Fleet Insider

Paschall Drivers of the Month
Douglas Apato is the Paschall Truck Lines February 2005 Company Driver of the Month. Mark Hatfield is the February Owner-Operator of the Month.

Apato has been a professional driver for 25 years. He has spent the last 14 years with PTL. He has been a Company Driver of the Month five times and was the 1999 Driver of the Year. Hatfield has driven professionally for eight years, and he signed up with PTL three years ago.


Safety Award
For its outstanding safety record, USF Reddaway was awarded first place in the LTL over 4 million miles category on April 4 in Eugene, Ore., at the Oregon Trucking Association’s Safety Awards Banquet.


Landair Honorees
Mike Swearingen is Landair Transport’s 2004 Driver of the Year. He has been with the fleet for five years.

Nelson Tolbert is the 2004 Contactor of the Year. He has been with Landair for eight years.


NPTC Driver
Randy Yeager was inducted into the National Private Truck Council Driver Hall of Fame April 26 at the organization’s Annual Education Management Conference and Exhibition in Pittsburgh.

Yeager was honored for the 2.2 million accident-free miles he drove throughout his 22-year trucking career at MI Transportation.

The Driver Hall of Fame – sponsored by Bridgestone/Firestone – inducts four drivers a year. Inductees must have either 2 million miles, 20 years or 50,000 hours of consecutive driving without a preventable accident.

Edward Haines, another MI Transportation driver, was also nominated.


Trucker Buddy of the Month
Leonard Emery of Las Vegas is the April 2005 Trucker Buddy of the Month. He has written to Patricia Mawn’s fourth grade class at Oxford Elementary School in Fairhaven, Mass., since 1994.

The Andrus Transportation Services driver will receive a personalized jacket, $300 to spend on the class and $200 in Trucker Buddy merchandise, compliments of MultiMedia. He will also receive an IdleAire adaptor, a Koolatron cooler and Donde Publishing’s “For the Long Haul.” The class will receive a CrossCountry USA game from Ingenuity Works.


Overnite Honors
Overnite Transportation Company drivers took top honors at the South Carolina State Truck Driving Championships held April 23-24.

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The 14 Overnite drivers’ combined scores won the team trophy. All competitors are rated on their driving skills and are scored on a written test and a personal interview.

Rick Simpson took first place in the flatbed division, while John Cook won the blue ribbon in the three-axle class. Ronnie Luckadoo landed the top position in the twin-trailer class. Both Cook and Simpson are former South Carolina Grand Champions. All three drivers are from Gaffney, S.C.

The three drivers will represent the company at the National Truck Driving Championships in Tampa, Fla., in August.

Three other Gaffney drivers, Dennis Martin, Jim Combs and Steve Newsome, finished second in the twins, sleeper and five-axle categories, respectively. Martin was named Rookie of the Year for earning the highest score among all first-time championship competitors.


Maverick Drivers of the Month
Maverick Transportation’s 2005 January Driver of the Month is Vince Lester of Hinton, W.Va. The February Driver of the Month is David Bucci of Denton, Texas. The March Driver of the Month is Tom Douglas of New Philadelphia, Ohio.


Million Mile Club Inductees
Marten Transport inducted 34 new members into its Million Mile Club April 16 at the Holiday Inn Campus Area in Eau Claire, Wis.

Million Mile Club inductees were Chuck Adkins of Newburyport, Maine, Billy Baker of Radcliff, Ky., Dick Benson of Fairchild, Wis., George Bouchard of Riverside, R.I., Patricia and Randy Brim of Minerva, Ohio, Lee Demere of Bejou, Minn., Tyler Dorsey of Decatur, Ga., Doug Garber of Maryville, Ill., Ralph Harvey of Noblesville, Ind., Bob Head of Griffin, Ga., Dale Henderson of Rice Lake, Wis., Robert Horne of Easley, S.C., Marty Jensen of Shady Grove, Ore., John Lattig of Holladay, Tenn., William Lauderdale of Giolenda, Ill., Mark Love of Taylors, S.C., Dwayne Payton of Phoenix, Ariz., Marshall Platter of Houston, Texas, Robert Stevens of Ephrata, Wash., Charlie Tederman of Olympia, Wash., William Thomas of Allentown, Pa., Bertram Walker of Kingman, Ariz., Ken White of Springfield, Colo., and Gerald Wong of White Swan, Wash.

Two Million Mile Club inductees were Jeff Smith of New Castle, Ky., Tracy Gorden of Bayton, Texas, Lloyd Jones of Blue River, Ore., Lonny Stacey of Carlton, Ore., Fred Williams of Fairfield, Calif., Paul Bartlett of Montrose, Minn., Phineas Schrock of Greenwood, W.Va., Tony Myers of Keizer, Ore., and Mark Freeman of Mesa, Ariz.

Million Mile Club members must have at least a million miles of accident-free driving with Marten Transport.


Prime’s New Compensation Package
Prime’s new compensation structure for all current and future refrigerated division company drivers starts as high as 35.5 cents per mile, based on experience.

Some current drivers now earn as much as 62.5 cents per mile, including all bonuses, fuel surcharge and driver training programs.

The program rewards drivers based on the number of years they have driven and credits experienced drivers with mileage driven for future pay increases.

Prime has also increased the company’s contribution its employees’ 401(k) plans by 20 percent. All employees who have been with the company for one year are eligible for the 401(k) plan. Prime matches every employee dollar with a 50-cent contribution up to 6 percent of the employee’s gross pay.


Danny Herman’s Top Drivers
Jim and John Partin are the Danny Herman Trucking Drivers of 2004. The Partins, a team out of Mountain City, Tenn., drove more than 237,000 accident-free miles in less than 11 months in 2004. Alfred Truesdale is the Danny Herman Owner-Operator of 2004.

Truesdale is also out of Mountain City, Tenn. He completed more than 165,000 miles last year.


TMC Wheel Master Award
TMC Transportation honored owner-operator Kevin Dinsdale with the 2004 Wheel Master Award. Dinsdale became eligible for the award when he was picked as the Driver of the First Quarter 2004. He has been with TMC since October 1985.

The Wheel Master Program was created to recognize TMC’s best drivers.


Fleet Gets First U.S. Volvo Engines
The first U.S.-built Volvo D12 engine was presented to AAA Cooper Transportation April 15. Previously, Volvo engines were produced in Sweden and exported to North America.

The presentation marked the formal start of series production of Volvo engines in North America at the Volvo Powertrain facility in Hagerstown, Md. Production of the recently introduced 16-liter Volvo D16 will begin at Hagerstown in late September. Volvo is investing $150 million in the Hagerstown facility to make it the North American Center of Excellence for its powertrain operations.


CFI Drivers of the Month
CFI has named its March 2005 Drivers of the Month.

Mark Kettler is the Company Driver of the Month. Kettler started driving for CFI in 1994. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas. Scott Phelps and Von Dole make up the Company Team of the Month. They began driving for CFI in 1999.

Floyd Golemon is the Contractor Driver of the Month. Golemon lives in Alexandria, La., and began driving for CFI in 1998. Jose and Anna Soto make up the Contractor Team of the Month. The Sotos began driving for CFI in 1998 and 2002, respectively. They live in Farmersville, Texas.