Altoona, Iowa – Six professional drivers represented Decker Truck Line in the Iowa Truck Driver Championships on Friday, June 10, 2022. Mike Graf, Mike Mertz, Felix Perez, and Tom Melton all competed in the Flatbed division. Mike Graf, Mike Mertz, and Felix Perez were all first-time participants at the TDC.
Iowa: Professional Drivers Todd Ouverson, Mike Graf, Felix Perez, Mike Mertz, Dean Filmer, and Tom Melton. Pictured with Safety Department Team Maggie Strait and Patrice Fourtina.
Dean Filmer competed in the 5-axle competition and Todd Ouverson represented Decker in the Sleeper Berth division. This was Dean’s 19th year competing and his 2nd championship title. He won Sleeper Berth back in 2016.
Dean earned 1st place in 5-axle and Tom Melton placed 3rd in Flatbed for the 2022 Iowa Truck Driver Championships.
Helena, Montana – Five professional drivers represented Decker Truck Line in the Montana Truck Driver Championships on a wet Saturday, June 11, 2022. Art Clubb and Ron Buck competed in the 5-Axle division. Lyle Turville and Roy Middlestead both competed in the Sleeper Berth division, and Donald Nealey represented Decker Truck Line in the Flatbed division for the Montana State Truck Driver Championships. Ron, Donald, and Roy were all first-time participants at the TDC. All 3 Rookie competitors placed in the state competitions. Ron Buck placed 2nd in 5-Axle, Roy Middlestead placed 3rd in Sleeper Berth, and Donald Nealey placed 3rd in Flatbed.
Lyle Turville brought home his second 1st place title. He won the 5-Axle in 2019 and the Sleeper Berth in 2022.
Montana: Professional Drivers Art Clubb, Ron Buck, Donald Nealey, and Lyle Turville (not pictured is Roy Middlestead). Pictured with Operations Team Greg Kreta, Steven Hatten, Jason Sorlien, and Matt Nicholls.
Indianapolis, Indiana – Lyle and Dean will be going on to Nationals taking place in Indianapolis from August 16th-19th. Stay tuned as we continue to support our professional drivers on their way to the National Truck Driver Championships.
Tom Melton and Dean Filmer
Art Clubb, Ron Buck, Lyle Turville, Donald Nealey
Roy Middlestead
Congrats to ALL the professional drivers at Decker Truck Line for earning the Zero Accidents in Montana for the category of 1,500,001 to 2,500,000 miles and Outstanding Achievement for Zero Accidents in Montana awards presented to Decker Truck Line by the Montana Trucking Association during the Montana Truck Driving Expo on Saturday.
The life of a truck driver is full of sacrifices, today, I’d like to share a few of the many things I’m thankful to drivers for. You fuel our economy. Without drivers, gas stations would go out of business. You take our garbage to the landfill, recycling centers would go out of business, and factories need trucking services to bring them supplies.
You help keep the peace. Even though you spend hours, and sometimes days on the road, you still manage to arrive at your destination in a good mood. Thank you for not speeding through our streets, or driving aggressively.
You serve our country in times of need. Due to your dedication to our nation, when the nation is in danger, you continue to take care of us.
You supply us with everything from water, food, natural resources, medical supplies, office equipment, vehicles, and more. Without drivers, there would be no logging, farming, or mining industry. You are literally the backbone of our economy.
You are the first to respond in times of natural disasters. When hurricanes, floods, ice storms, tornadoes, or wildfires strike, you are always on the front lines helping us to rebuild our lives after the storm passes through.
You don’t expect any recognition for all that you do for us day in and day out. All that’s asked in return is for you to be safe while you do it. Thank you for your continuous dedication and commitment to us.
We appreciate all that you do!
Want to be part of the team? Apply online at www.drivedecker.com or call 888.668.0698
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!
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…”
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
Decker is now offering $1450 ($1700 in some areas) a week with weekly home time in our Midwest Guaranteed Pay Flatbed division.
Are you looking to be home on the weekends, run regionally and have a guaranteed pay each week? Wanna know how to qualify?
9 months of flatbed tractor-trailer experience
clean driving record (3 years)
no DOT recordable preventable accidents
no major moving violations
no more than 2 moving violations in the last 12 months
no more than 2 incidents in the last 12 months
good, stable work history
dependable professional who takes pride in their work and their equipment
Guaranteed Pay Requirements:
Be available for dispatch the entire week,
No load refusals,
Turn in paperwork,
100% on-time delivery – no preventable driver service failures / If you don’t meet all qualifications, regular MW Flatbed mileage pay applies ($47-.54/mile)
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
How do you choose a good trucking company when you are being bombarded by phone calls, emails and texts from numerous prospecting trucking companies?
Stability
Is the company well established? Does the company offer a stable work environment? Will you receive consistent paychecks or a guarantee/minimum pay?
Work Life Balance
What kind of home time does the company offer? Are you looking for something that’s more local or are you looking for something regional where you’re home on a weekly basis or are you considering maybe something that’s over the road and don’t mind being out for two to three weeks at a time? Before you decide on what company to start working for is important to know where you stand on your expectations. What are you wanting? What are you and your family needing?
Comforts and Conveniences
Does the company provide a refrigerator? A microwave? An inverter? These are all things to consider when looking at a trucking company because you may need to invest in your own cooking utilities, or you’ll have to budget eating out which can be very expensive when you’re out on the road.
When a company provides some of those resources to their drivers shows that they’re not only looking out for you and your health but trying help you reduce your expenses out on the road. Being able to budget your finances can be difficult with most of your money going towards take out. By providing a refrigerator, a microwave, and an inverter in order to use a crock pot or a grill the company demonstrates how important it is to save money on the road not only for them but for you.
What kind of comforts does the company offer you besides just cooking options?
Do you have plenty of space in the truck? Are the beds comfortable, roomy & a clean mattress? Is there enough storage in the truck for all your personal items? Are the seats air ride?
What are some of the conveniences that the company provides you? Not only are a microwave, a fridge and inverter wonderful things to have, but there are conveniences such as a television with satellite TV programming, and Sirius radio.
Tools On-Hand
Does the company supply the tools for you to do your job properly? Do you have a quality ELD system? Do they provide you with top of the line navigation? How do you get your paperwork in?
Transflo app on your phone
Onboard scanner in the truck
Other options to turn in paperwork
Equipment
What kind of equipment does the company have? Is it well maintained? Are they newer model?
These are all things that you want to consider when you are choosing a trucking company.
Here at Decker truck line we not only offer a stable work environment which consists of a weekly minimum guaranteed pay but we also offer good home time. We have several options whether you’re looking for home daily, home multiple times throughout the week, home on the weekends, or out two the three weeks at a time.
Call 888-668-0698 to get more details on what’s available here at Decker truck line. Decker’s been established since 1931 and we have a reputation of taking great care of our drivers, those drivers who have worked so hard to get us through this pandemic and so much more. Not only do we push for home time options for you, but we also incentivize with monthly bonuses, guaranteed and minimum pay, extra pays for short-haul, clean inspections, extra drop and picks, hazmat, East Coast pay, plus, we have added bonuses such as our Driver of the Month program, our Driver of the Year of programs, our Referral program and so much more. We offer full benefits which include medical, dental, vision, and prescription as well as a 30% match for the 401K.
Our equipment and amenities are second to none. We have mostly 579 Peterbilts, 730 , 740 and 760 Volvos , and Freightliner Cascadia Evolutions . They are automatics, and well equipped with almost any amenity you can think of from APUs, to televisions with 100 plus channels of company-paid satellite programming. We have microwaves, inverters, refrigerators, CD units, onboard scanners, Sirius radio, and top of the line communications in all of our trucks. Not only do we want you to have comforts such as plenty of space, storage, and of course air-ride seats but we want you to have the luxury of being able to save money on the road by preparing your own meals instead of having to eat out every night.
If you’re interested in learning more about Decker Truck Line, Inc and want to apply online go to www.drivedecker.com and apply now.
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
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
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
Click on the black podcast icon in anyone’s e-mail signature line, next to the other social media icons, this will take you to Inside the Triangle Decker Podcast, then you can choose the episode that you would like to listen to.
Search for “Inside the Triangle” on your favorite podcast smart phone app or on your computer’s web browser. Once you find it, don’t forget to subscribe so you will always know when new episodes are released!
You can also go to our Decker Truck Line website (www.deckertruckline.com) or the Decker Intranet and click on Podcast in the menu bar at the top of the page, from there, you will be able to choose the episode that you would like to listen to.