Toyota Owensboro - 4 years DOT Collision Free

On 09/25/2015, the Toyota Owensboro Fleet reached the milestone of 4 Years DOT Collision Free (1460 Days). 

 

Toyota Owensboro has a fleet of 50 drivers traveling in all 48 contiguous states.  This is a great accomplishment.

 

This Fleet delivers the large majority of freight to the northeast and travels on our nation's busiest highways.  This is over 15,000,000 miles traveled DOT Collision Free.



Toyota Owensboro - THE COMMITTED TEAM

 

 

 

 

To put this in perspective, if the fleet was delivering freight to the moon, we could have delivered 37 loads there.  This also equates to 682 trips around Earth.  Without a tenured fleet of safe drivers sticking to the basics of J.B. Hunt Safety Regulations, this could not have been possible. 

 

Thanks, drivers for all of your hard work!

Getting to Know - Todd Langston - OVACO Professional Driver

Todd Langston (LANT38)

 

Todd is a professional driver for OVACO.  He has been with JB Hunt since March 25, 2013.

 

Todd has a 13 month old daughter, Riley.

He likes to fish, though he hasn’t had a chance in a while.

He has UK in the blood, it is rare to see him without wearing some sort of UK blue! 

While he enjoys college basketball his favorite sport to spectate is racing.

Getting To Know - Greg Kus - Intigral Professional Driver

Greg Kus - (KUSG1)

Greg lives in Oakwood Village, OH with his wife Kathy. He was hired on at the Intigral account in February, 2011. Greg loves football and cheering for his favorite team - the Cleveland Browns. Overall Greg lives a pretty simple life;  but when he goes out he enjoys the Outlaw Ribeye at Longhorn Steakhouse. Greg was in the military at one time and was stationed in Hawaii (what a nice place to be stationed).

Family Dollar "Raising the Bar On Service" Polos

As you may be aware Family Dollar had initiated a network wide service challenge for the month of August. The criteria for the challenge was that any driver who did not have a Service Failure for the entire calendar month would earn one of the Family Dollar Polo's pictured below with the inscription: 'Family Dollar Dedicated Driver - Raising the Bar on Service'. 38 JB Hunt drivers at our Morehead location earned the right to wear this shirt.

 

We have been developing some high caliber drivers and fellow managers who can work as a team to achieve such honors from our customers.

 

Professional Driver Eli Palmer

Recent DOM - Billy Harman

Recent DOM Mic Harden

 

Other sites of JB Hunt accounts for Family Dollar have achieved similar results.

Quaker Celebrates Their Drivers

Quaker celebrated their professional drivers with a cookout last week.  Everyone enjoyed their time together.  A goody bag which included a flashlight, candy and a personalized thank you note was given to each professional driver.

 

 

 

 

Leigha Rutan(OS) and Elvis Sehic(AM) with professional drivers Larry Calvert and Travis Harris.

Professional Drivers Rob Miller and Nate Spainhower

Happy Anniversary Chelsi Cleveland

Happy Anniversary to Chelsi Cleveland as today marks her 1 year anniversary with JB Hunt!  Chelsi is a graduate of California State University where she received her Bachelor’s in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing and Management. She began her career with JB Hunt at the PPG account in Pittsburgh, PA. While today marks 1 year, Chelsi also worked with JB Hunt at PPG from 2012 to 2013 before taking some time off as a Stay at Home Mother. We're happy to be celebrating a year with you back, Chelsi!

Happy Anniversary Brandon Denison

Congratulations to Brandon Denison on his 9 year anniversary with J.B. Hunt! Brandon is a graduate of Purdue University and began his career with J.B. Hunt as an Account Manager at Quaker Oats for our Indianapolis and Cedar Rapids, IA fleets. In addition to the Quaker fleets, Brandon managed Electrolux, Merchant Metals, and MasterBrand Cabinets during his tenure at Quaker. In December 2012, Brandon took on the challenge of managing our account with Pet Supplies Plus in Seymour, IN. Brandon has done an excellent job building a great team atmosphere and leading the account to be a great success. Thank you Brandon for all of your dedication and hard work!

Louisville Continues to Celebrate Driver Appreciation Week

Friday in Louisville continued with the cookout, cornhole, and dunking booth festivities. All of the drivers who had not been in yet this week got the opportunity to get some food, their LED light and some quality time on the yard with management.

Andrew Deblock was on hand and along with account management took the opportunity to have a round table discussion with the drivers over some burgers.

 

John Johnson, Grill Master

 

 

Professional Driver Dinner before Roundtable

 

 

  Topic discussed included power in the tractors we're using, how to reduce the frequency of safety events, more parking at truck stops in the northeast, truck size and comfort, and Drivewyze. The consensus was that drivers seemed very pleased in their jobs and that they felt appreciated.

The highlight of the day may have been when Jecorey Newman and Anthony Warchol made their appearances in the dunk tank. For some reason, there was quite a line of both drivers and managers anxious to dunk the upper level managers. Anthony Warchol holding true to his promise went in the dunk tank in his work clothes.

Anthony Warchol looking nervous in the dunk tank



 

Anthony gets wet!

 

  Megan Perez and Annette Coy were also on hand to make sure they got Anthony dunked one good time!

Naomi dunks Anthony

 

 

All in all it was a great week for everyone involved!

Toyota Hebron - Driver Appreciation & 2000 Days Collision Free Celebrations

Celebration was full swing at Toyota Hebron this week. Not only did the fleet celebrate driver appreciation week in but also their most recent milestone of achieving 2000 days collision free! Stephen Guenther, Senior VP of Finance personally recognized the account as being one of the safest and most efficient operations within all of JB Hunt. None of this would have been possible without this outstanding group of professional drivers believing in JB Hunt’s core values and the relationships they have built with their management and customers since the accounts first dispatch.

The Celebration was kicked off by handing out customized Team Toyota shirts and JB Hunt hats embroidered with 2000 Days Collision Free. Then each driver was given a personalized gift bag filled with pens, an LED flash light, heavy duty mechanic gloves, and a Thank You card with a personal message signed by Operations Manager Anthony Warchol, General Manager Jecorey Newman, and Account Manager Josh Mann along with Toyota’s on-site logistics group.

Million mile drivers "Super Dave" Mardis and Lynn Cahill excited to see what's inside the gift bag.

 

 There is nothing like starting your morning with homemade cookies, cherry cobbler, and cheesecake brownies!

  Professional Driver Jerry Knowles is featured smiling ear to ear ready to dig in.

Happy Anniversary James Westerfeld

Today James celebrates 7 years with JB Hunt. He started out as a DMIT working the driver window at Walmart in Johnstown, NY. After a short amount of time at Walmart, James moved several times to support accounts such as Blue Seal, Whirlpool, and finally ending up at the prestigious Family Dollar Rome! Thank you James for all of your hard work and dedication, and congratulations on your milestone.

MasterBrand Driver Appreciation Week Part 2

 

It is Friday and the cookout has continued in full swing. Throughout the week drivers have continued to trickle in and participate in the festivities. There is one thing though that has remained the hot topic of the week. Who would be able to pie the management team in the face? Yes, we may have delicious burgers, have put together a great game of bean bag toss, and have had a blast hanging out with the team but there is no higher award, no greater price than to throw a pie in a manager face.

Please see below the lucky drivers who were drawn from the raffle.




            (Jesse George GEOJ0 —Rachael Knick)       (Burell Lee LEEB2 – Adam Martindale)



                  (Mark Overholt OVEM6 —Garek Dunham)   (Herold Devereaux DEVH – Anthony Warchol)

 

In addition we had the pleasure of continuing to hand out Driver appreciation gifts for their great service.

 

Left to right, Eugene Caldwell CALP1, Nasir Mohamed MOHN, Troy Clark CLAT6, Allan Bradley BRAA2)

To be Continued……….

Happy Anniversary Ray Colio

Happy Anniversary to Ray Colio as today marks his 1 year anniversary with JB Hunt!  Ray is a graduate of Duquesne University where he studied Supply Chain Management. He began his career with JB Hunt as a Manager Trainee in Pittsburgh, PA. In January of 2015 he promoted into his current role of Operations Supervisor at the PPG Account in Pittsburgh, PA. Happy Anniversary!

Driver Appreciation Dinner at PrimeSource

 

To celebrate Driver Appreciation Week, our Management Team in Rochester took all of the drivers and their spouses to dinner last week.  This dinner was a huge success and allowed us to not only thank our drivers, but their spouses as well!

Driver Appreciation at Cargill Liverpool

This past week our management team at Cargill Liverpool treated our drivers to breakfast and a roundtable, followed by a cookout lunch.  We have a great group of committed drivers in Liverpool who service Cargill Animal Nutrition.  Thank you for all your hard work!

 

Happy Anniversary Lisa Winters

Happy Anniversary to Lisa Winters as this past Saturday marked her 4 year anniversary with the company!  Lisa is an Operations Administrative Assistant at our Home Depot Account based out of Monroe, OH.  Happy Anniversary, Lisa!

Driver Appreciation - Family Dollar Ashley

Family Dollar Ashley celebrated Driver Appreciation Week with a picnic where the managers served the special guests. Each guest received gifts from the managers.  There was also the opportunity to enter to win a TV.  Each professional Driver had to write the 5 Smith System Keys and then could be entered to win the TV.

 

Gifts for the Drivers

 

 

Chet Gilbert (OS) serving Professional Driver Robert Mattason

Keith Taylor (DMIT) - assisting with the TV Raffle

Driver Appreciation Week at Toyota



Team Toyota held nothing back this year in Louisville for Driver Appreciation Week. The drivers were met each morning with donuts for breakfast. The account drew each day for door prizes for both the Louisville and Owensboro fleets. The prizes that the drivers could win included flashlights, safety orange and yellow DCS Shirts, DCS polo shirts, Road Atlases, and J.B. Hunt fleece vests.

In addition to the door prizes, the drivers were each given an LED work light. The work lights are Craftsmen brand and are rechargeable so that the drivers can keep them operational while out on the road. The lights had magnets to be hung up on something metal, or a hook to hang them in a work area. In addition to the work lights, the drivers were given hand written thank you cards. The cards included a personalized message thanking them for their hard work this year and signed by each manager on their account.

Thursday also kicked off the Toyota Driver Appreciation cookout, dunk tank, and corn hole on the Louisville Yard. The Louisville shop loaned the Toyota Account their custom charcoal grill (roughly the size of a twin bed) to throw on some burgers and hot dogs. Each driver coming into the yard was greeted with a hot meal and a cold drink. Once everyone got their bellies full, they had the choice of which manager they wanted to get into the dunk tank and alleviate some frustrations in a fun way!

 

 

Van Hooser mans the grill

Sherry Sapp Presenting Paul Buschena (Owensboro Fleet) with his LED light and card.

Nick Van Hooser presenting Jermaine Lovings (Owensboro Fleet) with his LED light and card

Amanda Reyes presenting Billy Goff (Owensboro Fleet) and wife with his LED light and card

Jecorey Newman, Ricky Griffith (Louisville Fleet), and Naomi Eaton presenting Ricky his LED light and card

Naomi Eaton, Jance Miller (Louisville Fleet), James Sanders (Owensboro Fleet), Sherry Sapp, Mike Hulsey (Owensboro Fleet) receiving LED

lights and cards.

Zach Mattingly presenting Darrel Sparks (Owensboro Fleet) with his LED light and card

Driver Appreciation in Park City, KY

 

 

Southern States Park City celebrated driver appreciation week with a breakfast at Cracker Barrel on Monday. All drivers received thank you notes & tool boxes. Inside the tool box, the bulk drivers found a 12 inch adjustable wrench and the tub drivers found a set of screw drivers.

In addition to driver appreciation, both fleets are also celebrating safety streak milestones. The Park City bulk account has gone 700 days collision free and 1,414 days injury free! The Park City Tub account has not had a collision or injury in their 287 days of existence. What an outstanding job by this group of drivers!

Attached is a picture taken after breakfast. Starting left and moving to the right: Mike Kaufman, Lloyd Wilhoite, Marcus Morgan, Josh Orr, Wilson King, Bill Benningfield, Charlie Short, & Tom Arthur.

 



Driver Appreciation Week at Soft-Lite Windows

The Soft-Lite Windows Account in Streetsboro, OH rang in Driver Appreciation Week by putting together a Thank You Poster as well as Goody Bags for all of our drivers.  In Streetsboro, we employ close to 20 drivers that hand unload windows to customers throughout the US.  This is very labor intensive and customer service oriented account.  We have a top notch team of drivers here that has also been responsible for piloting the new Iphone App.  This app allows us to scan windows off as well as get real time proof of delivery and photos of damages.  Thank you to all of our Soft-Lite Drivers!

 

 

Driver Appreciation in Batavia, NY

Above, Russ Newland whips up some breakfast for the team

 

 

This morning, our Account Manager Russ Newland and OM Jerry Hoban thanked our drivers in Batavia by cooking them breakfast.  Our drivers in Batavia service Cargill Animal Nutrition where they deliver bulk feed to some of the biggest farms in NY state.  Thank you to this group of hardworking, dedicated drivers!

Gauda Getting it Done!

Below was a note that came in from one of our Area Risk Managers.  Being this is Driver Appreciation Week I thought it was important to share.  Hats, shirts, and barbeques are great, but things we do like the example below is truly what Driver Dedicated is.  Great work Gauda!

This being National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, I wanted to share something I witnessed yesterday.

I arrived at the Family Dollar account in Ashley, IN. Jonathan Gauda was working on getting things ready for his account celebration this week.  With all of this going on along with it being Monday, Jon packed up and spent a good amount of his day traveling to visit a sick driver.  This account has a driver who has become ill and will have to stay on leave for a few months. This driver was worried about his gear that was left in the truck.  Jon packed up the drivers gear and took it to the drivers home. While there he talked with the driver and his wife and gave them support and comfort.  When Jon returned from this visit he had to work late into the night to stay current on his account. Doing this added the work load to the managers of this account but no one said a word or complained.  I think this is one of the best ways I have witnessed to show driver appreciation.  -Jeff Holle Area Risk Manager 

Congratulations to the Cox Family!

 

 

Congratulations to John Cox on the birth of his granddaughter Ariana Grace!  John is a driver on our Marco's Account in Maumee, OH.  Ariana came in weighing 6.2 lbs, and 19.75"long.  This marks grandchild number 20 for John!  Congrats John!

Driver Appreciation Week at MasterBrand Cabinets

As part of the Driver appreciation week the Management Team put a variety of gifts together that included Hand Written Thank You Cards, Tool Kits, Raffle Gifts, LED Hats, Cooling Towels, and the opportunity to throw a pie into one of the managers faces (which every driver wants dearly). In addition to the gifts, a weeklong cookout that is being hosted alongside games such as Corn hole, Putting Competitions, and Battleship.

 

 

 

Lastly, we have been very fortunate in the active participation of our Customer MasterBrand Cabinets in this event. We have had a strong showing of forces of their employees wanting to be a part of this week long event.

 

(1^st picture Kevin Mair VP of Logistics, 2^nd picture Jon Green, 3^rd picture Jon Green, Jason Green, and Scotty Baker)