TCA Opens Nominations for Best Fleets to Drive For
Contest and survey reaches 5th anniversary milestone

Now through October 31, 2012, the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) will accept nominations for the fifth annual Best Fleets to Drive For contest and survey. Company drivers and owner operators may nominate trucking companies by completing an application form on www.BestFleetsToDriveFor.com

Best Fleets to Drive For is an annual evaluation of the best employers in the trucking industry. CarriersEdge, the leading provider of online driver quality improvement solutions, conducts the survey for TCA.

 “When we first launched Best Fleets, it was virtually unknown, and some companies were skeptical about getting involved,” said Mark Murrell, president of CarriersEdge. “Now, it has become a huge badge of honor to be named a winner, and especially an overall category winner. Companies love the visibility it brings them… and their recruiting departments make the most of it by plastering the contest logo in their marketing pieces and on their equipment. Everyone wants to drive for, and be, a Best Fleet!”

Trent Dye, director and general manager for Paramount Freight Systems, LLC, an overall category winner for two consecutive years, said, “The Best Fleets to Drive For program has allowed us to take the information we have been given and use it to improve in all areas of our business. We are excited each year for what Best Fleets stands for because it gives us the ability to know what works and what does not work.”

The survey is open to all for-hire trucking companies with 10 or more trucks, regardless of TCA membership status. Participating fleets will be evaluated against a broad range of criteria reflecting current human resources best practices, and the resulting survey data becomes an excellent source of industry success stories in the areas of benefits, professional development, driver and community support, safety record, and company culture.

For 2013, a few things have changed. After a company has been nominated by one of its company drivers or owner operators and agrees to participate, it will be asked to provide more details electronically rather than through a telephone interview. CarriersEdge will still discuss the survey materials with the company via telephone, but the new process should greatly reduce the interview time, which was running 2-3 hours in the past. The change will create one centralized, integrated system that allows for easier and timelier communications between nominated companies and TCA/CarriersEdge.

Some new questions have been added to this year’s survey. Drivers will be asked how much they trust the company they have nominated. Companies will be asked if they have researched and understand the reasons why their people leave. The survey also asks how much companies invest in developing their drivers; do they have a line item in their budget for training and other driver development activities?

After a company has provided the necessary information electronically, interviews will be conducted as necessary with senior management and a random sampling of the company’s drivers. Top finishers will be identified as Best Fleets to Drive For, and the highest scoring fleets in each of the Company Driver and Owner Operator categories will be named that category’s overall winner.

To view best practices from last year’s survey as well as profiles of the overall winners, visit www.bestfleetstodrivefor.com

To view the program’s Facebook page, visit www.facebook.com/bestfleetstodrivefor

TruckDriver.com
Carrier of the Month
Heartland Express

A leader in transportation and logistics, Heartland Express provides collaborative truckload transportation service that enables companies to deliver exceptional service across their transportation network to improve customer satisfaction. Companies choose Heartland Express for its award winning on-time pickup and delivery, fleet capacity to cover commitments scaled to their needs, leadership in providing information about their shipments, and its performance in moving beyond the transactional to the strategic relationship to solve problems.

Heartland was founded by Russell Gerdin in 1978 with 4 people in the office and 16 trucks.

It became a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ market in 1986, and ended that year posting gross revenues of $21.6 million. Heartland acquired Munson Transportation in 1993.

Heartland acquired A&M Express in 1997, which is successfully integrated as a profitable contributor to the overall company. Great Coastal Express was acquired in 2002 and contributed a solid mid-Atlantic presence. The great people of Great Coastal Express were a terrific addition to the Heartland family.

In 2006 Heartland opened their first expansion terminal in the western US in Phoenix, AZ. This terminal will be the flagship to Heartland's western expansion plan long into the future. In 2008 Heartland purchased a terminal in Seagoville, TX (outside of Dallas).

Today, with revenues of $592 million, Heartland is in outstanding condition. With a strong balance sheet, the top driver compensation package, a brand new fleet of trucks, a new training and management program in operations, and a newly developed e-business infrastructure, Heartland is positioned for extraordinary growth.

HIGH PAYING DRIVING JOBS

The National Survey of Driver Wages reports that Heartland Express driver pay is $0.13 per mile higher than the average trucking company, and $0.06 per mile higher than the next highest paying carrier. The $0.13 difference in pay can easily add up to more than $15,000 per year in additional income. Their founder Russell Gerdin has been a champion for higher driver pay in the industry and believes that drivers deserve to be paid well for the difficult job that they do. Their business model is based on higher driver pay, and it is verifiable that Heartland offers terrific pay for drivers.

NEWER THAN EVER EQUIPMENT

Heartland continues to take delivery of new 2012 model year trucks, and new 2012 trailers. While many carriers have been struggling during the down economic times and holding on to old equipment, Heartland has been busy building on their strengths and upgrading their fleet. This is important to their drivers for reliability, comfort, and most importantly - how it impacts their CSA scores with the Federal DOT. Whether you agree with CSA or not, it is here and affects the entire industry. Driving with Heartland Express will actually improve your personal CSA score, because their equipment is new and has a reputation for being among the least cited. In a measurement released by Bank of America, Heartland Express had the best CSA scores among peers.

GET IT DONE THEN GET IT HOME!

Heartland redesigned its operations around a regional freight strategy back in 1992 in order to keep drivers running closer to their homes and closer to shippers. This wasn't just a home-time claim, it was a strategy - and it defines the freight that they haul and the markets they pursue. Heartland Express will get you home on a regular basis.

DEBT-FREE STRENGTH

Heartland continues to have zero debt. The trucks are paid for, that means no truck payment. Heartland drivers are secure in knowing that their paycheck will always be there, and that the company makes decisions for the long-term in strength, not in desperation to meet a truck payment. The financial strength of Heartland Express is unmatched in the trucking industry. This gives Heartland the financial strength to offer exceptional pay to their drivers.

Now more than ever, great people are needed to get the job done. At Heartland Express, their vision is to be the best. They want you to be a part of it. They offer regional, dedicated, salaried and over-the-road driving opportunities backed by industry leading CSA scores, a fleet of new equipment and the best pay available for solo or team drivers.  Go where you're needed.

Call 800-441-4953
or
Apply Online Today

Latest Forum Topics

General Trucking Discussion
Canadian

Federal Trade Commission Penalizes HireRight Solutions $2.6 Million
Derek Hinton -DOTJobHistory.com

HireRight Solutions is an employment screening firm that is most well known in the trucking world for providing “DAC Reports.”  The case against HireRight Solutions, Inc. represents the first time the FTC has charged an employment background screening firm with violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and is the second-largest civil penalty that the FTC has obtained under the Act.

The FTC charged that HireRight violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by failing to use reasonable procedures to assure the maximum possible accuracy of information it provided, failing to give consumers copies of their reports, and failing to reinvestigate consumer disputes, as required by law.

Employment Screening firms are classified as “consumer reporting agencies” which are governed by the FCRA.  The Fair Credit Reporting Act would be more accurately named “The Fair Credit and Employment Reporting Act. HireRight Solutions provides background reports that contain information about prospective and current employees to help thousands of employers make decisions about hiring and other employment-related issues. Under the FCRA, the company's reports qualify as "consumer reports." They contain public-record information, including the individual's' criminal history.

The FCRA imposes front-end and back-end obligations on consumer reporting agencies.

On the front end, agencies must take reasonable steps to ensure that the information in their reports have maximum possible accuracy and are current and reflect updates. According to the FTC's complaint, HireRight Solutions failed to follow reasonable procedures to prevent the same criminal offense information from being included in a consumer report multiple times, failed to follow reasonable procedures to prevent obviously inaccurate consumer report information from being provided to employers, and in numerous cases even included the records of the wrong person. The FTC alleged that these failures led to consumers being denied employment or other employment-related benefits.

On the back-end, agencies must allow consumers to access their own information and dispute any inaccuracies. To do this, the consumer reporting agency must clearly and adequately disclose information in their file to a consumer who requests it. Next, within 30 days of being notified that a consumer wants to dispute the information in his or her report, the consumer reporting agency must conduct a reasonable investigation to determine whether the information is inaccurate, record the status of the information, or delete it from the file. Finally, the consumer reporting agency must notify consumers in writing of the results of this reinvestigation of their file within five days of when it's completed.

The results of the TruckDriver.com Labor Day Survey are in and below is how you celebrated.

What are your plans for Labor Day Weekend?

Spending time with family -31%
Spending time with friends - 6%
Working - 26%
No plans, just taking it easy - 37%

Now that both parties have held their conventions and the campaigning is in full swing let us know who is going to win the 2012 Presidential Election by taking the TruckDriver.com Unofficial Outcome Survey. Cast your vote now!

Until next time, keep on truckin’ and please drive safely.

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