Getting to Know - Scott Gilson - Professional Driver - Ellwood City Forge

Scott Gilson (GILM64) - Professional Driver - Ellwood City Forge

Rich Schwartz (Area Risk Manager) recently rode with Scott Gilson.

Scott is married with three very successful grown children. He resides in Slippery Rock, PA right near the university.

He is a Army Reserve Veteran and comes from a family of professional drivers. His late father and his brothers have driven for many years. Scott was a referral from his owner-operator brother who was pulling for Ellwood City Forge and since then he has become the accounts lead driver trainer.

Scott enjoys his job and specifically providing for his family and small army of grandchildren. In his spare time, he enjoys shooting, making model T-trains with his grandson, and loves going to Pirates games. Scott is a true family man and one fantastic truck driver.

Happy Anniversary Jess Caudill

Happy Anniversary to Jess Caudill as today marks 2 years with JB Hunt. He started his career as an Operations Supervisor at the Pet Supplies Plus account in Seymour, IN. After one year he took on his current role of Account Manager of Tyson in Corydon, IN. He has done a great job improving service and financial results; his flexibility with such a demanding account is recognized and appreciated. We're proud to have you on the team. Congrats, Jess!

Soft Lite - Backing Blitz

We recently conducted a backing blitz at the Soft-Lite Windows account in Streetsboro, OH.

We have seen too many stationary object strikes at the account so the goal was to create a close quarters backing training with simulated dumpsters, $90,000 Ferrari's, and snow banks to make sure our drivers understood  G.O.A.L. and how to use it to get the big picture.

Overall, we had a great turnout with some really good conversations. Special thanks to Tracy Walker, Terry Galyon, John Dodson, Mike Varty, and Sue Mateo for helping Rich Schwartz put this together.

Getting to Know - Aatif Pittman - Professional Driver - Family Dollar - Rome

Aatif Pittman(PITA15) Professional Driver - Family Dollar Rome

Al Valachovic (Area Risk Manager) recently rode with Aatif Pittman.  Aatif has been with the company for about 2.5 years and prior to JB Hunt he drove for Snyder.

He currently lives in Rome, NY, the same town as his account. He was born in Queens, NY and is very familiar with the Five Burrows. He has one brother and four sisters.

During his personal time, he enjoys messing around with computers, drawing and likes to play the piano. 

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.