Truckload Authority - Spring 2015

est fleets to drive for winners | safest fleets | drivers of the year
O F F I C I A L P U B L I C A T I O N o f t h e T r U C k L O A d C a r r i e r s A s s O C I A T I O N
spring 2015
Happy
Warrior
With Chairman Keith Tuttle

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Spring | TCA 2015
President’s Purview
New Directions and
New Beginnings
As I write this column, I am happy to report that spring has (almost) sprung in Washington,
DC. Having survived my first winter in the nation’s capital, I will admit it couldn’t get here soon
enough for me.
Those comments aren’t simply because of the extra daylight and warmer temperatures that
spring provides. To me, spring symbolizes the season of new growth and the signs of change all
around. It is also seen more generally as the start of better times — the time of year when we begin
to feel less sluggish and become more open to inviting changes into our lives and businesses.
The symbolism of spring is one most people can appreciate. There are cultural traditions
worldwide that celebrate rebirth and new beginnings. Whether it is Easter or various festivals,
springtime itself is a season that never seems to go unmarked.
For Washingtonians, spring is usually ushered in by the National Cherry Blossom Festival,
which celebrates the gift of cherry blossom trees and the enduring friendship between the people
of the United States and Japan. In the trade association world, spring is also a time for meetings
and conventions for most groups.
The Truckload Carriers Association just wrapped up our 77th Annual Convention with a
theme of New Directions: Setting The Course, where we outlined our roadmap for the future.
If you missed the celebration and camaraderie in Orlando last month, you can still access the
content. All of the sessions were recorded and are available on our Truckload Academy On Demand.
To download the recordings, simply go to truckoad.org/TAO.
Festivals in general are a call to positive thinking, and TCA’s Annual Convention was certainly
not an exception to that rule. One of the key elements of positive psychology is optimism,
and six months into this position as TCA president I am more optimistic than ever about the
direction of our association.
We have unveiled new image programs, are involved in a negotiated rulemaking on entry-level
driver training, and have resurrected our Young Transportation Executive program to
groom the next generation of TCA leaders.
Many of our efforts are highlighted in this issue of Truckload Authority magazine. In the
pages that follow, you can also learn more about our new chairman, Keith Tuttle of Motor Carrier
Service.
Ultimately spring is all about opportunity — a time for strengthening the belief in ourselves
and our powers to achieve and overcome obstacles — and I know Chairman Tuttle is up for the
challenges that TCA faces.
As the days grow longer, I can assure you they will be filled with a newfound commitment
from me and the TCA staff and officers in providing more value for our members to grow the
association. My hope is that these efforts can be built on throughout the year, and I look forward
to writing about them in future issues of Truckload Authority.
Brad Bentley
President
Truckload Carriers Association
bbentley@truckload.org
Brad Bentley
PRESIDENT’S PICKS
®
Capitol Recap
Updates on the 34-hour restart,
ELDs, speed limiters, and more.
Page 8
Trailer Tales, part II
Hearing your trailers speak is getting easier.
Are you listening?
Page 18
And the Winners Are ...
See which fleets took home
top honors this year.
Page 36
TCA 2015 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority

Spring 2015
555 E. Braddock Road, Alexandria, VA 22314
www.Truckload.org
The
Road
Map
rOUTing & nAVigATiOn
prOViDED BY
President’s Purview
New Directions and New Beginnings by Brad Bentley | 3
LegisLative Look-in
Step Right Up | 6
Capitol Recap | 8
Where States Stand | 12
From Where We Sit | 14
tracking the trends sponsored by skybitz
Rise of the SuperTruck | 16
Trailer Tales, Part II | 18
Truckload Trendlines | 21
Game Changer, Part II - The Case for Cameras | 22
Mind Your Maintenance: Battling the BASICs | 27
MeMber MaiLrooM
Getting Involved in the Regulatory Process | 29
chairMan of the board
Keith Tuttle
Founder & President, Motor Carrier Service, LLC.
President
Brad Bentley
bbentley@truckload.org
vice President – deveLoPMent
Debbie Sparks
dsparks@truckload.org
director of education
Ron Goode
rgoode@truckload.org
second vice chair
Daniel Doran
President
Ace Doran Hauling & Rigging
secretary
Aaron Tennant
CEO & President
Tennant Truck Lines, Inc.
executive vice President
William Giroux
wgiroux@truckload.org
director, safety & PoLicy
Dave Heller
dheller@truckload.org
first vice chair
Russell Stubbs
CEO & President, FFE Holdings Corp.
treasurer
Rob Penner
Executive Vice President & COO
Bison Transport
iMMediate Past chair
Shepard Dunn
CEO & President
Bestway Express, Inc.
The viewpoints and opinions of those quoted in articles in this
publication are not necessarily those of TCA.
In exclusive partnership with:
GET A LOAD
OF THIS...
a chat with the chairMan sponsored by McLeod software
Happy Warrior with Keith Tuttle | 30
taLking tca
TCA Honors | 36
Inside Out with Brad Bentley, Part II | 39
Small Talk | 41
See and Be Seen, 77th Annual Convention | 44
Mark Your Calendar | 46
1123 S. University Ave., Ste 320, Little Rock, AR 72204
www.TheTrucker.com
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publisher@thetrucker.com
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Production + art director
Rob Nelson
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Production + art assistant
Christie Arnold
christiea@thetrucker.com
nationaL Marketing consuLtant
Kurtis Denton
kurtisd@thetrucker.com
vice President
Ed Leader
edl@thetrucker.com
editor
Lyndon Finney
editor@thetrucker.com
associate editor
Dorothy Cox
dlcox@thetrucker.com
sPeciaL corresPondent
Cliff Abbott
cliffa@thetrucker.com
advertising and Marketing departMent
saLes + creative director
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raeleet@thetrucker.com
nationaL Marketing consuLtant
Kelly Brooke Drier
kellydr@thetrucker.com
© 2015 Trucker Publications Inc., all rights reserved. Reproduction without written permission
prohibited. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. All advertisements
and editorial materials are accepted and published by Truckload Authority and its exclusive partner,
Trucker Publications, on the representation that the advertiser, its advertising company and/
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editorial materials. Press releases are expressly covered within the definition of editorial materials.
Cover Photo by Gregg Hart & Stacey Carter
Love is Greater Photography
Additional magazine
photography courtesy of:
Daimler Trucks N. America: p. 16, 17
FotoSearch: p. 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16,
18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 44, 45
Love is Greater: p. 30, 31, 32, 35
TCA: p. 3, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45
The Trucker News Org.: p. 3, 6, 8, 9,
16, 18, 22, 23, 44
4
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TCA
2015
2015

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spring | TCA 2015
Legislative Look-In
“The challenge for us is that 99 percent of the current cases are fine with the level the
way it is. So it seems like there is a lot of effort being put into that 1 percent. We do feel
like if that level is raised, it’s going to be a big challenge for a lot of our smaller members
to be able to afford it.”
— Brad Bentley, TCA President
By Dorothy Cox
We’ve all seen it at fairs and carnivals. It’s a tower with a bell
on top and a lever at the bottom. You pay your money, take the mallet
and give the lever a whack, hoping you’ve exerted enough might
to make the puck go all the way to the top and ring the bell, indicating
success.
There’s a catch, though. Only the most muscle-bound contestants
are able to ring the bell.
How is that fair if instead of a carnival game we’re talking about
business? Should only the bigger carriers be able to ring the bell of
success?
That’s what it must feel like to many small- to medium-sized carriers
when the subject of raising the insurance minimum comes up.
According to U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., who introduced a
bill two years ago to increase the minimum, it’s a matter of “public
safety.” He says the minimum of $750,000 set in 1980 by Congress
hasn’t kept up with inflationary healthcare costs. His bill would increase
it to $4.4 million.
As Truckload Carriers Association President Brad Bentley says,
“Who is going to be able to afford it? Not everybody is going to be
able to do it.”
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) said
this time last year that if minimum insurance rates had kept up with
the core consumer price index, which is a measure of inflation, it
should be $1.62 million. Or if the minimum had kept even with the
medical consumer price index it would have reached $3.18 million by
now.
Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015

The agency hasn’t come up with a specific dollar amount, but has
been working on its own analysis and said it is considering a proposal to
raise the minimum from $750,000 to an as-yet-to-be decided amount.
In its Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) the agency
said by way of explanation that it had “determined that the current financial
responsibility minimums are inadequate to fully cover the costs
of some crashes in light of increased medical costs and DOT’s revised
value of statistical life estimates. The FMCSA is also considering extending
the financial responsibility requirements to private motor carriers” as
authorized by Congress.
“The challenge for us,” Bentley told Truckload Authority, “is that 99
percent of the current cases are fine with the level the way it is. So it
seems like there is a lot of effort being put into that 1 percent. We do
feel like if that level is raised, it’s going to be a big challenge for a lot of
our smaller members to be able to afford it.”
Cartwright’s office cited a published study by a trucking stakeholder
that said 42 percent of the dollar settlements paid by trucking companies
between 2005 and 2011 for motor vehicle accidents “exceeded the minimum
insurance requirement.” That group supports higher minimums.
“This is a matter of public safety. Tragically, more than 100,000
people have been killed in commercial vehicle collisions since 1980,”
Cartwright said. “This legislation is essential to protecting our nation’s
highways and ensuring that victims receive the proper amount of compensation
for their losses.”
The current minimum of $750,000 fails to perform the basic functions
that Congress intended: to promote safe operations by holding insurers
responsible for inspecting trucking operations prior to underwriting policies
and to protect the public, Cartwright said.
Opponents to the increase see it more like pushing the minimum so
high no one but the strongest (or largest) can afford it.
“We are definitely concerned,” says Bentley. “We were talking about
this recently at a meeting on gaps and barriers to hiring in the trucking
industry. We were discussing military hiring, where they have implemented
skills waivers. It’s the same issue as the insurance. A lot of big
carriers are self-insured, but without some help with dollars from somewhere
even on the front end from a training perspective, and converting
some of those veterans into civilian jobs, it’s hard for the small guy. How
much extra does it cost for them to bring in somebody like that on a
skills waiver and do the training? Not everybody has those resources. So
the same thing could happen on the insurance side of things if the [increased]
premiums go into effect.”
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) says
raising the minimum will “harm small business truckers unnecessarily.”
“It depends on what kind of an increase they ultimately come up
with,” adds OOIDA spokesperson Norita Taylor.
The current trend with owner-operators, she explains, has been toward
owning their own authority. And “I think the trend toward their own
authority would certainly come to a halt if it’s as high as the number we
saw floating around like the $4 million minimum.”
Indeed, it’s the worry of many smaller carriers that such an increase
could put them out of business.
Many trucking stakeholders think it won’t be as high as the $4.4 million
in the Cartwright bill but would be more like $2.5 million when all
is said and done. There has even been speculation that the $4.4 million
figure is purposefully high so that when a slightly lower but also unaffordable
figure is finalized, it will be accepted.
Critics point out that the amount of insurance carried by motor carriers
has never been shown to have a correlation with safety.
“Broadly,” says American Trucking Associations spokesman Sean Mc-
Nally, “we have yet to see any evidence that increased insurance minimums
will lead to improved highway safety and until we can see that
evidence, we do not support changing the limits.”
David Owen, president of the National Association of Small Trucking
Companies (NASTC), says smaller carriers already have an unfair disadvantage
compared with larger fleets when it comes to insurance coverage.
“Based on conversations with underwriters and the premium rates
available to small carriers at the $750,000 required levels,” he says, “I
believe any increase would damage the ability of small service providers
to earn adequate profit and attract new capital, contrary to the national
transportation policy.” In comments to the FMCSA, Owen continues that
“A good rate for a large, established fleet might be $4,000 per unit while
a new entrant can expect to pay as much as $10,000 to $12,000 per
unit for the same insurance.”
In fact, he says, “Many underwriters simply will not write carriers
with less than three years of experience and new entrants can be required
to pay as much as two and a half times as much as established
fleets.”
He adds that of NASTC’s some 1,500 members, he wasn’t aware of
any carrier claims which weren’t resolved within current limits, nor had
any of the member carriers had to file bankruptcy because of crash liability.
The comment period on FMCSA’s ANPRM ended on February 26.
OOIDA notes that its comments highlighted “a legislative and regulatory
history of insurance requirements” that found “Congress and the
Department of Transportation intended that any requirements be responsive
to a broad range of economic considerations. Those considerations
included the health of the motor carrier industry, the needs of both
large and small motor carriers and the ability of the insurance industry
to provide adequate coverage at reasonable prices.” FMCSA’s decision
“to move forward with this rulemaking not only flies in the face of these
comments,” says Todd Spencer, OOIDA’s executive vice president, “but
also the data on crash costs analyzed by the agency … shows that more
than 99 percent of truck-involved crashes are covered in the current requirements.”
The owner-operator group also says the survey cited by Cartwright’s
office used only a “small number of carriers.”
Clearly, small and medium carriers see the “strong man” contest as
patently unfair to begin with and that trucking can be enough of a carnival
as it is without forcing good companies out of business by hiking
insurance minimums.
Five Things to Know About
Insurance Minimums
1. Higher minimums could quash a trend toward
truckers owning their own authority.
2. There are no proven safety benefits to higher
minimums.
3. Higher minimums could further skew
disparities between what large and small
carriers pay for insurance.
4. FMCSA says the current minimum is
“inadequate” and is considering a rulemaking
to change it.
5. Some think one lawmaker’s suggested
change to $4.4 million is purposely high so
that a lower but equally unaffordable amount
will be readily accepted.
TCA 2015 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority

CapItol recap
A review of important news coming out of our nation’s capital.
By Lyndon Finney
REGULATORY
RACE
I f you think the wheels of justice turn slowly, take a
look at the federal regulatory rulemaking and legislative
processes.
Talk about the tortoise and the hare (but in this
case, the hare wins).
Or think about a NASCAR vehicle circling the track
in a race with a conventional four-wheeler, or about
Mickey Mantle in a race to first base with Yogi Berra
(note to members of the younger generation: Mantle
was once considered the fastest man in baseball, Yogi
the slowest).
Or about the space race with the old Soviet Union
to see who could get to the moon and back first (note to
those non-history buffs: the U.S. won 6-zip).
Justice wins by a landslide.
Take a look at the DOT’s monthly report on the
progress of significant rulemakings (scan QR code) and
you’ll find the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
is working on 14 rulemakings by itself, 13 of which
relate directly to trucking. The agency
shares one rulemaking with the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration
or NHTSA (Heavy Truck Speed
Limiters), while NHTSA has one of
its own — Electronic Stability Control
Systems for Heavy Vehicles.
Of those 16 rulemakings in Get progress, the freeonly mobile one app at
— the MAP-21 mandated Electronic http:/ Logging / gettag.mobi Devices
and Hours of Service Supporting Documents — is a
sure bet to reach the final rule stage this year.
Two other final rules — the MAP-21 mandated
Commercial Driver’s License Drug and Alcohol
Clearinghouse and the Prohibition of Coercion — are
scheduled to be published this year, but meeting the
proposed Dec. 14 release date for the highly-anticipated
drug and alcohol clearinghouse rulemaking is
highly unlikely given the propensity for the Office of
Management and Budget (i.e., the White House) to use
a double-strength microscope to peer over and over
and over at a rulemaking before giving their stamp of
approval. Talk about slowpokes.
The coercion rulemaking, with its scheduled Sept.
10 publication date, has a better chance to reach the
printer, but see the previous paragraph for the reason
it might not.
FMCSA is also scheduled to issue an Advanced
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on Financial
Responsibility for Motor Carriers, Freight Forwarders
and Brokers (i.e., liability insurance minimums), which
means the agency would publish its initial analysis of
the subject and ask for public comments, which should
fill more than 10 mailboxes.
Jointly, FMCSA and NHTSA are scheduled to issue
the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on speed
limiters, which will finally reveal whether it is the oft-suggested
65 mph or another speed.
But with the ELD rulemaking an accepted reality
among carriers and drivers alike (although there are
some from both groups who don’t like the idea), the
hottest regulatory topic doesn’t even appear on the
rulemaking list!
34-hour
Restart
Welcome to Restartgate.
The trucking industry pulled an unprecedented end
run on FMCSA in late 2014 to get the more restrictive
34-hour restart provision at least temporarily rescinded,
thanks in great part to Barry Pottle, a past Truckload
Carriers Association chairman and president and CEO
of Pottle’s Transportation in Hermon, Maine. He sat
down with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and explained
how the new provision had negatively impacted productivity.
The industry’s action came after repeated attempts
to convince then-FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro to
go back to the restart rule in place before July 1, 2013,
the same rule that was reinstated when the July 1 rule
was suspended.
Ferro steadfastly refused, throwing down the
gauntlet during the question-and-answer session at the
Mid-West Truck & Trailer Show in Peoria, Illinois, on Jan.
31, 2014.
“We are not changing the rule,” Ferro said firmly.
“This is the first time in a decade that we’ve got a
rule that passed legal challenge. There are today no
changes afoot.”
However, Ferro quickly followed with a comment
that the door was still open to comments.
“There continues, though, to be commitment on
my part to one, take what we are hearing to improve
how we are explaining the rules so that everybody has
examples you can use while training your drivers, dispatchers
and safety directors,” Ferro said. “And that we
understand what the impact is on your operation and
how many different ways that’s being interpreted. And
two, continue to research to see, down the road, you
know … to see what is the best approach. But again,
this rule is in place.”
Trucking continued to comment against the new
restart provision, and finally at least partially out of
frustration, turned to lawmakers for help.
“I care deeply about safety on our nation’s roads,
and no one wants to see an accident caused by driver
fatigue or by any other cause. What has become
clear is that new federal rules, implemented last year,
have presented some unintended and unanticipated
consequences that are not in the best interest of public
safety, truck drivers or the businesses and consumers
who depend on their services,” Collins said as a result
of the meeting with Pottle. “There is increasing concern
that these regulations are forcing more trucks on the
road during the most congested morning hours — during
a time when commuters are traveling to work and
children are traveling to school.”
The 34-hour restart now in effect that can be used
multiple times a week and doesn’t require two 1 a.m. to
5 a.m. shifts is a boon to the long-haul trucking industry,
says Dan Doran, TCA’s second vice chair and president
of Ace Doran Hauling & Rigging in Cincinnati.
“The [current] 34-hour restart is a great tool for the
long-haul, coast-to-coast driver,” Doran said. “It allows
the driver to restart his clock while taking an extended
time off. The new rule of July 1, 2013, complicated the
rule and shortened the new week by as much as one
day, or one load, depending on the driver’s activity.”
Dennis Dellinger, an at-large TCA officer and
president of Cargo Transporters of Claremont, North
Carolina, said while he couldn’t necessary point to
any specific productivity loss under the July 1 rule, the
168-hour restriction was the real culprit, making it very
difficult to ensure Monday deliveries to customers.
What’s more, the 168-hour restriction could limit a
driver’s earnings, he noted.
“If a driver had a doctor’s appointment, a dental appointment
or any other type of appointment in between
the time they had hours to drive, there was no way to
make that time up. With the old restart, you could make
it up for the most part because that restart didn’t have
to always be the same day of the week,” Dellinger said.
Along with suspending the 2013 rule, Congress
mandated FMCSA conduct a field study comparing the
two restart provisions.
The FMCSA in January 2014 released the results
of a study it had conducted to determine the efficacy of
the new restart provision, but only 36 of the total 106
participants were over-the-road drivers. Forty-four were
local drivers who rarely, if ever, would need to use the
restart provision.
The new study, to be conducted by Virginia Tech
Transportation Institute under contract with the FMCSA,
was scheduled to start around April 1.
The study will divide participants into two groups,
one following the more restrictive provision, the other
following the provision now in place.
Drivers were recruited from small, medium and
large fleets across a variety of operations — long-haul,
short-haul and regional — to help ensure statistically
significant results, VTTI said, adding that the research
plan also involves including a variety of haul types in
the study, including flatbed, refrigerated, tanker, and
dry-van trailers. The research study will be conducted
on-the-job for five months.
Drivers will be compensated by up to more than
$2,000 for their participation.
Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., a member of the
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee,
warned the FMCSA and VTTI to make sure the study
had a representative sample of drivers.
Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015

“The FMCSA and the research team should ensure that the drivers selected for
the study are truly representative of the industry,” Hanna said in a letter to Transportation
Secretary Anthony Foxx. “It is my understanding that current driver-recruitment
efforts are focusing on drivers who routinely work between 60-70 hours per week
and who typically work at night. This is concerning because it indicates the researchers
do not understand how the 34-hour restart is being used in practice. This small
subset of truck drivers is not representative of drivers who use the restart provision
and not representative of drivers who have been impacted by the July 2013 restart
restrictions.”
Even Congress, which can be painfully slow, is having to jump-start FMCSA.
Congress recently pushed the agency to complete and publish the final rule of
ELDs June 1, but sources and common sense say that’s not likely to happen given
the bureaucratic nightmare that typically makes a mockery out of scheduled rulemaking
progress dates.
There are both ups and downs to the use of ELDs, Doran believes.
“We are currently implementing ELDs,” he said. “Local drivers see the most benefit,
less time filling out logs and more quality time at home. Regional drivers seem
the most effected. Regional drivers spend more time away from home, and electronic
logs complicate loading and unloading time. I think the ELD rule will have very little
impact on safety; it will, however, reduce productivity for each driver and that will
result in more trucks on the road.”
Cargo Transporters has had 100 percent ELDs since late 2008 and Dellinger
says the devices have been beneficial to both drivers and back office personnel
in developing schedules and that ELDs had been accepted by drivers.
A recent rehire shared with Dellinger how work was like without ELDs.
“We had a driver return to us and he told us that he worked for a company for
several years that didn’t have ELDs,” Dellinger related. “He said ‘at the end of a
trip I spent 45 minutes trying to put my paper logs in order. That’s time that is my
time.’”
The organization that has expressed the most concern about ELDs is the
Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which says there’s no proof that
the devices improve safety and called into question a VTTI study on ELDs.
“The study’s conclusion is flawed because it included all other types of crashes
except those that supposedly would be prevented with electronic logging devices,”
said OOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencer.
The study said trucks equipped with ELDs would have 11.7 percent fewer preventable
crashes and 5.1 percent fewer non-preventable crashes than trucks without
such devices.
Spencer pointed out that the report’s researchers readily admitted that there
wasn’t enough data to find any safety benefits when comparing DOT-recordable and
fatigue-related crashes.
“The possible changes that hold the most promise in improving highway safety
are things like driver training, better working environments, support systems and safe
parking,” Spencer said.
The ELD rulemaking has reached the point that the FMCSA has announced that
it is expecting 22 manufacturers of ELDs to register their devices in anticipation of
the new rule.
It is anticipated each company will submit four devices.
T he issues of speed limiters and coercion have received less attention and
debate, but it is a fact that the major associations support speed limiters — most in
the 65 mph range — while many company drivers see limiting speed as an impediment
to revenue.
OOIDA also isn’t on board with the idea.
TCA 2015
ELDs
speed Limiters
J. J. KELLER’S ELD INSIGHTS
How ELDs Make IFTA Easier
Few fleet tasks are as tedious and time-consuming as preparing quarterly
International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) reports.
Just think how many hours you, your staff, and your drivers spend each
month filling out Individual Vehicle Mileage Reports (IVMRs), chasing down
missing reports, and reconciling miles driven and fuel receipts. Plus, there’s
the hassle of deciphering drivers’ handwritten IVMRs, managing a mountain
of paperwork, and following strict document retention requirements.
Another frequent issue is that using your drivers as accountants to compile
the necessary data often leads to errors and late reporting.
Once the data has been received at your office, staff must then complete
the quarterly IFTA reporting form that summarizes miles, fuel purchased,
average fleet miles per gallon, and tax paid or tax credit due — all
broken down by state and province. Late reporting or errors made in the
completion of this form can make your company prone to audits, and
audit fines tend to be very high.
Those challenges can be virtually eliminated with an electronic logging
device (ELD) system.
The Advantages of Automation
Automating IFTA reporting via an ELD system allows your company to immediately
capture the required information. Such a system also eliminates
human errors, including gap miles, transposing numbers, moving decimal
points, dropping zeroes, etc. The result is saved driver and administrative
time and stress, increased operational efficiency, and 100% accurate and
compliant IFTA submissions — all positive contributions to your bottom line.
Under IFTA, carriers are allowed to use an ELD system as long as it’s able to
capture and prepare the same information a driver’s IVMR does, including:
• Starting and ending dates for the trip
• Trip origin and destination
• Routes of travel or latitude and longitude position fixes
• Beginning and ending odometer reading (some states/provinces
do not require this)
• Total trip distance
• Mileage in each state/province
• Unit number.
Some states/provinces also require that the driver and any intermediate
stops be identified. As long as these requirements are met and the raw
data is retained in the correct format, the ELD system can be used for
IFTA reporting.
The Bottom Line
By outfitting your fleet with ELDs and a back-office system
that takes care of your IFTA work, you can eliminate errors,
save time, and simplify recordkeeping. Just click “run,”
“print,” and review the printed form (or copy
the information onto the jurisdiction’s required
form); then sign it and send it on its way!
To download our complete “Technology Makes IFTA Easier” whitepaper,
visit JJKeller.com/IFTA. To learn about J. J. Keller’s Encompass® ELD and
E-Log system, see the ad in this publication or visit JJKellerELogs.com.
with E-Logs
www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority

“A few select groups, claiming to represent the
interests of the entire trucking industry, have been
misinforming public officials throughout North America
about the benefits of requiring all heavy trucks to
employ speed limiters,” OOIDA said in a paper sent to
its members. “As studies and experience have shown,
mandating speed limiters in the U.S. will actually make
highways less safe and will hurt small businesses and
the economy without any real environmental benefit.
“Mandating speed limiters rewards large corporations
who fail to hire the safest, most experienced
drivers available and punishes the small businessmen
and women who have built a career on fuel economy
and safety.”
Dellinger said 450 Cargo Transporters’ tractors have
been speed limited at 63 mph since 2009 when the
speed was dropped from 65 mph. He said he was sure
if a rulemaking set the limit at 65 mph his trucks would
be raised to that speed.
“As the economy eased up, we re-evaluated our
speed and said we didn’t feel good about sending a
signal that we were going to trade out safety for driver
retention,” he said. “We feel like speed is a major factor
on safety. That is not favorable to our drivers. They live
with it but if I asked them what’s your single-most wish,
50 to 75 percent would say they want speed because
they have about everything else we could give them.”
Dellinger said he’d recently reviewed driver comments
on the carrier’s nomination to be part of the
TCA’s Best Fleets To Drive For contest.
“Our chairman, John Pope, and I had a discussion
yesterday and I said, ‘John, if I knew giving them
back two miles an hour would suffice, I would do that.’
There were people requesting 68; there were people
requesting 70. I’ve told people in our open roundtable
meetings as long as I was in charge I was going to stick
with that 63.”
Coercion
C oercion has long been a problem in trucking,
primarily with the way some dispatchers force drivers
into unsafe situations, and the way drivers are treated
by shippers and receivers.
Coercion was also an issue in the original ELD
rulemakings, which were quashed by the courts for failing
to include language that would prevent carriers from
using the technology to coerce drivers into tasks that
the driver felt could impact safety.
substance abuse
A nd then there’s the question of the drug-andalcohol
clearinghouse. The central database for verified
positive controlled substances and alcohol test results
is designed to keep drivers from hopping from one carrier
to another without the new carrier having the ability
to have knowledge of any previous substance abuse
problems.
But even with the clearinghouse, some are wary
of the accuracy of urine tests and point to recent hair
follicle testing that has proven far more accurate.
Random testing has somewhat reduced substance
abuse among drivers, but “there is still a problem on
a small level,” says Doran. “Hair follicle testing is more
accurate and reliable.”
The Department of Transportation has yet to approve
hair follicle testing as part of the clearinghouse
program, so results gained from that type of testing
cannot be shared among carriers.
So once again trucking turned to Congress.
The Drug-Free Commercial Driver Act of 2015 has
been introduced in the Senate by Sens. John Boozman,
R-Ark., Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp,
D-N.D., and in the House by Rep. Rick Crawford,
R-Ark., Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., and Rep.
Dan Lipinski, D-Ill.
It would give fleets the option of using hair testing
as an alternative to traditional urine tests to meet
federal requirements.
One issue important to trucking executives hasn’t
even reached the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
stage: entry-level driver training.
entry-level
training
T he FMCSA has responded to trucking’s
concern about this issue and has formed a 26-member
advisory committee that is tasked with updating classroom
and new behind-the-wheel training requirements
for professional truck and bus drivers.
“Over the next 30 years, we’re going to be relying
on trucks — and truckers — to move more than 40
percent more freight than they currently do,” Foxx said.
“With more people and freight crossing our country
than ever before, this committee’s work will be critical
to ensuring that commercial drivers are fully capable of
operating their vehicles safely.”
TCA’s Director of Safety and Policy David Heller is
a member of the advisory committee.
“Ensuring roadway safety starts with the driver,”
said FMCSA Chief Counsel Scott Darling, who is in
charge at the FMCSA until a new administrator is appointed.
“Finalizing new training requirements for truck
and bus operators is one of my top priorities and we
have tapped a group of uniquely qualified stakeholders
to help us work through the details and meet this goal.”
csa
Y et trucking and FMCSA remain at a stalemate
on other issues.
One of those is CSA scoring, specifically the fact
that carriers are held accountable for accidents which
their drivers didn’t cause and couldn’t have known were
going to happen. FMCSA did a study on the problem
and decided that determining who is at fault in crashes
is too costly and too difficult to achieve for purposes
of CSA data, adding that police accident reports don’t
include enough viable data to judge who was at fault.
Determining crash fault doesn’t improve prediction
of crash risk, the report found.
To which trucking stakeholders responded that it is
illogical to label carriers unsafe based on crashes they
didn’t cause.
The roads have been littered with recent crashes
caused by other vehicles, including a March 20 fatality
caused by off-duty police officers traveling the wrong
way on a divided highway; another March 20 fatal crash
in Texas where a suspected drunk driver going the
wrong way on I-27 hit a truck head-on; and a March 24
fatality in Washington DC in which a passenger was
killed after the drunken driver struck a parked CMV.
And the list goes on and on. This could be another area
where trucking must turn to Congress to get relief.
Transportation
Bill
O ne important Capital occurrence that falls
outside the regulatory arena, however, is the need to
pass a new surface transportation bill before the current
MAP-21 expires May 31.
Foxx has sent a $471 billion six-year transportation
bill to Congress under the acronym GROW AMERICA,
which stands for Generating Renewal, Opportunity, and
Work with Accelerated Mobility, Efficiency, and Rebuilding
of Infrastructure and Communities throughout
America.
But the bill is another Washington “kick the can
down the road” action because it fails to provide the
long-term stability desperately needed for states to
initiate major road and bridge projects with the certainty
that money will be available when it comes time to pay
the bills.
Instead it calls for a one-time 14 percent transaction
tax on the up to $2 trillion of untaxed foreign earnings
that U.S. companies have accumulated overseas.
The one-shot funding would supplement current
revenues from the Highway Trust Fund, with the current
fuel tax providing an estimated two-thirds of the money
needed to keep the trust fund solvent and the transaction
tax providing the other one-third.
But if the bill passes in its current form, what assurance
would states have that the federal portion of
money needed to complete projects would be available
in 2020?
There are many highway projects that are funded
through federal/state money that are 10- 15-year projects,
trucking stakeholders note.
There’s already caution among states under MAP-
21 as many have suspended projects because they
don’t know whether the necessary funds will be available
when the time comes.
Well-placed sources say the 14-percent tax hasn’t
been warmly received on Capitol Hill.
Nor for that matter, has it been too widely received
in corporate boardrooms across America.
An increase in the gas and diesel tax — the funding
mechanism supported by TCA and other trucking
associations — is probably the only way to sustain the
Highway Trust Fund over a 10- to 20-year period and
thus provide states with the certainty the money will be
there when needed.
It’s been estimated that the fuel tax would have to
be increased 10 cents and indexed to inflation in order
to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent for an extended
period of time.
But Congress also seems hesitant to consider a
fuel tax increase, so it would appear that there’s a good
chance that MAP-21 might be extended a second time.
Doing so would certainly not be unprecedented.
After all, SAFETEA-LU, which was signed into law
by President George W. Bush on Aug. 10, 2005, and
was supposed to expire on Sept. 30, 2009, was extended
10 times while Congress wrangled over a new
bill that was finally passed as MAP-21 in 2012.
So here we sit in April, waiting to see how all these
issues plays out.
Will the tortoise actually beat the hare and all the
promised rulemaking activities be completed on time?
Coming down the home stretch in late December,
it’s a good bet the hare will win.
10 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015

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WHERE
STATES
STAND
life’s a beach
Myrtle Beach is considered one of the top vacation locales on
the Atlantic Ocean catering to 14 million visitors each year. It
boasts 140 resorts that offer amenities such as heated pools,
hot tubs and indoor activities like bowling lanes, racquet ball
and game rooms. All resorts are conveniently located near
endless entertainment venues, premier restaurants and factory
specialty shops up and down the 60 glorious miles of The Grand
Strand, which includes numerous fishing piers.
An inside look at key
transportation
legislation in
statehouses across
America.
By Lyndon Finney
In the State Spotlight:
South Carolina
A plan to change how the state Department of Transportation operates is stalled in the South Carolina Senate and could derail the entire proposal to get more money to
roads and bridges. Gov. Nikki Haley has vowed to veto any bill that doesn’t include DOT reform along with income tax relief and additional money for roads. Lawmakers
have less than two months to get it all accomplished before the session ends in June. Complicating matters is a change eight years ago that allowed the governor
to appoint the leader of DOT. That change ends in July, meaning doing nothing would remove the governor’s control of the agency.
Minnesota
A Republican-aligned political group will counter Gov. Mark Dayton’s tax plan for road
and bridge repairs with a barrage of radio and direct mail ads. In a series of ads expected
to launch soon, the Minnesota Jobs Coalition will brand the governor’s proposal to raise
the gasoline tax as both harmful and unnecessary. The group also is targeting a handful
of Democratic lawmakers who may be vulnerable in the 2016 election, mentioning them
in the radio ads by name that they want to raise the gas tax. Dayton and fellow Democrats
have been touring the state to drum up support for his plan, which includes a gas
tax of at least 16 cents per gallon and higher vehicle registration fees.
Michigan
If voters agree to raise taxes for Michigan’s deteriorating road and bridge system, 61
cents of every dollar would go to local agencies that say the money could gradually
restore roads to respectability within a decade. The large funding increase at the local
level, phased in over three years, would include $491 million more to 83 counties and an
additional $274 million to more than 500 cities and villages, according to the nonpartisan
House Fiscal Agency. Local officials say the money would help tackle long-deferred
road work, promote longer-lasting fixes instead of short-term patches, replace aging
plows and salt trucks, and beef up dwindling road commission employee levels.
12 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015

Arkansas
The Arkansas Highway Commission in early April voted to end split speed
limits on the state’s rural-area interstate highways. Since 1996, trucks have
been limited to 65 mph on rural-area interstates while other vehicles could go
70 mph. The commission cited traffic flow as a factor in the decision. Scott
Bennett, director of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department,
said he saw firsthand the effect of the different speed limits on traffic flow
during a trip on Interstate 40 to Memphis. “There were a couple of times that
I was in the left lane behind a truck that was going about 65.1 mph and trying
to pass a truck in the right lane going 65.0 mph. It took me somewhere around
17 minutes to get around one of those trucks. It took me about 15 minutes to
get around the other one,” he said.
North Carolina
Gasoline taxes in North Carolina appear headed downward by a little bit very
soon as the General Assembly has voted for a compromise plan that avoids
a sharp drop this summer that bill supporters said would wreck future roadbuilding
plans. The House and Senate gave preliminary approval to the agreement.
Additional votes in each chamber were expected before it heads to the
desk of Gov. Pat McCrory, who has already praised the final product, reached
after a few weeks of negotiations. As part of the deal, the tax would drop from
the current 37.5 cents per gallon to 36 cents, then fall to 35 cents next January
and 34 cents in July 2016. Starting in January 2017, the tax would be adjusted
based on increases in state population and a consumer energy price index. The
current North Carolina tax is among the highest in the nation.
Mississippi
Mississippi lawmakers neared final approval of House Bill 1630, which
would use $36 million a year in casino taxes mainly to rebuild deficient
bridges on state highways. Lawmakers agreed after casinos opened to use that
revenue stream for road projects to improve access to casinos. But with those
projects completed and bonds mostly paid off, the money in recent years has
been flowing to the state Department of Transportation to spend as it wants.
Under a conference report to the House and Senate released recently, the
House authorized $200 million in bonds for bridge repairs, lower than the
$400 million proposed earlier.
Connecticut
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says he’s trying to keep everyone focused on the need to overhaul
Connecticut’s aging transportation infrastructure. Malloy recently met with reporters
underneath the Interstate 84 viaduct in Hartford. The Department of Transportation
said it’s the busiest section of highway in Connecticut, serving more than 175,000
vehicles daily. It was built between 1959 and 1969 and was designed to carry 55,000
vehicles a day. Funding to design a rehabilitated structure is part of Malloy’s five-year,
$10 billion transportation ramp-up initiative, which is awaiting legislative approval.
Nebraska
Nebraska lawmakers remain split over a proposed fuel-tax increase as they debate the
best way to pay for roads and bridges. The measure would phase in a 6-cent increase
over four years, raise the total gas tax to 31.6 cents per gallon and generate an estimated
$19 million a year for the aging infrastructure. Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion said he
proposed the bill as a “user fee” because it only applies to motorists when they fill their
tanks. Other senators questioned the measure’s timing — introduced when gas prices
have fallen — and argued the tax hits hardest the motorists who can least afford it.
Oregon
Oregonians could begin flying along certain highways at 75 mph after lawmakers
heard testimony recently on a bill upping speed limits from 65 mph
on interstate highways. Under the proposal, passenger cars would be able to
go 10 mph faster than the current limit. It also ups the speed limit on state
highways to 65 mph. Certain vehicles, such as trucks and school buses, would
have to stick to the 55-mph limit on interstate and state highways. Troy Costales,
an administrator at the state Department of Transportation, cautioned
lawmakers at the public hearing that increasing the speed limit might lead to
more crashes and fatalities.
New Mexico
Starting next year, you won’t be able to drive more than 55 mph on New
Mexico county roads where there’s no speed limit posted. Gov. Susana Martinez
has signed legislation that makes 55 mph the default speed limit on
county roads. Republican Sen. Pat Woods of Broadview says the current 75
mph legal limit doesn’t make sense for many local, narrow, dirt roads. He
says these roads aren’t designed or built for the higher speeds allowed on the
state’s highways and interstates. The new default speed limit will take effect
Jan. 1, 2016.
TCA 2015 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 13

From Where We Sit
INSURANCE LIABILITY MINIMUM EDITION
industry stakeholders discuss THE INSURANCE MINIMUM
“As chairman of the TCA it is my fiduciary responsibility to represent the majority of the members of the association
and the majority of our members have said they are opposed to increasing the liability limits on the
insurance. As chairman, I will to speak to what most of our members have expressed as far as their opinion on
liability insurance limits.”
— TCA Chairman Keith Tuttle
“Who is going to be able to afford it? Not everyone is going to be able to do it.”
— TCA President Brad Bentley
Raising the minimum “will harm small business truckers unnecessarily” but it “depends on what kind of an increase
they ultimately come up with.”
— Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association
Spokesperson Norita Taylor
“This legislation is essential to protecting our nation’s highways and ensuring that victims receive the proper
amount of compensation for their losses.”
— U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., who introduced a bill two
years ago to up the minimum to $4.4 million
“I believe any increase would damage the ability of small service providers to earn adequate profit and attract
new capital, contrary to the national transportation policy.”
— David Owen, president of the National
Association of Small Trucking Companies
“ … The current financial responsibility minimums are inadequate to fully cover the costs of
some crashes in light of increased medical costs and DOT’s revised value of statistical life
estimates. … ”
— The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in its Advanced
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
“We have yet to see any evidence that increased insurance minimums will
lead to improved highway safety and until we can see that evidence, we do
not support changing the limits.”
— American Trucking Associations
Spokesman Sean McNally
14 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015

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spring | TCA 2015
Tracking The Trends
By Cliff Abbott
If you can’t list all the expenditures in the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009, popularly known as the “stimulus bill” and which
was supposed to create jobs to help those who became unemployed during
the Great Recession, well, you’re not alone.
In the eyes of many, the Act was another Washington blunder, but
nevertheless one key provision could still have a tremendous impact on
the trucks the industry will depend on in the future.
In January 2011, then U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced
that more than $115 million in Department of Energy (DOE) grants would
By go to Cliff three Abbott trucking-industry manufacturers to develop the next generation
of freight-hauling machines.
In August the same year, a fourth
builder announced that it had received
$19 million for the same
purpose.
To meet the goal of improving
Class 8 tractor efficiency by 50 percent
over then-current models by
2015, grantees agreed to develop
new technologies in the areas of
reducing engine idling, improving
combustion, recovering waste heat,
improving aerodynamics and developing
powertrain hybridization.
Under the cost-shared, public-private
program, grant recipients agreed
to match the government-provided
funds.
The participants teamed up with engine
and trailer manufacturers, industry
suppliers, universities, laboratories and
fleet customers to work toward the final
product.
Cummins received $38.8 million from
the program, proposing to work with Peterbilt
Motors Co. to develop a more aerodynamic
tractor and trailer combination.
Cummins also received an additional $15
million to develop a fuel-efficient, low emissions
diesel engine for light-duty vehicles that exceeds
2010 Environmental Protection Agency standards
while achieving 40 percent better fuel economy
compared to then-current gasoline engine technology.
Daimler Trucks North America received $39.6 million
for its efforts, which included its own aerodynamic tractor-trailer.
The company unveiled the tractor from the super
combination during a press event at the Mid-America Trucking
Show in Louisville, Kentucky, in March.
Navistar received $37.3 million for its aerodynamic entry, which also
featured tires with reduced rolling resistance.
Volvo Group announced in August 2011 that it had received $19 million
for a bi-lateral project conducted both in the U.S. and Sweden.
The DOE specified separate goals for improvement of engine efficiency
and tractor-trailer efficiency, setting specific targets in Brake-Thermal Efficiency
(BTE) for engines and ton-miles per gallon. The end result was
intended to be a demonstration of what is possible using current technology
rather than a product ready for the assembly line.
The teams took different approaches to achieving the efficiency gains,
but there were a number of similarities, too. The principles of aerodynamics,
for example, dictate that the tractor shape and trailer treatments be
similar. Products like tires with low rolling resistance, equipped with tire
pressure monitoring/automatic inflation systems were used, too.
Currently available products like 6 x 2 axle configurations, which replace
one tandem drive axle with one that can be lifted to save rolling
resistance when not needed for weight bearing, were also utilized by the
teams.
Engine displacement, “downspeeding,” drivetrain hybridization and
other technologies differed among the participants.
Pedestrians got a glimpse of the Cummins-Peterbilt SuperTruck in February
2014, parked outside DOE headquarters in Washington,DC. Superimposed
on a map of the U.S. and adjacent to a 25-foot American flag
graphic, was “10.7 mpg,” an achievement that beat the program’s efficiency
goal by 34 percent.
The SuperTruck was in the nation’s capital after serving as a backdrop
to a President Barack Obama speech in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, the prior
evening, as fuel-efficiency standards for large vehicles was the topic.
The Cummins-Peterbilt entry was a Model 579 equipped with a Cummins
ISX15 engine. Developments in technology convert a portion of exhaust
heat into engine power, while electronic control software continuously
adapts performance. The unit also features construction with some
weight-saving alloys that are not
yet commercially feasible.
When Daimler revealed its SuperTruck
at MATS, the company
announced that its prototype had
achieved an efficiency increase
of 115 percent, 65 percent higher
than DOE goals.
The company claimed that its
team achieved a whopping 12.2
mpg in real-world testing on Texas
highways, running at 65 mph and
weighing, including load, 65,000
pounds.
The tractor features an articulated
grill that consists of four panels that
open when the engine needs additional
cooling at lower speeds and close
to decrease the vehicle’s aerodynamic
profile at higher speeds. Like the Cummins-Peterbilt
entry, exhaust heat is
recovered and used to help power the
unit. Also utilized is engine downspeeding,
including a feature that allows the engine
to idle while the vehicle goes downhill
with the cruise control engaged.
Some components of the SuperTruck,
including some aerodynamic features and
a 6 x 2 axle configuration, are already
used in the company’s Cascadia Evolution
model. Others, such as pre-loaded
3D digital maps to control shifting
and coasting capability, could be incorporated
at a future date.
Navistar and Volvo have not
demonstrated working Super-
Truck models yet, but both
have provided frequent updates
of their progress and displayed current
production models at MATS that
incorporate some of their technology
developments.
Last year, Navistar announced
its goal of a demonstration model
SuperTruck by first-quarter
2015.
While prototype SuperTrucks
may or may not be converted
into commercially viable products
as built, the industry is
already reaping benefits from
developments in technology.
In fact, the SuperTruck
teams made early progress by
incorporating some products
that are currently available.
Products like low rolling-resistance
tires, wheel covers,

Sponsored by
trailer side fairings and “tails,” and automated manual transmissions are
already widely available. Truck manufacturers have been wind-tunnel
testing and refining tractor shapes to increase aerodynamic efficiency for
decades.
Manufacturers’ displays at this year’s MATS touted some similar offerings
that are now being incorporated into their most fuel-efficient models.
Lift axles, once considered necessary only for heavy-haul or bulk operations
that needed additional weight capacity, are now replacing drive axles
in 6 x 2 configurations offered by component manufacturers. Improvements
in vehicle software and component compatibility have resulted in
engines and transmissions that “talk” to each other, selecting the opportune
gear and rpm for current torque requirements.
The term “downspeeding” is a new buzzword as manufacturers find
ways to run the engine at lower speeds, even at idle when possible. Decades
ago, some drivers slipped the gearshift to neutral on downgrades
in a dangerous maneuver humorously known as putting the truck into
“Georgia overdrive.” Today, it’s done by computer with an ability those
long-ago drivers didn’t have — to re-engage the transmission and apply
the engine compression brake when cruising speed is reached.
Technology is producing more power from each engine, too. Industry
efforts to maximize the output of the 15-liter diesel engine have run their
course. Similar technology will wring enough power from 13-liter models
to make their larger cousins obsolete before giving way to newer powerplants
that are smaller yet. Daimler’s SuperTruck is powered by a 10.7-
liter engine that produces 390 horsepower and 1,400 ft.-lbs. of torque.
Several truck builders discussed versions of “adaptive”
cruise control, which uses GPS data to
adjust speed, gear selection and engine rpms to the terrain ahead.
Nik Varty, WABCO president, Americas, and vice president, mergers
and acquisitions, announced that his company intends to add adaptive
steering to the product line by year 2020. Adaptive braking, a feature of
collision mitigation systems, is already commonplace in the industry.
Video cameras will undoubtedly play a role in the truck of the future.
They’re already being used to provide a 360-degree look around a moving
vehicle, and a view of the person driving it, in some systems. Camera
lenses will replace mirrors in the near future, with video displays projected
onto windshields or side windows to provide the same visual information
while further reducing aerodynamic drag.
Louvered shutters that control cooling air passing through the radiator
were commonplace not so long ago. Daimler’s SuperTruck took them a
step further, using the louvers themselves as a part of the vehicle’s aerodynamic
structuring.
Even such mundane products as mud flaps have benefitted from advances
in technology, using airfoil-shaped “slots” to reduce drag while
helping drop water from the airstream.
Some of the available technologies will be pushed aside by other, newer
ideas that haven’t yet left the drawing board. Others will be further
refined in an effort to squeeze every efficiency gain possible.
Some won’t ever see the assembly line as their cost to purchase or
maintain will outweigh the efficiency gains they provide.
In fact, rather than making a debut as a new model, the SuperTruck
may be introduced to the market one super part at a time.
Whatever the shape of the future Class 8 tractor, whatever
its features and technology advances, the DOE SuperTruck
program has demonstrated that the future
can be accelerated when dedicated teams
work to make it happen.

The stories your trailers tell
part II
By Dorothy Cox
Editor’s note: This is the second of a twopart
series on trailer-tracking technology,
what tales these trailers tell and what they’ll
be doing in the future.
Imagine a trailer or container equipped
to generate battery power by its very
movement, or trailer-tracking technology
that communicates the status of a trailer’s
tires and brakes wherever it goes — or
a reefer with sensors disguised as other
equipment to evade thieves.
Picture cargo tracking technology that
monitors cargo from ship to rail to truck to
store, and everywhere in between. Or how
about a device that lets customers know
from 15 minutes to an hour ahead of time
that the parts they ordered are on the way,
letting them gear up an assembly line and
the precise number of workers needed in
advance, a “just-in-time assembly line,” if
you will.
Some of these technologies are already
in play; others are around the corner or
closer.
“There’s been an incredible amount
of evolution” of hardware products over
the past two years, said SkyBitz’s Henry
Popplewell, “and that’s going to continue.”
Accelerometers are used in tablet
computers and digital cameras so that
images on screens are always displayed
upright. “They use motion to perform
applications. Could they be used to generate
power to recharge batteries?” asked
Popplewell, SkyBitz’s senior vice president
and general manager.
“Keeping devices charged is a major
problem in the industry,” he added, and
“our claim to fame is power consumption
technology. Today we have a global locating
system (GLS) that lasts five to six years on
its original set of batteries” and in the future,
“power technology will continue to expand
the range of batteries.”
He predicts that sensor technology will
branch out to detect whether trailers or
containers are loaded or empty, mounted
on a chassis or not. Customers today who
have already invested in trailer-tracking
technologies are saying, “What else can you
do for me?” Popplewell said.
“Cargo and tire pressure monitoring
exist today; some are more leading-edge
tire pressure monitors and trailer weight
[monitoring] is just now launching.” The
future is about trailers having a number of
sensors, a “smart trailer,” as it were, that
communicates data not just about the
freight but about its maintenance needs
and current readings of all its components.
“That’s where the future lies for hardware,”
said Popplewell.
Omnitracs senior product manager Mark
Alsbrook agreed that “The need is to have
devices that talk with each other, and that
will grow.” Exploring use of this technology
will let customers watch their cargo go
“from ship to rail to flatbed,” he said, adding
that this fosters and will continue to foster
a “holistic” approach to the trailer and its
components “like the condition of the tires
and brakes and … communicating that back
to the driver.”
Data in and of itself is a good thing. It’s
even better when that data can be swiftly
acted on when necessary.
SenseAware, technology created on
behalf of FedEx Custom Critical and
enclosed in a device just a little bigger than
a cell phone, can be put in a package or on
a pallet to track and monitor a product’s
temperature, humidity, location, barometric
pressure and if it’s been exposed to light.
ShipmentWatch, FedEx Custom Critical’s
18 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015

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monitoring service, can program SenseAware to customers’ specifications
and use it to track their shipments. All ShipWatch moves are monitored by
a 24/7, 365-days-a-year team, SecureComm.
When something happens, they act. Because, as Custom Critical’s
President and CEO Virginia Albanese said, what good is seeing something
happening if you don’t have the ability to react?
The largest critical shipment carrier in the world, FedEx has its own
security force, who Albanese said work closely with law enforcement,
government enforcement agencies, the Food and Drug Administration,
U.S. Customs and local police. “Our team contacts the correct law
enforcement [agency] to involve authorities quickly to get issues resolved,”
she told Truckload Authority.
If the temperature, say, should go out of range, either a back-up
system kicks into gear in the trailer or a replacement trailer is sent to
the scene, said Dave Hill, senior communications specialist for FedEx
Custom Critical.
SenseAware sensors are used on FedEx trucks but can also be used
on other carriers’ trucks or airplanes, as the case may be.
As to that ‘just-in-time assembly line’ mentioned above, Albanese said
SenseAware is being used by one of their customers to track and monitor
kits full of parts and let the customer know when the refurbished parts are
on their way back so that their assembly line can be ready. “They’re using
the [SenseAware] devices to manage their inventories,” she said.
And speaking of management, Alsbrook said data gathered by trailertracking
technology can be used to discover which pieces of equipment
— tires for example — work best with which trailers. Or which brand of
tractors are the best economical fit for a certain trailer, down to the make,
model and year. It’s a way of drilling down further into asset management
and discovering new layers of cost-savings.
“It’s a matter of getting more done with less equipment,” explained Jim
Kennedy, vice president of maintenance for McKenzie Tank Lines. “It’s
pretty important to know what specific tank we have where. We have to
match it up to the specific product. It’s increasing utilization.”
Mitch Otte, operations manager for Taylor Truckline, agreed, noting that
trailer-tracking technology has reduced trailer idle time at his company.
Transportation Services Inc. is using SkyBitz’s subscription-based
solution, SkyBitz as a Service, and its Web-based application, InSight,
not only to gather realtime trailer location data but to perform yard
checks, monitor trailer pools for enhanced utilization and measure fleet
performance metrics to improve maintenance practices.
Indeed, SkyBitz’s Popplewell noted that the use of tracking information
will increasingly be used in predictive analytics or “benchmarking” to look
at the industry as a whole to set acceptable metrics for performance of
the trailer and its components — for example — to benchmark optimum
trailer idle time and bring a fleet’s idle time in line with the industry’s best
practices.
And, of course, there’s always a need to improve cargo security.
And even though technology providers agree that a thief will steal what
he’s made up his mind to steal, they said crooks can be fooled and/or
discouraged from taking a load in the first place.
Most trailer sensors will send a signal to the back office or central
reporting station if they’re tampered with. When that happens, a fleet’s
own security team and/or authorities can immediately follow thieves and
get the cargo back.
But it’s even better if they’re deterred altogether.
Alsbrook offered the idea that tracking sensors could be disguised to
look like other parts of the trailer to prevent thieves from ripping them off,
with Jim Sassen, senior manager of product marketing, adding that he
can see a time coming when trailer OEMs incorporate “covert” sensors
on their trailers that are at once more powerful and more discreet and
harder to detect.
“We learned post-911 the need and desire for higher levels of security
… so we developed more security services to meet those needs,” said
Custom Critical’s Albanese.
Speaking of the SenseAware device, she said, “It can tell a good tale
while it’s out there.”
20 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015

Truckload trends crucial to you and your business @ DAT.com
The Give and the Get
It’s not 2014, but freight is
strong, although capacity is
much more available than it
was a year ago (see graphic).
We’re seeing more typical, seasonal trends, but
exception freight rates for vans including fuel surcharge
for exception freight were down 5.1% in February
compared to a year ago. Nationally, that’s about a 10¢
difference per mile; the average linehaul rate was
actually 9¢ higher in February 2015 than the previous
year.
prices meant that carriers spent about 18.5¢ less per
mile on fuel compared to 2014.
In partnership with
By Ken Harper, DAT Solutions Marketing Director
4. Win on Fuel Payment Terms
A steep drop in fuel prices can also give carriers a
boost. Contract carriers get paid a fuel surcharge that
varies at the pump, and receive their surcharge based
on last month’s fuel prices. When fuel prices drop
quickly, carriers stay ahead of the falling rate. When
fuel prices rise rapidly, the carrier has the opposite
problem.
Diesel (January 2015)
Retail Price: $3.00/gallon
You can be assured that shippers are aware of
increased capacity and dropping fuel prices while being
mindful of the pain caused by last year’s Polar Vortex, so
they want to “guarantee” capacity.
The trick for carriers will be the give on fuel vs. the get
on linehaul.
1. 2015-2015: Fuel Comparisons
Diesel averaged $2.90 per gallon nationally at the end of
February, $1.11 less than a year ago. Consequently, the
average fuel surcharge in February 2015 was down to
29¢ per mile, 11¢ lower than last year.
The lower the cost of fuel, the lower the cost of
operations. At an average of 6 MPG, February’s diesel
2. Shippers Come Back to Truckload
The congestion on rails led shippers to shift more freight
from intermodal rail to trucks during Q3 2014, which
hasn’t happened since 2010. Rail capacity is still tight,
and intermodal costs are affected less by fuel price
fluctuations than by fixed costs like terminal operating
expenses. As lower oil prices reduce the cost gap
between rail and trucks, more shippers could opt for
trucks in 2015.
3. Driver Availability With oil prices
dropping, so will new oil drilling. The result? Less oilindustry
cargo to move but less competition for drivers
from that sector.
Taxes
Distribution & Marketing
Refining
Crude Oil
16%
33%
13%
38%
What you pay for in a gallon of diesel, from eia.org.

2015-04-10 10:46:17 TCA
Game
ChangerPART 2
0612:10-15 L
By Cliff Abbott
The Case for Cameras
In-cab video recording systems have
grown so greatly in popularity that most
carriers — and many drivers — have at
least considered installing them. In the
first “Game Changer” article, published
in the Winter-Spring 2015 issue of Truckload
Authority magazine, some available
products and potential uses of commercial
video systems were outlined, as well as a
few benefits and pitfalls of using them.
In this, the second article in the Game
Changer series, we’ll present some of the
reasons that every carrier should make
use of this evolving technology. Future articles
will explore some of the pitfalls in
more detail and summarize the information
presented.
Perhaps the most obvious benefit of
video recording products is the protection
they provide against unjustified consequences
of incidents or accidents. Commercial
vehicle drivers often deal with
motorists who contribute to accident risk
with erratic lane changes or sudden stops.
Unfortunately, some truck drivers have
used claims of such actions by others to
explain their involvement in rear-end collisions.
Without a credible witness, a safety
officer’s task of determining fault and
preventability can be nearly impossible.
Accident reports, written by a responding
law enforcement official, often contain
little factual information other than what
vehicles were involved and the details of
place, time, and weather conditions. Narrative
portions of the reports, when completed
at all, record the often contradictory
claims and comments of each party
involved.
Single vehicle accidents can also be
problematic. Some drivers, reluctant to
admit sleepiness or distraction, instead
report swerving to avoid an object or a
head-on collision with another vehicle.
The usual result is that decisions of preventability
are made with an eye toward
erring on the side of safety, assigning
blame to the driver.
Insurance fraud abounds as well. The
well-known “Swoop and Squat” scheme
involves a vehicle that intentionally makes
a sudden lane change and stop — the
“squat,” in front of another vehicle, causing
a rear-end collision. The vehicle usually
contains several passenger-victims who
claim injury. A “swoop” vehicle typically
travels alongside the intended victim, preventing
a lane change prior to impact and
conveniently, a car full of eyewitnesses to
support the fraudulent narrative.
Recorded video provides evidence that
can exonerate both driver and carrier in
these situations. The view from the windshield
supports or refutes the driver’s
claim(s) about the actions of others. Undoubtedly,
that’s a huge selling point for
the personal dash-cameras, sometimes
called “crash cams,” that are now available
at every truck stop.
The downside for carriers is that those
cameras come with a self-contained
memory that the driver owns and controls.
Video segments that exonerate the
driver have a much greater chance of being
shared with the carrier, while evidence
that points toward driver guilt can be withheld
or disappear entirely.
Even when shared, video from personal
units can be of poor quality.
Commercial video systems, however,
provide an array of benefits that personal
dash-cams can’t approach. In some systems,
video is transmitted immediately
after the incident through the vehicle’s
telemetrics system or through cellular or
other means.
Systems that incorporate an inwardfacing
camera can record the driver’s preincident
response, along with behaviors
that may have contributed.
The result can be a much clearer picture
of the events that contributed to a
crash in a format that can be difficult to
refute.
At a general session at the Truckload
Carriers Association 77th annual convention
in Kissimmee, Florida, in March, Bob
Peterson, president of Tulsa, Oklahomabased
Melton Truck Lines, discussed his
22 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015

support for video recording systems. “I am a table-pounder for
in-cab cameras,” he said.
Peterson provided some details of the part the Lytx Drive-
Cam system played in two greatly different accident situations.
In one, a lawsuit was derailed when a motorist who claimed that
a Melton vehicle had caused a crash was clearly seen in the video
veering into the truck’s lane and striking it. In the other case, a
Melton driver who claimed that a rear-end collision was caused
by a motorist who cut in front and hit the brakes was shown in
the video to be texting just before impact — and carrying an unauthorized
passenger, too.
“If we are doing something wrong,” Peterson explained, “I
want to know so we can do the right thing. I believe those cameras
have more than paid for themselves.”
SmartDrive CEO Steve Mitgang commented: “Drivers and carriers
are often falsely accused when accidents occur and it can
be difficult to defend against. If everyone isn’t tired of that, they
should be.”
He continued, “If we can help a driver exonerate himself and
the fleet, it’s very hard to argue against a system that does
that.”
Costs associated with accidents claim a substantial amount of
a carrier’s operating expenses, and it’s a fact that some carriers
are one catastrophic accident away from closing the doors. Video
systems can help prevent paying accident costs needlessly.
Using a modern video recording system for protection against
false claims, however, is only scratching the surface of the system’s
capabilities. When incidents occur, carriers often must
determine how to respond to driver actions. Egregious actions
usually call for immediate consequences when carriers decide
to remove a driver from the fleet. There are, however, situations
where coaching or additional training can substantially reduce
the risk of keeping that driver behind the wheel. Video can
provide an assist in that determination as well, helping carriers
identify behaviors that should be changed.
With the number of qualified drivers available to the industry
continually shrinking, retention of drivers is a goal of every carrier
in these times. A driver who can be coached to an acceptable
performance level means one less replacement hire the carrier
has to make.
That’s where the predictive analytics that accompany videobased
systems can shine. Using data collected by the vehicle’s
electronic network, analytics can paint a picture of the driver’s
minute-by-minute performance. Most diesel engine manufacturers
utilize the Society of Automotive Engineers J1939 protocol to
allow the engine to communicate with other vehicle components.
Added pressure on the throttle pedal, for example, can signal
the fuel pump to increase flow, the engine compression brake to
turn off, the transmission to downshift one gear, and cause other
system adjustments.
Add-on safety systems like collision-mitigation, lane departure
or roll stability products also communicate through the system.
TCA 2015 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 23

Sponsored by SKYBITz
SKYBITz.com | 866.922.4708
2015-05-02 11:34:47 TCA
“Drivers and carriers are often falsely accused
when accidents occur and it can be difficult to
defend against. If everyone isn’t tired of that, they
should be. If we can help a driver exonerate himself
and the fleet, it’s very hard to argue against a
system that does that.”
Every electrical pulse sent through the
system is data that can be captured
and used.
How the data is used depends on
carrier needs, but coaching is a frequent
goal. “This is a tool that is not
designed to be a stick,” said Lytx Vice
President of Safety Services Del Lisk.
“It is designed to be an objective tool
for continuous improvement.”
Clay Merches, vice president of
Safety and Human Resources at J&R
Schugel Trucking, says the Lytx system
provides him with abilities to manage
his team. “I’m a coach with 600 athletes
and I can’t see them play their game,”
he said. “Not only does DriveCam allow
me to see them play, but it allows us to
break down the performance into the
technical aspects of each task.” He described
how a hitting coach in baseball,
for example, can break down a batter’s
swing to identify mechanical things
that need tweaking. “We can identify
what might be only a small piece of a
driver’s performance that could make a
big difference,” he said. “We can identify
which drivers need training; identify
exactly how to target the training, and
even use video of another driver who is
doing it right for training purposes.”
Lisk also used a sports analogy. “My
17-year old son plays high-school football,”
he explained. “On Mondays, the
team reviews video from the most recent
game, not to determine who did
anything wrong but to determine where
to get better.”
Mitgang uses the sports vernacular,
too. “Carriers want to be proactive
in managing risk, helping drivers make
sure they bring their ‘A’ game every day,”
he said. “In sports, game films are used
every day to make sure the team is getting
the most recent feedback.”
The SmartDrive system, according to
Mitgang, uses 70 different data points to
- Steve Mitgang, SmartDrive CEO
0892:16-15 P
create a portrait of driver activity, with an
additional capability. Mitgang explained
that “Unlike some of our competitors,
our platform is an open platform. That
means we’re not restricted to only working
with systems that fit our platform.
We can determine what the most important
video today is, and design a way to
obtain that video.”
SmartDrive systems have been
adapted, according to Mitgang, to monitor
such activities as handling hoses and
fittings during a petroleum delivery and
monitoring a backhoe operation to ensure
that pedestrians stay clear.
The Lytx DriveCam system incorporates
more than 100 data points. These
include such common occurrences as
hard braking, hard acceleration and
speeding, but can also include just about
any information collected or transmitted
by the vehicle’s system, including some
the company doesn’t make public.
Bryan Cook, vice president of Business
Intelligence and Analytics at Lytx,
said the company compares captured
data with accident information to pinpoint
what behaviors are related. “For
example,” he said, “if we look at a triggering
event like hard braking, and cell
phone use turns up with equal frequency
2018-06-08 12:05:07 TCA
between collision and non-collision drivers,
we know that behavior isn’t predictive.”
Cook explained that Lytx, with more
current subscriptions for video management
systems than all its competitors
combined, uses data from multiple customers
to obtain larger sample sizes.
The data, he explained, can be grouped
by selected parameters to determine
what is most applicable to a particular
customer. Data from carriers who run local
delivery routes, for example, can be
excluded from data used to analyze an
over-the-road carrier.
Most systems allow carrier input into
the algorithms used to calculate risk.
The Lytx DriveCam system, according to
Merches, “had a baseline for analytics,
about a hundred points of measurement,
if I recall. I was able to go in and adjust
those triggers that are important to us.”
Merches described a process where
his team rode in several different models
of tractor pulling both van and refrigerated
trailers to determine a triggering
point for G-forces.
The analytics provided by the Bendix
Safety Direct system are also customizable,
according to TJ Thomas, director of
marketing and customer solutions. “The
customer specifies weights for each type
of incident and the results are used for a
Driver Division Report,” he said.
Predictive analytics provides a way
to identify the drivers who are at highest
risk, enabling the carrier to intervene
before an accident occurs. Most
of the systems provide some form of
scorecard that can be used to determine
where attention is needed and
help pinpoint training needs.
G & P Trucking Director of Safety
John Billingsley says his company
“Not only does DriveCam allow me to see them play,
but it allows us to break down the performance
into the technical aspects of each task. We can
identify what might be only a small piece of a
driver’s performance that could make a big
difference.”
- Clay Merches, Vice President of Safety and Human
Resources, J&R Schugel Trucking
0662:11-15 L
24 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015

A D V E R T I S E M E N T
TA and Petro Announce Citizen Driver Award Honorees
March, 2015
WESTLAKE, Ohio
In his 27 years on the road, Richard Ash, from
Lakewood, Colorado, has traveled 2.8 million
accident-free miles. A strong believer in paying
it forward, Rick helps out his elderly neighbors
by shoveling snow and checking in on them
Kisses to fuel attendants, toll booth operators,
and others—a simple act of kindness that lets
these folks know he appreciates them. He is a
life member of OOIDA, chairman and founder of
Trucking Solutions Group, an annual volunteer
at Feed My Starving Children in Denver, and a
member of Trucker Buddy International. Rick
stands out as a highly-polished professional,
assisting others to be the best they can be. He
one another to move the entire trucking industry
forward.
Gary Buchs, from Colfax, Illinois, has been
driving professionally for over 25 years. He has
logged 2.25 million miles without an accident.
He is a man of deep faith with a strong moral
compass, and follows this in all he does. Gary
is extremely attentive to his family. When his
son was deployed to Afghanistan, Gary took a
full year off from driving and moved from Illinois
to Hawaii to become a full-time caregiver to
his grandchildren. He is 9-time winner of the
Landstar Star of Quality Award, as well as the
recipient of a Platinum Star, awarded after he
came upon a car accident, and stopped to help.
He pried the car door open and pulled a woman
out, saving her life.
behind the wheel for over 21 years and 2.5
is very committed to safety and has received
multiple driving and safety awards in his career.
He participates in the Maine State Truck Driving
Championships, which has stringent safety
requirements. Participants must remain accident,
incident and violation free for the previous year
to compete. Rob is a 4-time State Champion
in multiple classes of competition. He supports
many charities, including New England Truck
Kids Charity, Special Olympics Convoy, Pull
A Plane for Wounded Warriors and Wreaths
Across America. He is also a former Trucker
Buddy, speaking with school children via penpal,
then visiting them with a truck at the end of
the school year.
Sandy Long, from Marceline, Missouri has
3 millions miles without an accident! This has
earned her 3 different safety awards from 3
more responsible or more positive about her
profession—and she still makes caring for her
elderly mother a priority. Sandy is a Senior
Life member of OOIDA. She is a staff writer
for ExpediteNow/Road Gorilla magazines
and Canadian Trucking Magazine, and has
Magazine, as well as maintaining her own
popular blog. She is a charter and active
member of the Women in Trucking Association,
nominee in 2013.
Former Marine Micheal Sheeds is from Bandera
Texas, and has driven over 3 million accidentfree
miles in 25 years. September 6 will mark
to offer. Mike is a leader, a Christian, and allows
free all the passengers until paramedics arrived.
He is active in his PTO, regularly gives blood,
and donates books. He and his wife, Donna,
have adopted four daughters through foster
care. He has spent countless hours advocating
for change and assistance for foster children, as
well as volunteering with a post-adoption support
group. He is also involved in the Trucker Buddy
program.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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looked at two manufacturers and chose SmartDrive “mostly
due to their back-office systems.” He continued, “The information
provided is something that we’ve never gotten
before.” Billingsley likes the system’s ability to score driving
performance. “It allows us to home in on driving habits,” he
said. “A guy can see his own score on a smartphone.”
Mitgang described a widespread situation at one carrier
that video helped to correct. Automatic application of the
vehicle’s roll stability system had triggered video recording
that indicated that drivers were entering curved exit ramps
with the cruise control engaged, relying on the system to
slow the vehicle to safe speeds. While such confidence in
the system might be a plus for the manufacturer, it isn’t the
safest way to operate the vehicle. Using the data collected,
the carrier was able to address the problem.
Using the captured video for training purposes is another
benefit of recording systems. Safety Vision Account Executive
David Wehmeyer thinks video is valuable for teaching.
“The best training tool is to let the driver watch himself
drive,” he said. “It’s a great tool.”
In fact, many carriers are using the driver’s own video
image to coach and train the driver. At G&P, a former driver
was hired as a full-time driver coach. “His goal and ours,”
said Billingsley, “is to take good drivers and make them into
great drivers.”
Con-way Freight has developed a system that utilizes
their most experienced drivers to coach others. Peter Ferguson,
a 30-year veteran, talked about his company’s use
of the DriveCam system at the 2014 American Trucking Associations
Management Conference and Exhibition in San
Diego, California. “Using peers to do the coaching makes it
easier because the drivers don’t feel as threatened,” he said.
“I tell them ‘it’s just you and I.’”
Ferguson said that drivers often approach him to discuss
an event. “They know something was recorded, and sometimes
they want to get a perspective on whether they reacted
in the right way,” he explained.
In addition to individual coaching, video can be used to
educate groups on the wrong — or the right way — of doing
things.
The Bendix Safety Direct system, according to Thomas,
displays video separately from other vehicle information
such as speed or turn-signal use so that the behavior can
be observed without identifying the driver. “So if the video is
used, for example, in a safety meeting, no one can tell which
truck or driver it came from,” he said.
Once the training is administered, the carrier can monitor
driver scorecards to validate the success of the training. If
the training was created to address a specific problem, the
data should show a reduction in occurrences of the problem
after the training is delivered. For example, incidents of hard
braking caused by following too closely should decline if the
training was effective.
Finally, every carrier benefits from a positive safety image.
Improvement of a company’s safety record is the most
obvious image builder, but the message sent by an investment
in video technology isn’t lost on lawmakers, insurance
providers or juries.
While installation of video cameras in trucks can create
an initial backlash from drivers, the improved safety record
and opportunity for performance improvement they supply
can provide tools for retaining current drivers and recruiting
new ones.
Whether the goal is self protection, performance improvement
or positive image projection, managed video systems
can be the answer.
26 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org

Mind
our
Maintenance
Battling the basics
By Cliff Abbott
New feature exclusive to
Truckload Authority!
Keeping your tractors and trailers operating at peak
efficiency and your Vehicle Maintenance BASIC score in
check are critically important to your business’s bottom
line. In this issue, Truckload Authority begins a recurring
series, “Mind Your Maintenance,” that will offer insight on
how to maintain peak performance at all times and drive
profitability.
hile carriers attempt to make changes
in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration’s Compliance, Safety
and Accountability program, Kerri Wirachowsky
thinks they could be doing more to impact their
own CSA scores in the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC
category.
The head of Enforcement Program Evaluation
for the Carrier Enforcement Program Office of the
Ontario Ministry of Transportation, Wirachowsky is
also chair of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance
(CVSA) Vehicle Committee. In that role, she oversees
a team that is responsible for how vehicle inspections
are conducted and for making updates to the
North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria.
While CVSA is not a part of the CSA program,
inspections conducted under its guidance definitely
impact CSA scores, and that’s where Wirachowsky
feels carriers can help their own cause.
Wirachowsky recently addressed a group of
trucking maintenance executives at the Technology
and Maintenance Council’s annual meeting and
later spoke with Truckload Authority in an exclusive
interview.
A review of the top 25 for-hire trucking companies
revealed scores in the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC
ranging from the low teens to well above the intervention
threshold.
Some of that disparity might be explained by
operational differences. Carriers who count a large
percentage of independent contractors in their fleets,
for example, could have a smaller impact on the
equipment of owner-operators who are responsible
for their own maintenance. Those with large numbers
of local routes may see equipment at company
maintenance facilities much more often than carriers
who keep large numbers of trailers in pools at remote
customer locations.
Still, some carriers may be contributing negatively
to their own vehicle maintenance scores by not addressing
a few simple items.
The first is driver education.
“I think drivers who don’t identify violations on
their trucks belong in one of two categories,” Wirachowsky
said in the interview. “One, they don’t do a
proper daily inspection at all or, two, they’re doing the
best they can but just don’t know what to look for.”
As an example of the latter, Wirachowsky points
to brake inspections. “Brake adjustment is always
a part of the top 10 percent of violations,” she said.
“But when you ask a driver what size of brake
chamber is on his truck’s steer axle, most don’t have
a clue. How can they be expected to know what the
push-rod travel should be if they don’t even know
what’s on their truck?”
She explained that many items, including brakes,
can be inspected by the driver without physically
crawling under the vehicle. “The driver,” she said, “is
basically responsible for things they can find while
walking around the truck.” She explained that most
brakes are equipped with an indicator that can be
seen without crawling. “If you can bend over and
look to the other side, you can see the indicator.”
At the TMC meeting, Wirachowsky explained the
double hit that carriers take for brake adjustment
violations. The out-of-adjustment brake violates two
provisions of the regulations: one that says push-rod
travel must be within legal parameters and another
that requires working automatic slack adjusters on
vehicles manufactured after Oct. 20, 1994. If the
brake is out of adjustment, then that automatic adjuster
isn’t working. Four weighting “points” are assigned
to each violation, plus an additional two if the
infraction is serious enough to put the vehicle OOS.
The potential resulting weight of 10 is then multiplied
by a time weight factor of three, adding 30 points to
the carrier’s Vehicle Maintenance BASIC calculation
for the next six months. The time weighting factor
drops to two after six months and drops again to one
after a year, causing the impact of the violations to
decrease over time, but Wirachowsky notes that the
points could have been avoided altogether.
With so much of a carrier’s score in the Vehicle
Maintenance BASIC riding on the driver, Wirachowsky
detailed a huge disparity between daily driver
inspections and law enforcement roadside inspection
results. “In 25 years of inspecting commercial motor
vehicles,” she said, “I find that 99 percent of drivers
indicate no violations on the daily vehicle inspection
report while 20 to 25 percent of trucks fail the
[roadside] inspection. Something doesn’t match up!”
she concluded.
She noted that in the U.S., for most CMVs a DVIR
is no longer required if no discrepancies are found,
but that the daily inspection is still mandatory, even if
the paperwork isn’t. “I tell drivers, ‘if you did a good
pre-trip inspection every day, I’d be bored out of my
mind.’”
Part of the problem, Wirachowsky said, is that
“automatic” slack adjusters can give the truck
owner a false sense of security. “They still have to
be checked,” she said, “even if they’re automatic.
If they’re out of adjustment, the technician needs
to find out why.” She explained that if technicians
manually adjust the brake and send the truck out,
“whatever made it go out will happen again.”
According to data shared in Wirachowsky’s TMC
presentation, out-of-adjustment brakes resulted in
194,284 violations in 2014 inspections. Combined
with 389,660 other brake violations, the total was just
shy of 584,000 violations.
During the annual Brake Safety Week conducted
by CVSA, the 2014 results showed 16.2 percent of
vehicles inspected were placed OOS, compared
TCA 2015 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 27

with 13.5 percent in 2013. It should be noted that
jurisdictional participation and selection criteria were
not consistent across the reported years; however,
there’s still cause for concern.
Returning to roadside inspections for all of 2014,
violations involving head, tail or brake lights were
responsible for a whopping 823,540 violations, with
nearly 75,000 resulting in a vehicle placed OOS.
Those violations hit CSA scores even harder than
brakes, weighted at six points each plus another two
for OOS violations.
Another 545,500 violations were issued for inoperative
clearance lights, weighted at two points each.
During her Nashville presentation, Wirachowsky
noted that LED lighting could drastically reduce the
number of violations because of its durability and
because, when it fails, it typically does gradually
rather than all at once. A taillight, for example, can
still shine brightly enough to meet legal requirements,
even with some of its diodes not functioning.
“A driver can see that a light needs replacing before
it fails entirely,” Wirachowsky explained.
A violation that’s becoming more common is missing
or damaged conspicuity tape. “Trailers equipped
with conspicuity tape are now showing some age,”
said Wirachowsky. “After bumping the dock a few
hundred times, there could be some damage.”
Violations for missing, unsecured or discharged
fire extinguishers and missing flares or triangles have
been occurring for years.
While daily vehicle inspections are part of the solution,
Wirachowsky notes that drivers aren’t trained in
maintenance and inspections to the extent they are
in other areas. “More training of the drivers in vehicle
components would be helpful,” she said. “The driver
is the carrier’s No. 1 line of defense.”
Comparing maintenance regulations with others
the driver is responsible for, she said, “If drivers don’t
understand the Hours of Service, they can get by because
the operations people dispatch them within the
rules. If they don’t know the regulations on vehicle
maintenance, they’re out there in unsafe trucks.”
When drivers know the regulations and report vehicle
deficiencies to their carrier, a problem can still
exist. Some drivers are reluctant to report violations
if they lack confidence that the item will be repaired.
Others fear that reporting a defect means they’ll be
delayed, without additional pay, at a repair facility, an
especially unsavory outcome if the problem happens
to be on a trailer dropped by another driver.
Increasing the number of rules, by regulation or by
carrier policy, is one potential answer.
“In Ontario, we require daily inspections according
to a published schedule,” Wirachowsky explained.
“For minor violations, if the driver writes it up and it
doesn’t get fixed, we hold the carrier responsible.”
Programs that reward the driver for identifying
problems and working with the carrier to get them
repaired could be another solution. Unfortunately,
such programs are rare.
When violations are found, too often they aren’t
taken seriously by the carrier or truck owner, she said.
“Too many truck owners don’t want to fix something
until it’s an OOS,” she explained. “Don’t wait until a
problem is an OOS item before repairing it.”
Even when confronted with a violation at an
inspection, carriers can be indifferent, according to
Wirachowsky. “I’ve had drivers with violations call their
carriers and they get asked, ‘is it an OOS violation?’ If
it isn’t, they tell the driver to leave it. If you drive, you’re
still in violation,” she said.
An example she provided is a trailer with an inoperative
tail light. Although in violation, the vehicle isn’t
OOS until the other one quits, too. “Would you repair
the one that’s out, or just wait until the other one goes
out, too, so you’ll be OOS?” Wirachowsky asked.
When the truck does go into the shop for repairs,
components that need or will soon need attention can
be overlooked in an effort to get the equipment rolling
quickly. Wirachowsky said that it was common for her
to identify a brake problem such as worn linings on
one wheel, only to have the driver point to the wheel
on the other side and tell her it had recently been repaired.
“Wouldn’t you think they’d look at the other end
of the same axle while it was in the shop?” she asked.
A thorough inspection process during regularly
scheduled preventive maintenance is critical, but
can be supplemented by an inspection process
that accompanies an unscheduled repair. A tire
replacement, for example, is an excellent opportunity
to inspect all the tires. Any repairs requiring the
vehicle to be placed on a lift should automatically
include inspection of other parts that perform the
same function.
When it comes to maintenance, improved driver
education, quick attention to items in violation and
thorough inspection processes both in the shop and
on the road can go a long way toward a better score in
the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC of CSA.
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2/25/2014 2:09:38 PM

Spring | TCA 2015
Member Mailroom
“What can I do as a Truckload Carriers
Association member to become more
involved in the regulatory process?”
Contact your
Congressman
or Senator
Get involved in
FMCSA feedback
Be informed — read Truckload Authority
and The Truckload Carrier Report
The answer to this question that I receive most often
is both simple and complex. The simple part comes by
just staying on top of information as it happens. Be sure
to read Truckload Authority, TCA’s official magazine, and
The Truckload Carrier Report, TCA’s weekly e-newsletter.
Both are an excellent recap of the most recent news
and provide a good synopsis for our members to gather
information as it relates to their fleets. It has been my
experience that sound policy and good debate will almost
always happen when people are informed and that
is the simple way a member can help with the regulatory
process. But that, of course, does not always answer
the questions that members are asking. The complex
answer comes by being more involved.
Carriers become more involved in the regulatory
process by providing feedback and comments to rules
as they are issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration. While many at the agency enjoy their
conversations with me from time to time, they much
prefer to hear from the folks that practice truck safety
on the roads every day. You, as a carrier member, will
almost always provide real world insight to an issue
that you encounter often, sometimes even daily.
Continuing along the path of regulatory involvement,
I encourage members to regularly meet with
your congressional representation. Again, while TCA
is a trade association, in my experience, it goes a long
way when your Senator or Congressperson can schedule
a visit to your home terminal to see exactly how
trucking works. After all, you do operate in their districts
and employ their constituents.
Does this work? Does being involved really have an
impact? Yes, yes, yes and inevitably, yes. An informed
and involved member makes all the difference in the
world. Involvement helps almost exponentially, if I can
describe it that way. The recent Hours of Service regulations
contained over 25,000 comments to the rule. We,
as an industry, spoke and our voices were heard. We
spoke to our representatives and everyone else that was
involved about how the rules didn’t work and eventually
the restart provision was suspended in an effort to collect
new data and write a rule that makes sense.
Member involvement in the regulatory process
needs to happen in order to be a more robust and
active association. A trade association, by its very
nature, must be involved in the rulemaking process
by communicating its message and policies because
its members strongly believe in them. As part of an
industry that hauled 74 percent of the freight in this
nation in 2012, we clearly have a seat at the table
when it comes to the rulemaking process. That being
said, now is the time to make an impression upon
the people that actually make the decisions, Congress
and FMCSA, so that they can become more informed
about the impact of their rule on us, as well.
— Dave Heller
Director, Safety and Policy
TCA 2015 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 29

spring | TCA 2015
A Chat With The Chairman
Happy
Warrior
Foreword and Interview by Micah Jackson
“Welcome to Toledo,” he said with a smile as wide as a mid-summer’s day is long. As a lifelong Toledo, Ohio, native this is the city
that molded and shaped TCA Chairman Keith Tuttle. A once-vibrant economic hub that boasted some of the largest and most successful
companies in the world, it has seen the technological revolution of the past two decades erode its blue collar manufacturing foundation
and starve its economic engine. It’s a harsh reality that didn’t deter Chairman Tuttle during our recent “Chat” while he navigated the
streets of downtown and passionately expounded on the history of the area and its on-going revitalization efforts. It’s the same passion
he displayed during lunch the next day at the prestigious downtown Toledo Club when he talked about the trucking industry and
the essential role the Truckload Carriers Association plays in it.
From his easygoing charm to his penchant for telling humorous stories at a moment’s notice (fictional and non-fictional alike),
Chairman Tuttle is best described as a man of principle and passion. His devotion to fighting for the causes he believes in can be most
easily seen in his service to the Shriners, even serving as Potentate last year. Whether it is the health and well-being of sick and injured
children, the revitalization of his hometown or the struggle to reduce burdensome regulations and promote increased involvement
by trucking industry stakeholders, one fact is crystal clear: Chairman Tuttle is the quintessential “Happy Warrior.”
Thank you, Mr. Chairman for joining us for the first Chat under
your chairmanship. Please tell readers when and why you
became passionate about the trucking industry.
From a young age trucking is just about all I’ve ever known. You
don’t have to be the sharpest tool in the shed to be passionate about
something you really believe in. Any issue in our industry you have
to be passionate about because the average person has no idea how
critical and how vital and how relevant this industry is. We drive the
economy, that’s all there is to it.
What is it about trucking that you find most enjoyable?
It’s all about the people. That’s all there is to it, it’s all about the
people. I’ve known many people who’ve tried and tried again. Some
of them haven’t done as well as others in this industry, but Kathy
(wife) and I have had some amazing success in our own business
and as we’ve become involved with the different associations, I’ve
had the opportunity to work alongside some amazing people. In fact,
there are a couple of people who started with me over 30 years ago
with nothing more than a vision and a couple of empty pockets that
we’re still together with every day at birthday parties, weddings and
unfortunately the older I get, too many funerals. There are so many
stories I can tell you about hardworking guys with a dream and a
tremendous attitude — I can name 50 of them — who have built
incredible companies and they all know that nothing in this business
is easy. In some cases it took more than one try to get it right and
be successful. But it’s all about the people. That’s what I find more
enjoyable than anything else.
You are a lifelong and proud Toledo, Ohio, native. What values
did you learn growing up that have served you well in the
trucking business?
There are two values more than any other passed down through
our family and hopefully down to my own children that have served
me well in whatever success I’ve had in trucking, and those would
be personal relationships and just plain hard work. I’m going to relate
that my grandfather, who passed away before I was born, was
in sales and management during his 30 years in the industry with a
number of different LTL carriers until the early 1950s. My own father
for many years was in LTL sales and management, and split his time
between Chicago and Cleveland before ending up in Toledo, Ohio,
where he went to work for an LTL carrier and started a family. I
will tell you that my mom and dad were constantly entertaining
customers and hosting other guys in transportation sales in
our little house in Toledo — a house with one bathroom
and a family of seven, five kids and mom and dad.
Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Toledo
and northwest Ohio was home to a number of
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Fortune 500 companies, a lot of which have
moved out and gone to the South, and trucking
was a vibrant part of that success story.
Back in the early ’70s when I got my nose
bloodied and started to learn a lot about this
business, there were 174 LTL carriers with a
presence in the Toledo area. And as my dad
would later say, everyone’s rates were set by
the government and were pretty much the
same, so the freight would go to whomever
the traffic manager had the best relationship
with.
I can remember early in my career when
I had a very small fleet I made multiple sales
calls on a major food manufacturer in Napoleon,
Ohio, and it wasn’t until I got the guts
up to ask this traffic manager and his wife to
dinner that he loosened up and we became
great friends and he began to offer us the
pick of whatever freight he had. We became
lifelong friends and he attended many of my
kids’ birthday parties and graduation parties
and it wasn’t too many years ago that I
went to see him in a retirement center in Las
Vegas and soon after lost him as a very good
friend and business associate. I really miss a
lot of things this industry used to have and a
lot of those are the close personal relationships
that were built over many, many years.
We seem in some cases to have gone from
a world of great personal relationships to
impersonal e-mails, text messages, national
freight bids and the loads going to whomever
is the lowest cost. Most of the face-to-face
personal relationships from a carrier/shipper
relationship have in some cases gone away,
which makes this association we belong to
and the networking opportunities and the
great working relationships that a lot of us
in this association have even more special to
me.
For our carrier members and those folks
who are going to read this article, that’s one
of the greatest things about the Truckload
Carriers Association. I can call guys from the
smallest carriers — a lot smaller than we are
— to the Robert Low’s of the world for whom
I have deepest respect, and we can talk
about things. And it’s because of my involvement
with TCA that those avenues have been
open to me. And for that, I’m grateful to this
association.
In this business, you better not be afraid
to work and work hard and I’m sure like everybody
else who is going to read this, this
is not an 8-to-5 business. I still have my CDL
and it wasn’t too long ago that I would ride
along with our drivers and maybe even drive
on the way back. When we were just starting
the company I would spend Friday and Saturday
nights shuttling trailers to one of our
major food customers so our over-the-road
drivers could get a break in their schedule.
And seeing the guy who was putting out dollars
to buy trucks, the guy whose tail was on
the line, seeing him work right alongside of
you, I believe that added to the credibility of
what we were trying to build as a company.
I wasn’t just the guy who was meeting with
the bankers. I could also put the boots on
and run through the gears and work hard
alongside the rest of those guys. And I think
that’s helped me a lot being able to relate to
drivers and others, some of whom are still
here 35 years after we started the company.
I grew up sweeping shop floors and
changing oils in trucks, and I still know how
to break down a tire. But I will tell you I still
remember my first rides in a big truck and I
don’t think that thrill will ever, ever be gone.
I probably sacrificed a little time with my
kids. I went to ballgames and such, but I
spent most of the day Saturday in the office,
and Sundays after church trying to build a
business and our relationship with banks and
customers and so forth. I can tell you that in
high school I worked on the freight docks for
various LTL companies. I got a job working at
nights for a trucking company while in college
that was a major automotive truckload carrier
that’s still around. And that job absolutely
helped me pay for college. Deregulation in
1980 brought many of those LTL carriers
to their knees and put most of them out of
business. I was around when that same deregulation
brought tremendous opportunities
to the truckload carriers that have become
incredible success stories. We can’t be afraid
of competition because for every story of
incredible success, I’ve also had friends in
this business who have experienced tremendous
financial hardship. That’s the way our
American free enterprise system works and
contrary to what some people in Washington,
DC, think, that system needs to continue to
grow and prosper.
32 Truckload Authority

For the readers who are not aware, the
carrier to which you refer is Motor
Carrier Service (MCS). It has been a huge
part of your career. What are the things
you are most proud of having led MCS
for so long?
There’s absolutely no question when I
think about this: We always put safety in
front of growth at Motor Carrier Service. We
don’t pay lip service to safety at MCS. It’s in
the fabric of everything we do. I give a lot of
credit for that to my COO John Fritzius and
his team. We’ve received numerous safety
awards. One of our customers, a major
Fortune 100 company, has used our safety
scores and our safety program as a benchmark
that they use to grade all the other
carriers they do business with. Hundreds of
other carriers are measured based on the
benchmarks from our company. Twice in the
last eight years, MCS was named the overall
winner in our Insurance Captive and that’s a
feat that we are extremely proud of. We beat
out 70 of the safest trucking companies in
the country. I can tell you to be named best
of the best among this esteemed group is a
huge testimonial to the hard work of John
and his team and I give them all the credit.
I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up our
little company being named a five-time winner
of TCA’s Best Fleets to Drive For competition,
one of only three companies that have
been named a winner five times. We were
named the overall Best Fleet to Drive For
in 2012. This is a grueling, comprehensive
process that absolutely validates the great
strides our company has made as well as all
of the other nominees and companies have
continued to make. I’ve heard some carriers
say they don’t want to be nominated because
they don’t want to be put through the
process and don’t want to be evaluated on
everything they do. But I do think for the carriers
whose drivers recommend them, it really
validates what a great job these carriers
are doing in taking care of their drivers. Our
driver turnover rate continues to be between
25 and 30 percent a year. I still consider that
unacceptable, but it’s a lot better than most
others in our industry, although I will tell you
we still have a lot of work to do. TCA’s Best
Fleets program that’s hosted by TCA and CarriersEdge
is gaining momentum and I’d love
to see 300 carriers nominated by their drivers
next year, up from the 150 nominated this
past year.
Tell Truckload Authority readers how
and why you got involved in TCA.
I can tell you we were involved with the
Ohio Trucking Association long before the
TCA. It was apparent that the guys doing well
financially and the guys in the truckload business
who really seemed to know what they
were doing, the common thread was that
they were members of TCA. A guy named
Dick Durst runs Artic Express of Columbus,
Ohio. I was on the board of directors of the
Ohio Trucking Association with Dick and Dick
told me what a great association the TCA
was. Guys before me like Kevin Burch, Ray
Haight and Barry Pottle were instrumental in
urging me and our company to become more
involved in TCA. And as they’ve said and as
Duff Swain, founder of Trincon Associates, a
consulting group in Columbus, Ohio, told me,
“Keith, if you really want to raise the bar in
your company, get involved in TCA” because
as our mission statement says and as our
strategic plan says, we are the only association
whose sole focus is the truckload segment
of the motor carrier industry. For me,
John and our safety people, it has been well
worth the time we’ve put into the association.
It certainly is a great and humbling honor
to serve as TCA chairman. But I think what
we don’t often realize is the weight of
responsibility and expectation one must
feel when serving in such an important
leadership role so tell us what it’s like for
you to carry this type of responsibility.
I’m going to tell you something a little
bit humorous and I think that our readers
might appreciate this. A couple of months
ago I traveled to Nashville to attend the TCA
Recruiting and Retention Conference with
200 people interested in learning more and
improving what they are doing in terms of
recruiting and retention. I was sitting in a
roundtable discussion and I was questioned
about the title on my badge that said vice
chairman of TCA. I explained this was a fiveto
seven-year commitment, including the
chairmanship, and after spending about 10
minutes explaining my travel plans for this
year and a couple of things we wanted to
get done at TCA, my time away from home
and my time away from business and all of it
on a volunteer basis, two of the people said,
“Are you crazy? Why would you do such a
thing, especially as a volunteer?” And I’ll tell
you that this is an industry that has been
extremely good to me. If through TCA I can
help others and we can help others be safer,
and more successful, be more profitable and
be better representatives of this industry, I
will consider my time on the board and as
chairman well spent. Yes it is a challenge.
And when I look back at some of the incredible
leaders, all you have to do is look back
20 years at the leadership at the TCA and
there have been some extraordinary leaders
from very big carriers to guys even smaller
than our company, but they’ve all worked
hard and they’ve all represented this industry
extremely well and they’ve given hours
and hours and hours of their time to raise
the level of awareness about how important
this industry is to the American economy.
Much of TCA membership is made up of midto
smaller-sized carriers. Having led such
a carrier for many years, you’ve had a
great vantage point. So how can TCA best
serve these members into the future?
Well, let me say first of all that I have
the deepest respect for the Robert Low’s
and the Mike Gerdin’s and the Kevin Knight’s
and the Jerry Moyes’, the Stephen Russell’s
and Ike Brown’s and Dan England’s and Max
Fuller’s and all the other highly successful
large carriers. They have done things right
and been very successful at doing things
right for a long time. I’m going to say for
our smaller and our medium-sized carriers,
the networking opportunities that you’re
able to get through the TCA are just bottom-line
powerful. The guys I was able to sit
around the table with at our benchmarking
meetings or at other TCA meetings, these
companies sometimes 10 and 20 times our
size, we both learned off of each other best
practices through benchmarking and best
practices in committee meetings. I think
some people say, “Well, it’s a small carrier.
What do I have to offer other people?”
And many people say, “Well, you guys are
much more flexible than what we are as
a big company and we’re going to try and
take some of your ideas and use them at
our much bigger company” and even though
I’ve heard some of our huge carriers have
their own training and some have their own
in-house programs, we continue to get great
representation from most of our large carriers.
I just went over the list of attendees
that are going to come to our Safety and
Security meeting in Charlotte, and some of
the largest carriers in the country are sending
their safety people to this very important
meeting, and there’s a good reason for that.
Because this meeting, like most everything
else we do at TCA, is member-driven and it
is not the staff, it’s member-driven.
Along those same lines I know a passion
of yours is to get folks off the sidelines
and into the game. Why do you feel so
passionately about this?
Well, I’ve always said in this industry
we’ve got the proverbial 80-20 rule. We’ve
got 20 percent carrying the water and doing
the work for the other 80 percent. And
we can either stand back and watch our
legislators make rules that are tremendously
burdensome for us and we can continue to
get rules passed on by the Department of
Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration, or we can become
more vocal as an industry and have people
do the right thing so it’s not burdensome. But
I’ll tell you that we are the most over-regulated
deregulated industry. And people say,
“We were supposedly deregulated in 1980,”
but every year there are more rules coming
down the pike that if we are not more vocal
we are absolutely going to get run over. I
hear people saying, “Well, we’re going to stay
quiet; we don’t want people to know about
us” and if not for people out there fighting
the small minority, fighting for those who are
in the vast majority, this industry is going to
be in further trouble than what it is. And it’s a
very frustrating issue that so few of us really
want to take the ball and run with it. Because
all we can look forward to is that things will
continue to change in our industry and if we
34 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015

“In this business, you
better not be afraid
to work and work
hard ... this is not an
8-to-5 business.”
Keith Tuttle, TCA Chairman 2015-2016
don’t know the players and issues we are absolutely
going to get left behind.
You spoke at the annual convention
about TCA’s continued relationship
building with ATA’s leadership. The
revitalization of this began under past
Chairman [Robert] Low’s leadership so
explain the importance and the benefit
for TCA and the industry as a whole that
this relationship continues to grow and
thrive.
Our advocacy work is handled through
the American Trucking Associations. ATA
President and CEO Bill Graves, with the assistance
of Chris Spear and Dave Osiecki
have a challenging job representing all the
different segments of the trucking industry.
With that said, it’s important that we in
truckload have our voices heard. I am very
supportive of the ATA. I have personally
served on numerous committees. I’m supportive
and a true believer that PAC dollars
help. They don’t buy us votes but they’re
very important and getting our voice continually
heard and even a louder voice by
those people at the ATA that continue to
advocate for the interests of truckload becomes
more and more important. And we
need to strengthen our relationships and
continue to work on our relationships under
these committees at the ATA and to
make sure that our truckload interests are
heard. Over 90 percent of freight is moved
in truckload volumes. And we need to do
everything we can as the TCA and as the
member-driven association we are to make
sure our voice is heard on Capitol Hill and
with the different regulators that control
our bottom lines.
If there’s one thing you want members to
discover about you this year that they
don’t know already, what is it?
I can say that I welcome any phone
calls, I welcome any e-mails, I welcome any
suggestions that will make this association
more relevant, that will help this association
be more important to our members,
that will help our members be more profitable.
I also want the members to know that
just because they’re not involved right now
doesn’t mean we don’t want you to become
active in committee meetings. I went
to four or five Highway Policy Committee
meetings before I volunteered to be vice
chairman of that committee and then I became
chairman of the Highway Policy Committee
and then I moved on to something
else at the TCA and then on to something
else. A couple of years later somebody said,
“You’ve been to all the meetings. Would
you possibly look at an officer’s position?
You’ve served the association quite well.”
And I said, “You know, I’m humbled to be
asked,” and that’s how things happened for
me. I think we really need to expand our
bull pen as we have tremendous talent that
is not being currently tapped. I heard from
a number of people at our recent meeting
in Florida who said, “We like what we
see. How do we become more involved?”
The answer is you just need to ask and
volunteer. You need to talk to the guys that
are chairing committees right now and go
to committee meetings and make yourself
more visible and we’d love to have more
people who play a more active role in guiding
our association into the future.
TCA 2015 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 35

spring | TCA 2015
Talking TCA
TCA Honors America’s
best fleets
®
Sponsored by:
By Lyndon Finney
Two Nebraska motor carriers
have been named overall winners of
the Truckload Carriers Association’s/
CarriersEdge 2015 Best Fleets to
Drive For.
Grand Island Express of Grand
Island, Nebraska, was selected as
the Best Overall Fleet for the small
carrier category, an award sponsored
by Bose Corp., and Fremont Contract
Carriers of Fremont, Nebraska, was
selected as the Best Overall Fleet for
the large carrier category, an award
sponsored by Marsh Inc.
Best Fleets to Drive For is an annual
survey and contest that recognizes
North American for-hire trucking
companies providing the best
workplace experiences for their drivers.
To participate, fleets must be
nominated by a company driver or
independent contractor working with
them, after which they are evaluated
across a broad range of categories
reflecting current best practices in
human resources. The top 20 finishers
are identified as Best Fleets to
Drive For and then divided in half
according to size. The highest scoring
fleet in each category is named
overall winner.
This is the second time Grand
Island Express (GIE) has earned an
overall winner award. Like last year,
its drivers said the company cares
deeply about its people. For example,
it has created a closed Facebook
page for spouses of drivers to help
them stay connected and share information.
GIE also utilizes the latest
technology, providing tablets to all of
its drivers. It convenes ad-hoc committees
of drivers to research new
technologies and make recommendations
about future purchases.
Fremont Contract Carriers (FCC)
is also a previous winner of an overall
award as 2015 marks its third
time. While it was being evaluated,
the judges noted that FCC is a proactive
company, analyzing a variety
of data points to identify potential
problems with shippers and address
them with customers before problems
arise. It has also created an innovative
maintenance management
system that is connected directly to
each truck. The system streamlines
maintenance scheduling and makes
drivers’ lives easier.
Jane Jazrawy, CEO of CarriersEdge,
noted that both overall
winners have shown a commitment
to adding new driver programs while
refining existing ones. Thus, they
are perpetually improving the driving
experience for their people. In
addition to best-in-class program
scores, both companies rated better
than 90 percent driver satisfaction
and demonstrated strong safety and
retention scores.
“Make no mistake . . . our two
overall winners keep surfacing in this
contest, but that doesn’t mean that
either fleet has rested on its laurels,”
she said. “Both of these fleets are
providing multiple opportunities to
not only recognize their drivers, but
also allow them to provide input on
company operations and decisions.
People want to work where they feel
needed and valued. So it’s not surprising
that we keep seeing them
back at the podium.”
Brad Bentley, TCA’s president,
agreed. “These two fleets keep impressing
us year after year as they
constantly provide excellent examples
of innovation and creativity
in the workplace,” he said. “In
fact, in addition to Fremont, I’d like
to recognize two other companies
— Motor Carrier Service of Northwood,
Ohio, and Paramount Freight
Systems of Ft. Myers, Florida — who
have made the Top 20 winners list
for five consecutive years. This is no
easy feat.”
The Best Fleets to Drive For survey
and contest is open to any fleet
operating 10 trucks or more, regardless
of TCA membership status.
Nominated fleets are evaluated in
areas such as driver compensation,
pension and benefits, professional
development, driver and community
support, and safety record.
Craig Dancer, left, senior vice president of Marsh Inc. and
Jane Jazrawy, right, CEO of CarriersEdge, present the
2015 Best Fleets to Drive For large carrier category to
Susan Hilgenkamp, director of human resources for
Fremont Contract Carriers.
Al Anderson, Bose Corp.’s national sales manager, left,
and CarriersEdge CEO Jane Jazrawy, present the 2015
Best Fleets to Drive For small carrier category to Grand
Island Express Vice President of Operations Andy
Winkler.
36 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015

TCA Honors America’s
safest fleets
Sponsored by:
By Lyndon Finney
GREAT WEST CASUALTY COMPANY
The Difference is Service
Patrick Kuehl, left, executive vice president, Great
West Casualty Co., presents the 2014 National Fleet
Safety Award, Small Carrier Division, to Travis
Arnold, president of FTC Transportation.
Rob Penner, executive vice president and COO of
Bison Transport, accepts the 2014 National Fleet
Safety Award, Large Carrier Division.
FTC Transportation Inc. of Oklahoma City
and Bison Transport of Winnipeg, Manitoba,
Canada, are grand prize winners of the Truckload
Carriers Association’s prestigious 2014
National Fleet Safety Award sponsored by
Great West Casualty Co.
FTC Transportation, represented by Travis
Arnold, president, won the award for truckload
companies in the small carrier division
(25 million miles or less). Bison Transport,
represented by Rob Penner, executive vice
president and COO, won for truckload companies
in the large carrier division (25 million
or more miles). It is the fifth consecutive
year Bison Transport has won the large carrier
division. Both companies will be recognized
again during TCA’s Safety & Security
Division Annual Meeting, to be held May 3-5
at the Charlotte Westin in Charlotte, North
Carolina.
“In the trucking industry, safety is our
highest objective. Therefore, earning one
of these two grand prizes is an extremely
important and enviable achievement,” TCA
President Brad Bentley said. “We want to
showcase the incredible safety programs that
these fleets demonstrate so that other carriers
can strive to do the same.”
FTC Transportation (FTCT) operates differently
than most other transportation
companies because it is the core carrier for
the nonprofit charity, Feed the Children. Its
drivers assist with hunger and disaster relief
efforts throughout the United States. In between
its regular loads, the carrier also hauls
general commodities for third-party customers
and brokers. Drivers come to FTCT because
they admire the organization’s work;
they stay because they are treated well and
know the company’s steadfast commitment
to safety will keep them safe while on the job.
The company has been very successful in attracting
and keeping safe drivers: Its driver
turnover rate was only 14.63 percent as of
December 2014.
From extensive training to safety-based financial
incentives, FTCT’s employees (including
non-drivers) have the culture of safety
instilled in them from the moment they apply
for the job. Everyone is tracked monthly on
a “balanced scorecard” that includes at least
one safety element. Professional truck drivers
receive a $25 gift card and are entered in an
annual cash drawing every time they pass a
roadside/DOT inspection with zero violations.
New drivers receive sign-on bonuses for remaining
accident-free for six months and one
year after beginning their employment. The
months of April and October are set aside
for extra emphasis on employee health and
safety matters, with special events designed
to raise safety awareness and avoid complacency
(for example, a backing skills course
and contest, a mirror adjustment station,
mock DOT inspections, etc.).
New in 2014, the company began completing
on-road observations (OROs) with
each driver to fully survey the drivers’ safety
habits and to offer coaching and counseling
for any deficiencies. The OROs are conducted
with every professional driver, regardless of
length of service or driving experience.
According to the company’s grand prize
application, “At FTC Transportation, we are
never content with our current safety picture.
Our president has pushed us to try new and
different approaches to safety while building
on the safety processes that have been proven
to work. He has reminded us continually
over the past 12 years that ‘if you always do
what you have always done, you will always
get what you have always gotten.’ So, we
do not settle for merely achieving our safety
goals, but instead we strive to exceed them
and then set new, higher goals.”
Bison Transport’s safety program can only
be described as outstanding. From its rigorous
driver selection process, to innovative
training, equipment and maintenance procedures,
accident support team, and incentives
— both monetary and motivational — every
detail has been well planned and executed
to ensure sustainability of its safety performance.
The company culture values making personal
connections with each professional truck
driver. Bison’s leadership defines exactly what
constitutes desirable behavior and then motivates,
recognizes and rewards safe behavior.
Everyone in the company knows exactly how
to earn their incentives, how to improve and
how to track their progress toward achieving
goals. When drivers perform safely, they can
earn a wide variety of rewards that stretch
beyond pay incentives, including certificates,
pins, decals, jackets, crystal trophies and
special gold rings with diamond add-ons for
additional miles/years.
Bison Transport adapts training to fit
each individual and job to be performed. The
company is moving to a more intense Skills
Evaluation Program that combines in-cab instruction
with a computer simulator. In their
first year, drivers will complete, on average,
five instructor-led courses with a simulation
component, and 17 online courses. Ongoing
assessments continue over the driver’s tenure
with the company, and refresher courses
and updated safety training are provided as
the needs of the individual and fleet change.
According to the company’s grand prize
application, “At Bison, we want to raise the
bar for everyone, including the industry. We
must continually monitor and be critical of
our performance. There must be no flatlining
on key performance indicators. We must
make improvements and show progress. An
overall commitment to preventing incidents
from occurring in the first place requires accountability
at every level.”
The application process for the National
Fleet Safety Awards began with fleets submitting
their accident frequency per million miles driven.
TCA selected the top three winners for each of six
mileage-based divisions and had the results audited for
accuracy by an independent expert. In December, TCA
announced the names of the 18 division winners and invited
them to submit further documentation about their
safety programs. In order to be granted the grand prize,
both winning companies had to demonstrate that they
strive to meet stringent standards in their overall safety
programs, on and off the highway, and were judged to
be the best in their commitment to improving safety on
North America’s highways.
TCA 2015 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 37

TCA Honors America’s
Top Drivers
Sponsored by:
By Lindon Finney
It would be safe to say that in
general, Americans take trucking for
granted and for sure rarely stop to
think about — and appreciate — the
professional truck driver who is making
it possible to have a well-constructed
brick home, food on their table, clothes
on their backs and a television above
the mantel.
The unsung heroes who move billions
of tons of goods across the country
every year are away from home
days, even weeks, at a time. They
miss baseball games, dance recitals,
school plays and their child’s first
date.
They can’t necessarily be at home
when a loved one is ill, or when a family
member is about to give birth.
Therefore, it takes on a little extra
special meaning when an organization
pays homage to a driver whose exemplary
service, loyalty and driving skills
are publicly recognized.
So it was with special meaning that
the Truckload Carriers Association and
its partner Randall-Reilly honored professional
drivers Gary Teel and Thomas
Miller during the association’s annual
convention awards banquet.
Teel, who lives in Whiting, Iowa,
and drives for Wenrich Truck Line of
Hinton, Iowa, was named 2014 Company
Driver of the Year.
Miller, who lives in Bunker Hill, Illinois,
and is leased to Prime inc. of
Springfield, Missouri, was named 2014
Owner-Operator of the Year.
For Teel, the moment was bittersweet.
He almost didn’t attend because
his mother was in the hospital near
death. His sister and the team at Weinrich
convinced him to come, but three
hours after Teel received his award, his
mother passed away. But not before
Teel had the chance to share the news
with her.
As for Miller, he was on top of the
world because three weeks prior to the
meeting he’d learned he was going to
be a grandfather. When asked what
he loves most about his job, he said
“coming home, especially now that I’m
going to be a grandfather.”
The prestigious annual awards,
sponsored by Love’s Travel Stops of
Oklahoma City and Cummins Inc. of
Columbus, Indiana, recognize the top
company drivers and owner-operators
in the United States and Canada
who provide reliable and safe truck
transportation in moving the nation’s
goods.
The overall winners are selected
from six finalists based on safe driving,
efforts to enhance the public image of
the trucking industry, and positive contributions
to the winners’ local communities.
For owner-operator candidates,
business skills are also judged.
Both men received a $25,000 cash
prize for their achievements. “This is a
unique opportunity to give back to professional
truck drivers and show them
how much we, as an industry, value
them,” said Jon Archard, vice president
of sales for Love’s Travel Stops. “Love’s
is honored to show our appreciation for
the hard work they do day in and day
out by being the platinum sponsor of
the cash prize.”
Miller, who has been leased to
Prime inc., for more than 15 years,
has traveled 2.7 million miles without
an accident. He is a former captain of
America’s Road Team, a national public
outreach program led by a small group
of professional truck drivers who share
superior driving skills, remarkable
safety records, and a strong desire to
spread the word about safety on the
highway. His other notable achievements
have included being selected
as the Missouri Trucking Association’s
(MTA) Driver of the Month and earning
several safety awards from that organization
as well as from Prime inc.
Miller has competed for 15 years in
a row in MTA’s Truck Driving Championships
and has also competed twice
in the National Truck Driving Championships.
In his spare time he likes
to volunteer with his daughter’s Little
League softball teams and a church
youth group.
When asked to describe Miller,
Robert Low, president and founder of
Prime inc., said: “We can always count
on Thomas to deliver on-time and
safely each and every time. He exemplifies
the attributes that I value in our
associates.”
Teel has driven more than 3.6 million
accident-free miles during his 26
years with Weinrich Truck Line. His
supervisors note that he is loyal, detail-oriented
and very knowledgeable
about the equipment he operates. The
ability to form positive relationships
with others comes easily to Teel, who
is known for going above and beyond
when it comes to performing his job to
the best of his ability. In 2014, he was
named the Iowa Motor Truck Association’s
Driver of the Year.
He has the most longevity of any
professional truck driver at that company
and was recently awarded a
brand new tractor to drive as a reward
for his many years of safe motoring.
“Gary is on time with his loads,
pleasant with our customers and helpful
with our other drivers,” said Donna
Thomas Miller of Prime inc., second from left, was presented the
award as the 2014 Company Owner-Operator of the Year. He is
shown with Brad Holthaus, left, vice president of sales of the Truck
Media Group at Randall-Reilly; Darrel Hopkins, controller at Prime
inc.; and Amy Boerger, vice president North American engine
business at Cummins.
Gary Teel, a company driver with Weinrich Truck Line, smiles and
gives a thumbs-up after being named winner of the Truckload Carriers
Association’s 2014 Company Driver of the Year contest. With Teel is
Donna Weinrich-Lucht, president and CEO of the Hinton, Iowa-based
carrier.
Weinrich-Lucht, company president and CEO. “Safety is always his
goal, as you can tell by his safe driving record. He takes pride in taking
care of our equipment and especially the tractor he is assigned.
Witnessing Gary’s excitement and pride when he received [our] truck
will certainly go down as one of the highlights in the 54-year history of
our company.”
“It has been such a pleasure meeting these outstanding professional
drivers,” said Shepard Dunn, TCA’s past chairman and president and
CEO of Bestway Express Inc. of Vincennes, Indiana. “They showcase
the very best that trucking has to offer.”
Other owner-operator finalists were Glen Horack of Elkland, Missouri,
who is leased to Prime inc.; and Bryan Smith of Asbury, Iowa,
who is leased to Art Pape Transfer Inc. of Dubuque, Iowa.
Other company driver finalists were Danny Smith of Shelbyville,
Tennessee, who drives for Big G Express Inc., also of Shelbyville; and
Johnny Chestnut of Lakeland, Florida, who drives for Saddle Creek
Transportation Inc., also of Lakeland.
38 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015

some aspects of an organized association, but because of the educational
opportunities, the networking opportunities, the safety programs, the image
programs, we feel like we need to be part of TCA.”
B r a d b e n t l e y | T C A P r e s i d e n t
As he looks ahead after six months in the position, Truckload Carriers
Association President Brad Bentley’s aspirations for the organization could
be summed up in one word: More.
As in:
More membership.
More involvement.
More collaboration.
More education.
More challenges.
During his young tenure, he’s probably spent as much time on the road
as he has in the office, visiting
carrier and associate members
and state trucking associations,
speaking at industry conferences,
participating in discussions
about regulatory issues, or in
image programs such as Wreaths
Across America, Highway Angel,
the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree
project and the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial Fund Traveling Wall
— in general — seeking to get
the “lay of the land” to find out
what’s expected of him as the
organization’s leader and seeking
input on how the association can
better serve its constituencies.
In an interview shortly after
the 77th Annual Convention
in Orlando, Florida, Bentley expanded
on the five previously
listed areas.
MORE MEMBERSHIP
The recent Great Recession
was tough on everybody, but it
was especially tough on trade associations,
Bentley believes.
Through adept planning, TCA
was able to retain the majority of
its membership base during the
recession.
But now Bentley says it’s
time to go after carriers and allied
professionals who might be
new to the industry or might
never have been involved in TCA
with a message of how the association
can be of benefit.
The organization’s strength
has long been its members,
Bentley said.
“The thing I like about TCA
— and this was even prior to me
getting this position having been
involved in committees and so
forth — is that the strength of
the organization is in the companies we serve,” he said, but added he believes
TCA is at a crossroads in terms of membership. “I think TCA needs to
go after members that might have dropped out in the past and also focus
on getting some new members, thus having more revenue to work with.
That would put us in a position where we can ramp up our staff and allow
us to get to the next level.”
Bentley is hoping he can encourage many of the so-called “micro” and
“mega” carriers to join TCA.
“I want both small and large carriers to feel like they are missing out
not being involved in TCA. I want to focus on the programs that we have, to
give those carriers a reason to pause and say, ‘Maybe we are not happy with
MORE INVOLVEMENT
“We have a lot of people who are very active and very engaged, and I
don’t think it’s a coincidence that a lot of the same companies are showing up
time and time again,” Bentley said. “They’re winning the fleet safety awards,
the Best Fleets To Drive For contest, and are the ones who are participating
in our various image programs.”
But there’s room for more.
For one thing, Bentley wants more carriers to become involved in the
health and wellness of drivers.
“I think this is critical for us. There are several factors at work here,
among them the aging workforce, the sedentary lifestyle, sleep apnea and a
lot of other things that are documented,” he said. “Over time I want TCA to
be known for health and wellness, but that’s going to require our members
to participate with us in this important issue.”
Mega carriers blessed with the financial resources may have the ability to
develop health and wellness programs of their own, but with smaller carriers
help is needed.
“We want to be that resource for them so they’ll be able to have those
same types of programs,” Bentley said.
He also wants to see more involvement in the effort to hire veterans.
“About 700,000 veterans are
either unemployed or under-employed
and there are about 1
million soldiers who will be transitioning
out of the service over
the next five years,” Bentley said.
“The challenge for us as an industry
is that everyone else is starting
to get on the veteran hiring
bandwagon, which shrinks the
potential pool of candidates.”
What’s happening, he noted,
is that a lot of large companies
— Google, Home Depot, Starbucks,
Uber, Capital One, among
others — are implementing hiring
initiatives of their own. These
are substantial. I’m talking about
50,000-100,000 commitments
each, Bentley said.
“We have several carriers and
associate members that have
done a great job over the years
of transitioning veterans into the
jobs we offer. But we have to do
more.”
Bentley recently attended a
meeting at the Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration on gaps
and barriers to hiring in the trucking
industry.
“One of the attendees was
from the American Legion, who
I learned is the largest veterans
service organization with 2.4 million
members,” he said. “They are
having a summit in late April to
make connections between military
experience and credentials
required for civilian careers. I
asked if we could attend to see if
they may be a potential partner.”
MORE COLLABORATION
“One of the things I was asked
to do and I have been happy to
do is make sure TCA has a good
relationship with the American Trucking Associations — and I think we are
making progress,” Bentley said. “We have monthly calls among myself, our
Chairman Keith Tuttle, ATA President and CEO Bill Graves and ATA Chairman
Duane Long to talk about common issues. That’s been very helpful. We’ve
invited them to be a part of our meetings, such as our annual convention.”
Bentley moderated a panel at the recent convention entitled “Our Industry:
Setting the Course” that featured Tuttle, Graves and Long as panelists.
“I’m also big into partnerships so it’s good for me that a lot of people have
reached out since I have become TCA president and said, ‘Hey, let’s work together.’
A good example is the Commercial Vehicle Training Association (CVTA)
and its efforts on the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act (WIOA).
TCA 2015 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 39

WIOA is designed to help job seekers access
employment, education, training and support services
to succeed in the labor market and to match
employers with the skilled workers they need to
compete in the global economy.
Input from state and local workforce leaders
goes a long way in determining who is awarded
grants, and of course, local leaders want the money
to come their way.
“One of the challenges we face as an industry
is when federal dollars get down to the local level
we are competing against local industries and a lot
of times trucking isn’t recognized for having local
jobs,” Bentley said. “Now you say, ‘How could that
be? We have a huge driver shortage.’ But the fact is
depending on who is over that local board, and who
they reach out to within that community, they may
not see trucking as an in-demand job.”
So, Bentley said, CVTA is spearheading an effort
to change that perception.
“We’ve actually hosted a couple of meetings in our
office with representatives from CVTA, the American
Moving and Storage Association, the Owner-Operator
Independent Drivers Association and the International
Foodservice Distributors Association,” he said.
“We are working on a grassroots campaign where
everyone can reach out through their governors and
their local politicians with letter-writing campaigns
— all the things we can do to say, ‘Hey, we have
the jobs.’ It shouldn’t matter whether you’re down in
Tampa, Florida, and you have Werner Enterprises, as
an example, with headquarters in Omaha. They can
hire students from those driver training programs
from the Tampa area. We shouldn’t be punished as
an industry just because the job may not be domiciled
in that local area.”
Another example of collaboration is the current
34-hour restart controversy.
An industry-wide effort led Congress to temporarily
suspend the 34-hour restart provision that
became effective July 1, 2013, and which was loudly
denounced by the trucking industry because the
industry documented that it cut productivity.
“ATA led the charge, but we were involved,”
Bentley said. “We reached out to our members
who contacted their local politicians and made sure
people understood the importance of having those
revisions in there. And that was successful, at least
temporarily.”
The suspension also included a requirement for
a 34-hour restart study and TCA has encouraged its
members to consider participating in the study.
“There are a lot of things happening where
I think more people are going in together,” he
said. “We were part of the devolution letter to
Congress that went out with 38 organizations
warning lawmakers about the dangers of devolving
the federal highway program and urging
passage of a robust, long-term highway bill that
secures the federal role in transportation.
“We need to continue to do things such as
those. We’re not always going to have policies
aligned such as on the size and weight issue. But I
think for the most part if we can take these common
issues and all work on them together we’ll get
a lot further. And I feel the people who are in place
now at their respective organizations — at least the
ones I’ve dealt with — have been terrific.”
MORE EDUCATION
One of the things that so thoroughly impressed
Bentley when he stepped into the new
role was the depth of the organization’s benchmarking
program where carriers are placed
in small, usually like-size, geographical and
service areas and share certain performance
data. Those areas include, but aren’t necessarily
limited to, expense per revenue mile, company
versus owner-operator operating mode,
maintenance costs, operating profit, and IT
information.
There are currently four benchmarking
groups at TCA.
“The beauty of benchmarking is you are
able to compare yourself against another fleet
with similar challenges and see where you
stack up,” he said. “It’s a huge benefit and we
are looking to take it to the next level by creating
more groups, including open deck and flatbed carriers,
where there’s a strong interest.”
Why is sharing this type of information important
in an industry that is in many ways very competitive?
“I think benchmarking helps keep more carriers
in the black. Sharing best practices can also help
members see what trends are coming because they
are looking at everything from fuel economy to
what attributes make a trucking company successful,”
Bentley stated. “Without that ability to always
know where you stand and see what some of the
trendsetters are doing, you can fall further behind.
And as we all know, the margins are not that large
in the trucking industry.”
The organization also offers educational webinars
on topics critical to the industry and has the
ability to develop and air webinars on emerging issues
almost overnight.
“Now we’re trying to increase the frequency and
offer more of these as sponsored webinars, which
means they are free to our members. We see participation
really go up when that happens.”
Conventions and conferences are being planned
with more educational content.
“At we were preparing for our convention this
year, people I talked to said, ‘We’re here on business
and times are good in trucking again so let’s
gain every edge that we can, let’s learn as much as
we can,’” Bentley said. “And when members speak,
it is important that TCA listens.”
There was a shift this year when free time that
was traditionally scheduled on Monday afternoon
was filled with educational content.
“Our events team implemented more Trucking
in the Round sessions than before, and I think
we are going to see that trend continue,” Bentley
added. “Our chairman is a big believer in education,
and so am I.”
An ongoing educational initiative is the Truckload
Academy On-demand, where members can
purchase recordings of conference sessions, workshops
and webinars at their convenience.
There are some new programs in Truckload
Academy, including DriverConnect, a training program
focused on continuing education for drivers.
There is also a fleet manager certification program
and a Truckers Against Trafficking program, which
some companies have made part of driver orientation.
TCA soon will offer certification programs on
recruiting and retention as well as motor carrier
risk.
MORE CHALLENGES
“Certainly the driver shortage is first and foremost
in my mind,” Bentley said. “Some of that is
based on my background in driver recruitment advertising,
but you can look at the American Transportation
Research Institute data and see it’s one
of the top issues in our industry. We are going to
continue to be involved in a recruiting and retention
conference to share best practices gleaned from
submitted topics that have been vetted through our
committee process.”
Hiring of veterans will also help ease the shortage.
Bentley believes veterans are “hard wired” for
success.
“When it comes to recruiting drivers regardless
of the source we need to highlight the successes
of our industry,” Bentley said, including the entrepreneurial
component of trucking. “There are not
many places you can go and after a few months or
a year you’ll be in a position where you can start
your own business, and certainly we’ve had a lot of
people who have done that.”
There’s also a growing shortage of technicians
in the industry, which TCA will focus on in the future,
Bentley said. “We can’t lose site of the fact
that we need more warm bodies to begin with and
it’s more than just drivers.”
And, of course, another challenge is the onslaught
of regulations for an industry that’s often
called the most regulated deregulated industry in
the country.
“You’re always going to have regulations. We
mentioned Hours of Service and the restart study,”
Bentley said, but at least trucking is having input on
some of the new rules.
The FMCSA has recently formed an entry-level
driver training advisory committee and TCA has a
seat at the table.
“It is really interesting to be part of the process.
First of all, you’re working on something they made
a run at in 2007 and it wasn’t approved, but the
need hasn’t changed,” he said. “Having the opportunity
to shape policy is important and it’s good to at
least have an opportunity for our voices to be heard
not only for TCA but for the Professional Truck Driver
Institute which is managed out of this office.”
“I don’t think we’re going to see a decrease
in activity coming out of the agency, but I’m glad
more people seem to be getting involved.”
Ah, there’s that word “more” again.
40 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015

TALK
A QUICK LOOK AT IMPORTANT TCA NEWS
SMALL
A QUICK LOOK AT
IMPORTANT TCA NEWS
Fund Raising Gala
Rick Springfield, who recorded his first hits in the
1980s, invited the ladies of the audience to come to
the stage for a special serenade.
You look up and J.R. Ewing is walking in the door, Stetson
and all.
On the wall is a picture of the Berlin Wall crashing
down.
Someone says “look up, the Blues Brothers are sitting
at the table over in the corner.”
Bobby McFerrin’s hit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” is blaring
on the loud speaker, followed by Michael Jackson’s big
seller “Thriller.”
The music is being played via some newfangled thing
called a compact disc, or CD for short.
The music is so loud that it’s hard to hear what your table
guests are saying, and you’re reminded of what George
H.W. Bush said in a debate with Michael Dukakis: “Read my
lips — no new taxes.”
Up on the big screen, they’re showing a replay of the
World Series — the one where Boston’s Bill Buckner lets
the ball squirt through his legs and the Mets go on to win in
seven games.
Oh my, what is the lady over there wearing? Are those
stonewashed jeans? And she’s wearing pink leg warmers
to boot.
And finally you notice that someone is preserving the
evening using something called a camcorder so highlights
can be shown on that new network called CNN.
Well, none of that actually happened, but the 1980s did
come back to life for one “awesome” night as the Truckload
TALK
Carriers Association held its second annual gala to benefit
the association’s Scholarship Fund, a party complete with
many guests who dressed as they would have in the 1980s.
Pilot Flying J of Knoxville, Tennessee, and Freightliner
Trucks of Duluth, Georgia, companies themselves that were
around in the 1980s, sponsored the event.
The gala raised over $230,000 for the Scholarship
Fund, which has been providing scholarships for students
affiliated with TCA members since 1973. Beginning with
tables and individual seats purchased in advance by various
companies and individuals, the gala consisted of an ’80sthemed
reception and dinner, the chance to bid on auction
prizes — both silently and with an auctioneer — and the
opportunity to get up close and personal with the iconic ’80s
pop legend, Rick Springfield.
In addition to the Scholarship Fund, participants raised
over $76,000 for the TCA Past Chairman’s Fund, which
seeks to name a scholarship in the names of each past
chairman. The first such scholarship, named after late
former chairman John Kaburick, was awarded last summer.
Kaburick’s widow Carolyn, in memory of Kaburick and
in honor of former chairmen Ray Haight and Kevin Burch,
made a donation to the Past Chairman’s Fund, noting that
Kaburick referred to himself, Haight and Burch as the “three
amigos.”
Mark Kessler, general manager, trucking at PeopleNet
and TCA Scholarship Trustee, and whose idea led to the establishment
of the Past Chairman’s Fund, generously made
items available twice — donating the Whistling Straits
package for the live auction and then offering a second
package if the runner-up bidder would match the winning
bidder, which they did.
Steve Kriebel of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers stirred
up the audience to the tune of over $230,000.
There were three donations of $10,000 or more to the
Past Chairman’s Fund, with total pledges to the fund reaching
$77,003. Jack Porter of Decisiv and Scott Phillips of
Electronic Funds Source each made $10,000 donations and
PeopleNet pledged $1,000 for each of the 10 past chairmen
present at the gala.
Then at the last minute, Springfield himself offered private
backstage passes, which ended in a three-way bidding
battle at $1,350 each.
“We’re very grateful to our sponsors because they
offset most of the costs, making it possible for 100 percent
of the table and auction proceeds to go directly to the
Scholarship Fund. That’s a major financial boost for our taxdeductible
501(c)(3) charity,” said Debbie Sparks, TCA’s vice
president of development.
“What a way to support trucking families,” said Josh
Kaburick, John Kaburick’s son, who is chairman of the TCA
Scholarship Fund and the CEO of Earl L. Henderson Trucking
Company of Salem, Illinois. “This gala is critical to our
ongoing ability to provide scholarships of up to $6,250 per
student. Also, I have to say it was ‘totally tubular’ to see
the senior management of some of North America’s most
influential truckload carriers donning their preppy fashions,
jean jackets, and ‘big hair’ to ‘party to the max’ for such a
good cause!”
The four, live auction items consisted of a luxury golf
resort package, ringside seats and behind-the-scenes access
to a World Heavyweight Championship fight, “gnarly”
diamond earrings, and airfare, accommodations, registration,
dinner and a spa treatment at TCA’s next annual
convention, scheduled for March 6-9, 2016, at the Wynn
Resort in Las Vegas. Silent auction items included a hot air
balloon ride, a football autographed by Peyton Manning, a
NASCAR race package, an Apple iPad mini, jewelry, trips,
and more.
Applications for the 2015-16 scholarships will be due
in June.
Past Chairman’s Award
Josh Kaburick, CEO of Earl L. Henderson Trucking,
accepts the Truckload Carriers Association’s
Past Chairman’s Award on behalf of his late father
John Kaburick, who passed away last April. Kaburick’s
widow Carolyn stands by her son’s side.
John Kaburick was owner of the trucking company
prior to his death.
Go to any Truckload Carriers Association convention
and you couldn’t help but run into John Kaburick at some
point.
It might be in the meeting room, it might be in the
exhibit hall or it might be at the annual banquet where his
countenance filled the room.
You couldn’t help but miss him.
His heart was as big as his stately stature.
His smile and his laugh were infectious.
What’s more, his knowledge was invaluable.
TCA 2015 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 41

PAGE 18
He led the Truckload Carriers Association as chairman in 2010-11 at a time when the trucking
industry was beginning to dig out from under the Great Recession and was looking for guidance
that could only be provided by industry veterans like John Kaburick — men and women
whose experience and expertise were worth much more than the traditional “thousand words.”
He continued to be active in association work after his term ended — he was a strong supporter
and participant in the benchmarking program, saying it made him a better businessman
and his company operate more efficiently. He and others who served before him worked together
to began to set the stage to pass the torch to a new generation, among them his son Josh, who is
now an officer in the association and in line to one day become chairman.
He never got to see that new generation guide TCA. Sadly, John Kaburick, who purchased
Earl L. Henderson Trucking Co. in 1990, passed away last April 22 at age 61, leaving the industry
in a state of shock and wondering just how to honor a man who gave so much so unselfishly.
So it was a fitting tribute that when Tom Kretsinger, president and CEO of American Central
Transport and TCA chairman 2013-14, and Tom Schilli, president of Schilli Transportation Services
and TCA chairman in 1988-89, stood at the podium during the recent TCA convention and
announced that John Kaburick had posthumously been named recipient of the organization’s
prestigious 2015 Past Chairman’s Award, the entire audience rose to its feet and burst into long,
thunderous and respectful applause as Josh, who is now CEO of Earl L. Henderson Trucking and
TCA’s Scholarship Fund chairman, escorted his mother to the podium to receive the award on
behalf of his father.
Carolyn Kaburick, who had been married to her husband for some 41 years, tightly grasped
the right arm of her son as she fought back the tears.
Josh Kaburick’s voice cracked as he thanked TCA for honoring his father in such a manner.
He and his mother left the stage to another appreciative round of applause.
The Past Chairman’s Award is the highest honor given by TCA. It goes to a leader who has
made a significant contribution to the business community, the trucking industry and the organization.
Contrary to the title of the award, the recipient does not have to be a past chairman of the
association.
John Kaburick started his trucking career as an owner-operator with just one truck in 1973.
Two years later, he and a partner launched a small trucking company that quickly grew to a
fleet of 30 trucks.
In 1977, he decided to leave the trucking company to work as a salesman for a local truck
dealership. This position helped build an extensive network of friends and contacts within the
industry. It was 1990 when a long-time customer made Kaburick an offer he could not refuse
— ownership of Earl L. Henderson Trucking. Since then, under John’s leadership, the company
has grown from 125 power units to 400.
After acquiring Henderson, which was already a TCA member, Kaburick became active in the
association through a variety of committees and eventually became an officer of the Refrigerated
Division and later chairman of the association. While Kaburick’s role in TCA grew steadily over the
years, he had also been actively involved in the American Trucking Associations and the Illinois
Transportation Association.
After Kaburick’s unexpected death, his many trucking industry friends and colleagues
wanted a permanent way to honor his memory. Within just a few days, funds were collected to
fully endow a new Past Chairman John Kaburick Scholarship, to be given annually to a student
affiliated with the truckload industry.
“John Kaburick was truly an icon within the trucking family,” said Brad Bentley, TCA’s president.
“On both the state and national levels, he was fully committed to the industry that he loved
so much. He generously gave his time, his effort and his money. I only wish we could present this
award to him in person.”
Lee J. Crittenden Award
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KRTS Transportation Specialists President Kim Richardson grew up around
trucking as his father was a professional truck driver who started the company
in 1989.
Kim Richardson, president of KRTS Transportation Specialists of Caledonia, Ontario,
Canada, has been named the 2015 recipient of the Lee J. Crittenden Memorial Award, presented
by the Professional Truck Driver Institute (PTDI).
The Crittenden Award, sponsored by Cengage Learning of Clifton Park, New York, is
given to a person who exemplifies the overall mission of PTDI for which Lee Crittenden was
a staunch supporter until his death in April 1998. PTDI raises the quality of truck driver
training courses by establishing and promoting minimum training standards and by certifying
courses that meet those standards.
“Cengage Learning is pleased that PTDI’s highest honor will be going to someone who
is known far and wide as a passionate advocate for the training and development of truck
drivers,” said Erin Brennan, product team manager for Cengage Learning. “Kim’s dedication
to the industry is unmatched. Cengage Learning can think of no more worthy recipient of
this award.”
Richardson grew up around the trucking industry because his father was a professional
truck driver. Working from a card table in his basement, he launched a family business in
1989 that would grow into the company that it is today. Offering specialized training for the
transportation and construction industries, KRTS now services more than 400 corporate
clients and has helped more than 9,000 people obtain their CDLs.
Richardson first got involved with PTDI in 1996 when the organization was known as the
Professional Truck Driver Institute of America. Being from Canada, one of his early achievements
was convincing the organization to drop the last two words of its title to include North
America. He was involved with PTDI’s board of directors as both an advisor and a full board
member, and has remained on the board for 19 years. He has served on PTDI’s standards
review, nominating and image committees, as well as its Driver Finishing Task Force, and
has served on TCA’s school committee since 2011.
Over the years, Richardson has participated in the development, implementation and revisions
of PTDI’s standards, and has been relentless in his promotion of quality truck driver training.
42 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015

“Wherever he goes, he is constantly talking of quality
and professional training within our industry,” said Robert
McClanahan, the executive director of the National Association
of Publicly Funded Truck Driving Schools, and the 2007
recipient of the Crittenden Award. “As publisher of the Rear
View Mirror, Kim’s articles raise the bar by informing readers
of best practices and the need to offer students proper
training. I am inspired by his leadership and enthusiasm.”
Truckload Academy
Truckload Academy is adding to its suite of educational
options a new subscription-based, online learning
platform specifically tailored to training professional truck
drivers.
Driver Connect, powered by CarriersEdge and KRTS
Online Highway, fits the lifestyles of professional drivers,
while giving trainers an easy-to-implement educational
program. CarriersEdge is the association’s partner in the
Best Fleets to Drive For annual survey and contest.
Prior to launch, the program was piloted by TCA member
fleets familiar with online training programs available
to the industry.
Many educational offerings focus primarily on the
information needed to educate the end-user. The Driver
Connect platform adds another layer to the training equation:
It considers the learning styles of those taking the
courses and provides an interactive learning experience
designed to engage the driver.
Drivers can log in from their desktop, mobile device, or
through their vehicle’s satellite to choose from a library of
courses, including refresher courses.
Equally as important, Driver Connect is also
designed with the trainer or manager in mind. The
interface allows trainers to set up and manage driver
accounts, assign courses, and monitor progress.
Through advanced reporting tools, managers can run
and automate reports, track compliance, analyze trends
company-wide, and review individual training status. Testing
and assessment tools help managers identify where
training has been most effective or where additional help
is needed. When a driver successfully completes a course,
managers can also print certificates.
Carriers interested in the training platform can learn
more at TruckloadAcademy.org/driver-connect.
Scholarship Donation
The Trucker News Organization has made a $5,000
donation to the Truckload Carriers Association’s Gary
Salisbury Past Chairman’s Fund in the name of Truckload
Authority to promote and encourage journalism.
The Trucker partners with TCA in publishing Truckload
Authority, the association’s official magazine.
The Past Chairman’s Fund is a part of the TCA Scholarship
Fund and seeks to name a scholarship after each past
chairman. Truckload Authority began through the leadership
of Salisbury, who served as chairman in 2011-2012.
Salisbury is chairman and CEO of Fikes Truck Line.
“As partners with The Trucker in the publishing
of Truckload Authority for almost three years now, our
two organizations have forged a strong and prosperous
relationship,” said Josh Kaburick, chairman of the TCA
Scholarship Fund. “It only stands to reason that when
one of those organizations does something of this value
for the other, the only thing you can say is thank you so
very much.”
“We are proud to support the TCA scholarship program
while promoting the growth of journalism in the
trucking industry,” said Micah Jackson, general manager
Micah Jackson, publisher and general manager of
The Trucker and publisher of Truckload Authority,
presented a check for $5,000 for the TCA Scholarship
Fund to Debbie Sparks, TCA vice president
of development. Looking on are Mark Kessler, left,
of PeopleNet and a scholarship fund trustee, and
TCA Immediate Past Chairman Shepard Dunn.
and publisher of The Trucker and publisher of Truckload
Authority. “Millions of people depend on The Trucker
News Organization for industry and business news and
insight, so we know firsthand how vital it is to have
outstanding and dedicated journalists working in transportation.”
Since 1973, TCA has been helping students associated
with the truckload industry reach their dreams. Its Scholarship
Fund awards up to $6,000 per year to full-time college
students. Much of the program’s support comes from
within the truckload family — companies and individuals
who are committed to their community’s future.
TCA will begin accepting applications for scholarships
for the 2015-2016 academic year on April 21.
LESS FRUSTRATION HERE.
MORE PRODUCTIVITY HERE.
TCA 2015 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 43

TCA CONVENTION 2015
Members of the Truckload Carriers Association gathered in sunny
Kissimmee, Florida, March 7-11, 2015, for the 77th annual convention.
The event began with the opportunity to view the The Moving Wall, the
traveling half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which
is being transported across the U.S. by TCA members. Convention
festivities kicked off Monday with Denver Bronco quarterback Peyton
Manning as keynote speaker, who shared some of the highlights of his
17-year career in the National Football League. Afterwards, Chairman
Shepard Dunn gave a recap of a successful 2014, followed by an 80’s
themed gala, which raised $230,000 for the TCA Scholarship Fund
that evening. New TCA President Brad Bentley challenged members
on Tuesday to plug in and get engaged in the association. The annual
banquet Tuesday evening honored winners of the “Best Driver,” “Best
Fleets to Drive For” and “Safest Fleets” competitions. Wednesday
brought the inauguration of new Chairman Keith Tuttle, who said he
would be pressing forward with the many trucking image programs as
well as educational and networking offerings.
The panel during Tuesday’s
“Creating a Culture of Safety
- Taking it Viral.”
L-R: Moderator, Pat Kuehl;
Participants, Bob Peterson,
Rob Penner and Brian Fielkow.
Gaylord Palms Resort, Kissimmee, Florida
Exhibit attendees
enjoy learning about
technology products
by McLeod Software.
TA/Petro booth in the
2015 exhibition hall.
Broncos
quarterback
Peyton Manning
as the 2015
keynote speaker.
2015 Chairman, Keith Tuttle, with
NFL quarterback Peyton Manning.
Conference attendees network over breakfast Monday morning.
2014 Chairman, Shepard Dunn,
addresses the crowd at the general
session on Monday.
44 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015

Silent auction items at the Scholarship Gala.
Rick Springfield
performing at the
Scholarship Gala.
The Moving Wall.
Learn more at vvmf.org.
A night of fun at the 80’s themed Scholarship Gala.
TCA staff at the 80’s themed
Scholarship Gala.
The 2015 Top 20 Best Fleets to Drive
for winners on stage at the banquet
Tuesday evening.
L-R: Shepard Dunn, Tom Kretsinger, Jr. and Tom
Schilli present the Past Chairman’s Award to the
family of the late John Kaburick. Pictured are
Kaburick’s widow, Carolyn, and son, Josh.
Chairman Tuttle giving
his inaugural address
at Wednesday’s general
session.
President Brad Bentley speaks at The Moving Wall exhibit.
New TCA president Brad Bentley speaks to
the crowd on Tuesday.
The Moving Wall. Learn more at vvmf.org.
TCA 2015 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 45

Mark Your Calendar
Find more information on any of the following events at
Truckload.org or contact TCA at (703) 838-1950.
april 2015
APRIL 16 >> WEBINAR
Mobile recruiting: active and passive recruiting strategies
APRIL 30-may 1 >> tca benchmarking TC-05
The Loews New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans - Invitation Only
May 2015
MAY 3-5 >> 2015 Safety & Security Division Annual Meeting
The Westin Charlotte in Charlotte, North Carolina
MAY 4-5 >> tca benchmarking TC-06
Chicago Marriott in Chicago - Invitation Only
CAT Scale’s Weigh My Truck app
allows your drivers to weigh and pay for
their transaction using their smartphone,
so they can get back on the road faster.
Find out more at weighmytruck.com.
Now accepting the
EFS Fleet Card as
a payment option!
may 7 >> WEBINAR
Obamacare3: Navigating through the ACA — what trucking companies
need to know
MAY 11-12 >> tca benchmarking TC-07
Chicago Marriott Suites in Chicago - Invitation Only
may 14 >> WEBINAR
E-screening vs. pre-clearance: Do you know the difference?
may 21 >> WEBINAR
Developing an outbound recruiting strategy
July 2015
july 7-8 >> tca benchmarking TC-01
Stowe Mountain Lodge in Stowe, Vermont - Invitation Only
july 8-10 >> 2015 Refrigerated Division Annual Meeting
Stowe Mountain Lodge in Stowe, Vermont
march 2016
march 6-9 >> 2016 Annual Convention
Wynn Las Vegas in Las Vegas - Exhibitor opportunities available
© 2015 CAT Scale Company
Do yourself a
favor and watch
this video now!
Scan here or log onto
YouTube
and search:
Truckload
Authority,
“Members Say
It Best”
Get the free mobile app at
http:/ / gettag.mobi
46 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org

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