Posts Tagged ‘Decker Truck Line Podcast’

Inside the Triangle Update Episode 30

Posted by deckerAdmin

Stick around to hear Darin announce the December Drivers of the Month and the December Scorecard Bonuses!

In this week’s episode, our host, Darin Ladlie, relays a few messages from different departments here at Decker Truck Line.  Darin talks about WorkHound and all the great feedback and suggestions we’ve already gotten from our Professional Drivers and how we look forward to implementing your ideas and can’t wait to receive more!  Other topics Darin covers in this episode are FREE Wi-Fi in our Decker trucks with GeoTab, how to prevent overweight tickets, and he also gives some great winter weather driving tips!
Listen Here

In this week’s episode, our host, Darin Ladlie, relays a few messages from different departments here at Decker Truck Line.  Darin talks about WorkHound and all the great feedback and suggestions we’ve already gotten from our Professional Drivers and how we look forward to implementing your ideas and can’t wait to receive more!  Other topics Darin covers in this episode are FREE Wi-Fi in our Decker trucks with GeoTab, how to prevent overweight tickets, and he also gives some great winter weather driving tips!

Stick around to hear Darin announce the December Drivers of the Month and the December Scorecard Bonuses!

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

If you have topic suggestions or questions you want answered on the podcast, you can email them to podcast@deckermail.com. Or you can create a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to podcast@deckermail.com

Click here to listen to the podcast or read the transcript below:

Darin: Hello everyone, and welcome to Inside the Triangle. I am your host Darin Ladlie, and today we’re gonna just kinda switch gears a little bit. We’re gonna talk about some topics with DTL. At the end, we’re gonna go over the Scorecard Bonus, the SmartDrive Bonus, the Driver of the Month, We do have some other topics that we kinda wanted to bring up. I reached out to the different departments around the company, just wanted to get some info, any messages that we could give out to the Drivers, maybe some topics that could be discussed. I got some different areas, so hopefully it can make your job easier and also help all the people behind the scenes and make their jobs easier also. So let’s start out with Safety. On a good point, our CSA scores are lower this week and have been going down in certain areas, which is a great thing. So we’re proud of you guys, keep up the great work on that. But one area of topic that they wanted to talk about was overweight tickets.

So we’ve had a slew of overweight tickets this year. In 2020, we had 83 overweight violations, so we’d like to see that number cut down. We just find that really hard to understand. We pay for the scale tickets, we reimburse you for the scale tickets, even if you have to pay for cash, you just have to let your dispatcher know, and then send in a receipt and you will get reimbursed. But we have one of the easiest ways out there, which is the Weigh My Truck app. And actually, there’s a tutorial on YouTube that is being released. Kati was that today?

Kati: We have a tutorial that Jesse made. It’s on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/deckertrucklineinc. And Jesse describes how to download the app, how to use it. She put a lot of time and effort into it, so if you don’t have the app yet, that’s a really good resource on how to use it.

Darin: And Jesse puts a lot of time and effort into everything she does when it comes to Facebook or anything like that, so it was a very informative. So guys, please go on there, the cost is astronomical. Plus not only do you have the ticket, but there’s also the re-adjustment. I know many a times on the flatbed side, we gotta bring records out to move the product or anything like that, so there’s a lot of cost involved besides just the ticket. So guys, help yourself, please weigh your truck as soon as you get loaded, go to the nearest CAT scale, interstate scale, whatever it is. Get it weighed before you leave.

They also wanted us to talk a little bit about speeding. One of the highlights this week was a Driver that just had a bad accident. He was driving too fast for conditions. In this time of the year, we have to slow down guys, we’ve actually had… we’re not sure, but I think we may have had two. One who was very recent here, just in Iowa, that was very serious. A Driver was driving way too fast in the weather that was out there, kinda lost control, put it down in the ditch, a huge claim load had to be disposed of all because driving too fast for conditions. So we’ve got to slow down this time of the year, especially, come on, if the roads are icy and slushy and snow covered. We can’t be running 68-70 miles an hour. Sorry, we can’t drive 70 anyway. But you know what I mean. So we’ve got to slow down for those winter conditions and wind conditions. What me and Matt were talking about the other week was out in Wyoming, the winds are horrendous out there. 50-60 miles an hour, you’ve got to slow down and be careful for those. So just be safe guys. Think about it. If it’s bad, don’t do it.

And now here are some topics from the Operations Department. Operations wanted to talk about pre-trips and checking for flat tires. And I hear this all the time, Drivers upset that they pick up a trailer at a drop yard, which is, oh! It’s great! You go in there, you drop and hook and you leave. But Drivers are leaving equipment there with flat tires, mud flaps missing, lights broken, and they knew that they were that way before they dropped them. Yeah, you’re getting in and out of there, but now you’re jamming up the next guy, and it is not nice. You wouldn’t like it if it happened to you. So guys, please, please do your pre-trips. Do your checks. If they need to be fixed, let’s get them fixed before they go there.

One of the things, I know most of you have been contacted with an outside source that Decker’s working with called WorkHound. I actually work with them very closely. This is done by anonymity, guys. One of the guys suggested, it was a very good suggestion, that there’s a plant just outside of town here that we haul out of, and he recommends that no matter what, you bring your truck through the terminal here, or not your truck, sorry, your trailer, well your truck too… But he recommends that you bring your vehicle here through Fort Dodge to have it completely inspected before you go there. You’re here, it’s not that far out of the way, have it done. That way, you know it’s ready for you and the next Driver that you drop it for. I have to agree with that. I think it’s a good idea. Now, if you do have mechanical issues, you’ve got to let your DM know. Not knowing that their truck is down, needing repair, because you didn’t let them know. You have to communicate that to the DM and also to Maintenance Support. So don’t leave your DM out of it.

Along with the other topics that Operations wanted to talk about, was Geotab. I’m not sure if all you guys are aware, we do now have WiFi capabilities with Geotab. You just go on there and you can plug your phone, Bluetooth it right to the Geotab unit, and you’ll have free Wi-Fi. There is a tutorial video out there on YouTube that will show you how to get hooked up to the WiFi Hot Spot. And if you have any questions, you can always call in, too, because we’re more than happy to help you.

Here are some topics from the Payroll Department. They wanted to give a kudos to scanning documents. It’s getting a lot better, the legibility is getting better. I don’t know if that’s because of Geotab and more people are maybe using the Transflo app and you can actually see what you’re scanning, but kudos to you guys. Keep up the great work there. One thing they did wanna mention was recording your fuel on your cover sheets. On your cover sheet, please, please make the notations of your fuel: where you got it, how many gallons, everything like that, along with sending in the receipt no matter what. Or if you don’t get the receipt like at Flying J, we are paperless. But we’ve got to make those notations because we need that for fuel tax purposes. If we don’t have that, then we’re just creating extra work for the Payroll Department, and they have enough going on with just your payroll. We don’t need to add any extra work. So please, please, if you could make sure you put the amount of gallons, especially on the cover sheet, so that they can track that for fuel tax purposes.

And next, we’ll talk about some friendly reminders that the Maintenance Department wanted to enlighten you with. We’ve been seeing a rash of un-hooking airlines from the trailers. Not un-hooking, I should say, from the trailers when you’re dropping them and them getting broken. Please guys, I can speak from experience, I had it happen. Luckily, they didn’t break, but boy I stretched the heck out of them. So make sure you double check and make sure that they’re un-hooked and you can pull away safely. Nothing really is more startling than when that airline comes snapping back at the back of your cab at 100 miles an hour. It will wake you up, that I guarantee you.

Fifth wheel jaws. Make sure that the jaws are open when you back underneath it. We’ve been seeing a few that where the jaws were closing for some reason, and then when they back underneath the trailer, of course, you’re backing underneath it kind of hard to make it lock. But if the jaws are already closed, we’re causing excessive damage to the fifth wheel unit. We’ve seen an average cost of almost $2000 per fifth wheel in order to get those fixed. So guys, make sure the jaws are open.

Starting up your reefer unit before you go to load. Not when you get there, do it before. That way we know if there’s any issues before you go in there and we can get them addressed right away. You know, you gotta top it off before you go into these places. A good rule is also, let’s make sure that the alternator is charging right, let’s make sure the lights are charging right, let’s make sure everything is good before you send it in there. Because otherwise you’re gonna create a situation when you get there for the next Driver.

Calling in for products. Let’s make sure that we’re using the right product in the truck, such as oil. We don’t really run 1540 rotel anymore, so we don’t wanna be adding that. We gotta make sure we’re adding the right product into the truck, whether it be anti-freeze, or oil, or anything like that. Make sure you call in and check on that before you start adding it. If you have to buy any, I mean, normally, you wanna get it here at the terminal so that you can have it in your truck and add it when needed.

Leaving the units on stand-by mode when you go home. I understand they make noise, but if you shut the APU off, then when you come back, all of a sudden the batteries are dead. You gotta leave that thing in a standby mode and not shut the APU unit off, because it keeps the batteries charged, the engine warm, and it saves us from having to have a jump start. Because trust me, if you don’t have that thing going, you’re gonna have a dead battery when you get back, because that refrigerator and everything else in the truck is gonna suck the battery dry in no time.

Another topic we’d like to talk about in the Maintenance Department is the rocking of trucks. I haven’t seen too many this year, but rocking the truck with frozen brakes. Guys, you can’t do that with these automatics. Can’t do it, period, but the automatics are even more of a challenge. Especially the 10 speeds, you will blow that rear-end or that yoke or whatever it is, you will blow it instantaneously. These trucks go from 0 torque to 1650 torques in two seconds. You cannot hit the brake or back off of it fast enough. If you start rocking it. or pushing it up underneath, even trying to slide the tandems on a trailer, when that thing ramps up to full power, it goes from 0 to 100 in half a second. So guys, before you start rocking the truck and doing all this stuff, if you’re not sure how to unfreeze your brakes, on our YouTube channel there is a tutorial on that. Please watch it. You do not wanna blow out that, because then you’re looking for a different truck. And we’ve got the expense of towing, the expensive fixing it, and we just don’t want that to happen. So work on freeing up your breaks, I need to watch that tutorial myself. I know one of the best ways I’ve seen, Tim Gallegly, he’s got this fancy rod and a hammer that comes out and it just works slicker than can be for un-freezing trailer brakes and tractor brakes. It’s just slick.

Alright, treating fuel. We are in the dead of winter. I know that we did do a podcast here not too long ago, I think. With Tyson and Rick  and we talked about treating the fuel. One of the things that you really have to remember, in fact, I was out this weekend and the last couple of weekends, and it hasn’t really been like sub-zero, thank God we haven’t seen any minus 10 minus 12 like we normally do in the winter. But before I fuel, I add the additive. You wanna add the additive before you add the fuel, that’s important because you want it to properly mix. Guys, if you’re coming from the South and you’re coming up here, start adding the additive down south so that you’re prepared when you get up here. The gel-ups are tremendous pains in the butt. Let’s keep an eye on that. Watch the fueling on the way out.

I’ve been here 21 years. Decker’s had bunk heaters in their trucks. The Wabasto style bunk heaters since I’ve been here for 20-some years. We haven’t had APUs but for, I don’t know, four or five years or something like that, but we’ve always had the bunk heaters. They’ve always did a tremendous job. You don’t have to have the APU to use the bunk heater, it will work without the APU. The nice thing about the APU is that the APU will keep the batteries charged, where on the bunk heater, you do have a chance of draining the batteries. One thing, and I just thought of this recently, it was one of our DMs that gave me a good tip, and I have one myself. All our trucks are equipped with an inverter, so even if the bunk heater isn’t working but your APU is working, and I’ve seen some situations of this, a small ceramic heater will work. It’s not flame, so there’s no emissions to it. You could run that inside the truck, you know, temporarily to get by. You can run it off the inverter, keeps the cab warm and problem solved at least until you can get to a shop to get it worked on. So just being prepared for something like that, you know warm winter blankets I always traveled with, and I still travel with it, a thick wool blanket and they’re great for winter time. The boots, the helmet…the helmet? The boots, the gloves, the hat. How is that? My son actually has his four-wheeler for plowing snow, and my son has this heated battery-powered jacket. Yeah, I know, it’s cool. It’s got a little light on the lapel when the heater’s running. It’s like heated sock except  it’s a jacket. I mean, hey, I would probably get one if I was full-time again. Hammer, pliers, be prepared. This is winter.

Chaining. I hate to say this, but once in a while, especially out West, you may have to chain. And if you get stuck, chaining is a lot easier than calling out a tow truck, so learn how to chain. We have really good, I mean, if you get out west, Liam is the expert on chaining. We have a tutorial video out there on how to chain. Here in town, we have a simulator here in Fort Dodge to help you learn how to chain. You may not like it, but it can save your butt sometimes. So I would learn how to do it. All over, be prepared for winter.

I talked a little bit about WorkHound before and I wanna talk a little more about it. And guys, I wanna give a huge thank you to all the Drivers that did fill out the comments and feedback on WorkHound. We’ve taken that information and we’ve already put a little bit of that information to service. Guys, don’t be afraid. It is anonymous. We need this, we need to learn what’s going on out there. My favorite saying is, if it’s broke and you don’t say nothing, we can’t fix it. I wish everything was perfect in this business, but we’re in a business that is not perfect. There’s always gonna be hiccups, we are trying to remedy the hiccups as best we can. It’s not always gonna be perfect. There’s a method to our madness. Sometimes I know as a Driver, trust me, I see it all the time. We’re making changes. I can tell you there’s gonna be some announcements coming down the road here that is gonna make you guys very, very happy in the near future, and so I’d like to get more and more into that, but I can’t at this time. It will be happening hopefully within the next week or two and we’ll have a big announcement, a couple of them, that I think is gonna be very important, and you guys are gonna be very happy with.

One of the biggest things is Geotab. Some of the Drivers that I’ve talked to think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Some of them are having some issues. But you gotta remember, technology is here to help you. Every time we’ve made a change, it’s always been a struggle in the beginning, and people have been reluctant to try it, but it’s always worked out. I’ve used it personally myself, and it is a great tool and a very handy tool. It will get better for you. It’s just like when we went to ELDs. Everybody complained about ELDs. Now, it’s second nature. Any time change comes along, there’s always a push back on it, I guess, is what I’m trying to say. Guys, you just gotta trust the process. It will become second nature, just like everything else. Like the Transflo app, a lot of guys fought the Trasflo app. “Why do I want that on my cell phone?” And now they can’t live without it. You just gotta go with it. It will get better. I promise you. Trust the process.

Kati is there anything else that you think we need to talk about?

Kati: How about the Drivers of the month and the Scorecard Bonus?

Darin: Well, now that you brought that up, thank you very much, nice segue. Good job, girl. Alright, so Drivers of the Month for December. This is the last hooray of the year. These are the last

Drivers that will be up for the Grand Champion to take home all the cash at the end. They performed awesome throughout the year, they did a tremendous job, and we are happy to announce the winners and the nominees. So the winner out West was Rita Tyler, runner-up was Timothy Whitesell. Our Midwest Reefer winner was Spencer Showers, our runner-up was Todd Hawkins and Dean Soucek. Our Flatbed Midwest winner was Shane Lund. Our Southern Flatbed winner was  Donald Neely. Our Owner-Operator and Lease Purchase contractor of the month was Charles Wobil. And Charles, congratulations. I love Charles, I really do. You are never gonna meet a more polite, happy Driver than Charles. Have you ever met Charles? No? Oh yeah, he’s just the coolest. Congratulations, Charles.

Alright, Scorecard Bonus. So Scorecard is paid out every month. It’s based on point values from 825 up to a perfect score of 1000. In fact, this month we had 50 Drivers get a perfect 1000 score.  You have to remember, the Scorecard Bonus is based on certain point criteria. Each different area such as fuel compliance, miles, claims, service failures, idle, preventable accidents, and CSA points. They’re all weighted differently. So for instance, fuel compliance. Fuel compliance is 50 points. It doesn’t mean that if you don’t feel exactly as you should, you’re gonna lose out on your whole bonus, it just means you’re gonna lose out on a few points. There is a few of them out there that, yes. If you do have an accident, you do have CSA points, sorry, you’re out of the bonus for the month. But the great thing is it’s only for one month. It’s not for an entire quarter, it’s not for a year. It is just for one month. One little note on Geotab after I’ve talked to a few Drivers- you have to ask for the fuel solution, it doesn’t automatically send it to you. So please note that. We’ve had a few

Drivers, all of a sudden their compliance dropped, and they didn’t realize that you have to ask for it every time. So just a little notation, I wanted to tell you guys if you’re on Geotab.

But we had 162 Drivers get a Scorecard Bonus. The payout was $36,420.71. As for the Owner-Operator Scorecard Bonuses, 34 received a bonus for $8,953.0. Now, for SmartDrive you have to have the inward-facing event recorder turned on and facing you. That makes sense, doesn’t it? Anyway, if you have that turned on, you’re eligible to receive up to a penny a mile for all the miles you run. So we had 237 company Drivers receive a bonus last month for a total of $19,057.41. We had 20 Owner-Operators receive that bonus for $1,869.85. So the grand total that Decker Truck Line paid out this month of December was $66,300.98 to all the eligible Drivers. Congratulations guys. You earned it. Spend it wisely.

 And also congratulations to the Drivers of the Month. I wish you all well. I don’t know how we’re gonna do the Grand Champion thing this year with Covid and everything, so it’ll be interesting to see, but we’ll get her done somehow. It’ll probably be over the World Wide Web and the Internet. But on a final, awesome note, I wanted to talk about the totals for the year when it comes to the Scorecard and SmartDrive Bonus. So how much Decker paid out in total bonuses for just last year, 2020.

For a company Driver Scorecard, Decker Truck Line paid out $477,293.03 For Owner-Operator Scorecard, they paid out $97,281.51. For SmartDrive company Driver Bonus, total $18,6694.50. Owner-Operator SmartDrive total is $8720.35. So in grand total last year, just in bonus money, Decker Truck Line paid out $769,989.39, So that’s over three quarters of a million dollars just in bonus money. So if you don’t think that you can earn the bonus money, you’re wrong, ’cause it can be done. There’s three quarters of a million dollar that proves it. We’re happy to pay it to you, it means you earned it, and we wanna pay it to you. So guys, get her done.

Alright, thank you guys for an awesome 2020, and remember, keep the shiny side up.

Outro: As always, thank you for listening to Inside the Triangle. Don’t forget to subscribe to us on whatever platform you’re listening on, that way you will know when new episodes drop. And remember, submit your questions to podcast@deckermail.com, and you could be featured on one of our upcoming episodes. The best way to do this is to create a voice memo on your smartphone, record your question, and email it to podcast@deckermail.com. Once again, thank you for listening, and Stay Driven To Be the Best!

Inside the Triangle: Elaine Schlick

Posted by deckerAdmin

Orientation Instructor, Elaine Schlick

Meet Elaine Schlick, Driver Trainer and Orientation Instructor, on this week’s episode of Inside the Triangle.  Elaine joins host, Darin Ladlie, to explore Driver Orientation at Decker Truck Line.  They walk through, day by day, the first week that Drivers join the Decker Team and how they help to prepare them to get out on the road.  And, once seated in a truck, the connection doesn’t end; Elaine and the Driver Orientation Team are always willing and able to help, answer questions and give guidance to ensure a successful career here at DTL!

Meet Elaine Schlick, Driver Trainer and Orientation Instructor, on this week’s episode of Inside the Triangle.  Elaine joins host, Darin Ladlie, to explore Driver Orientation at Decker Truck Line.  They walk through, day by day, the first week that Drivers join the Decker Team and how they help to prepare them to get out on the road.
https://anchor.fm/deckertruckline/episodes/23-Driver-Orientation-with-Elaine-Schlick-en5ffg

Don’t forget, on an upcoming podcast we will be featuring a special guest, a DOT Officer.  Please submit any questions you may have that you’d like shared with the Officer.  Send your questions to podcast@deckermail.com

HOW TO LISTEN:  

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!  If you have any topic suggestions or questions you want answered or discussed on an upcoming podcast, e-mail them to podcast@deckermail.com.  Or, you can create a voice memo on your smart phone and e-mail it to podcast@deckermail.com

Winter Driving Tips

Posted by deckerAdmin

Inside the Triangle episode 22: Darin, Rick and Tyson

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

suggestions you can give us for along that line and winter driving back into a reef, you're gonna go allow that's heated or Jill, just make sure you start that refer unit when it's really, really cold, those don't return as much fuel as a truck does, so the ref is gonna need to manage as well, a lot of times we'll have them switch a money continuous run if it's gonna be really cold, 'cause you gotta remember that fuel tank is hanging down underneath there, getting all that winter weather off the road, taking it up with snow, and it kind of insulates it and it doesn't get very warm, so if we're putting an IL in the truck tanks, we... To start putting it in the refer tanks as well.

In additiona to Rick and Tyson’s podcast episode, you can also check out Matt’s episode on Winter Weather.

00:05: Inside the triangle, the Decker Truck Line podcast.

Darin:

“Welcome to Inside the Triangle with your host, Darin Ladle. And today, I have a couple of guests, Tyson with maintenance support and Rick George with the safety department. We’re gonna start off with Rick, ’cause Rick’s never been here before. So, Rick is a first-timer with us, so Rick… Exactly. What is your job title here?”

Rick: “I’m the Vice President of safety, so I run the safety department. All that simple and easy. And you have been in the industry. How long? Since I was a teenager.”

Darin: “A teenager. So that’s what, 10 years ag?”

Rick: “Thank you. You’re like me, you grew up in this business pretty much, so

00:49:

Rick: “I did… My dad was a truck driver. My first job in high school was washing trucks and changing oil and scooping up ball racks, and you also drove for quite a while… I drove for five years…”

Staying safe out on the road means being prepared. Keep your trucks stocked with fuel additive in case temperatures drop. #SafetyFirst #truckerslife

01:01:

Darin: “Okay. And the bulk of year before you came here, we’re not afraid to say you were in the safety department or tanker company, which is quite a difference from what we do, right?”

Rick:  “It was, I was in a fleet of tank trucks that haul refined petroleum crude in all that type of thing. And you were down in the Des Moines area, I believe. And you wanted to come back up. The family up here is that when I was with him, I was with him 25 years, I was in Des Moines, Omaha, Roosevelt, Utah, and

01:32: From OSU to… Moved back to Iowa,”

Darin: “Didn’t like Utah?”

Rick: “It’s a beautiful place. I would love to go there. On vacation, I’m not sure. I don’t wanna live there again.”

01:41:

Darin: “Okay, alright. And so you’ve been with Decker now for how long? Almost three years, almost three years. So Rick wanted to talk today about winter safety and some of the issues we’re having. And so I’m just gonna hand the floor over to Rick, kinda give us a… I’ll look at what you wanted to talk about today.”

01:59:

Rick: “Well, I wanted to talk about some of the hazards that occur in the winter time are from a personal perspective, their slips, trips and falls, you’d be surprised how injured someone can be just by following down on one ice surface and when the drivers get in and out of their trucks, there’s a myriad of opportunities to slip and fall, so they need to use three points of contact when they get in and out, they need to choose good footwear. The worst thing you can wear as a slick smooth leather soles you…

Darin: “So basically just say cowboy boots.”

Rick: “I was trying to avoid that, but a lot of cowboy boots have six souls, but you can also buy cowboy boots that have a grip soul, so from the style issue, it doesn’t matter, it’s what’s on the bottom, and there’s also traction devices. I know, I have some yak tracks that I wear when it’s really slick, they just take a second to put it on and they come off just as easy, and they provide a lot of traction, a lot of grip when you’re on an ice surface, you wanna be careful when you go into a facility like a truck stop or a c store that’s got a tile floor ’cause they’re really slept on a table.”

03:05: Then it’s just like be a… No, yes.

03:07:

Darin: “Yes it is.”

03:08: Okay, what about getting it out of the truck with those and is there anything they need to be aware of on that… Would that catch on the door step, do you think… Or anything like that?

03:16:

Rick: “They could catch… One of the things that you need to be where I wanna get in on the track, not only three points contact, but what you’re gonna step down on to… We have a lot of times, guys will step down onto the ground and a slicker than they thought, and their feet will go right out from angry, wanna look before you step, so to speak, be conscious about what your surroundings are, what you’re walking on it. I see a big guest to win can come along and knock you off balance and cause you to grab, hold your trailer or a tractor or whatever is nearby, and hurt your arm, hurt your shoulder, there’s lots of ways to get injured in a slip and fall

03:52: In a lot in the winter time, even when they’re working around the referee and its dollies, if you’ve got pros and dollies or frogs and breaks or anything along that line, you can rent your arms, your hands or anything like that, so you wanna be extra careful around that stuff, absolutely. Now, what about winter? Warm, we want… Our drivers would be prepared for the winter weather that’s about to come, make sure you have the proper gear.

04:13: They need to have… They need to have proper gear, and it’s always good to… When you’re in the truck, have maybe some water with you, some non-perishable snacks, so maybe some dried fruit, my favorite chocolate, something like that, to eat while you’re… If you happen to get tied up in a snow storm or something like that, you have an extra blanket, you wanna be sure and have close to keep warm in the winter. Hat boots, gloves, insulated coat. Maybe some insulated coveralls, something like that.”

04:47:

Darin: “What about driving safety? What do we really wanna look for in the winter time?”

04:51

Rick: “Well, black ice is always, always treacherous, they wanna be conscious of are the vehicles around and throwing up some moisture off the road, as soon as that stopped, that means the roads turned icy and you wanna be very, very careful. Black, I will get you every time.”

05:09

Darin: “What about the other type conditions, snow on the road, is there anything you wanna be cautious of on that, is there any warnings you can see ahead of time on that…”

05:17

Rick: “Well, if I can’t, if they can’t see down the road, if they can’t see farther than the speed that they’re traveling, they need to slow down, increase their following distance, they don’t feel safety, they really need to stop and wait out the weather. You won’t stay that way forever. It may seem like it, but it won’t… Well.

05:34  I’ve always believed truck drivers need to be like Weathermen, you always have to look a day or two ahead of you to what you’re going into… Or if you’re at home, alright, what’s coming? Do I need to leave early? If I’m out on the road, do I wanna… How much do I wanna push this so that I could stay ahead of this weather, any issues you have with that…”

05:51  

Darin: “Well, yeah, just as you said, they need to be aware of what they’re heading into, one of the nice things about our new geo-tab units as they’ll be giving weather alerts, they’ll tell you what kind of weather you’re heading into in the next couple of hours.”

06:04

 Rick: “So I think that’s a big benefit to the geo-tab units. Any issues with cargo that you know of during the winter time that we’ve been… We see predominantly more, maybe the winter may be frozen products, anything like that.

06:17  The perishable products, they need to need to have the refrain so that that stuff doesn’t get too cold, of course, the child frozen, that’s really not an issue in the cold mother.”

06:26  

Darin: “Now, flat bed though. That’s a different worry. I unfortunately had a good friend of ours, he retired, but lost a few fingers because of frostbite, I was up in North Dakota, any advice you can give us on being careful on the flat bed sit, ’cause you’re dealing with heavy tarps is snow. Their ice up, their slicker. Heck, you’re trying to pick them up. You’re outside working, this is not an indoor job when it comes to flatten…”

06:50  

Rick: “No, that’s right. And they need to have proper gears, as you said, To keep wormhole they’re working, they’ll generate a little heat while they’re working, but still they need to have good gloves to where they need to be conscious of, if their fingers start tangle, they need to find some place to warm up, anything else you’d like to add to the safety aspect… Just prepared for the weather. Don’t follow too close. Don’t drive too fast. Good advice, good advice.”

07:17

Darin: “So the other one we have here is Tyson. And Tyson wants to talk to us a little bit about having your truck and trailers and everything prepared for winter, so… Tyson, what did you wanna talk about?”

Tyson:  “Well, there’s a lot of things we can do out on the road, you do want a drivers picking up a trader that’s dropped at a customer’s location, making sure that the breaks aren’t frozen. I had a guy that was here a week or so, I go down a Ankeny, up a trailer and got out on the highway and somebody flagged him down that he had a couple of tires I wanna turn in, coming to find out he had frozen breaks and ruined a couple of tires, just putting stuff on top of the tires to make sure pull four, five, six feet, make sure the tires are rolling, you don’t mark them with something, use a piece of chalk. Marker, I always told driver, just put a Mottola on each set of tires. Roll forward five, six feet, and then then you can find out which ones aren’t moving. We recently went through and done some things about rubbing alcohol, we got a video out on that, I’m not sure where that is, or when it’s coming out, but…

08:21 Darin: Rubbing alcohol is huge. It can help you out there. Frozen locks, frozen ice on the mirrors for an upfront radar on the front bumper, just… It’s cheap, and you can have not a square bottle and you use it to all your breaks. I just bought everything. What about field treatments? What are we recommended for field treatment this time of the year, so the fuel is treated at all of our terminals that have fuel, when you get out away from our terminals, you might not get treated… Fell out on the road. So they do, in the safety plan here and other terminals provide core bottles of Nigel, and I think they’re giving out four or six bottles per driver, you know what you gotta think ahead about in the winter, what the weather’s gonna do, you can’t treat your fuel in Missouri, when you come in, in Iowa, you gotta have it treated when you’re leaving Texas and coming up this way to get it through the whole system, to de-wax everything that… Oh, I can put it in today and I’ll be good tomorrow. Probably not gonna happen. Okay, frozen airlines, if we run into that too much, is it another we can use with the rubbing alcohol or do we use airline and press under my direction or my staff member is when the driver calls in on…

09:35 Darin: We need to do with that, we can do some other things without using that product in there, worst case scenario, I’ll just give us a call and we’ll talk it over and see if we can remedy without it. Okay, any other suggestions you can give us for along that line and winter driving back into a reef, you’re gonna go allow that’s heated or Jill, just make sure you start that refer unit when it’s really, really cold, those don’t return as much fuel as a truck does, so the ref is gonna need to manage as well, a lot of times we’ll have them switch a money continuous run if it’s gonna be really cold, ’cause you gotta remember that fuel tank is hanging down underneath there, getting all that winter weather off the road, taking it up with snow, and it kind of insulates it and it doesn’t get very warm, so if we’re putting an IL in the truck tanks, we… To start putting it in the refer tanks as well. And also, I use some snow build up on the truck, I really think that when you’re getting out, you’re fueling your check and knock some of that ice and snow off because I’ve seen their calls where we drop a trunk of ice and it breaks up and hit somebody else, and then we were buying a windshield in her car or something like that, it’s just not safe.

10:45 Darin: I know out east they were doing… Oh, they have a problem with the snow up on top of the trailers, and it was a big hunk were coming off, and now they got some special areas, I think where you drive underneath and it just kind of peels all the snow off of the trailer, so you gotta be aware of that stuff and help yourselves, and in the past, we run it through a truck wash to get that snow off the top, ’cause try to find somebody with a ladder to go up there on a snowy roof at slick aluminum. I wouldn’t do it

11:10 : And that it’s way to your truck too, so if you’re close on weight, you could get an overweight…

11:14 Darin: Exactly. And then also, I don’t know if he’s still doing, but I used to… In the winter time when I parked, and Rick is probably gonna yell at me for this, but I very seldom ever set my tractor breaks, I would send the trailer breaks because it’s just… I don’t know, it was just a thing because the trailer breaks, easy to break free, then the tractor breaks were… I don’t know if that’s something we recommend or not, but you can edit that if we need to or…

11:44 Rick: When I was driving, I did the same thing.

11:46 Darin: Alright, just guys, you gotta be safe out there, you gotta know what’s going on, you gotta be aware of your situation, like Tyson said, If you’re coming out of Texas and it’s 70 degrees in Texas, but it’s gonna be minus 10 up here, you gotta be prepared and what’s a toll bill cost if you gotta be looking… Minimum, most 6-7, 800 bucks for a toll bill. Well, you remember, some states are split to… So if I have to tell a truck and trailer in one of those areas, now you’re paying for two toes.

12:13 Rick: So on average, you’re talking 12, 13, 00 bucks just to move that piece to be client off the road to

12:19 Darin: A dealer, wherever to get it. Fuel gell out or un-gelled and then put new filters on it and get it back up and running, and now we run… I know the old days we… To run tank heaters, and you have to get out and turn them on, and then when Detroit came out and those back in the 90s and 2000s, they turned enough, he didn’t need tank heaters now, or we run in tank heaters again. I’m not sure on the trucks, if we’re renting years, I know some of the trucks do like the dedicated ones up on the Mars, they do. I’m not sure about any other new equipment coming in, I haven’t… I haven’t checked the model… Got with malicious. Okay, ’cause I know the APU unit doesn’t add also, when heaps, Rudin is running, is charging your battery, but it’s also running a little bit of hot water through the engine to keep it warm a little bit… Yup, it’ll maintain battered voltage, it maintains quintet. So when kunti in a truck drops below a certain threshold, all kick on and start running to heat that coming back up in the system. Alright, awesome.

13:17 Darin: Awesome guys, we’re coming into dangerous times, Wyoming, how many times are they shut down the interstates out there, you gotta make sure when you’re going there, I think you gotta be… Have fuel, ’cause if you get stuck on the side of the road and they shut the interstate down, the last thing you wanna do is run out of fuel, so always be aware of that situation, so take care of yourselves. Extra blankets. Whatever you gotta do. Make sure you’re prepared. Any last words, guys? Thanks, spring. Thanks, spring. Winter weather, an 20-21. Let’s get 20-200 over with. Alright guys, thank you very much. And remember, drive safe and keep the shiny side up. Alright, thanks. Alright guys, before we get into the drivers of the month and the score card bonus, I do have some news, we do have on board a dot officer that is willing to come on and chat with us and answer some questions, So what I’d really like for you guys, to do is please all my listeners email it to me, call me, call Katie, whoever it is, even your DM, it doesn’t matter, they can relay the question to me, Give us some questions on what you would like a dot officer to explain to you.

14:34 Darin: Any rules, regulations, things you’re not sure on, let’s give them some questions that would make him work, so turn those into us, You can do it online, or you can just call us. Alright, thanks guys

Driver Referral Program Episode 20

Posted by deckerAdmin

Jesse Butler, Driver Recruiter Spotlight

DRIVER RECRUITER SPOTLIGHT

Driver Recruiter, Jesse Butler, joins host Darin Ladlie over the phone to talk about the Driver Referral Bonus Program and the Minimum Pay Program.  Jesse and Darin explain how referring other Professional Drivers to join the Decker Team can be a very lucrative way to make extra money.  The more Drivers you refer, the better the incentives get!  They also talk about the new Driver Minimum Pay Program and why they’re so excited about this opportunity for Drivers.  Jesse and Darin go over the requirements needed to get the minimum pay; and how Drivers can enjoy quality home time and still maintain a steady paycheck.
Driver Referral Podcast

Driver Recruiter, Jesse Butler, joins host Darin Ladlie over the phone to talk about the Driver Referral Bonus Program and the Minimum Pay Program.  Jesse and Darin explain how referring other Professional Drivers to join the Decker Team can be a very lucrative way to make extra money.  The more Drivers you refer, the better the incentives get!  They also talk about the new Driver Minimum Pay Program and why they’re so excited about this opportunity for Drivers.  Jesse and Darin go over the requirements needed to get the minimum pay; and how Drivers can enjoy quality home time and still maintain a steady paycheck.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
If you have topic suggestions or questions you want answered on the podcast, you can email them to podcast@deckermail.com. Or you can create a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to podcast@deckermail.com

AS A REMINDER – HOW TO LISTEN: 

TRANSCRIPTION

00:05 DARIN: Inside the triangle, the Decker Truck Line podcast. Tell everyone, and welcome to inside the triangle. I am your host, Darin Ladle, and today I have a guest. It is the lovely Jesse Butler. Now, Jesse is kind of, I guess, would you be the face of Facebook for Decker truck line and maybe some Instagram stuff?

00:31 JESSE: I wanna say social media, recruiter, social

00:39 DARIN: Well, I know every Monday afternoon at 4 o’clock Central time, she does a live stream on Facebook and talks to the drivers and talks about different things going on at the company. I know we just finished the calendar event, I believe, wasn’t…

00:54 JESSE: We did, yeah, just a few moments ago. Okay.

00:57 DARIN: On our YouTube, and we had 12 great pictures show up, I assume

01:01 JESSE: We had… Well, I had a slew of pictures coming up ’cause we had some beautiful entries that weren’t quite the size they needed to be in order to be approved by the printer, actually, we had a lot of notes, we had to share all the pictures, not just the 12 but we definitely announced the 12 winter it… Be a preliminary winner.

01:18 DARIN: Good, good. Now, Jesse is been with us. Or when did you start with this? Jesse.

01:23 JESSE: July, at actually the end of June of 2010

02:08 DARIN: So how did you get into the trucking industry, recruiting in general.

02:13 JESSE: Through a friend who was working for another company, and I was making my transition to Missoula, which everybody… And I think everybody in Montana wants to live because it’s so beautiful, and so I was moving back to him, my extended family was, and I needed a job, and she had heard about my work that I had been doing for another company, it was totally outside of the trucking industry, but more marketing and communication-wise, and she felt that I’d be a good fit for that position that they had available, and I got to dive into it, a whole new world to me that… So my eyes were wide open. I had the very naive coming in, I should say, I didn’t know a lot about it, that was in 2006 when I started.

02:58 DARIN: So what do you think the biggest thing you’ve realized or learned, not coming from the trucking industry, what did you learn the most since you’ve been in-courting

03:08 JESSE: Expectations of what these drivers that you see on the road all the time are what they’re expected to do through dot standards and just in general, what the general public thinks they do versus what they really are responsible for, and I don’t care who you are, you need truck drivers for some, whether it’s getting equipment to you, getting a you supplies or getting your supplies out. I don’t care who you are, you need to be thankful for a truck driver. I agree. Agree whole-heartedly.

03:42 DARIN: So what kind of living out Montana, Are you an outdoors person, do you like… Are you hunting fishing? I know you like to work out. We’ve actually gone to the gym here a couple of… Well, at least launch, I’ve tried to convince you every time you come here, but you always seem to have any… But

03:57 JESSE: I do work out in the morning to when I come there.

04:02 DARIN: Yes, you do, but we’ve had that one, but are you an outdoors in person… Do you have your family? Outdoors a lot.

04:08 JESSE: I love to be outdoors. I do so much of my work is computer work that I always… I’m indoors quite a bit, but I love being outdoors unless is cold, and I’m a fair weather person, I don’t ski, which I know that’s a sin for a lot of those people in Montana. I do like to fish, but we don’t do much of that. I love to hunt, I love just love being out, going for the hike, looking for whatever I can find that on still my freezer. But works, I would say in baseball, probably my favorite thing to do.

04:44 DARIN: So today, we wanted to talk about a few different things. One of the main things we wanted to talk about was a reframe, so drivers are always looking for ways to make more money, we have the scorecard bonus, we have their regular pay, we have different bonus structures out there, so one of the biggest ones in the quickest way to make some extra money and some really good money is the referral program, so… Jesse, go ahead. Talk about the real program.

05:08 JESSE: Really, our referral program, in my opinion, is super or can be super lucrative, you get the actual money, the monetary amount that you can earn, peripheral, you have all of the additional incentives, and then of course, you’ve got the grand prize and the quarterly prizes as well. So money-wise, just the initial referral, you’ve got $1500 for the first three people you refer, so it does pay out in my increments, so you have $250 for the first dispatch on that referred driver, so that’s going to the referral, so there you go. And then you have the $250 after they’ve been here for 30 days, and then $500 at both 60 and 90 days. So it pays out within 90 days, so it’s not like you’re waiting for them to be here a full year, it’s still a good chunk and… And then you don’t have to see those big diets into it, come back time or when you’re in, your tag is taken out, but yeah, $500 for the first three drivers, $2000 for the fourth and fifth driver, you refer… So of course, the increments are gonna be a little bit different at the end, you’re looking at $750 and I think 50 and $1000, I think is how it pays out on the end, and then $2500 and on six or more drivers and so those…

06:29 JESSE: Those are really lucrative.

06:31 DARIN: Yeah, last year we had one guy, I think he had six recruits last year.

06:37 JESSE: Jesus had five… Yeah, he tours on our 2019 grand prize, and he had… By the thing that blows my mind is that all of his were in the last quarter, so if someone is trying to make a little bit of extra money for Christmas, seriously, this is the way to go. Of course, our qualifications are gonna be more strict than a lot of companies, ’cause we hold our drivers and employees to hire standards, I think, than others, but… Yeah. All in the last quarter. So he made over $11,000 just in the last formats, a Christmas bonus. Yeah, just on the referral, and so I’m not doing the normal driving… Awesome. And all those…

07:21 DARIN: And I know every once in a while, we’ll throw another little deal in there, I think… Didn’t we have a drawing? You’re also whoever, each month or quarter, I think we were drawing a name and they would get a prize or something like that.

07:34 JESSE: Yeah, so we’ve got the quarterly drying, so we have… I’m trying to think of the date. I think it was April 1, July 1, September, and then the 31st of December will be our final one for this year, and they get either their choice as a tablet or a laptop or the $750 cash, which is the equivalent to that, but that’s more… The quarterly price beyond that, we also have the normal intentional, I don’t know, but the basic incentives, which is the referral teaser, you can’t buy that one in the store, you have… They are on that. So you get to play that one with pride series radio, if you refer to or more drivers within the year, you get that for 12 months. Now, all of our amenities in our truck, you know this, but all of our amenities in our truck are provided to you by Decker, that’s the only one that it is provided by Decker, but then you have the subscription is your responsibility. It’s been part of our incentive for referral bonus for a while, and so I think that’s probably why we keep it that way, but in addition to that…

08:35 DARIN: Go ahead. The axis. Yeah, and it’s not hard to get… It’s easy to hook up to just that truck, so not only for this guys, if you do wanna get it hooked up in your ever wanna know how any event problems, give me a call on that also, but I do think that’s quite the incentive for the referral bonus is getting that XM for a year to…

08:54 JESSE: Yeah, it’s nice, it’s nice. I love the comedy, as well as the country, and Christian is the one that I always listen to, but those are fantastic, and then we’ve got… You go up a level if you were for four or five drivers, not only does your payout, but then you also have this member… Five is elite referral member jacket. That’s pretty fancy. I referrals for that one. And then the business cards, I think I mentioned that you’ve got the three hires for the business cards, but once you get three hires, those little business cards, you can handle out at the truck stop if someone’s just passing by and interested, you hand that sucker to them and our job as recruiters is to help you with that referral and to do the work so that you can continue doing what you do best and getting the job done on the road, you’ve got the miles that you’re putting in and everything, and our job is to take care of all those questions, and of course, they’ve got you to come back to it, they want the driver’s perspective, but a lot of people do what’s nice about the referral program.

09:56 DARIN: It’s so easy because I see him come in all the time… You have it right on your phone. So even if they’re interested in that fast, you can do the referral right there on the phone, instantaneously

10:07 JESSE: Comes directly to the recruiting department, so all of us have access to that, so we know depending on if your referral calls them wondering about the position and maybe wanting to check up on it, they can get a hold of any of their recruiters and they’ll be able to have that information that it was you who referred that driver, and so it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle and you’ll be sure to get paid for that $1500 or more, based off of that referral.

10:35 DARIN: ’cause it’s very important ’cause we need to make sure that the recruiters know who’s referred to invoice, ’cause we wanna make sure everybody gets credit for the person that they talk to, ’cause it’s very important for both the recruiter and the bar driver.

10:48 JESSE: Yeah, absolutely, and you know, having the moment to talk to our drivers for a new driver coming into Decker, having that opportunity to talk to him ahead of time really gives them a good understanding of the company that they’re coming into and what to expect, knowing that they’ve got the support behind the scenes, and that they’re not just gonna be the left left to figure it out on their own, we’ve got… I know the other companies as well, they might have safety and night ops and the driver managers, managers out there, but they don’t have our support system, which I think is night and day over a lot out there.

11:25 DARIN: I agree, I agree, totally. The other thing that I love about the driver referral program is we used to… The trailers were all set up… Do we still do that? Do we still offer on the trucks of anything on the side of the truck for details or anything… On the back, we have the drive Decker, and I think on the lower right hand now that don’t have a trainer right in front of me, but I’ll have to eyeball in here.

11:50 JESSE: Yeah, I think in the back corner of the trailers that it says DriveDecker.com, and then the 800 number, so I think it’s all there.

12:07 DARIN: Yes, it is. So the other thing I wanted to get into today was we just started actually this week, we are now offering a $1000 minimum guarantee to all van drivers and flatbed drivers, so pretty much Company-wide, we’re doing… We guarantee that you will gross at least a $1000 a week every week, as long as you maintain certain criteria, can you tell us a little bit about what you know on that program, Jesse?

12:38 JESSE: Yeah, I think it’s pretty awesome just because you can budget, be not on the road, you can actually budget, ’cause I know that was one of the most difficult things coming into the industry and learning that the drivers are paid per mile in the most part and what if they didn’t get the I that week. What if weather got in the way or their truck broke down, or whatever the case could be, how do they pay those bills, well, then you guys are headed together at management and everything figured out that we can offer the minimum pay, and they’re pretty basic requirements. So the $1000 is gross, that’s the gross pay that is available in this guaranteed… Of course, you need to meet the basic called qualifications which are being available for this at no load refusals and no preventable service failures, so the loads need to be 100% on time, again, that’s driver-related service failures, so if it’s something out of your hands are out of your control, and obviously it’s not tellin against you, you need to be available to work at least five days out of the week, and one of the biggest ones that I can distract is that your payor Him…

13:45 JESSE: That is the easiest thing. We’ve got the transfllo on your phone available, we’ve got the got GeoTab unit in the trucks, and some of the trucks will be in all of them as soon as we can get it in there, and we’ve got the on-board standards in the truck, so you’ve got easy access to get the paperwork in, it’s just the push to get it done as soon as you’re done with the load. And those are the basic requirements. The CSA points, no accidents for that week, and it’s a week-by-week basis, so you might have it one week, but not the next, and that’s fine because it’s a week by week, so it… And of course, if you get more miles in your pay per mile, the two of them combined, exceed that $1000, you’re gonna get the better of the two, so either way, Decker is looking out for you to make sure that you’ve got money coming in on a regular basis.

14:35 DARIN: Well, here’s why… And like you said, it’s there to cover… Let’s say we got weather situations coming, ’cause Winter is about to hear, we’ve got shipper situations or receiver situations where you could get hung up on a load unfortunately, or maybe a claim or something that you get held up on and it costs you another load or something. Or break down, something like that, it’s there to cover you for those times, you… Let’s say you only ran… You had an issue at a receiver and it costs you a trip or something, and so you only gross 900 for the week while… Guess what, we’re gonna throw in a $100 to get you that $1000. Now, the next week, you may had all standing week and you gross $1500, well, guess what, you gross $1500, you made $1500. We’re not penalizing you for the good weeks, we’re just helping you out during the bad times, which I’m unfortunately in this industry, they happen, we can’t predict truck breakdowns, we can’t predict shipper issues, stuff like that. Especially in covid, this is a weird, weird doing

15:42 JESSE: That it is, and a lot of guys were holding off on taking home time… Well, with covid, that’s a totally different instance, but a lot of guys were holding off on taking home time just because they thought they needed to get those miles in or they weren’t gonna have a paycheck if they didn’t… Well, if you’re available for dispatch, and there is no mileage requirement per se in $1000 guaranteed, but there is being available for dispatch, so it’s our job to make sure that you’re getting those miles and to try and help you exceed… So that $1000 each and every week, but you can take the home time, so it gives you a better balance of home time and pay and just being available, it’s just a better balance for your home life when

16:29 DARIN: They decide to come out with this program… I know I’ve been actually fighting in advocating for this, something along this line for a lot of years, a lot of years. Because like you said, you hit the nail on the head. Drivers want predictability, the wife or a girlfriend or whoever it is at home, they want to be able to try to have some… Some of a steady paycheck. A steady paycheck is the biggest reason the driver stay or go, if the wife or somebody at home can’t pay their bills, they can’t do it with regularity. They’re not gonna be around for very long. They’re not gonna be happy. A non-happy driver is not gonna be around for very long.

17:07 JESSE: Agreed. And why would they… You’re working, all of us, the number of hours in a year in our life that we work, we need to be able to find enjoin it and enjoy what we’re doing and be happy doing it.

17:19 DARIN: When I come off the road, the one… Everybody says I don’t drive as much as I used to, but it is a big change from when I was a driver. And I made very good money as an owner operator here, very good money, I took a heck of a pay cut to come in here, but I got a steady paycheck every week, and that’s what drivers are really looking for. They’re also looking for a company that cares for me. God, do we try and just bend over backwards and trying to take care of our drivers, a lot of drivers don’t see it, they don’t get it, but trust me, everybody here, you know I know Don knows everybody knows. We try to bend over backwards to help. Drivers

17:55 JESSE: Doing the social media, the Facebook and LinkedIn and everything, just with some of the drivers reaching out to me, even just by phone, ’cause I know they can just call and if they need to, then they convince if they wanna think praises, they can give the praises but it’s really reassuring when upper management, when Ken and Brad and Michael and all of those will call me and say, Hey, you know what, if you have concerns, make sure that everybody knows that we have an open door policy. They can come and talk to me about it. They’ve got the support in our drivers have the support, whether they know it or not, the support is here, and we wanna make sure that your concerns are being heard, whether you’re an onus or you want your name out there.

18:42 DARIN: And I wanted to give a shout out to burdened, she actually sent us an email here a little while ago, wanting to think down for doing all he has done for us and her, and I just wanted her to know that we got the email, trust me down is very thankful for that. And we’re more thankful for you guys for just doing what you do, ’cause we gotta have… And the drivers are the utmost support… But every employee here at Decker truck line is important. I don’t care if it’s some mechanics, they’re cleaning up the shops, I don’t care what they’re there, everybody hears a team and they’re important. We all have to work together. If we can’t work together, this whole thing, I’ll just fall apart. Retell. Well, machine, yes. You all together? Yes, sometimes they use three and one oil, sometimes you use 15 foot… Depends how much squeaky we got. Is there anything else you’d like to talk about, anything you like to add? Jesse.

19:39 JESSE: You… I guess if you have somebody that you’re wondering if they qualify, just reach out to the recruiting department and either through the transporter by phone… 888-668-0698. Are there to answer questions? I know the qualifications are usually the number one question that we’re asked that does require a nine months of planet… 9 months of experience period, but it does need to be late specific, and I think that’s one of the main questions I can ask other…

20:08 DARIN: What about overall experience? Which is, it’s nine months period. Isn’t it for any driver?

20:14 JESSE: Yep, requires nine months. Just has to be a specific… For that division.

20:19 DARIN: Well, thank you, Jesse, and keep up the great job on the social media, I try to tune in at 40 o’clock just to hear what you got to say, but keep up a great job and we’ll talk to you later. All

20:30 JESSE: Right, sounds great. Thanks, you guys. 20:32 DARIN: Thanks for SaaS always. Thank you for listening to the inside the train. Don’t forget to subscribe to us on whatever platform you’re listening on, that way, you will know in new episodes drop and remember, submit your questions to podcast@DeckerMail.com, and you could be featured on one of our upcoming episodes. The best way to do this is to create a voice memo on your smartphone, record question and email it to podcast at Decker mail dot com. Once again, thank you for listening. State-driven to be the Best.

Inside the Triangle Episode 19

Posted by deckerAdmin

Driver Spotlight – Crystal Haun

Professional Driver Crystal Haun joins host Darin Ladlie this week to chat about why she took the leap to join the trucking industry; and who inspired her to pursue a career as a Professional Driver after having a desk job her entire life.  She also shares how SmartDrive, Transflo, and her Driver Manager Drew Cardy have all helped her to reach her goals and in turn become a successful Driver.  Crystal enjoys sharing her story, she has some great tips for Drivers who are new in the industry.
Listen Here

Professional Driver Crystal Haun joins host Darin Ladlie this week to chat about why she took the leap to join the trucking industry; and who inspired her to pursue a career as a Professional Driver after having a desk job her entire life.  She also shares how SmartDrive, Transflo, and her Driver Manager Drew Cardy have all helped her to reach her goals and in turn become a successful Driver.  Crystal enjoys sharing her story, she has some great tips for Drivers who are new in the industry.

Trucking Podcast – Inside the Triangle

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
If you have topic suggestions or questions you want answered on the podcast, you can email them to podcast@deckermail.com. Or you can create a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to podcast@deckermail.com

Driver Spotlight: Jerry Arthur

Posted by deckerAdmin

Inside the Triangle, A Decker Truck Line Podcast episode 16

https://anchor.fm/deckertruckline

Our latest episode of Inside the Triangle is out now! Professional Driver Jerry Arthur joins host Darin Ladlie to chat about what it was like in 2006 when Jerry first started at Decker compared to now! Jerry and Darin also talk about transitioning to a Lease Purchase Driver and how to overcome any obstacles that may come your way.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
If you have topic suggestions or questions you want answered on the podcast, you can email them to podcast@deckermail.com. Or you can create a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to podcast@deckermail.com

Demisha Hubbard – Podcast Interview

Posted by deckerAdmin

Inside the Triangle Episode 15: Fleet Manager Spotlight – Demisha Hubbard

Oh my gosh, if you don’t know Demisha Hubbard, you need to get to know her!  Listen to this week’s podcast as Demisha joins host Darin Ladlie over the phone to chat about what a day in the life of a Fleet Manager looks like at our Bessemer, AL terminal.  She talks about why it’s important to have open communication and honesty between Drivers and Fleet Managers and she provides guidance on making truck driving a lucrative career. 
Demisha also shares a little bit about herself, her hobbies and touches base on important topics like college football, 80s hair metal bands and much more!

Oh my gosh, if you don’t know Demisha Hubbard, you need to get to know her!  Listen to this week’s podcast as Demisha joins host Darin Ladlie over the phone to chat about what a day in the life of a Fleet Manager looks like at our Bessemer, AL terminal.  She talks about why it’s important to have open communication and honesty between Drivers and Fleet Managers and she provides guidance on making truck driving a lucrative career.

Demisha also shares a little bit about herself, her hobbies and touches base on important topics like college football, 80s hair metal bands and much more!

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
If you have topic suggestions or questions you want answered on the podcast, you can email them to podcast@deckermail.com. Or you can create a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to podcast@deckermail.com

Thanks, have a great day!

DECKER RETENTION COMMUNICATIONS ACTION TEAM

SmartDrive & ART Program with Patrice Fourtina

Posted by deckerAdmin

Inside the Triangle Decker Podcast Episode 14

SmartDrive and the ART Program with Patrice Fourtina! In this week’s DTL Podcast, Patrice Fourtina, Director of Driver Development, joins host Darin Ladlie to discuss SmartDrive and how this safety technology has helped Decker Drivers improve their driving skills AND how it can help to make them more money! Darin and Patrice also talk about the new Ambassador and Resource Team (ART Program) that he has recently implemented here at Decker. This program focuses on developing and training new Drivers to DTL so they can be even more successful; and, the program is also designed to help improve Driver retention and the overall culture of DTL. Stick around until the end to hear about the Driver Scorecard & SmartDrive bonus payout for the month and Darin also announces the August Drivers of the Month! WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! If you have topic suggestions or questions you want answered on the podcast, you can email them to podcast@deckermail.com. Or you can create a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to podcast@deckermail.com
https://anchor.fm/deckertruckline/episodes/14-SmartDrive-and-ART-Program-with-Patrice-Fourtina-ek44vh

SmartDrive and the ART Program with Patrice Fourtina!

In this week’s DTL Podcast, Patrice Fourtina, Director of Driver Development, joins host Darin Ladlie to discuss SmartDrive and how this safety technology has helped Decker Drivers improve their driving skills AND how it can help to make them more money!  Darin and Patrice also talk about the new Ambassador and Resource Team (ART Program) that he has recently implemented here at Decker.  This program focuses on developing and training new Drivers to DTL so they can be even more successful; and, the program is also designed to help improve Driver retention and the overall culture of DTL.

Stick around until the end to hear about the Driver Scorecard & SmartDrive bonus payout for the month and Darin also announces the August Drivers of the Month!

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
If you have topic suggestions or questions you want answered on the podcast, you can email them to podcast@deckermail.com. Or you can create a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to podcast@deckermail.com

Thanks, have a great day!

Podcast Episode 13 – Tyson Vance

Posted by deckerAdmin

Host Darin Ladlie and Tammy O’Tool wish all Drivers “Happy Driver Appreciation Week” and they share all the special things that DTL is doing this week in honor of all Professional Drivers.  And then, Tyson Vance, Director of Maintenance Support, joins Darin as they talk about common maintenance issues Drivers should look out for and how to prevent them and/or what to do if they need maintenance support when they are out on the road.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!  If you have any topic suggestions or questions you want answered or discussed on an upcoming podcast, e-mail them to podcast@deckermail.com.  Or, you can create a voice memo on your smart phone and e-mail it to podcast@deckermail.com

AS A REMINDER – HOW TO LISTEN: 

Episode 12 – Fleet Manager Spotlight, Matt McConaughey

Posted by deckerAdmin

Fleet Manager Spotlight! Decker Fleet Manager, Matt McConaughey, joins host Darin Ladlie over the phone from Missoula, MT in this week’s Fleet Manager Spotlight episode. Learn everything you ever wanted to know about Matt including ways he keeps a good relationship with his Drivers, how he combines his storm-chasing hobby with working at Decker, and if he really thinks his co-worker Jason Sorlien is a good fisherman!Listen here: https://anchor.fm/deckertruckline/episodes/12-Fleet-Manager-Spotlight—Matt-McConaughey-ejdpc4

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!If you have topic suggestions or questions you want answered on the podcast, you can email them to podcast@deckermail.com. Or you can create a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to podcast@deckermail.com#DeckerTruckLine#DrivenToBeTheBest#fleetmanagerhttps://anchor.fm/deckertruckline/episodes/12-Fleet-Manager-Spotlight—Matt-McConaughey-ejdpc4

Call
Quick Apply