NEWS AND EVENTS

Coaching Programs, Teamwork Lead to Safer Highways
By
David Livingston, America’s Road Team Captain
Professional Truck Driver, TCW Inc.

As a newly named America’s Road Team Captain, I’m looking forward to speaking to a wide array of audiences about the importance of professionalism and safety in the trucking industry. One of the topics I’m most excited to discuss with other industry stakeholders is the role that mentoring can play at a trucking terminal.

Truck driving can often be seen as an individual job - solitary hours of driving with limited face-to-face interactions. And while I would challenge that assessment of a driver’s daily job, I do think trucking companies have to make an intentional effort to create a team environment for drivers.

A team approach to safety can pay huge dividends for the motoring public, trucking companies, and the truck drivers themselves. At my company, TCW, I’m pleased to report that we established a Master Coach program and are already seeing benefits in the form of improved safety performance and fuel efficiency. In conversations with management, the one reason they always point to for our recent improvements is the Master Coach program, so let me explain what it entails.

The mission of TCW’s Master Coach program is to “build a better team of safety focused drivers through positive reinforcement.” What do I mean by that exactly?

Master Coaches are selected because of their commitment to safety and the company’s overall success. We have to have excellent driving and safety records because we serve as coaches to other drivers in the fleet. My daily duty simply entails talking to other drivers, getting a feel for their engagement in our team, and leaving them with encouraging messages. Sometimes, I serve as a liaison between my fellow drivers and management, offering ideas for how to improve operations or promoting a new safety focus for the week, like following distance. Other times, I’m helping introduce new drivers to the TCW team and emphasizing reception and integration.

Integrating new drivers is one of the keys to our team building success. We want them to be engaged during safety meetings, willing to ask questions and offer their perspectives. At the end of the day, it’s important that new hires understand that our company is excited to hire them and committed to providing the tools and information they need to be successful within the company. Safety, profitability, and personal job satisfaction can all be tied to an environment of teamwork, but it takes buy-in from every piece of the puzzle. Should a driver feel like he or she is not part of a larger team, that driver may not pay attention to the small safety details crucial to driving a truck, leaving the motoring public and company potentially vulnerable.

It’s one thing to say that team building and collaboration is important, but how do we know the Master Coach program is working? We have objective proof.

TCW uses a service called SpeedGauge, which monitors the truck’s speed and tracks speeding frequency. TCW’s overall goal is for every driver to speed less than 1% of the time he or she is driving. To put that in perspective, a 2011 NHTSA study stated that 9% of noncommercial drivers report being pulled over for speeding in the previous 12 months, so we’re doing better than the general public but want to keep improving. Each month, we publicly post the SpeedGauge numbers for drivers to compare their performance to the rest of the fleet. This gives me an opportunity to look at trends. If I see a driver’s number creeping up, I know that I can address that and reiterate our goal as a company or ask a driver why he or she might be speeding. If I see a driver is meeting his or her goal, I can turn to that driver and thank him or her for contributing to our overall success. In either case, I have something tangible to take to a driver and provide positive reinforcement. Since 2014, when the Master Coach program was implemented and I was selected as a Master Coach, I’ve seen these numbers decline and I know that my colleagues are taking the coaching seriously. Because we track and explain coaching events on a tablet device, we are becoming even more data-driven and strategic with our coaching decisions.

From here, I’d like to see our Master Coach program grow in internal company visibility. I want to make sure that all new hires know what the program does, why it exists and who the Master Coaches are. I’d also like to see other trucking companies adopt similar programs. Now that I’ll be attending industry events with America’s Road Team, I’ll be able to testify to the masses about the power of coaching programs. The message is simple: we are truck drivers with an important responsibility to move America’s freight and if you buy into the safety message, you will help make our highways safer for everyone.

This article previously appeared in the 2nd Quarter 2017 edition of CVSA’s Guardian Magazine.

Women In Trucking Association Announces its July Member of the Month

Women In Trucking Association (WIT) announces Rebecca Yoder as its July Member of the Month. Rebecca is President of Elite Service, Inc. located in Pennsylvania.

Elite Service, which is a nationwide flatbed and specialty carrier, operates a fleet of 25 trucks. Elite hauls a variety of freight – such as building products, machinery, motors and equipment.

Rebecca’s mother, Lynne is the company’s owner. In 2011, Lynne completed breast cancer treatments. As part of that 26-week treatment, she underwent four surgeries and 26 chemotherapy treatments and 34 radiation treatments, yet still managed to miss only three days of work. Rebecca says her mother’s outlook and faith continue to be an inspiration to her, the family and the company’s employees.

Upon completion of Lynne’s breast cancer treatments in 2011, Rebecca and her husband, Ron Yoder, had a truck painted and decaled to honor the perseverance of her mother. Financed through PACCAR Financial, the Model 389 Breast Cancer Awareness Truck has become the company’s most recognized truck.

“My mom’s experience inspired us to do something to not only recognize her spirit and determination, but also to raise awareness and encourage more breast cancer screenings and to raise money for prevention and to help people with breast cancer and their families,” Rebecca adds.

Ron drives the breast cancer awareness truck, which has appeared in a number of parades, community festivities and fundraisers. It was one of 40 trucks to take part in an invitational customer truck show during an employee event at the Peterbilt Motor Co. plant in Denton in October 2016.

“We take pride in the trucks we operate and we like the fact that our trucks make a statement to our drivers, to our customers and to the community about the kind of company we operate, the kind of employer we want to be and the things that are important to us,” says Rebecca. Like Elite did with its Model 389 Breast Cancer Awareness Truck, the company encourages drivers to come up with ideas for honoring family members who have served in the military or for recognizing causes that are near and dear to their hearts.

We ran across an article recently, that we thought deserved a response. We also thought the response should come from a working truck driver, not some fat cat sitting at a computer writing about trucking. With that said, here is a link to the article in question.

A Trucker Told The Truth. So They Fired Him

We would love to hear your thoughts, so send ‘em in.

Coaching Programs, Teamwork Lead to Safer Highways By David Livingston, America’s Road Team Captain Professional Truck Driver, TCW Inc.

Women In Trucking Association Announces its July Member of the Month

Coaching Programs, Teamwork Lead to Safer Highways
By
David Livingston, America’s Road Team Captain
Professional Truck Driver, TCW Inc.