Happy Anniversary Jeremy Messing

February 3rd marks Jeremy Messing's two year anniversary with the J.B. Hunt family. Currently Jeremy is a Logistics Coordinator at The Home Depot, Van Buren. Jeremy is responsible for making sure over 100 Professional Drivers are dispatched safely and on time daily. A big and stressful responsibility to shoulder. We are extremely proud of Jeremy. And, it's evident that Jeremy takes pride it what he does. He is one of the main reasons why we made such a turnaround in 2015 and received Large Account of the Year. Jeremy's competitiveness shows in his love of Hockey, and making sure we are "Minimum Better Than" Monroe. Jeremy, thank you for 2 fantastic years of Dedication and Hard Work!

The NEW Family Dollar - Morehead

Family Dollar Morehead has a new outlook and new people. We are all new to our positions, some of us brand new to JB Hunt. The atmosphere feels like a new Account Startup. With that being said we thought the best places to start with would be our Driver Trainers. On Sunday Jan. 31st we held a JB Hunt Driver Mentor Refresher Course. Attendees of the class:

Dustin Hatfield - Trainer

Anthony Warchol - Operations Manager

Rhonda Thacker - Account Manager

Ashley Haney - Operations Supervisor

Greg Thomas - Senior Driver Trainer

Jeff Mullins Sr. - Senior Driver Trainer

Robert Hines - Senior Driver Trainer

Family Dollar was gracious enough to let us use one of their training rooms equipped with a projector to enhance our training. Our day began around 8:30 am with donuts and drinks.

Training started at 9:00 am.  Being a refresher course for the Trainers, it was a learning experience for some of the office personnel. Dustin had spiral bound books made that will serve as a very useful tool for trainers and managers. Dustin had the agenda mapped out in the books.

The first half of our training consisted of an introduction to JB Hunt. With videos showing John and Jonelle, we learned about the dreams and reality of the birth of JB Hunt Inc. We talked about the standards for our Driver Mentors and driver trainee minimums.

From there we covered JBH policy standards and CSA. Our trainers are proud men who take pride in what they do. The offered suggestions and listened to advice from Dustin. We saw Safety Direct videos, JSA's and talked about Pre-Trip Inspections.

For lunch, Anthony picked up Subway. After a brief lunch break we were back to the grind. The 2nd half of our training consisted of Smith System, Shifting, Turns and Intersections and Close Quarter Maneuvers.

 The last sections of training we went over were HOS, Maintenance PeopleNet. We ended with an overview of JB Hunt specialized services.

In all we had a great day of training. Even though it ran from 9am to 5 PM the time was spent with questions and discussions and the time flew by. I think we all learned a few new things and look forward to more training sessions like this one. 

Getting to Know - Mick Winstead - Professional Driver - Central Farm & Garden

Mick Winstead (WINM0) - Professional Driver - Central Farm & Garden

Tracy Walker (Area Risk Manager) recently rode with Mick Winstead.  

Mick has been driving for several years and has been with delivering for Central Farm and Garden for 13 years.  Because of his experience, he knows the majority of the customers very well.

He has 2 boys; the eldest works for Central Farm and Garden in the warehouse, and the youngest is in High School and just taking his driver’s license exam today. He enjoys playing paint ball and has competed with teams across the globe. If not playing, he also serves as a referee for the sport.

His favorite thing he’s done was fishing in Ontario Canada at a remote lake having to be dropped off by plane and then picked up a week later.  

Getting to Know - Bruce Fowler - Professional Driver - CHEP Columbus

Bruce Fowler (FOWB7) - Professional Driver - CHEP Columbus

Dustin Hatfield (Area Risk Manager) recently rode with Bruce Fowler.  Bruce is a 20 year vet of the driving profession.

He got his start working for a company that delivered supplies to pizza chains and they were so impressed with him that they eventually offered to pay for him to get his CDL. One of the thing’s Bruce is very proud of is the fact that he’s never had to be truly over-the-road as a driver. He said that he’s had some week long gigs but never had to be out for an extended period of time. His home time is very important to him as he has two small grand children at home and you can tell that he’s very proud of them as he got a big smile on his face whenever he mentioned them.

The CHEP account has worked out well for Bruce. He enjoys being home each night and has found a niche in running an almost static route delivering between Columbus and Dannon (Yogurt) in Minster, OH twice a day. 

Getting to Know - Mark Bennett - Professional Driver - Sanson

Mark Bennett (BEMN19) - Professional Driver - Sanson

Rich Schwartz (Area Risk Manager) recently rode with Mark Bennett.

Mark resides with his wife in Lorain, OH.

 He used to work for the JoAnn’s account as well as Home Depot Van Buren before coming to Intigral. At Intigral Mark was a go to guy for any loads in sourced or outsourced.

Mark is a DJ in his spare time as well as in a band where he plays guitar. Mark has a love for Pepsi and an extensive taste in music. Mark is currently approaching his million mile safe driving award and enjoys his new position at Sanson.

Happy 16th Anniversary Lynn Cahill - Professional Driver - Toyota Hebron

On January 27th, Lynn Cahill proudly celebrated his 16th year with JB Hunt and has accomplished many achievements on and off the road.

Lynn has been happily married for 31 years to his wife, Mary.  He served in the Marines for 8 years and during that time he earned the rank of Staff Sergeant and did three tours in Vietnam.

Once becoming a professional driver, Lynn was driver trainer for many years for the OTR division before transferring to DCS. Lynn started his DCS career at Quality Cabinet's before transferring to Toyota's new start up account in Hebron, KY seven years ago. Among these accomplishments he has also earned the 1 Million Safe Miles award.  Thank you Lynn for your dedication and service.

Happy Anniversary Garek Dunham

Happy Anniversary to Garek Dunham, as yesterday marked his Anniversary with JB Hunt. As a proud graduate of Western Kentucky University, Garek worked on the Dollar General account in 2012 and 2013. Garek returned to JB Hunt on January 19th of 2015 to help tackle the start up of the MasterBrand Cabinets Account in Ferdinand, IN. We're happy you're back, Thank you for all that you do!