role in determining how much<br />
leeway a driver should have with the 14-hour<br />
clock, Heller said.<br />
“Nobody can really do anything with<br />
the rulemaking without solid data and what<br />
actually creates that solid data are ELDs.”<br />
In addition to allowing drivers more<br />
flexibility, perhaps it’s time to deal with<br />
detention time as part of the HOS.<br />
“The FMCSA really needs to get off the<br />
fence on this one,” Heller said. “In a perfect<br />
world, there would not be detention time.<br />
However, everyone knows that trucking<br />
does not exist in a perfect world. In many<br />
customer/carrier relationships, calling out detention time can<br />
jeopardize a business relationship. If the agency could incorporate<br />
greater flexibility into its HOS regulations, issues like detention,<br />
congestion and bad weather could be handled in a more reasonable<br />
fashion. If creating a safer, well-rested driver is the ultimate goal<br />
for the agency, then greater flexibility must be part of the solution.”<br />
The REST Act requires the Department of Transportation to<br />
update HOS regulations to allow a rest break once per 14-hour duty<br />
period for up to three consecutive hours as long as the driver is offduty,<br />
effectively pausing the 14-hour clock.<br />
However, drivers would still need to log 10 consecutive hours off<br />
duty before the start of their next work shift.<br />
The bill would eliminate the existing 30-minute rest break<br />
requirement.<br />
“I’m proud to introduce the REST Act and give America’s<br />
truckers the options they need to safely operate under today’s rigid<br />
federal regulations,” Babin said. “This bill is an important step in<br />
making the way for improved highway safety.”<br />
14 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
APRIL/MAY | TCA 2018<br />
Tracking The Trends<br />
What Women<br />
Want:<br />
jOB sAFETY IS THE<br />
ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM.<br />
By Dorothy Cox<br />
It’s pitch-black 1 a.m. at a truck stop in<br />
Midtown, U.S.A., and you’ve been jarred<br />
awake by a pounding toothache. The only<br />
way to get some sleep is to hoof it across<br />
the acres of concrete to the store inside for<br />
some Orajel.<br />
That spicy Mexican food from dinner starts<br />
causing a disturbance in the force around<br />
midnight so you’ve got to make a quick run<br />
to the truck stop’s restroom.<br />
If you’re a male truck driver, that midnight<br />
run is probably a no brainer, especially if you<br />
have a good flashlight.<br />
If you’re a female truck driver — not so<br />
much — flashlight or not.<br />
It’s dangerous enough for men at parking<br />
facilities after dark. Just ask the trucker who<br />
would have been killed or badly hurt by a<br />
robber with a baseball bat if it hadn’t been<br />
for his Rottweiler. Or ask the families of<br />
fathers who’ve been killed while their trucks<br />
were parked in unsafe areas, all for the few<br />
dollars in their wallets.<br />
These are just a few of the examples of the<br />
elephant in the room regarding the safety of<br />
women truck drivers. Dark parking lots aside,<br />
male truck drivers aren’t usually sexually<br />
assaulted or harassed by their bosses,<br />
trainers or driving school instructors. And —<br />
men aren’t usually subjected to catcalls, rude<br />
or explicit sexual language from those who<br />
are stronger, bigger and more intimidating<br />
than they are.<br />
One woman said she formed her own<br />
trucking company because she was<br />
assaulted by a co-worker. A new recruit told<br />
a reporter that while she was in training to<br />
get her CDL, her trainer kicked her out of the<br />
truck twice so he could he could entertain<br />
paid “commercial company,” once in Seattle<br />
and once in Iowa. She now drives with her<br />
husband.<br />
Another driver said in CDL school her<br />
trainer tried to assault her and that she’s<br />
heard similar stories from other female<br />
drivers.<br />
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety<br />
Administration is concerned enough for the<br />
safety of women drivers that last fall the<br />
agency begin to lay groundwork for a survey<br />
titled “Crime Prevention for Truckers.” Its<br />
stated goal is determining “the prevalence<br />
of threats and assaults” against female<br />
and minority truck drivers and broadening<br />
the agency’s understanding of the safety<br />
problems involved.<br />
A research team will collect data on the<br />
prevalence of crimes involving threats and<br />
assaults against minority and female truck<br />
drivers and will survey a sample of drivers to<br />
find out how many have been threatened or<br />
assaulted; the nature of the threat (verbal,<br />
physical, both?); time of the day they<br />
occurred; the places they occurred (truck<br />
terminal, truck stop, loading dock, etc.) and<br />
characteristics of both the perpetrators and<br />
the victims.<br />
The agency also wants to know if assault<br />
victims reported the incidents to law<br />
enforcement and if not, why not.<br />
FMCSA is only in the preliminary stages of<br />
getting the survey underway and the final<br />
report isn’t expected until September 2020.<br />
The idea for the survey came from<br />
representatives of the Women In Trucking<br />
(WIT) Association and was suggested at the<br />
TCA 2018 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 15
2015 Mid-America Trucking Show, according<br />
to FMCSA.<br />
WIT also has the ear of truck manufacturers<br />
to help them understand what women are<br />
looking for in a cab, from ergonomics (can<br />
small drivers reach the truck pedals, is the<br />
grab handle within easy access, or can the<br />
driver see over the hood, for example), to<br />
amenities and access to closet space.<br />
WIT President and CEO Ellen Voie said the<br />
trucking industry has to do a better job of<br />
letting women know that technology and<br />
equipment such as automated transmission,<br />
better ergonomics in the cab and improved<br />
truck stop facilities for women are just a<br />
few of the things that have changed for the<br />
better in trucking over the years.<br />
“The industry has changed, the job’s<br />
changed, trucks have changed,” she said.<br />
“It’s a lot different now.”<br />
Regarding personal safety, WIT has<br />
pushed truck manufacturers to include a<br />
button inside a truck cab that drivers can<br />
press if someone is trying to rob them or<br />
threatening their personal safety. “We have<br />
alarm systems in our homes, why shouldn’t<br />
drivers have the same in their truck cabs?”<br />
said Voie.<br />
Another idea is a cab with enough room<br />
built under the passenger seat for a portable<br />
potty, because when it comes to navigating<br />
the truck stop at night to use the restroom,<br />
most women won’t, one OEM survey found.<br />
Women truck drivers in the same survey<br />
also said a facility built into the cab was too<br />
unsanitary if it was going to be used by other<br />
drivers in say, slip-seat operations.<br />
WIT commissioned its own “Best Practices”<br />
survey by Sawgrass Logistics and found that<br />
on a scale of 1 to 10, women truck drivers<br />
rate how safe they feel on the job only at<br />
4.4. Plus, 37 percent said they’re treated<br />
differently from men by their employers —<br />
and not in a good way — noted Voie.<br />
But while women surveyed had low marks<br />
for how safe they feel on the job and ranked<br />
safety as the most critical aspect in attracting<br />
more female drivers along with family and<br />
home time, employers ranked “everything<br />
but safety as a priority for women drivers,”<br />
the Sawgrass survey noted.<br />
And in listing what intimidates women<br />
most about becoming a truck driver, safety<br />
ranked second, including personal safety,<br />
safety on the road, dangerous infrastructure<br />
and the driving task itself. The thing women<br />
said was most intimidating about becoming<br />
a truck driver was operating the equipment.<br />
Those surveyed also bemoaned the lack of<br />
female trainers, the lack of online training<br />
and an absence of mentors who could help<br />
them adjust to the lifestyle.<br />
Many women recruits are afraid to be<br />
alone in a truck with a male trainer they<br />
don’t know, according to panelists who<br />
recently discussed obstacles to bringing<br />
in more women drivers to the industry. It<br />
was sponsored by Omnitracs and featured<br />
Omnitracs’ Senior Director of Analytics and<br />
Modeling Lauren Domnick; Sherri Garner<br />
Brumbaugh, president and CEO of Garner<br />
Trucking; and Voie.<br />
The discussion was open to individual<br />
drivers and members of the news media.<br />
Carriers must do a better job of training<br />
new recruits not just on how to drive a truck,<br />
but about the lifestyle, and communication<br />
is key, Brumbaugh said. She added that<br />
there need to be peers in place to discuss<br />
the challenges of being away from home<br />
for long periods of time and that carriers’<br />
communication channels must be open<br />
Industry respondents said the things<br />
that will bring and keep more women<br />
drivers in the industry are:<br />
4 Flexible schedules<br />
4 Equal treatment<br />
4 Safety<br />
4 Advocacy<br />
4 Training<br />
4 Recognition<br />
4 Respect<br />
4 Equipment modification<br />
4 Support services<br />
4 Well-being programs<br />
16 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
“24/7,365” in case of home emergencies or<br />
problems out on the road. Seasoned women<br />
drivers can guide new recruits to the safest<br />
truck parking and speak to other safety<br />
issues and how to deal with them.<br />
WIT, itself, provides some of that<br />
mentoring, not that that should prevent<br />
carriers from providing their own mentors<br />
to drivers.<br />
WIT’s February Member of the Month<br />
Sandy Goche said she joined WIT on<br />
Facebook “and it’s the greatest thing since<br />
sliced bread. They answer your questions<br />
and don’t run you down” for asking. They<br />
also offer classes and seminars “to better<br />
yourself as a person, which helps you in the<br />
industry.”<br />
Sawgrass research found that only 16<br />
percent of the women surveyed were offered<br />
the help of a mentor and of those who were,<br />
“none of them turned it down,” Voie said.<br />
Sawgrass listed “best practices” for<br />
improving job satisfaction and the work<br />
environment for women. They were, in no<br />
particular order:<br />
• Installing better lighting for improved<br />
safety and security around yards, docks and<br />
truck stops<br />
• Examining the company culture to<br />
identify where and how women drivers may<br />
be treated differently than men<br />
• Investing in terminal improvements for<br />
women including bathrooms, laundry and<br />
conveniences such as personal hygiene and<br />
beverages, and<br />
• Tracking employee satisfaction annually<br />
to measure and build action plans for<br />
improvement.<br />
John Stomps, president and CEO of<br />
Total Transportation in Mississippi, said his<br />
company and his female drivers make it a<br />
point to know where the safest places to<br />
park are, and that in general, women truck<br />
drivers are better planners when it comes to<br />
their routes and safe areas to stop.<br />
“They plan for the unexpected,” he said,<br />
adding that the carrier has sought out<br />
women trainers.<br />
Voie noted that male executives still<br />
need to provide mentoring in the right<br />
situations and don’t need to be so afraid of<br />
the “Me Too” movement that they refuse to<br />
provide leadership guidance to the women<br />
employees they supervise.<br />
Brumbaugh added that in her career,<br />
her father and other male mentors in the<br />
industry got her to where she is today.<br />
Next, women in the boardroom.<br />
www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 17<br />
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Job-Hopping:<br />
For carriers, it’s pay now or pay later<br />
By Klint Lowry<br />
Along with the thousands of dollars in recruitment<br />
costs, job-hopping can cost carriers in other<br />
subtle ways, including operational efficiency and<br />
company image with clients.<br />
Time was, one of the cornerstones of the American<br />
Dream was to get a job out of school and pretty much<br />
stay at that company until it was time to retire. Jobhopping<br />
— intentionally moving from one company to<br />
another every few years — was considered a resumé<br />
red flag if not a career-killer in most industries.<br />
But as is so often the case, trucking isn’t like most<br />
industries. Somehow, job-hopping has long been<br />
part of the trucking culture, though not necessarily a<br />
welcome part, especially not by carriers. Even today,<br />
as most industries have loosened their standards and<br />
might define acceptable job-hopping as someone who<br />
changes jobs every two or three years, in trucking it isn’t<br />
uncommon to find drivers who change jobs two or three<br />
times every year.<br />
Jay Green, vice president of business development<br />
at People Element, a company that works with human<br />
resources departments in various industries, including<br />
over 100 companies in transportation, and Shelley<br />
Mundy, chairman of the Truckload Carriers Association’s<br />
Recruitment and Retention Human Resources<br />
Committee, recently discussed the various ramifications<br />
of job-hopping.<br />
Job-hopping is a costly headache for carriers, perhaps<br />
in more ways than some realize, as Green and Mundy<br />
explore in this issue. In the next issue, they will discuss<br />
why it isn’t a sound career strategy for drivers, either.<br />
Job-hopping — it sounds like something fun. You<br />
can almost picture some video game character jumping<br />
around on a screen. In real life, though, and despite there<br />
being so much of it in the trucking industry, job-hopping is<br />
anything but fun and games.<br />
The term “job-hopping” describes the practice more<br />
from the drivers’ point of view. From a carrier’s perspective<br />
it’s a matter of holding onto the quality drivers who hop<br />
in their direction. The name of that game is retention.<br />
As the demand for drivers increasingly outpaces the<br />
supply, it’s a game they can’t afford to lose, and many<br />
are finding that the key to winning the game is to think<br />
beyond dollars and cents.<br />
Jay Green, vice president of business development<br />
at People Element, said when it comes to the “cost” of<br />
turnover, he runs into two kinds of companies.<br />
“There’s the bean-counting, quantitative, ‘if I can’t<br />
measure it doesn’t count’” carriers, he said. “Then I run<br />
into the little more realistic,” he added. These are the<br />
ones who think of “cost” in every sense of the term.<br />
Shelley Mundy, director of recruiting for Brown<br />
Trucking Company, explained that even calculating the<br />
literal cost of recruiting involves several factors, such as<br />
advertising, salary, bonuses, transportation, referral, gifts<br />
and job fairs.<br />
Not surprisingly, carriers’ estimates of recruitment<br />
costs vary. Green said many of the carriers he works with<br />
put the figure in the $2,000 to $2,500 range, although<br />
some van carriers have told him it can run as high as<br />
$12,000.<br />
Recruitment is an unavoidable expense. The trick is<br />
not having to incur that expense so often. You have to<br />
spend money to make money, but if you spend it wisely<br />
you may not have to spend so much.<br />
Green recalled how People Element first got involved<br />
with trucking in the early ’90s. Frito-Lay came to them<br />
because they were having a big problem with driver<br />
turnover. People Element began conducting external exit<br />
interviews with the departing drivers. The insights gained<br />
from those interviews helped cut driver turnover at Frito-<br />
Lay in half.<br />
Word spread, and People Element now has about 100<br />
clients in transportation. “We seem to do something a<br />
18 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
little bit different each time,” Green said. You can’t just go<br />
with what works at one carrier and apply it everywhere,<br />
he added. In today’s labor market one size does not fit<br />
all, not in how you approach carriers and not in how you<br />
approach individual drivers.<br />
Mundy said many carriers now have departments<br />
dedicated to driver retention.<br />
“You really have to hang on to those people and see<br />
what their issues are and their friction points, making<br />
sure they have people to talk to, to express what their<br />
needs are and what they’re going through,” she said.<br />
Mundy and Green agree that the American workforce is<br />
changing everywhere. Employers need to acknowledge<br />
that while salary and benefits are as important as ever, it’s<br />
the quality-of-life factors that keep employees satisfied<br />
these days — and keep employees, period.<br />
Look at the difference in retention rates between large<br />
and small carriers, Green said. With large carriers, “the<br />
advantage is lots of work opportunities, they’ll keep you<br />
moving.” And yet small carriers have decidedly lower<br />
turnover rates than large carriers, year in, year out.<br />
At large carriers, Green said, “The disadvantage is you<br />
can get lost in the weeds at a place that big.” At smaller<br />
carriers — and by smaller he means 500 trucks or fewer<br />
— it’s much easier to create a “family atmosphere.”<br />
Mundy agrees that smaller carriers have an advantage<br />
in that regard.<br />
“I think the level of communication is more direct with<br />
smaller carriers,” she said. “When you get something<br />
over your Omnitrac system as opposed to when you<br />
walk in and you hear it from your fleet manager, it has a<br />
different effect.”<br />
Communication technology has improved so much in<br />
recent years, Mundy said. Unfortunately, this has led to<br />
companies stacking 50 or 60 drivers on one fleet leader.<br />
“A driver can’t get any attention when that manager has<br />
50 employees. It’s just unrealistic.”<br />
The obvious answer is to have more fleet leaders.<br />
The trick is to decide how much to expand it, at what<br />
point the cost is justified by improved relationships and,<br />
presumably, greater retention.<br />
Operational efficiency is one of those areas that is<br />
difficult to quantify. Everyone knows the hassles of being<br />
new at a job, Mundy said.<br />
“It takes longer to get things done,” she said.<br />
“Something as little as not knowing people’s phone<br />
numbers — you have to take the time to look things up.<br />
Or you have to ask other people, which means you’re<br />
cutting into their time.”<br />
That new-guy inefficiency not only costs the employee,<br />
it can cost the company, too. Mundy recently did a ridealong<br />
with one of her company’s veteran drivers.<br />
“He knew all the people who unloaded him. He knew<br />
their families. He knew things about them,” Mundy said.<br />
“Obviously, he’d spent time with them. And I think that’s<br />
reassuring to people in general to have someone that<br />
knows your business, that you feel good about delivering<br />
your freight. You know it’s going to be on time.”<br />
Compare that to the impression it leaves when carriers<br />
are regularly sending out drivers who are unfamiliar and<br />
unsure of themselves.<br />
“You think your customers don’t notice, but they do,”<br />
she said.<br />
One way to create a sense of belonging within a<br />
company is with outreach programs, Mundy said. “A lot<br />
of people want to work for a company where they have<br />
the same values and they can see their values expressed<br />
in a corporate way,” she said. “Are you out there doing a<br />
5K run for the homeless, does anyone at your company<br />
do Meals on Wheels?”<br />
The trucking industry is known for jumping in after<br />
disasters and contributing machines and manpower<br />
to relief efforts, she said. “Most drivers will jump at the<br />
chance of doing that. They don’t care what hardship they<br />
have to go through. They want to do it.”<br />
And a carrier can devote only so much of its time<br />
and resources to outside causes, Mundy said, but as<br />
they weigh the costs, they should remember one of the<br />
benefits is the boost these kinds of activities provide to<br />
employee pride and morale.<br />
Fostering an inclusive atmosphere can pay off even<br />
when it doesn’t seem to at first and a driver decides to<br />
leave, Green said.<br />
“We did a study a number of years ago with some of<br />
the major carriers, and when we look at the productivity<br />
data, rehires turn out to be good hires,” he said. “You<br />
don’t have to teach them as much as when you hired<br />
them the first time so that investment is less. They<br />
understand how to work within your company. Plus, they<br />
just came back from thinking they’d found something<br />
better and changing their minds.”<br />
This even applies if a driver leaves and comes back a<br />
third time, Green said. After that, well, maybe they’re not<br />
such a good bet.<br />
Some drivers seem destined to be job-hoppers. They<br />
come to trucking seeing themselves as a lone wolf, a<br />
vagabond. They won’t be satisfied anywhere. On the flip<br />
side, Green said, there are many companies that don’t<br />
take responsibility for their problems with retention.<br />
The successful carriers “don’t blame things on today’s<br />
driver,” he said. “They don’t blame it on customers. They<br />
adapt, they change. Instead of blaming the industry,<br />
blaming the type of job it is. They talk a good game<br />
about putting the driver first, but their actions contradict<br />
that.”<br />
Job-hopping is a two-way street that sends drivers and<br />
carriers in opposite directions. “Some get it, some don’t,”<br />
Green said of both sides.<br />
This isn’t the sort of issue that can be resolved with a<br />
rule or regulation. It’s an industrywide issue<br />
that can only be addressed one<br />
driver, one carrier at a<br />
time.<br />
Tca 2018 www.Truckload.org | TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY 19
‘Truckers are the answer’<br />
to curbing trafficking<br />
“Truckers are the answer, truckers are the answer,”<br />
said the four-wheel motorist, who admitted she had<br />
never thought about there being people up in the cabs<br />
of 18-wheelers.<br />
After hearing a presentation on how Truckers<br />
Against Trafficking (TAT) is training truck drivers to spot<br />
suspected trafficking victims and report it, the woman<br />
was beside herself with excitement.<br />
She said now when she sees a truck, instead of seeing<br />
a big vehicle that’s in her way she will think of a driver<br />
who is helping to stamp out human trafficking.<br />
If it spent millions, the trucking industry couldn’t get<br />
better public relations than that.<br />
TAT and partners such as the Truckload Carriers<br />
Association — which has partnered with TAT since 2013<br />
— are responsible for much of the trucking industry’s<br />
success in helping eradicate this “modern-day slavery.”<br />
Kendis Paris, TAT executive director, said, “From allowing<br />
us to present at their conference to hosting an educational<br />
seminar at the Great American Trucking Show, as well as being<br />
the first ones to offer our training via an online platform, TCA has<br />
been a longtime partner of TAT and we are grateful for all of the ways<br />
they have sought to educate and equip their members to combat human<br />
trafficking effectively.”<br />
TAT began as an initiative of Chapter 61 Ministries in 2009<br />
and became its own 501(c)(3) entity in 2011. Since then their<br />
accomplishments have caused a groundswell of support, and their<br />
sponsors read like a Who’s Who in the trucking industry.<br />
Now, almost every time you turn around some truckingaffiliated<br />
group has joined the fight.<br />
NATSO Foundation President Lisa Mullings in January spoke<br />
before members of the House Committee on Homeland Security<br />
about the truck stop and travel plaza industry’s role in fighting<br />
trafficking.<br />
In February, the American Trucking Associations and its America’s<br />
Road Team joined TAT to bring awareness of the trafficking epidemic to<br />
Capitol Hill.<br />
In March, TAT, other anti-trafficking groups and trucking lobbies<br />
launched the Man to Man campaign to end the demand for sex trafficking.<br />
The idea is that only about 5 percent of men pay for sex, so it’s time for<br />
the other 95 percent to talk “man to man” to the 5 percent to let them<br />
know it’s time to end this.<br />
Nation’s eyes and ears<br />
By Dorothy Cox<br />
It turns out trusting professional truck drivers to “be the nation’s<br />
eyes and ears” on the highways works as well for spotting and reporting<br />
trafficking as it did when the precursor to Homeland Security trained<br />
truckers to spot “anomalies” that might denote terrorist activities<br />
following 9/11.<br />
Never underestimate truckers’ ability to spot something that looks<br />
off.<br />
Before he even found out about TAT, CFI driver Kevin Kimmel was at<br />
a truck stop in Richmond, Virginia, in January 2015 when he saw a beatup<br />
RV parked a couple of spaces away. Its windows were covered in<br />
blackout curtains and now and then a frightened-looking young woman<br />
would come to the window and appear to be jerked away. A man would<br />
20 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
come and knock on the door and a few minutes later<br />
Kimmel said the RV would be “rockin’ and rollin.’”<br />
His call to local authorities led to an FBI<br />
investigation after officers found a 20-year-old woman<br />
who appeared to be malnourished and with puncture<br />
wounds in her feet, according to a police report.<br />
An Iowa couple, Aldair Hodza, 36, and Laura<br />
Sorensen, 31, were charged with abducting the<br />
woman and forcing her into an online prostitution<br />
scheme.<br />
The alleged victim told sheriff’s deputies that<br />
Sorensen and Hodza threatened to kill her family if<br />
she spoke out.<br />
According to Kimmel, trafficking is “everywhere,<br />
now,” and the numbers back that up.<br />
The FBI says 100,000 or more children and young<br />
women are being trafficked in the U.S. and most<br />
trafficked victims are ages 9 to 19, with the average<br />
being 11.<br />
It’s estimated there is more “modern-day slavery”<br />
now than ever before — 30 million people being<br />
trafficked globally — says Partners Against Trafficking<br />
Humans (PATH), which provides a variety of services<br />
for trafficking survivors in Little Rock, Arkansas.<br />
Figures from Polaris, the Washington, D.C.-based<br />
anti-trafficking organization that runs the hotline<br />
where cases can be reported, show trafficking has been<br />
reported in all 50 states and some U.S. territories.<br />
Women and girls have been forced to undergo<br />
abortions and have incurred sexually transmitted<br />
diseases, cancer and post-traumatic stress syndrome<br />
as a result of their exploitation.<br />
Human sex trafficking goes on in good<br />
neighborhoods and bad. It has been reported at<br />
hotels, massage parlors, bars, clubs and at large<br />
sporting events such as the Super Bowl.<br />
Panelists on a recent Arkansas educational TV show<br />
on trafficking said although it’s difficult to fathom,<br />
parents even prostitute their children for gain and<br />
that the practice often goes on in the same family for<br />
generations.<br />
Traffickers look for children and young people who<br />
are estranged from their families and/or who have<br />
run away from home. They may attach themselves to<br />
family members of a child, then set about grooming<br />
them by buying gifts, offering them food and a place<br />
to stay, or posing as a boyfriend or father figure,<br />
according to Polaris.<br />
One young woman we’ll call Tammy was estranged<br />
from her father and her junior high school coach<br />
stepped in to fill the void. He had sexual relations<br />
with Tammy and one of her friends and when he was<br />
finally arrested, Tammy was distraught. She had been<br />
convinced he would marry her.<br />
Drug involvement<br />
Tammy got into hard drugs and was “rescued” by<br />
a man who bought her gifts and flowers and took her<br />
out to fancy restaurants. Then he turned on her and<br />
forced her into prostitution. She said she never saw<br />
the money she made because he was a cocaine addict<br />
and all the money “went up his nose.”<br />
A law enforcement officer in North Little Rock,<br />
Arkansas, said runaway kids almost always get<br />
involved with drugs, and Polaris research shows cases<br />
of drug dealers accepting sex with a buyer’s girlfriend<br />
or family member as payment.<br />
Traffickers learn from other criminals where<br />
trafficking is most lucrative at the moment and take<br />
their victims there by car, van, airplane, truck or RV.<br />
They also make heavy use of social media: Although<br />
Backpage closed its U.S. adult services section in<br />
January 2017 because of rising pressure from the<br />
U.S. Senate, the site has accounted for more than<br />
1,300 cases of trafficking through escort services and<br />
remains part of “global sexual exploitation,” Polaris<br />
reported.<br />
Traffickers also use webcams to take sexually<br />
explicit video of young people against their will, finding<br />
ready buyers for the pornography posted online.<br />
Cantinas, bars, restaurants and clubs exploit victims<br />
in both sex and labor trafficking, with traffickers<br />
being allowed to operate prostitution rings out of the<br />
businesses for a portion of the profits.<br />
100,000 or more<br />
children and young<br />
women are being<br />
trafficked in the U.S.<br />
Why is there so much human trafficking?<br />
Because it’s low risk and high profit. Depending on<br />
who you talk to, human trafficking is the second or<br />
third most lucrative criminal activity in the world.<br />
According to Polaris research, the average<br />
trafficking victim is sold for $90 and 80 percent of<br />
trafficking is sexual in nature.<br />
Beatings and intimidation are used and victims are<br />
emotionally battered. One woman said she ran away<br />
from home at age 14 to get away from her abusive<br />
father, and that her traffickers broke her spirit —<br />
eventually she thought she was only worth the money<br />
men paid for her.<br />
Polaris’ research has found that more and more<br />
young males are being trafficked today, and that<br />
gay and lesbian youth are also at high risk of being<br />
victimized by traffickers.<br />
As an FBI spokesman once said, “You can sell a<br />
drug only once, but you can sell a person over and<br />
over.”<br />
Not if trucking can help it.<br />
John McKown, a UPS driver with 1.9 million accidentfree<br />
miles, said he’s “passionate” about participating<br />
in the Man to Man project because, “I know I’m going<br />
to make a difference in someone’s life.”<br />
Tca 2018 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 21
APRIL/MAY | TCA 2018<br />
A Chat With The Chairman<br />
A Real Honor<br />
Foreword and Interview by lyndon finney<br />
Dan Doran has been active in trucking for 44 years and has served in leadership for several transportationrelated<br />
companies covering numerous aspects of the industry from insurance to leasing. For nearly 25 years, he<br />
was at the helm of Ace Doran Hauling and Rigging and is currently president of Doran Logistics Services. A proud<br />
Ohioan, he is the immediate past chairman of his state’s trucking association, having led the Ohio Trucking Association<br />
from 2014-2016 while serving as an officer for TCA, most recently as first vice chair. Dan is also active in<br />
numerous civic and community programs in his hometown of Cincinnati, including his leadership efforts with the<br />
Turtle Creek Nature Preserve, the Northside Community Fund and the Greater Cincinnati Youth Hockey League.<br />
As he stepped into the role of TCA chairman, Dan shared his thoughts on the year ahead.<br />
22 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
Sponsored by<br />
“TCA opened a whole new world to<br />
me, a new world of people, education,<br />
recognition and development. I have<br />
learned so much from other trucking<br />
professionals by just sitting in meetings<br />
and listening to ideas, best practices and<br />
positions on areas of our business.”<br />
Congratulations on becoming chairman of the Truckload<br />
Carriers Association. What does it mean to you to<br />
be chairman?<br />
Thank you, it is quite the honor because it is an<br />
appointment by my peers. Eight years ago, Kevin Burch<br />
and Bob Baylor called on the phone and asked if I would<br />
be interested in becoming an officer of the TCA, and<br />
here we are. Serving as an officer in any association<br />
is a way to pay back to your industry, and the trucking<br />
industry has done so much for me and my family that I<br />
feel it is the right thing to do.<br />
This is normally where we would ask how you got interested<br />
in trucking, but apparently trucking is in your<br />
blood. You come from a trucking family, Tell us about<br />
that.<br />
Yes, trucking is in my family. My grandfather was a<br />
contractor/trucker and my father and his brothers were<br />
all in the trucking business. My father was chairman<br />
of the Heavy and Specialized Carriers Conference in<br />
1966, and that was when I attended my first trucking<br />
convention. I remember riding in one of the trucks with<br />
a driver when I was around 12, and I was hooked. I<br />
couldn’t wait to get my chauffeur’s license, now the<br />
CDL, when I turned 21.<br />
Share what you would like readers to know about Doran<br />
Logistics.<br />
Doran Logistics started as an agency/brokerage<br />
business and has grown to include a trailer leasing unit<br />
as well as a small start-up flatbed operation.<br />
Share your career path with Doran that led you to your<br />
current position.<br />
My first job in the business was sweeping floors,<br />
cutting grass, and lettering trailers. Then I moved into<br />
safety, filed and audited logs, then spent time in the<br />
warehouse unloading trucks. In the ’80s I ran a terminal/<br />
warehouse until 1992, when my brothers and sisters<br />
asked me to take the reins of the family business.<br />
TCA 2018 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 23
You’ve been in trucking over 44 years. What are some<br />
of the most significant improvements in the industry<br />
during that time?<br />
Equipment changes for sure — the trucks were<br />
predominately cabovers when I was driving. The safety<br />
features and technology in the cabs today such as lane<br />
departure, roll-over protection and cameras, are quite<br />
a long way from when I started driving. Operations<br />
management software didn’t exist when I was learning<br />
the business. We operated on pay phones and our<br />
loadboards were cards on a wall. We had offices close to<br />
all our major shippers so the drivers had a place to wait<br />
for their next load.<br />
You said in your acceptance address that TCA has made<br />
a dramatic impact on you and your family. Could you<br />
expand on that statement?<br />
TCA opened a whole new world to me, a new world<br />
of people, education, recognition and development. I<br />
have learned so much from other trucking professionals<br />
by just sitting in meetings and listening to ideas, best<br />
practices and positions on areas of our business. As<br />
Rob Penner said in his remarks, rooms full of type A<br />
personalities create an interesting dialogue.<br />
What is going to be your focus as chairman?<br />
Building on our successes at our fall meeting and<br />
our Call on Washington. We have some great things<br />
planned for this year’s trip to Capitol Hill. Also, we will<br />
be working on Hours of Service reform, specifically the<br />
14-hour clock and split sleeper time. Our drivers need<br />
more flexibility in their on-duty/driving time. Today’s<br />
race against the 14-hour clock is not working. It is not<br />
safe. We have a new administrator at the FMCSA and he<br />
is asking for our input, and we are going to make sure<br />
he gets it.<br />
What would you say to tca members who are not<br />
actively involved in tca conventions and programs?<br />
What are you waiting on? You don’t know what you<br />
are missing! Get involved! Speak up! You are missing<br />
a great network of people and ideas. I have always<br />
learned something, or met someone new, or been able<br />
to take something back to the office.<br />
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McLeodSoftware.com | 877.362.5363<br />
What are the key issues facing trucking in 2018 and what<br />
are the obstacles to having those issues come out in<br />
favor of the truckload industry?<br />
We as an industry are operating in a new trucking<br />
environment. ELDs have already begun to accurately<br />
portray our industry in a manner that tells the true<br />
story of trucking and with the data generated by this<br />
technology, it certainly makes sense to continue having<br />
discussions around Hours of Service and sleeper berth<br />
flexibility. The daily problems our driving force faces<br />
can more easily be dealt with by providing drivers with<br />
practical options that will not jeopardize safety, but<br />
rather improve upon it. 2018 will also be the year in<br />
which we must advocate for sensible regulations that<br />
fix our infrastructure problems and provide our industry<br />
with a fix to the F4A federal pre-emption issue, all while<br />
paying particular attention to productivity issues that<br />
the truckload segment of our industry faces.<br />
Speaking of issues, you mentioned in your address that<br />
the 14-hour clock was not working. Specifically, what<br />
would tca support in terms of changes in Hours of<br />
Service?<br />
Our drivers need flexibility in their on-duty and<br />
driving time. Solving the everyday problems that our<br />
drivers encounter on our highways — be it weather,<br />
congestion, construction or delays — flexibility would<br />
allow our drivers to get rest, avoid stressful situations,<br />
and actually gain safe, productive miles that would<br />
make their jobs better. Drivers know their limits and<br />
the signs of fatigue. Imagine a hot summer day, driving<br />
west into Chicago at rush hour after eight hours of<br />
unloading, loading, tarping and securing a load. Our<br />
drivers should not be forced into rush-hour traffic by<br />
an arbitrary clock. Drivers should have the flexibility to<br />
stop the 14-hour clock, pick it up four hours later and<br />
resume their trip. We need to be able to stop the 14-hour<br />
clock for a period of time in which our drivers can feel<br />
comfortable moving onward, an amount of time that will<br />
not prioritize productivity over safety. These issues can<br />
peacefully coexist in today’s trucking industry and TCA<br />
must continue to tell that story in order for it to happen.<br />
How would you summarize the 2018 convention?<br />
Productive and enlightening. I think we opened some<br />
eyes to a new side of TCA.<br />
What excites you most about the year ahead?<br />
The fact that we have been invited to the Federal Motor<br />
Carrier Safety Administration by new Administrator<br />
Ray Martinez. That is encouraging. I remember the<br />
Julie Cirillo days when the FMCSA would not talk to the<br />
industry, much less ask for our input.<br />
Lastly, Mr. Chairman, we’ve talked mostly about<br />
trucking in our Chat. What rounds out your life other<br />
than trucking?<br />
Horses — my wife and I have a small farm where we<br />
enjoy spending time. Also, a good cigar and a glass of<br />
bourbon.<br />
W<br />
T<br />
t<br />
24 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
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26 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org
APRIL/MAY | TCA 2018<br />
Member Mailroom<br />
What’s in store for<br />
TCA’s<br />
What’s in store for<br />
TCA’s<br />
safety<br />
meeting?<br />
safety<br />
meeting?<br />
Each year, TCA’s Annual Safety & Security<br />
Division Meeting brings together truckload industry<br />
professionals responsible for their companies’ safety<br />
programs to discuss problems, share best practices,<br />
and talk about all things safety.<br />
This year’s meeting in Norfolk, Virginia, June 10-12,<br />
will feature a revamped program designed to provide<br />
you with actionable items that you can take back to<br />
your fleet and immediately see results.<br />
The highly popular Safety in the Round sessions<br />
will draw from the knowledge of the group to solve<br />
common safety-management and human-resource<br />
problems.<br />
Topics include safety technology, employee/<br />
employer communication, improving driver-hiring<br />
procedures, and other hot topics.<br />
Find out the latest information swirling around<br />
the regulatory and legislative worlds and how<br />
these developments will pertain to your fleet and<br />
its operations. The two-part Regulatory Update<br />
from TCA’s Vice President of Government Affairs<br />
David Heller is an excellent opportunity to learn how<br />
truckload is being represented on Capitol Hill and<br />
how you can empower your staff and drivers to get<br />
involved to create meaningful change for the industry.<br />
Attendees will also experience the latest trucking<br />
products and services in the exhibit hall, welcome<br />
first-time attendees at a special orientation, as well<br />
as network at receptions and meals. Whether you’ve<br />
attended a Safety & Security Division Meeting before,<br />
or this is your first time, this year’s meeting is one you<br />
won’t want to miss.<br />
TCA 2018 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 27
APRIL/MAY | TCA 2018<br />
Talking TCA<br />
Tripp Lott | Membership coordinator<br />
BY klint lowry<br />
Look at the typical resumé of a 23-year-old and there usually<br />
isn’t much to see. And if you read between the lines — what few<br />
there are — in most cases you will be left with the impression of<br />
a grown-up in training wheels, someone who at most has taken<br />
the first mundane steps along a tenuously committed career path<br />
and is self-consciously trying to make an impression that they are<br />
experienced beyond their years.<br />
The work history of the Truckload Carriers Association’s newest<br />
addition, membership coordinator Tripp Lott, is a more intriguing<br />
read. Being less than a year out of college, you can’t expect a world<br />
of experience in the corporate recruiter sense of the term, but his<br />
brief odyssey through the working world has netted him a quirkily<br />
eclectic collection of experiences. Put together they suggest<br />
someone with enthusiasm, adaptability and self-confidence. It also<br />
demonstrates what a can-do attitude can do for a young man.<br />
At 23, Lott brings a wide range of skills to the table. He could<br />
even build the table if need be.<br />
It’s an old-fashioned sounding concept, but in a lot of ways, he’s<br />
an old-fashioned kind of guy who had an old-fashioned upbringing.<br />
Lott was born and raised in Douglasville, Georgia, about 20 miles<br />
west of Atlanta. But his home in the exurbs had a touch of the<br />
frontier. “I grew up on 25 acres of creeks and lakes and woods<br />
and all that,” he said, and his parents demonstrated a modern-day<br />
version of pioneer spirit.<br />
“Being a jack-of-all-trades is kind of a family trademark, as is<br />
hard work,” he said. His mother, Linda, worked in recycling. His<br />
father, Chuck, was a blacksmith for some time. Later, he ran a<br />
sawmill. These days, he custom-builds hot rods.<br />
Tripp is named after his grandfather. His legal name is Charles<br />
Lott III — “the third,” he points out, as in “triple,” hence his dayto-day<br />
name Tripp.<br />
Along with the name, it was apparent from an early age Tripp<br />
had inherited his parents’ busy hands. He built forts and he liked to<br />
take things apart and try to put them back together.<br />
To help him channel his tactile energy, his parents started him<br />
in Cub Scouts. He stuck with scouting throughout his childhood,<br />
achieving Eagle Scout status when he was 17.<br />
For his Eagle Scout final project, Tripp built a bridge.<br />
“There was a drainage ditch in front of the playground at the<br />
church that I was going to,” he said. Every Sunday the kids would<br />
get out of church and run to the playground. If it had rained within<br />
a week, the ditch would have standing water in it and the kids<br />
would have to go around or try to jump it. So he built a footbridge.<br />
Lott said when he tells that story people imagine him out there<br />
with a hammer and saw singlehandedly erecting this entire bridge.<br />
But Eagle Scout projects are about organizing and team leadership<br />
as much as anything, he said.<br />
When he was in middle school, his father started showing<br />
him how to fix cars. He also taught him blacksmithing and<br />
woodworking, which he especially took to.<br />
Lott started college at Georgia Southern University in 2013.<br />
A year later, he transferred to Jacksonville State University in<br />
Jacksonville, Alabama.<br />
His sister, Hannah, was about to graduate from Jacksonville<br />
State. Their parents had bought a house for her to live in just off<br />
campus, but now she was done with it.<br />
Free housing was too good to pass up, Lott said. And there was<br />
another advantage. Lott had lived in a dorm at Georgia Southern.<br />
“I’d never been in a situation where I didn’t have a place that I<br />
could go and work on something or tinker or take something apart.<br />
“I remember sitting in my dorm room at Georgia Southern and<br />
talking with my dad on the phone and saying, ‘I think I want to start<br />
a woodworking business.’”<br />
The house in Jacksonville had an old gazebo in the backyard.<br />
With a little creative carpentry and wiring he renovated it into a<br />
workshop. “From my sophomore year to my senior year, I was a<br />
fulltime woodworker,” he said.<br />
His father had taught him how to build furniture. Once you have<br />
the basic woodworking skills, he said, it’s easy to branch off, so he<br />
challenged himself by trying his hand at building guitars.<br />
“I don’t have any special tools or special knowledge,” he said. “I<br />
just wanted to build a guitar and just kind of took it step by step.”<br />
Guitar-making is a painstaking process. Every step is absolutely<br />
critical, he said. There’s a lot of precision work that goes into<br />
making a guitar, he added. “The woodworking would probably be<br />
the most challenging. That’s my favorite part of it. I obsess over<br />
making sure everything is well done. I’m not going to go to the<br />
trouble of making a guitar and skip a step. You can’t. It really forces<br />
your hand to be patient and measure out what you’re doing and<br />
not rush.<br />
“You can’t rush a guitar. If you do it’ll just end up being garbage<br />
— like the first guitar I made.”<br />
28 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org Tca TCA 2018 2018
Tca 2018 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 29
Tripp Lott and his father, Chuck Lott, attend<br />
a meeting at Campbellton Lodge No. 76 in<br />
Campbellton, Georgia, where Freemasons<br />
have met since 1848. The walls of the<br />
building have bullet holes from the Civil War.<br />
Tripp Lott used some heart pine boards<br />
from a house that was being refurbished<br />
to build this dining table and bench<br />
for the house’s owner.<br />
At Jacksonville State, Lott decided to major in<br />
business management. It was an ideal setup. “I was<br />
able to apply business tactics in real time, which aided<br />
in my understanding and made my education a lot more<br />
valuable to me.”<br />
Management was a versatile major, and at this<br />
point, Lott had already been compiling his unusual<br />
assortment of employment experiences.<br />
In his senior year of high school, he had had a bad<br />
case of senioritis. The school had an internship program<br />
that would allow him to spend half his day off-campus,<br />
and that sounded good to him.<br />
His dad had been a patient at a physical therapy<br />
clinic and became friends with the owner. “We walked<br />
in one day, and I introduced myself. I said, ‘hey, I’d like<br />
to intern for you.’ We sat down, had a brief conversation<br />
and I started pretty much the next day.”<br />
Lott spent his entire senior year at the clinic, taking<br />
people through their exercises. “I was a full physical<br />
therapy technician, essentially. We were doing 10-hour<br />
shifts and you’d be on your feet the whole time. That<br />
taught me a lesson — you don’t have to be splitting<br />
firewood to be exhausted at the end of the day.”<br />
When high school ended so did the internship. He<br />
got a summer job at Woodruff Scout Reservation. The<br />
camp, in northern Georgia, hosts 800 to 1,000 scouts a<br />
week. Lott applied to be a lifeguard, “even though I had<br />
no business being a lifeguard. I had no experience, but<br />
they were kind enough to give me a shot.”<br />
He wound up working there four consecutive<br />
summers, working various jobs. On his resumé, he lists<br />
“whitewater guide” as his job title, because he said, it’s<br />
the last thing he did there.<br />
He hadn’t even planned to go back the fourth year,<br />
but the camp called him after the whitewater rafting<br />
instructor broke his leg, asking if he’d be willing to give<br />
it a shot.<br />
“Again, one of those things I had no business<br />
doing,” he said. But, seeing as he had been a lifeguard,<br />
the camp director trusted he could handle it.<br />
“I said, ‘sure, that sounds like fun.’” The next day he<br />
was a river guide.<br />
“Certainly, that was the most stressful job I’d ever<br />
had, making sure 11-year-olds stay in the boat.”<br />
Shortly after that, Lott got what many college<br />
students would consider a dream job, interning at the<br />
Back Forty Beer Company, in Gadsden, Alabama, after<br />
what might have been the easiest job interview ever.<br />
“I met the guy, shook his hand and said, ‘I’d like to<br />
be your intern,’” Lott said, the same approach he used<br />
with the physical therapist. “We had a brief interview<br />
with the president and the hiring manager. We got<br />
through with the interview and the president said,<br />
‘All right, well, I’m going to show you around. That’s<br />
enough of the interview.’”<br />
As the president took him around, he kept<br />
introducing Lott as the new intern. He remembered<br />
thinking, ‘Wait, does that mean I got the job?’”<br />
Lott likes to say he was Back Forty Beer Company’s<br />
“Swiss Army knife intern,” because he did everything.<br />
“I pride myself on being one of those who just<br />
rolls up his sleeves up and gets in and does what’s<br />
necessary,” he said. He did a lot of marketing work, he<br />
worked on the bottling line, he helped load trucks, and<br />
he even did a bit of brewing.<br />
The head brewer there was the hardest working<br />
person he ever met, he said. Some days she would get<br />
there at 4:30 a.m. and wouldn’t leave 11 p.m., brewing<br />
Q & A With Tripp Lott<br />
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: Douglasville, Georgia,<br />
October 21, 1994<br />
MY TRADEMARK EXPRESSION IS: Poorly-timed laughter<br />
MOST HUMBLING EXPERIENCE: A two-week backpacking<br />
trip in New Mexico<br />
PEOPLE SAY I REMIND THEM OF: Chris Pratt<br />
I HAVE A PHOBIA OF: Idleness<br />
MY GUILTY PLEASURE: Ice cream<br />
THE PEOPLE I’D INVITE TO MY FANTASY DINNER<br />
PARTY: Theodore Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Jack London,<br />
Nick Saban, Stevie Nicks, and Paul Newman<br />
MY GREATEST PROBLEM AS A PROFESSIONAL IS:<br />
Budgeting my time<br />
I WOULD NEVER WEAR: Flip-flops<br />
A GOAL I HAVE YET TO ACHIEVE: I have always wanted<br />
to build a house.<br />
THE LAST BOOK I READ: “Extreme Ownership” by Jocko<br />
Willink and Leif Babin<br />
LAST MOVIE I SAW: “The Square,” by Ruben Östlund<br />
MY FAVORITE SONG: “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam<br />
Cooke<br />
IF I’VE LEARNED ONE THING IN LIFE, IT WOULD BE:<br />
Do your best and let the rest go.<br />
THE THING ABOUT MY OFFICE IS: There’s always a good<br />
selection of hot sauce on my desk.<br />
ONE WORD TO SUM ME UP: Creative<br />
30 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
thousands of gallons in a single day.<br />
“I only thought I knew what it meant to be<br />
exhausted until I worked with her,” but “that was just<br />
super fun. That was one of the best parts of college, to<br />
be honest with you.”<br />
So now, how does a guitar-making, beer-brewing,<br />
river-rafting, physical therapy assistant from Alabama<br />
find himself in Alexandria, Virginia, working at TCA?<br />
Simple. Tripp’s sister, Hannah, works at a temp<br />
agency in Washington, D.C. After Tripp graduated<br />
college last May, Hannah, knowing Tripp’s aversion<br />
to idle time, suggested he come and see if they could<br />
find a temp-to-hire position for him. But when nothing<br />
popped after a few days, he went back home to<br />
Alabama.<br />
Several weeks passed. He was clearing trees on his<br />
dad’s property one Thursday in September when the<br />
agency called about a job at TCA he might be a good<br />
fit for.<br />
“I said, ‘yeah, it sounds like fun.’” The next<br />
Thursday, “I was sitting at my desk, learning how to<br />
be a membership coordinator.”<br />
When he started, he knew nothing about the<br />
trucking industry. But what else is new? “I didn’t know<br />
about physical therapy, I just kind of jumped into that.<br />
I didn’t know about brewing beer. I kind of jumped<br />
into that. Woodworking or guitar-building, I jumped<br />
into those, too. It’s the same with this.<br />
“I feel confident in myself. I know that if I’m put in<br />
a situation like a job that I don’t know much about, I<br />
have the education and I have the work ethic and I feel<br />
like everything else will take care of itself.”<br />
To be sure, his job at TCA is the least physical, least<br />
hands-on job he’s had. But this job taps into another<br />
trait that’s served him throughout his brief, colorful<br />
career that has yet to be mentioned — he’s friendly.<br />
“One of the coolest things is I work in retention of<br />
our members, to maintain our membership. And to do<br />
that, you have to be in constant communication with<br />
our membership and it’s one of the neatest things to<br />
get to talk with all types of folks,” he said.<br />
“I didn’t know anything about trucking before I<br />
started at TCA,” Lott said. “I didn’t know what ELDs<br />
were, Hours of Service, any of that.”<br />
From day one, the members he talks to and his<br />
TCA colleagues have been extremely welcoming and<br />
helpful. In February, his temp contract ended and he<br />
was hired on full time. He’s convinced the agency got<br />
it right. This industry is a good fit.<br />
“To me, it’s a lot of just really hardworking people<br />
trying to go after what they want,” he said. “And<br />
that’s something that I personally take in high regard.<br />
It’s an industry of go-getters, they’re constantly<br />
moving forward. It really is refreshing to work with.”<br />
He couldn’t bring his workshop with him, so<br />
furniture making is out for the time being. These days,<br />
he keeps his hands busy turning wooden bowls and<br />
tinkering with electronics. And he still does a few<br />
guitars. When he finishes them, he has a friend demo<br />
them on video, which he then posts online.<br />
“I build them better than I play them.”<br />
Oh well, nobody’s good at everything.<br />
Season’s greetings — circa Christmas 2016<br />
— from the Lott family: Tripp Lott, sister Mary<br />
Hannah Lott and parents Chuck and Linda Lott.<br />
Lott, wearing the red hat with his back turned, gives<br />
some Boy Scouts a pep talk while working as a rafting<br />
instructor at the Woodruff Scout Reservation.<br />
The Truckload Carriers Association<br />
welcomes companies that<br />
joined our association in<br />
February and March.<br />
February 2018<br />
Sharp Transportation Systems, Inc.<br />
Safe Fleet Truck & Trailer<br />
SilverSolutions Consulting, Inc.<br />
Peterson Manufacturing, Inc.<br />
March 2018<br />
UrgentCare Travel<br />
DeliveRecon<br />
Roetzel and Andress<br />
Gully Transportation<br />
Cetaris<br />
BlackBerry Limited<br />
Ultra Logistics<br />
Idelic<br />
Tca 2018 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 31
THE FUTURE<br />
After achievements of 2017,<br />
TCA President John Lyboldt<br />
is bullish on 2018<br />
TCA President John Lyboldt<br />
tells the crowd that there’s<br />
more to come in 2018 as he<br />
speaks at TCA’s 80th Annual<br />
Convention.<br />
“The Future of Truckload” was the theme for<br />
the 80th annual Truckload Carriers Association<br />
Convention, and that is just what TCA President John<br />
Lyboldt had on his mind when he took the stage at<br />
the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in<br />
Kissimmee, Florida, to address the crowd on the last<br />
day of the convention.<br />
In a sense the speech was presented in such a<br />
way as to mark the march into the future. Outgoing<br />
TCA Chairman Rob Penner introduced Lyboldt, and<br />
when Lyboldt was finished with his speech, he in turn<br />
introduced the incoming chairman, Dan Doran.<br />
But you can’t know where you’re going unless you<br />
know where you’ve been, and as Lyboldt expressed<br />
confidence in the direction TCA is heading, that optimism<br />
was buttressed by the accomplishments of the past year<br />
to make TCA what he called “a true business partner”<br />
to its members.<br />
“No longer is it acceptable for TCA to think our<br />
measurement of success is the collection of dues,” he<br />
said. “The new measurement of success is member<br />
engagement, member participation and membership<br />
growth.<br />
“Building value in belonging to TCA along with the<br />
never-ending necessity to change to meet membership<br />
needs is a business imperative. Helping you increase<br />
your assets, making you more profitable, helping you<br />
retain your skilled workforce, and being ‘the voice of<br />
truckload’ is just not talk, he said. “Together we have<br />
taken this direction seriously.”<br />
He then credited TCA members for the contributions<br />
of both money and passion to the organization.<br />
“Last year, we asked each of you to write a check to<br />
voluntarily fund the newly formed government affairs<br />
operation at TCA for 2017,” he said. TCA members<br />
responded with nearly 175 checks.<br />
“Thank you for allowing us the resources to do our<br />
job, by not just making our presence known but felt,”<br />
he said. “With our combined efforts, we delivered just<br />
32 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
over 1,000 letters, emails, voicemails and personal<br />
congressional and regulatory visits. It is important to be<br />
out front talking about who we are and what we stand<br />
for, not just what our policy says.”<br />
To this end, Lyboldt said, TCA is establishing an<br />
advocacy advisory committee. This committee, he<br />
said, is expected to consist of himself, the immediate<br />
past TCA chairman, committee chairs from the<br />
highway, regulatory and independent contractor policy<br />
committees, TCA’s four at-large officers, and the vice<br />
president of government affairs as staff liaison.<br />
“The charge of the committee will be how we<br />
prioritize our legislative and regulatory direction to set<br />
clear legislative and regulatory priorities, based on the<br />
impact to our industry, cost-benefit analysis, and the<br />
likelihood of success,” Lyboldt said.<br />
He then pointed to the success the organization has<br />
already had in improving congressional and regulatory<br />
awareness regarding the truckload segment of the<br />
industry. In just the past year, TCA has gone from being<br />
virtually unknown on Capitol Hill to being a valued source<br />
of information on trucking’s most pressing issues.<br />
“No longer will truckload be on the sidelines,” he said.<br />
“We will be on the field and at the table.”<br />
Also, just a year ago TCA promised it would develop<br />
ways to help members achieve better business results,<br />
Lyboldt said, and that’s come to pass, too.<br />
“At the end of August of last year we rolled out the<br />
TCA Profitability Program, known as TPP, designed for<br />
you to do just that, improve profitability and improve<br />
sophistication. This program formally combines our<br />
successful best practice group program with our cloudbased<br />
composite platform, InGauge,” Lyboldt said.<br />
In seven months, TCA has formed three new best<br />
practice groups, which represents a 55-percent growth<br />
in dry van, refrigerated and flatbed groups, and there<br />
are now an additional 31 carriers who are comparing<br />
their performance with InGauge,” he said. “In total, with<br />
each participating member and their subsidiaries, there<br />
are now 153 distinct trucking company profiles within<br />
the InGauge database.”<br />
To reach more members, TCA has recently published<br />
a standard TPP chart of accounts. “This chart of accounts<br />
builds on the reporting format utilized by best practice<br />
group members and will undoubtedly provide more<br />
business insight for those companies who decide to<br />
utilize it,” he said. “This chart of accounts will fill a critical<br />
need for a standardized, flexible financial and operational<br />
reporting model for today’s trucking enterprise.<br />
“If we aren’t all speaking the same language we are<br />
building on a bad foundation, I think you all would agree.<br />
With this new service, which will be free and available to<br />
all existing members on the InGauge website, carriers<br />
will be able to rapidly map and report their unique<br />
financial and operational data to InGauge and go beyond<br />
simply comparing month-to-month performance with<br />
similar peers.”<br />
It’s been a good year, there’s been a lot of progress,<br />
Lyboldt said, but it’s just the foundation for so much<br />
more, and some of it is already in the works.<br />
“We are currently working on building out a truckload<br />
instructor-led academy,” Lyboldt said. “This academy will<br />
teach operational best practices across all carrier type<br />
departments.”<br />
A new TCA website is nearly ready to launch, he said.<br />
“It is a sizeable investment, but one that will improve our<br />
workflow and productivity so we can do more for you.<br />
“As you can see, we are increasing the membership<br />
value proposition. It is where we live and what we do<br />
every day at TCA.”<br />
Tca 2018 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 33
Student of the game<br />
Ari Fleischer<br />
talks about<br />
White House<br />
communications,<br />
then and now<br />
By Klint Lowry<br />
Throughout Ari Fleischer’s career in political<br />
communications, and particularly during his tenure as<br />
White House press secretary for President George W.<br />
Bush, it was noted how Fleischer liked to use sports<br />
metaphors when talking politics.<br />
Nearly 15 years after leaving that post, his career path<br />
can be compared to that of a star athlete.<br />
Fleischer first came to Washington in the mid-1980s, a<br />
promising prospect who quickly established himself in GOP<br />
circles as a blue-chip talent at communications.<br />
In the years that followed, he built up an impressive —<br />
and staunchly Republican — stat sheet, working as press<br />
secretary for two New York congressmen and as field director<br />
of the Republican National Congressional Committee.<br />
In 1988, he began a five-year stint as press secretary<br />
for Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, during which time<br />
he also served as deputy communications director for<br />
then-President George H.W. Bush’s reelection campaign<br />
in 1992. Later, he spent five years as spokesman for the<br />
House Ways and Means Committee.<br />
After more than a decade in the big leagues, Fleischer’s<br />
championship season came in 2001. He’d started as<br />
communications director for Elizabeth Dole’s 2000<br />
presidential campaign, but when she dropped out of the<br />
race early, Fleischer was tapped to assist with George W.<br />
Bush’s campaign.<br />
When Bush emerged victorious, he named Fleischer to<br />
his starting lineup as his White House press secretary, a<br />
job he held from January 2001 until mid-2003.<br />
These days, he’s like the hall-of-famer who is frequently<br />
called upon to offer color commentary. This past summer,<br />
he signed on to be a contributor at Fox News, where he<br />
provides sideline analysis on current events in the political<br />
arena.<br />
On March 26, Fleischer was the keynote speaker at the<br />
Truckload Carriers Association’s 80th Annual Convention,<br />
where he brought some of those insights, reminisced on<br />
his career and offered his take on the ups and downs of<br />
Donald Trump’s presidency thus far.<br />
After his speech, he sat down to talk about these things<br />
in more detail.<br />
Fleischer’s polish as a communicator showed as he<br />
opened his speech with a “confession.” For a man who’s<br />
travelled in the circles he has, there was no telling how big<br />
a bombshell this could be. Without hesitation, he spilled it.<br />
“I was actually raised as a liberal Democrat,” he said,<br />
adding his parents were “horrified” when he went to work<br />
for Bush.<br />
In fact, he said, when he left the White House in 2003<br />
and his hometown newspaper asked his mother about his<br />
work there, “she told them that this was a phase I was<br />
going through.”<br />
Fleischer told the crowd his political transformation<br />
occurred while he was attending Middlebury College in<br />
Vermont. Jimmy Carter’s presidency turned him from a<br />
liberal to a conservative, he said, then Ronald Reagan<br />
inspired him to switch parties.<br />
Later, he further explained his metamorphosis.<br />
“I’m 57, I grew up in the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate<br />
era,” he said. “People felt really lousy about America. For<br />
me, personally, it was that Ronald Reagan vision of loving<br />
this country, being optimistic and patriotic, which when I<br />
was growing up, it didn’t exist. And that just struck a real<br />
cultural chord with me.”<br />
Family ties had something to do with why Reagan’s<br />
words resonated. Fleischer’s mother immigrated from<br />
Hungary in 1939, where he still has relatives.<br />
“I hated communism, I hated totalitarianism,” he said.<br />
“I went back to visit my family in the ’70s when they were<br />
still there under communism. And Reagan talked about<br />
freedom and the end of communism and taking on the<br />
Soviet Union.<br />
“That’s the first thing that started making me think<br />
these Republicans aren’t as terrible as I was raised to<br />
believe. There are some things they believe in that sound<br />
like me.”<br />
That, he explained, is the key to being the presidential<br />
press secretary. “The heart of the job is to believe,” he<br />
34 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
said, to believe in the ideas you’re presenting. “And then<br />
hopefully you find a boss who you believe in and you think<br />
is an honest, good person.”<br />
Fleischer had that in Bush, who had a comfortable,<br />
informal streak that served him well. He has a favorite<br />
story about one day a few months into the administration<br />
when he got a note instructing him to meet the president<br />
out on the South Lawn for a game of catch.<br />
Bush had been asked to throw out the first pitch at the<br />
Milwaukee Brewers’ new ballpark. Now Bush, former owner<br />
of the Texas Rangers, “is a competitive guy,” Fleischer said.<br />
Honorary or not, Bush wanted his pitch to be a strike.<br />
“So at the appointed hour I showed up at 6 o’clock on<br />
the South Lawn,” he said. Bush arrived “in sweatpants and<br />
a bulletproof jacket.”<br />
To do the job of press secretary requires a combination<br />
of being comfortable and professional, Fleischer said. At<br />
one point, Bush threw one in the dirt and it scooted past<br />
Fleischer halfway across the South Lawn. He went after<br />
it, and as he was jogging back in his business suit and<br />
baseball glove, he was struck with a, “Wow, look at where<br />
I am” moment.<br />
“I can’t begin to tell you how much I loved my years<br />
at the White House,” he told the crowd. You aren’t paid a<br />
fortune, he added later, but you can’t beat what he called<br />
the “psychic income” that comes with knowing you have<br />
the ear of the president.<br />
“I would sit in on all those meetings with those policy<br />
advisers and hear the different sides of the issue be<br />
presented to him, hear what he was thinking, why he<br />
was thinking it. And that helps you be a spokesman then,<br />
because you saw it all unfold.”<br />
Fleischer said he never presumed to be a policy advisor.<br />
“No press secretary is,” he said. “But in terms of advice, I<br />
restricted it to the communications area. I would tell him,<br />
‘here’s how I think you should say it,’ or there are times I<br />
told him, ‘Mr. President, I wouldn’t have said it that way. I<br />
don’t think you should ever say that again.’”<br />
You have to be comfortable talking to the president that<br />
way, he said. And you have to be comfortable accepting<br />
that it’s his call to take your advice or leave it.<br />
That goes double for policy decisions, he said. The<br />
people voted for the person you work for, not for you.<br />
You have to present his policies the way he wants them<br />
presented.<br />
“You may not be 100 percent always on the same<br />
track,” he said. “So as long as I was comfortable with most<br />
of the positions, I could do the job.”<br />
At the other end of those presentations was the White<br />
House press corp. It may not have always looked like it,<br />
Fleischer told the crowd, but he loved that part of the job,<br />
too. They were a tough-minded bunch. They could be<br />
persistent, cynical, even downright mean sometimes, but<br />
it was fun to work with them.<br />
“I viewed that job as engaging in intellectual chess,” he<br />
said. “I knew if I said A that it would prompt them to ask<br />
question B. And I already had to be thinking about answer<br />
C, knowing that would prompt them to ask question D,<br />
and I was already thinking about answer E.”<br />
Reporters who work that beat understand that, he said<br />
later, and they play right back. “It’s a jockeying for who’s<br />
right, who’s wrong, who controls the narrative, whether<br />
you’re playing offense or defense. That is a legitimate,<br />
ongoing part of the job.”<br />
Between the rise of social media and other changes to the media landscape,<br />
along with a boss who has an antagonistic relationship with the press, Ari<br />
Fleischer believes White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has<br />
a much harder job than he did in 2001-2003.<br />
The one thing the press doesn’t like, he said, is when<br />
they feel like they’re getting prepackaged talking points,<br />
or when they get no real answers at all. But a press<br />
secretary has to know when comments must be confined<br />
and stick to the game plan.<br />
“That was pronounced in my era, because of September<br />
11 and the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq,” he<br />
said. After 9-11, the whole tone of the nation changed,<br />
Fleischer said. “It changed the nature of the presidency,<br />
and it changed the seriousness of the times,” he said. “The<br />
nature of what I was talking about changed dramatically,<br />
but not the nature of the job.”<br />
Despite having to be a little less forthcoming<br />
sometimes, the relationship between the White House and<br />
the press corp remained pretty good, he said.<br />
Fast-forward to today. Current White House press<br />
secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has it a lot tougher<br />
than he did, Fleischer said.<br />
“The press secretary job by definition is a lot more<br />
strenuous and a lot more frayed,” he said.<br />
For one thing, the rise of social media and partisanship<br />
throughout the country has created a more frenetic,<br />
hyperbolic atmosphere. But to be honest, Fleischer said,<br />
Sanders’ biggest problem is the man she works for.<br />
“There’s such a palpable hostility between the president<br />
and the press,” he said. That hostility was being stoked<br />
long before Sanders came on board, back when President<br />
Trump was candidate Trump.<br />
The 2016 election was the first time the country elected<br />
a president who had neither a political nor a military<br />
background, Fleisher told the crowd. “We have never<br />
elected a pure outsider to the presidency, and that in and<br />
of itself tells you something about the mood of America.”<br />
Trump’s path to victory confounded so many of the<br />
experts, Fleischer said. It was littered with controversial<br />
statements, any one of which would have derailed most<br />
campaigns. “Those statements didn’t doom him,” Fleischer<br />
said. “In many ways it propelled him forward.”<br />
What the experts refused to recognize, Fleischer said,<br />
is the level of frustration in the country today. “Most<br />
Americans just plain don’t like or trust Washington,<br />
and that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Donald Trump’s<br />
statements, particularly the most politically incorrect<br />
statements that he made, actually defined him as just<br />
what people were looking for.”<br />
Americans were willing to accept some glaring flaws<br />
because at least he came across as authentic. That’s<br />
how he got past a field of Republican opponents and<br />
Hillary Clinton, who many saw as the embodiment of the<br />
Washington insider.<br />
Tca 2018 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 35
Against Clinton, Trump chipped away at almost every<br />
demographic group that had pushed Barack Obama over<br />
the top in 2008 and 2012, Fleischer explained. The largest<br />
inroads were with people who make less than $30,000 a<br />
year.<br />
“These are the people who typically succumb to the<br />
notion that Republicans are the party of the rich, that<br />
Republicans don’t care about you,” Fleischer said.<br />
But there’s a tectonic shift occurring in American<br />
politics, Fleisher said. The two major parties seem to be<br />
slowly trading their electoral bases. “Where previously<br />
the Republicans always, always, always won college<br />
graduates, Democrats are starting to increasingly become<br />
the party that represents college graduates. Where<br />
typically Democrats have cleaned the clocks of Republicans<br />
among the lower income, blue-collar working people,<br />
particularly those with high school degrees, those voters<br />
are increasingly becoming Republican.”<br />
Trump not only cashed in on that shift, he may have<br />
accelerated it, Fleischer said.<br />
But after the election was won and it was time to<br />
actually govern, Trump has found some of the tactics and<br />
traits that served him well on the campaign trail aren’t as<br />
good a fit for the Oval Office. His favorable rating is almost<br />
where it was when he was sworn in, but his unfavorable<br />
rating has risen 10 points.<br />
“The intensity of the opposition to Donald Trump among<br />
the Democratic base is fierce,” Fleischer said. The kinds of<br />
comments that galvanized his base now fan the flames for<br />
his opposition.<br />
As a candidate, part of his outsider motif was to<br />
alienate and antagonize most of the media, which he<br />
continues to do. The concern, Fleischer said, is that the<br />
news media can and will bite back.<br />
Throughout Barack Obama’s presidency, Republicans<br />
complained about how easy the press was on him. The<br />
opposite is true for Trump, he said. The press is way too<br />
hard on him. Even when he deserves criticism, the pile-on<br />
is ridiculous.<br />
If Trump’s presidency were to be depicted on a balance<br />
sheet, it would be divided between matters of policy<br />
and of personality, Fleischer said. On the plus side, the<br />
markets are up, as are consumer confidence and job<br />
growth. The business community knows it doesn’t have to<br />
fear additional regulations and tax hikes, and ISIS is all<br />
but dead.<br />
On the deficit side, “there’s the firing of James Comey,<br />
his failure to immediately denounce the Ku Klux Klan and<br />
Nazis in Charlottesville. The White House staff situation<br />
is a mess, and continues to be a mess, and that’s<br />
disappointing.”<br />
Topping the deficit list would be Trump’s tweets,<br />
specifically “the mean-spirited attacks he’s made on<br />
people,” Fleischer said.<br />
To have an antagonistic relationship with the press and<br />
then to hand them ammunition, it’s not surprising Trump’s<br />
disapproval rating is climbing.<br />
Fleischer’s concern is that if Trump’s relationship with<br />
the press remains caustic, he will never get the due credit<br />
for the things he’s done right.<br />
“If I were a White House aide today, that would be my<br />
biggest worry,” he said. “They don’t need to shake things<br />
up. They need to calm things down.”<br />
When Fleisher left the Bush White House, he decided<br />
to get out of the game while he was on top. “Twenty-one<br />
years in Washington is a long time.” Besides, he added,<br />
“I had to get my children out of Washington before they<br />
became Redskins fans.”<br />
Today, along with his punditry, he operates in a new<br />
arena, literally, through his company Ari Fleischer Sports<br />
Communications.<br />
“When the news leaps from the sports page over to the<br />
front page, that’s my niche,” he said. They don’t need help<br />
with the box scores, with stats, explaining how they kept<br />
their foot in bounds on a great catch. But when there’s a<br />
controversy, that’s where they do.<br />
“It doesn’t have the weightiness or the seriousness of<br />
government but it has the passion of sports, and that’s a<br />
lot of fun and a lot of excitement.”<br />
As for politics, he’ll always be a spectator and color<br />
commentator. He anticipates it will be interesting to see<br />
how Trump the outsider in 2016 adjusts to being Trump<br />
the incumbent in 2020. Win lose or draw, Fleischer says<br />
Trump has brought “let-‘er-rip, genuine authenticity” to<br />
politics.<br />
“People are so sick of perfectly packaged politicians,”<br />
Fleischer said. “I don’t think anybody will go as far as<br />
Trump, and hopefully some of his excesses will be rounded<br />
out, but I think Trump has brought an authenticity to<br />
communications,” and in that way he has already been a<br />
game-changer.<br />
36 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
TCA Honors 2018<br />
highway angel<br />
By Dorothy Cox<br />
Professional truck drivers help other motorists all the<br />
time. They just “don’t get caught,” says 2017 Highway Angel<br />
of the Year John Weston of Challenger Motor Freight in<br />
Cambridge, Ontario.<br />
What he means is that these knights of the road don’t<br />
tell others what they’ve done; it’s all in a day’s work. If<br />
they get an award or recognition for what they’ve done,<br />
it’s because someone sees them do it or finds out about<br />
it somehow.<br />
In Weston’s case, he said, “Mike from safety” at his<br />
company happened to see him on TV with a police officer<br />
at the scene of a three-truck pileup (two tractor-trailers<br />
and a dump truck) and wanted to know more.<br />
“That’s what started it off,” says Weston, who told the<br />
co-worker he was just there for the truck drivers in the<br />
crash and was not involved in the accident.<br />
Two of the three truck drivers were OK. But Weston<br />
couldn’t elicit an answer from the driver of the third truck,<br />
which was a mass of wreckage, leaving debris and glass<br />
strewn across the highway.<br />
The accident happened on 401 East, about 25 minutes<br />
away from the Challenger lot in Cambridge.<br />
It was a Friday morning on October 27, 2017, and<br />
Weston says he had just finished dropping off a load and<br />
although the sun was coming up it was still a little dark,<br />
about 6:30 in the morning.<br />
“I could see the three lanes and the taillights were all<br />
red like they should be,” he said. Then “all of a sudden my<br />
lane went black.”<br />
He carefully changed lanes, eased to the shoulder and<br />
scrambled to the scene to see if he could be of any assistance<br />
to the truck drivers.<br />
Weston called out and heard back from two truck drivers<br />
but heard nothing from the driver of the truck that was<br />
smashed so badly. “All you could see was devastation,”<br />
Weston said.<br />
He kept calling and finally the driver answered. “I saw<br />
him in the wreckage and could see the top of his head and<br />
shoulders. He was facing down,” Weston says.<br />
He asked the driver, whose name was Abdul, if he had<br />
on his seatbelt and if anyone was with him. As he explained<br />
to the first policeman on the scene later, that was so first<br />
responders would know if anyone else was trapped in the<br />
rubble. It turned out nobody else was with the driver.<br />
Weston could only see the top of his head, so “I asked<br />
him if I could put my hand on the top of his head as a<br />
comfort. He said he wasn’t in any pain and couldn’t feel<br />
anything.”<br />
The injured driver was upside down still strapped in his<br />
seat. He called out for someone to open the doors to the<br />
cab but Weston says there were no doors left.<br />
“When he started speaking I had hope. By the look of<br />
it, he could be really lucky and walk away or be paralyzed.”<br />
But by the time rescuers were able to cut open the cab<br />
The Truckload Carriers Association’s 2017 Highway Angel of the Year John<br />
Weston, center, who drives for Challenger Motor Freight, accepts his award<br />
from EpicVue’s Lance Platt, left, and TCA’s Highway Angel Spokesperson<br />
Lindsay Lawler. EpicVue partners with TCA for the award.<br />
to get him out, Abdul had passed away.<br />
Weston knows that for Abdul to have somebody there<br />
with him during the last moments of his life made a difference<br />
to him and his family.<br />
“It’s hard to explain why we stop,” Weston said, “we<br />
don’t choose who we stop for.”<br />
Born in Great Britain, Weston had a father-in-law who<br />
drove a truck, or “lorry,” as they call it in the U.K., and took<br />
him along on hauls.<br />
Weston was the first person in his family to become a<br />
truck driver and drove OTR for 11 years in England and 10<br />
in Canada.<br />
He has family in Louisville, Kentucky, and wanted to<br />
come to the United States and drive trucks professionally<br />
— but it was after 9/11 and more difficult to move to the<br />
U.S. then, he said.<br />
With Challenger, Weston has a dedicated run from Ontario<br />
to Campbellsville, Kentucky. “I’m in the U.S. every<br />
day and still see the family,” he said.<br />
It’s not the first time he’s helped someone on the road.<br />
“In England I’ve done it many times. I saw a woman get<br />
hit by a truck. She was drunk and walked away.” He helped<br />
her get out of the road so she wouldn’t get hit again.<br />
He also helped a mother and her children out of a car<br />
that had landed on its roof in a ditch in 26-degree weather,<br />
keeping them warm in his cab until help arrived.<br />
He told TCA that “ … for some reason it was supposed<br />
to be me that stopped that day. … He [Abdul] did not have<br />
pain in his voice and he did not seem nervous. He heard<br />
my English accent and I heard his foreign tongue and in<br />
that time, neither race nor religion nor anything else mattered.<br />
All that mattered was that I was there for him in<br />
his last moments and I know that means a lot to families.”<br />
Weston told Truckload Authority: “I’m pleased I was<br />
there. With me being recognized it’s for everyone who<br />
doesn’t get recognized” for helping others on the road.<br />
The Highway Angel designation “shows the public we<br />
do look out for them. It’s good for the companies, it’s good<br />
for the public and it’s good for the [truck] drivers’ morale.”<br />
Is doing a good deed on the road the same as saving<br />
someone’s life?<br />
“Of course it is,” he said. To the person who’s helped it<br />
means everything.<br />
TCA 2018 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 37
TCA Honors America’s<br />
Sponsored by:<br />
By Lindon Finney<br />
It is estimated that there are more than 3.5 million professional<br />
truck drivers in the United States.<br />
Imagine how it must feel if out of all those men and women,<br />
you are chosen to be Driver of the Year?<br />
For Stephen Richardson and Philip Keith, the response<br />
was nothing but humility and gratitude.<br />
Richardson and Keith were honored at the awards banquet<br />
of the Truckload Carriers Association’s 80th Annual<br />
Convention in Kissimmee, Florida.<br />
The Driver of the Year program, which honors the top<br />
company driver and the top owner-operator, is conducted<br />
by TCA and its partners, Overdrive Magazine and TruckersNews.com.<br />
The contests are sponsored by Love’s Travel Stops of<br />
Oklahoma City and Cummins, Inc. of Columbus, Indiana.<br />
The overall winners are selected from the finalists based<br />
on safe driving, efforts to enhance the public image of the<br />
trucking industry, and positive contributions to the winners’<br />
local communities. For the owner-operator candidates, business-owner<br />
skills are also judged.<br />
Richardson is from Decatur, Alabama, and drives for Big<br />
G Express of Shelbyville, Tennessee.<br />
“To receive this award means that what I was taught<br />
growing up through life has paid off,” Richardson told Truckload<br />
Authority. “I feel I’ve done a great job at just being me<br />
because you go through life not really expecting things and<br />
when something happens, it means more to you.”<br />
He is proud of the industry he serves.<br />
“As we all know, nothing moves without the trucking industry,”<br />
he said. “I think about the importance of trucking<br />
because everything I use, if it wasn’t for trucking, I wouldn’t<br />
get. We all need the same necessities and without the trucking<br />
industry we wouldn’t have food to eat, clothes on our<br />
backs and houses to live in.”<br />
Richardson said his father, who was a grocery delivery<br />
driver, taught him the value of driving a truck.<br />
“I grew up watching him get up every morning, go out,<br />
get in the truck and deliver groceries to stores and schools.<br />
By the time I was five or six years old and he felt like it was<br />
safe, in the summertime I would ride with him and he would<br />
let me get in the back of the truck, find the numbers on the<br />
boxes and drag them to the back of the truck. At that time, I<br />
didn’t realize he was teaching me about hard work.”<br />
As with all drivers, safety is a high priority.<br />
“If you look at everybody around you as your family and<br />
you treat them the way you would treat your family,” you<br />
will always be conscious of the importance of safety, he said.<br />
Richardson has amassed over 3.4 million accident-free<br />
miles during his 27 years of professional truck driving, including<br />
17 with Big G Express.<br />
In 2013, he was named Big G’s first Driver of the Year re-<br />
Stephen Richardson grew up in a trucking family. His father was a<br />
grocery delivery driver who enjoyed taking Stephen along with him<br />
during the summer.<br />
cipient, and he has also been named the Tennessee<br />
Trucking Association’s 2014 Tennessee Driver<br />
of the Year and a 2017-18 America’s Road Team<br />
Captain.<br />
In addition to his successes as a driver, Richardson<br />
has had major success with his health,<br />
having lost 55 pounds by walking three to four<br />
miles on the treadmill every day and watching his<br />
sugar and carb intake.<br />
And he’s not about to park his truck for good.<br />
“I’m going to say I’ll stay in for another 15<br />
to 20 years,” he said. “It really depends on my<br />
health and it depends on how my wife feels about<br />
it. Staying active is going to keep me healthy because<br />
now I’m kind of dedicated to a lifestyle of<br />
exercising and taking care of myself.”<br />
38 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
Top Drivers<br />
Keith has been involved in trucking for 34 years as<br />
a terminal manager, dispatcher and customer service<br />
representative as well as a driver.<br />
His honors include the Wisconsin Motor Carriers Association’s<br />
Driver of the Year in 2016, a 19-year Safety<br />
Award from WEL Companies, Inc., with whom he is<br />
leased, and three separate Best in Show honors in the<br />
World’s Largest Truck Convoy.<br />
Along with the other member of his driving team, his<br />
wife Eva, Keith participates in the Trucker Buddy Program.<br />
A U.S. Marine Corps Veteran, world traveler and<br />
father, he believes that giving back to his fellow drivers<br />
and citizens helps make his job easier.<br />
“I was a finalist last year and that was when I learned<br />
about TCA,” he said. “I am very flattered to be so honored.<br />
To receive the prestigious title of Owner-Operator<br />
of the Year is just overwhelming.”<br />
Keith became a truck driver after he got out of military<br />
service with the Marine Corps. and he quickly came<br />
to like what he was doing.<br />
“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “I enjoy the excitement.”<br />
His entry into the industry came before truck driving<br />
schools were plentiful.<br />
“You know, I was pretty young, and I had all the old<br />
timers pulling me along and teaching me.”<br />
When he first joined the industry, he was a company<br />
driver.<br />
Keith credits the Tielens family with much of his success<br />
when he decided he wanted to become an owneroperator.<br />
Wally Tielens and his two sons, Bruce and Randy,<br />
formed what was then called Wisconsin Express Lines.<br />
In 1988, the two sons bought the company and<br />
changed the name to WEL.<br />
“I was fortunate get to know Bruce and Randy, who<br />
passed away in 2013,” Keith said. “They gave me a<br />
chance.”<br />
Bruce Tielens is now the CEO and his son Chris<br />
serves as president.<br />
Keith said he connected with the Tielens because<br />
“they were of my generation. We’ve grown up together.<br />
When I started, WEL had 20 trucks; now they have over<br />
500.”<br />
“Trucks are very important,” said Keith, who along<br />
with his wife hauls mostly food products.<br />
“We get a lot of satisfaction from negotiating all the<br />
obstacles between one coast to the other.”<br />
Don’t even mention retirement to Keith.<br />
“We’re not ready to retire yet,” he said. “However, we<br />
are making plans trying to prepare ourselves. In reality,<br />
I guess my retirement would be a semi-retirement. I’d<br />
like to have a new truck and maybe just take a run once<br />
a month with three weeks off.”<br />
Right now, it’s just the reverse — running 21 days<br />
Philip Keith, who became a professional truck driver after he was<br />
honorably discharged from the Marine Corps, quickly became<br />
enthralled with the excitement of the job.<br />
and then going home to Long Beach, Mississippi.<br />
“The last couple of decades we found the best balance<br />
for us was a little run 21 days out. Then we’d go<br />
home for seven to 10 days to Long Beach — sitting on<br />
the beach right next to Gulfport. It’s just a little bit west<br />
of Biloxi and a beautiful area.”<br />
Both drivers received a $25,000 cash prize for their<br />
achievements.<br />
“These professional drivers hold themselves to extremely<br />
high standards in their trucks, their families,<br />
and their communities,” said Jon Archard, vice president<br />
of sales at Love’s Travel Stops. “They truly represent the<br />
best of the best in our industry.”<br />
Amy Boerger, vice president of sales for Cummins,<br />
Inc., said of the owner-operator finalists: “These owner-operators<br />
are exemplary drivers, yes, but they are<br />
also benefactors to their communities, stewards of the<br />
environment, and businessmen who have achieved remarkable<br />
success in this difficult industry. Cummins is<br />
delighted to be involved yet again with this award.”<br />
Other finalists in the Company Driver of the Year<br />
contest were Donald Lewis of Wilson Logistics and Roger<br />
Wyble of Maverick Transportation System, Inc.<br />
Additional Owner-Operator of the Year finalists were<br />
Kevin Kockhich of Diamond Transportation System and<br />
Bryan Smith of Art Pape Transfer, Inc.<br />
Each received a check for $2,500.<br />
Tca 2018 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 39
Kissimmee<br />
Members, prospects and guests of the Truckload Carriers<br />
Association basked in the warm air and sunshine in<br />
Kissimmee, Florida, March 24-27 at the 80th Annual TCA<br />
Convention at the Gaylord Palms Resort.<br />
After receptions, board and committee meetings and<br />
the opening of the exhibit hall on Saturday and Sunday, the<br />
formal program began Monday morning with a keynote address<br />
by Ari Fleischer, press secretary for President George<br />
W. Bush from 2001 to 2003. Now a political commentator<br />
for FOX News, he assessed the current state of American<br />
politics in general and the Donald Trump presidency in particular.<br />
In the same session outgoing TCA Chairman Rob<br />
Penner spoke about how the association has become a<br />
louder, more unified voice in the trucking industry and its<br />
members have become more active and engaged in TCA<br />
affairs.<br />
Monday night, guests at the Fifth Annual Scholarship<br />
Gala raised $173,075 for the fund using the theme of “Hot<br />
Havana Nights.”<br />
Tuesday morning, incoming Chairman Dan Doran noted<br />
that the maturation of the association is evolving at a rapid<br />
pace and President John Lyboldt said over the last two<br />
years, TCA has doubled down on building the membership<br />
value proposition, elevating its presence in Washington<br />
and positively impacting the membership and the trucking<br />
industry. In addition, there was a panel discussion around<br />
the topic, “Building Your Company for The Future: Are You<br />
the Right Size?”<br />
Tuesday evening, the annual awards banquet featured<br />
the presentation of Drivers of the Year and National Fleet<br />
Safety awards. To top off the evening, comedian Brad Upton<br />
kept the audience laughing.<br />
(1.) The 12-piece ensemble, Gloria’s Miami Sound,<br />
was the main entertainment at Monday evening’s Fifth<br />
Annual Scholarship Fund Gala. This sizzling tribute<br />
band traveled from New York City to perform at both<br />
the beginning and end of the Gala.<br />
(2.) Monday’s general session offered an informative<br />
panel “Safety as a Core Value.” Special thanks to<br />
(pictured from left) Wendell Erb, president & CEO of<br />
Erb International, Inc.; Greer Woodruff, senior vice<br />
president, safety, security and driver personnel at J.<br />
B. Hunt; and moderator Brian Fielkow, CEO of Jetco<br />
Delivery.<br />
(3, 5, 7.) Attendees mingle during Monday evening’s<br />
reception hosted by Freightliner. The reception<br />
2<br />
was held prior to TCA’s Fifth Annual<br />
Scholarship Fund Gala.<br />
(4.) TCA’S Outgoing Chairman Rob<br />
Penner; FMCSA’s Ray Martinez; TCA<br />
President John Lyboldt; and TCA’s Incoming<br />
Chairman Dan Doran.<br />
(6.) TCA’s Ambassador Club members<br />
were recognized during Saturday’s<br />
Kickoff Reception. Those member com-<br />
4<br />
5<br />
3<br />
6<br />
1<br />
40 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
12<br />
7 9<br />
13<br />
16<br />
10<br />
14<br />
4<br />
8 11<br />
15<br />
5<br />
6<br />
panies that have been dues-paying members for 25 years are inducted into TCA’s<br />
Ambassador Club. Every five years they’re recognized for reaching yet another<br />
milestone of membership longevity. This year 24 companies were recognized.<br />
(8.) EpicVue’s Lance Platt, left, and TCA’s Highway Angel Spokesperson Lindsay<br />
Lawler announce the 2017 Highway Angel of the Year Monday. Challenger<br />
Motor Freight’s professional truck driver John Weston was recognized for his<br />
heroic deed.<br />
(9.) Florida Highway Patrolmen spoke during the Independent Contractor Practices<br />
Policy Committee Sunday morning.<br />
(10.) Comedian Brad Upton performed during Tuesday’s Annual Awards Banquet.<br />
(11.) TCA’s Immediate Past Chairman Russell Stubbs, right, welcomes TCA’s<br />
Outgoing Chairman Rob Penner, to the green coat club.<br />
(12.) TCA and CarriersEdge hosted its Best Fleets to Drive For reception Monday<br />
afternoon at the Wreckers Sports Bar Veranda located inside the Gaylord Palms.<br />
(13.) Attendees navigate the exhibit hall floor.<br />
(14.) On Saturday evening, during the TCA Membership Committee’s Kickoff<br />
Reception, sponsor Joe Morten & Son, Inc. raffled off a one-of-a-kind wooden<br />
truck. Garner Trucking, Inc.’s Tim Chrulski was the lucky winner! Pictured from left:<br />
Membership Committee Co-Chair Glynn Spangenberg; Chrulski; Mike Kennelly of<br />
Joe Morten & Son, Inc.; and Membership Committee Co-Chair Mike Eggleton, Jr.<br />
(15.) The 2018 Past Chairmen’s Award was presented to G&P Trucking Co.<br />
Inc.’s Clifton Parker.<br />
(16.) TCA President John Lyboldt gave his remarks during Tuesday’s general<br />
session. He encouraged all TCA members — for-hire and private fleet members,<br />
associates and schools to get involved in association activities this year.<br />
(17.) This year, TCA is celebrating its 80th year. The Future of Truckload was<br />
this year’s motto.<br />
(18.) On Saturday evening, TCA’s Membership Committee hosted a Kickoff Reception<br />
sponsored by Joe Morten & Son, Inc. Members were recognized for their<br />
longevity and service to the industry.<br />
18<br />
17<br />
Tca 2018 www.Truckload.org | TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY 41
A QUICK LOOK AT IMPORTANT TCA NEWS<br />
SMALL<br />
A QUICK LOOK AT<br />
IMPORTANT TCA NEWS<br />
TALK<br />
Ambassadors<br />
At the Kickoff Reception of the Truckload Carriers Association’s convention,<br />
TCA paid tribute to its Ambassador Club – member companies that have<br />
contributed to the long-term growth of the association.<br />
Membership Committee cochairs<br />
Mike Eggleton Jr., vice<br />
president of Raider Express, Inc.,<br />
and Glynn Spangenberg, chairman<br />
and chief advisor of Spangenberg<br />
Partners, LLC, presented<br />
the awards.<br />
“TCA is fortunate to have so<br />
many long-standing and committed<br />
members,” said John Lyboldt,<br />
TCA’s president. “Their combined<br />
Glynn Spangenberg, chairman<br />
and chief advisor of Spangenberg<br />
Partners, LLC, co-presented the<br />
new Ambassador Club members.<br />
experience in truckload has created<br />
the foundation for this Association<br />
and is leading truckload<br />
into the future.”<br />
Six companies were newly<br />
inducted into TCA’s prestigious<br />
Ambassador Club for reaching 25 years of membership and received Ambassador<br />
Club plaques:<br />
• Arlo G. Lott Trucking – Jerome, Idaho<br />
• Bulldog Hiway Express (Daseke) – Charleston, South Carolina<br />
• NFI Industries – Irving, Texas<br />
• National Tractor Trailer School – Liverpool, New York<br />
• Robinson & Sons Trucking, Inc. – Lawrenceburg, Indiana<br />
• Snelling Transportation Group – Bentonville, Arkansas<br />
Eighteen other companies were honored at the ceremony for reaching<br />
various five-year milestones, including two companies — Crete Carrier<br />
Corporation of Lincoln, Nebraska, and Howell’s Motor Freight of Roanoke,<br />
Virginia — who were presented with crystal globes for achieving 50 years<br />
of membership.<br />
Best Fleets to Drive For<br />
The Truckload Carriers Association and its partner CarriersEdge unveiled<br />
the overall winners of the 2018 Best Fleets to Drive For contest and survey<br />
during TCA’s annual convention.<br />
The Best Overall Fleet for the small category, sponsored by EpicVue, is<br />
Central Oregon Truck Company of Redmond, Oregon.<br />
Bison Transport of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the Best Overall Fleet<br />
for the large carrier category, sponsored by Northbridge Insurance.<br />
Best Fleets to Drive For is an annual survey and contest that recognizes<br />
North American for-hire trucking companies providing the best workplace experiences<br />
for their drivers. To participate, fleets must be nominated by a company<br />
driver or independent contractor working with them, after which they<br />
are evaluated across a broad range of categories reflecting current best practices<br />
in human resources. The top 20 finishers are identified as Best Fleets<br />
to Drive For and then<br />
divided in half according<br />
to size. The highest<br />
scoring fleet in each<br />
category is named the<br />
overall winner.<br />
Central Oregon<br />
Truck Company and<br />
Bison Transport have<br />
each hit their “five<br />
consecutive years”<br />
milestone for landing<br />
in the Top 20 Best<br />
Fleets to Drive For.<br />
Both fleets also have<br />
active new entrant<br />
programs that bring in<br />
significant numbers of<br />
new drivers each year.<br />
“These two companies are shining examples of consistency and innovation<br />
in trucking,” said John Lyboldt, TCA president. “Congratulations to Central<br />
Oregon and Bison for continuing to go above and beyond to create exemplary<br />
workplaces for their drivers.”<br />
Central Oregon Truck Company is a fleet of 314 trucks, and this is their<br />
first time winning Best Overall Fleet.<br />
The company has developed some of the most innovative programs in<br />
the industry, including an RFID system in their trucks that triggers a custom<br />
welcome when drivers return to the yard, as well as a concierge service that<br />
takes care of much of the return-related administration work.<br />
Central Oregon also received top marks for their compensation programs<br />
and operational strategy.<br />
Whereas Central Oregon provides a fresh name to the Best Overall Fleet<br />
podium, Bison Transport continues to stake its claim as a dynasty.<br />
Bison has placed in the Top 20 for eight of the 10 years since the Best<br />
Fleets program was initiated, including three consecutive years winning<br />
Best Overall Large<br />
Fleet. This year also<br />
marks Bison’s fourth<br />
total Best Overall<br />
Large Fleet title, the<br />
first fleet to reach this<br />
milestone.<br />
Despite its long<br />
history of winning,<br />
the 1,456-truck fleet<br />
is not resting on its<br />
laurels. The company<br />
continues to find new<br />
ways to improve its<br />
offerings for drivers.<br />
This year it received<br />
top scores for perfor-<br />
Garth Pitzel, right, director of safety and<br />
driver development at Bison Transport,<br />
accepts the Best Fleets to Drive For award<br />
in the overall large carrier category from<br />
CarriersEdge’s Jane Jazrawy and Northbridge<br />
Insurance’s Ziad Bashi.<br />
Rick Williams, left, of Central Oregon<br />
Truck Company, accepts the Best Fleets<br />
to Drive For Award among small carriers<br />
from CarriersEdge’s Jane Jazrawy and<br />
EpicVue’s Lance Platt.<br />
42 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
mance management programs, driver development and career path options,<br />
and work/life balance.<br />
“Both fleets are taking different approaches but achieving comparable<br />
results,” said Jane Jazrawy, CEO of CarriersEdge. “Bison is a large fleet that<br />
does a variety of different types of work, while Central Oregon is primarily a<br />
long-haul flatbed fleet. Both are also fleets that have been pushing the envelope<br />
for years, embracing technology to improve efficiency and constantly<br />
coming up with new ideas to enhance their drivers’ experiences.”<br />
Crittenden Award<br />
The Professional Truck Driver Institute, Inc. (PTDI) has presented its highest<br />
honor, the Lee J. Crittenden Memorial Award, to Jeff Davis, vice president<br />
of safety for Napa River Insurance Services, Inc. The Truckload Carriers<br />
Association managed PTDI until 2016. The award is sponsored by Cengage<br />
Learning of New York, New York.<br />
Davis has more than 30 years of experience in commercial trucking<br />
safety.<br />
As vice president of safety, he oversees all safety and loss prevention activities<br />
with prospective and insured clients. His role includes managing the<br />
pre-underwriting due diligence process, providing insured client safety and<br />
compliance services, as well as analyzing loss and compliance data.<br />
Davis is active in numerous state and national trucking industry groups.<br />
He serves on the board of directors and is the treasurer of PTDI and is also a<br />
member of the Truckload Carriers Association Regulatory Policy Committee.<br />
Peter Van Dyne, technical director at Liberty Mutual Insurance and chair<br />
of PTDI’s board of directors, said of Davis as he presented the award, “As an<br />
organization committed to actively supporting the training and development<br />
of truck drivers, PTDI is grateful to have someone like Jeff, whose passion is<br />
his commitment to bringing good drivers into the business and keeping them,<br />
which more than exemplifies the overall mission of PTDI.”<br />
The Crittenden Award is<br />
named after Lee Crittenden, a<br />
staunch supporter of PTDI until<br />
his death in April 1998. Crittenden<br />
was passionate about promoting<br />
a positive image of the nation’s<br />
professional truck drivers — he<br />
was largely responsible for the<br />
creation of America’s Road Team<br />
and initiated a scholarship program<br />
for drivers who participate<br />
in the National Truck Driving Jeff Davis speaks to attendees<br />
Championships. He was one of after accepting the Lee J. Crittenden<br />
award.<br />
PTDI’s founders, serving on the<br />
board of directors as finance<br />
chairman during the PTDI’s infancy.<br />
PTDI currently has certified entry-level training courses at 57 schools in<br />
19 states, Canada and Germany.<br />
Past Chair Award<br />
The Truckload Carriers Association has bestowed its prestigious Past<br />
Chairmen’s Award upon Clifton Parker, president and general manager of<br />
G&P Trucking Co., Inc., and TCA chairman from 2002 to 2004. Parker is the<br />
only TCA chairman to serve two terms.<br />
Parker was born in 1955 to a trucking family. His father was a driver for<br />
Carolina Freight Carriers of Cherryville, North Carolina.<br />
After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North<br />
Carolina-Charlotte in 1977, he went to work for Carolina Freight Carriers Corporation,<br />
where he managed several terminals and was promoted to assistant<br />
to the vice president.<br />
TCA 2018 www.Truckload.org | TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY 43
TALK<br />
A QUICK LOOK AT IMPORTANT TCA NEWS<br />
SMALL<br />
A QUICK LOOK AT<br />
IMPORTANT TCA NEWS<br />
TALK<br />
Clifton Parker, president and<br />
general manager of G&P Trucking<br />
Co., accepts the Past Chairmen’s<br />
Award.<br />
Shortly thereafter, he served<br />
as vice president of operations<br />
for Red Arrow Freight Lines.<br />
During his tenure at G&P<br />
Trucking, Parker has been active<br />
in the South Carolina Trucking<br />
Association where he served<br />
as chairman for two years, and<br />
is presently SCTA’s representative<br />
to the American Trucking<br />
Associations. He also serves as<br />
chairman of the Hours of Service<br />
Subcommittee for the American<br />
Trucking Associations and is a<br />
member of the safety, environmental,<br />
technology and intermodal policy committees.<br />
Parker has been recognized by the South Carolina House of Representatives<br />
for outstanding leadership in the field of transportation and was appointed<br />
to a study committee on public-private partnerships in transportation<br />
to make recommendations to the governor on highway funding.<br />
Then-Gov. Nikki Haley appointed him to represent the governor’s office on<br />
the South Carolina Department of Transportation’s Highway Commission in<br />
2011, a position in which he still serves today.<br />
The Past Chairmen’s award is TCA’s highest honor. Recipients are leaders<br />
who have made a significant contribution to the business community, the<br />
trucking industry and the organization. Contrary to the title of the award, the<br />
awardee does not have to be a past chairman of the association.<br />
Chairman’s Fairwell Address<br />
Looking back on his term as chairman of the Truckload Carriers Association,<br />
Rob Penner reflected on the past 12 months.<br />
At the 2017 convention in Nashville, Tennessee, Penner reminded this<br />
year’s attendees, he spoke about telling TCA’s story, about elevating the<br />
association’s profile and putting more value back into the hands of TCA<br />
members.<br />
“We spoke about becoming a louder, more unified voice and about taking<br />
the lead and charting our own path,” Penner said during his chairman’s<br />
address at the first general session of the convention. “It was a call to action<br />
that challenged our members to be more active and engaged, making TCA<br />
a stronger place that better represented each of us and our businesses. So<br />
how did we do?”<br />
Penner pointed to some of the successes of the past year:<br />
• TCA put its members back behind the wheel of the truckload industry by<br />
successfully seeding and launching its own advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill.<br />
• TCA supported in government<br />
affairs efforts not only<br />
through funding, but in the volunteering<br />
of time, efforts and<br />
the collective experiences that<br />
our member companies bring<br />
together.<br />
• TCA made its first TCA/<br />
member joint call on Washington<br />
a great success through<br />
active participation. TCA told<br />
its story, painted a picture that<br />
In his chairman’s address at the<br />
2018 convention, Chairman Rob<br />
Penner pointed to numerous successes<br />
the Truckload Carriers Association<br />
has enjoyed during the<br />
past 12 months.<br />
truckload is important, and that<br />
the opinions of its members<br />
matter.<br />
• The association weighed in<br />
on many issues, including ELDs,<br />
F4A and productivity, just to<br />
name a few, and as a result its story is being heard as TCA is already recognized<br />
on The Hill as a credible and reliable resource and is just getting started.<br />
“I encourage every company here to be active and involved in supporting<br />
our advocacy efforts as we have proven this to be a difference maker,” Penner<br />
said. “We have been invited to the dinner but we still need to earn our seat<br />
at the table.”<br />
Penner recalled that at last year’s convention, the association talked to its<br />
membership about the Trucking Profitability Program.<br />
“We promised a renewed, laser-focused approach to helping our members<br />
achieve better business results and we are delivering on those promises,”<br />
he said. “Benchmarking has really turned the corner and there is something<br />
for every carrier member, large or small.”<br />
Penner noted the association had reworked the delivery of the program,<br />
grown the number of peer groups by three and has the horsepower to keep<br />
growing.<br />
“We have added services that better support our members and at the<br />
same time, we have added a significant revenue stream to help offset the<br />
costs of funding our association,” he said. “This is our industry’s premier<br />
performance improvement solution and if your company is not currently<br />
active here, you need to ask yourself why. It is without question the best<br />
value for dollar returns that my company gets out of our TCA membership and<br />
pays multiples on the investment every single year.”<br />
Penner said he came to TCA as a member with a genuine interest in improving<br />
his business.<br />
“That has happened and that continues to happen and for that I am thankful.<br />
I hope this happens for all of you,” he said.<br />
Safety Awards<br />
Two truckload carriers with outstanding safety records were presented<br />
with the prestigious Fleet Safety Award during the banquet that concluded<br />
the annual Truckload Carriers Association convention. Sponsored by Great<br />
West Casualty Company, the 2017 award for the small carrier division (total<br />
annual mileage of less than 25 million miles) was presented to Boyle Transportation<br />
of Billerica, Massachusetts, and the award for the large carrier division<br />
(total annual mileage of 25 million or more miles) went to Bison Transport<br />
of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.<br />
This is Boyle Transportation’s first Fleet Safety grand prize, while it is Bison<br />
Transport’s 10th Fleet Safety grand prize for the large-carrier category,<br />
including its ninth in a row.<br />
Both companies will be recognized again during TCA’s Safety & Security<br />
Division annual meeting,<br />
to be held June<br />
10-12 at the Norfolk<br />
Waterside Marriott in<br />
Norfolk, Virginia.<br />
“Boyle and Bison<br />
hold their safety<br />
programs to a higher<br />
standard than simply<br />
counting accidents<br />
per mile,” said John<br />
Lyboldt, TCA’s president.<br />
“These fleets<br />
truly represent a<br />
gold standard for<br />
developing a safety<br />
culture that permeates<br />
through every<br />
employee in every<br />
aspect of the company.<br />
Congratulations<br />
to Boyle and Bison!”<br />
Garth Pitzel, right, director of safety and<br />
driver development at Bison Transport,<br />
accepts the National Fleet Safety Award<br />
for the large carrier division from Patrick<br />
Kuehl, executive vice president of Great<br />
West Casualty Co., which sponsors the<br />
competition. Bison has won the award<br />
nine consecutive years<br />
44 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
Andrew Boyle, right, executive vice<br />
president and chief financial officer<br />
at Boyle Transportation, accepts the<br />
National Fleet Safety Award for the<br />
small carrier division from Patrick<br />
Kuehl, executive vice president of<br />
Great West Casualty Co., which<br />
sponsors the competition. It is Boyle<br />
Transportation’s first time to win<br />
the award.<br />
The application process<br />
for the Fleet Safety Awards<br />
began with fleets submitting<br />
their accident frequency per<br />
million miles driven.<br />
TCA selected the top three<br />
winners for each of six mileage-based<br />
divisions and had<br />
the results audited for accuracy<br />
by independent experts.<br />
In January, TCA announced<br />
the names of the 18<br />
division winners and invited<br />
them to submit further documentation<br />
about their safety<br />
programs.<br />
To receive the grand prize,<br />
both winning companies had<br />
to demonstrate stringent<br />
standards in their overall<br />
safety programs, on and off<br />
the highway, and were judged<br />
to be the best in their commitment to improving safety on North America’s<br />
highways.<br />
Scholarship Gala<br />
The Truckload Carriers Association Scholarship Fund hosted its fifth annual<br />
fundraising gala during the TCA convention.<br />
“Hot Havana Nights” raised $173,075 to fund future scholarships named<br />
after past TCA chairmen and support trucking families’ dreams of a higher<br />
education.<br />
Thanks to the generosity of hosts Freightliner Trucks and Pilot Flying J,<br />
100 percent of the evening’s proceeds went directly to the Scholarship Fund.<br />
Before the night began, the Scholarship Fund had already raised $77,725<br />
from seat and table sales alone.<br />
Gala attendees danced<br />
the night away to the sizzling<br />
hits of Gloria Estefan played<br />
by the 12-piece band, Gloria’s<br />
Miami Sound. The gala also<br />
featured a speech from fouryear<br />
TCA scholarship recipient<br />
Dylan Tungate, who thanked<br />
attendees for supporting the<br />
Scholarship Fund that played<br />
Nicky Morrison and Darrel Hopkins,<br />
both with Prime Inc., were<br />
dressed for the occasion on “Hot<br />
Havana Nights.”<br />
an important part in allowing<br />
him to graduate from college<br />
debt-free.<br />
When attendees weren’t on<br />
their feet dancing or taking pictures<br />
at the photo booth, they were bidding on silent and live auction items,<br />
including two humidors, jewelry and trips. In total, the silent and live auctions<br />
raised $51,025.<br />
The gala also saw the endowment of a new Past Chairmen’s Fund scholarship.<br />
Named after 2012-2013 TCA Chairman and Prime Inc. President and<br />
Founder Robert Low, the Robert Low Scholarship will now be awarded each<br />
year in perpetuity thanks to $20,000 in donations.<br />
The 2018-19 TCA Scholarship Fund application process began in April.<br />
Wall<br />
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) presented awards at the<br />
annual convention to recognize the efforts of Truckload Carriers Association<br />
members who volunteered time and equipment to haul The Wall That Heals<br />
in 2017.<br />
The presentation was<br />
made by Heidi Zimmerman,<br />
director of communications<br />
for VVMF.<br />
“Our partnership with<br />
TCA allowed us to bring<br />
the names on the Vietnam<br />
Veterans Memorial home to<br />
hundreds of thousands of<br />
visitors in 2017,” Zimmerman<br />
said. “Leading the way<br />
into each community was a<br />
truck owned and operated<br />
by a TCA member, showing<br />
dedication and commitment The Vietnam Veterans Memorial<br />
to America’s veterans and to Fund recognized 14 TCA members<br />
our nation.”<br />
for helping transport the wall in 2017.<br />
The following TCA-member<br />
companies were recognized:<br />
• Barber Trucking, Inc. of Brookville, Pennsylvania<br />
• Baylor Trucking, Inc. of Milan, Indiana<br />
• Big G Express, Inc. of Shelbyville, Tennessee<br />
• Cargo Transporters, Inc. of Claremont, North Carolina<br />
• Dart Transit Company of Eagan, Minnesota<br />
• Don Hummer Trucking, Inc. of Oxford, Iowa<br />
• Fremont Contract Carriers, Inc. of Fremont, Nebraska<br />
• Halvor Lines, Inc. of Superior, Wisconsin<br />
• Interstate Distributor Co. of Tacoma, Washington<br />
• Regency Transportation, Inc. of Franklin, Massachusetts<br />
• USA Truck, Inc. of Van Buren, Arkansas<br />
• Warren Transport, Inc. of Waterloo, Iowa<br />
• Werner Enterprises, Inc. of Omaha, Nebraska, and<br />
• Wil-Trans of Springfield, Missouri.<br />
The Wall That Heals exhibit is hauled in a 53-foot trailer and includes a<br />
three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial along with a<br />
mobile education center. With the help of TCA’s partnership and the companies<br />
mentioned above, the traveling exhibit honors the men and women who<br />
served and sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War.<br />
Trucking companies are needed to haul The Wall in 2018. Interested<br />
companies may complete an online interest form at www.vvmf.org/haulthe-wall.<br />
Whistle-Stop<br />
Britton Transport of Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Meritor, Inc. of Kansas<br />
City, Missouri, were recognized for their involvement in transporting the U.S.<br />
Capitol Christmas Tree this past holiday season.<br />
For the last 38 years, a special tree has been harvested from a U.S. national<br />
forest and transported across the country to the grounds of the U.S.<br />
Capitol in Washington, D.C.<br />
Along the way, the tree makes “whistle-stops” at local communities and<br />
military bases, which allows the public to view it, while also shining a spotlight<br />
on the trucking industry that makes it possible to transport the immense tree.<br />
In early-November 2017, an 80-foot Engelmann Spruce was harvested<br />
from the Kootenai National<br />
Forest in Montana.<br />
It then began its 3,000-<br />
mile trek through two<br />
dozen communities across<br />
the country, including the<br />
Grand Forks, North Dakota,<br />
town square, where hundreds<br />
of locals came out<br />
in freezing temperatures<br />
to view the tree, as well as<br />
MHC Kenworth in Kansas<br />
City, Missouri.<br />
At each “whistle-stop” along the<br />
route from Montana to Washington,<br />
well-wishers signed a banner on the<br />
side of the trailer carrying the tree.<br />
Tca 2018 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 45
MARK YOUR<br />
CALENDAR<br />
JUNE 2018<br />
>> June 10-12 — 37th Annual Safety and Security Division<br />
Meeting, Norfolk Waterside Marriott, Norfolk, Virginia<br />
JULY 2018<br />
>> July 11-13 — 35th Refrigerated Division Annual<br />
Meeting, Suncadia Resort, Cle Elum, Washington<br />
SEPTEMBER 2018<br />
>> September 24-26 — TCA Open House, Call on<br />
Washington and Fall Business Meetings, Washington, D.C.<br />
>> September 26 — Wreaths Across America Gala,<br />
Arlington, Virginia<br />
For more information about these or any other TCA<br />
events, please visit www.truckload.org or contact TCA<br />
at (703) 838-1950.<br />
Visit TCA’s Event Calendar Page<br />
online at Truckload.org and click “Events.”<br />
46 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018
TRUCKING IS TOUGH<br />
THE COMPETITION IS<br />
TOUGHER<br />
Join us: June 14-16 for the 36th Annual Shell Rotella SuperRigs ® Truck Beauty Contest<br />
at White’s Travel Center in Raphine, Virginia.<br />
Contestants participating in North America’s Premier Truck Beauty Contest compete for more than<br />
$25,000 in cash & prizes and vie for a coveted spot in the Annual Shell Rotella SuperRigs ® Calendar.<br />
Activities include:<br />
n Contestant Dinner and Luncheon n Truck Light Show<br />
n Live Bands<br />
n Downtown Lexington Street Party<br />
n Free Health checks<br />
n Fireworks<br />
n Scavenger Hunt<br />
n Historic Truck Show<br />
n Family (and dog) Friendly and So Much More!<br />
TRIBUTE TO TOUGHNESS<br />
RAPHINE, VIRGINIA<br />
ROTELLA.COM/SUPERRIGS | WHITESTRAVELCENTER.COM