Small Carriers Take Home Best Fleet to Drive For Awards

KISSIMMEE, FL. — The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) and CarriersEdge announced the winners of the fourth annual Best Fleets to Drive For survey and contest at their annual convention this morning.

In the "Best Fleet for Company Drivers" category, sponsored by Marsh Canada, Ltd, Motor Carrier Services (MCS) of Northwood, Ohio took the title.

Voted the Best Fleet for Owner Operators was Paramount Freight Systems (PFS) if Ft. Myers, Florida.

TCA said that like most carriers, MCS measures driver performance routinely. However, the major difference is that where most carriers develop evaluation methods at the management level, then communicate it to the drivers, MCS actively solicits drivers’ feedback upfront.

MCS, for example, asked drivers what they should be measured on and which factors they believed were less useful indicators of performance. Drivers said that truck cleanliness and attitude should be taken into consideration, which MCS then put into the overall evaluation procedure.

The result, said Keith Tuttle, MCS president, "changed things dramatically.

"The process resulted in better understanding between management and drivers — especially when it became clear that both groups agreed!”

A Driver Liason Committee reviews company policies makes recommendations for changes and future programs. That feedback, MCS says, in integral to their success.

Safety meetings are held in conjunction with driver rodeos. A committee watches the drivers perform maneuvers, then suggest improvements, offers advice, and helps their fellow drivers understand how local and national regulations might apply to the situation at hand.

It’s all driver-to-driver feedback, and MCS says that it has been highly effective.

Like MCS, Paramount Freight Systems maintains a committee of drivers who provide input on company policies and procedures. It also uses a “buddy program” to pair experienced contractors with those just starting out. Both programs are fairly common in carriers that employ company drivers, TCA noted, but are somewhat unusual for an all-owner-operator fleet.

PFS also embraced social media tools early on, and now runs an aggressive social media campaign that has helped them hire 25 new operators.

In general, TCA said, drivers leased to the company seem content. “Paramount has great runs, and they get me home weekly so I can be a mother and still have a good paying job," wrote one owner-operator. "They are really focused on hiring women and have always done what they said they are going to do. The operations department is helpful and friendly and always willing to go the extra mile to help out owner operators. With the high price of parts, the parts discounts they offer are saving me thousands of dollars each year. Paramount is truly a class act and second to none.”

The TCA survey noted that most of PFS’s O/Os shared that opinion.

This opinion seems to reflect the feelings of most of the drivers leased to PFS, as the company enjoys a very low driver turnover rate. In fact, 60 percent of its drivers have been with the company for more than five years. Of fleets operating in the United States, it has one of the highest percentages of drivers who have been with the company for 10 years or longer.

Mark Murrell, president of CarriersEdge, said, “Both of this year’s overall winners are fairly small fleets of under 200 drivers each," noted Mark Murrell, president of CarriersEdge "yet they act like ‘big companies’ in terms of their driver outreach efforts, committees and programs. They are out there every day pushing the boundaries of what is traditionally thought of as a ‘normal’ program, and it’s clearly working. It goes to show you don’t have to be big to be progressive.”

Gary Salisbury, outgoing chairman of TCA and the president and CEO of Fikes Truck Line, Inc., of Hope, Arkansas, agrees. “Motor Carrier Service, Inc. and Paramount Freight Systems dispel the myth that small companies can’t compete with the big guys.

"No matter what your size, you can still create an outstanding work environment for your people.”