The Grand prize winners of the TCA 33rd Annual National Fleet Safety Awards program were Stagecoach Cartage & Distribution, El Paso, Texas, and Bison Transport, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Stagecoach Cartage won the award for truckload companies with a total annual mileage of less than 25 million miles. Bison Transport won in the category for truckload companies with a total annual mileage of more than 25 million miles.
The awards, made during the TCA Convention's banquet, were presented to Jay Blobner, director of safety for Stagecoach Cartage, and Rob Penner, vice president, operations, Bison Transport.
The two companies were selected from among 18 division winners in the awards program.
Stagecoach Cartage
Both companies strive to meet stringent standards in their overall safety programs, on and off the highway, and were judged to be the best in their commitments to improving safety on our nation's highways.
For Stagecoach Cartage, the basis of an outstanding safety program begins with major investments in technology. The company has incorporated the latest technology into its vehicles, allowing it to track such data as maximum truck speed, idle time, hard braking, lane departures, and tire pressure.
Using this information, it can, for example, spot a driver who is following other vehicles too closely and work with him to change the unsafe habit.
The company believes that a healthy driver has a much better chance of being a safe driver; so health is a major concern for the company's management. Employees receive fruit every morning for breakfast and are reimbursed for membership in a fitness facility if they choose to participate.
Stagecoach Cartage recently held a Fitness Challenge, paying everyone who entered $10 for each pound of weight lost. It also hosts a driver fatigue (sleep apnea) program and a smoking cessation program.
Another tenant of Stagecoach's safety program is attention to driver needs. “A driver who feels that he has no one to turn to if he has issues with other personnel, safety concerns, family issues, etc, is an unhappy driver who may in turn become an unsafe driver,” the company wrote in its National Fleet Safety Awards application.
For this reason, the company mediates numerous meetings between the driver and various company representatives until the conflict is resolved.
Stagecoach also utilizes a rigorous driver hiring and training program and orientation system. With a driver turnover rate of only 25 percent, it is clear the company's drivers are content with their jobs, and thus more likely to make safety a priority in order to keep their jobs.
Bison Transport
This is the third consecutive year that Bison Transport has won TCA's Grand Prize National Fleet Safety Award for its mileage category. When it first won in 2005, the carrier had created a “You're Safe With Me” campaign. It continues today and has been expanded with much success.
A new feature of the 2007 campaign was the development of a driver risk level assessment, which applies point values for positive and negative things, such as training a driver has completed, moving or logbook violations, and preventable accidents. When the formula is calculated, it helps Bison Transport identify a driver's risk level and allows the company to work with the driver to bring him to an acceptable level of risk before he might be involved in an accident.
The tool has enabled the company to replace general fleet training programs with specific programs tailored to the individual driver — at the urgency level required — resulting in safer drivers overall.
In its application, Bison Transport stated: “Our philosophy is simple and unwavering. We do what is right! We are vigilant in the protection of our people, our assets, the cargo our customers entrust us with, our environment, and those we share the roads with.
“We encourage and reward safe driving practices, and we remind our people daily of their responsibility, as professionals, to uphold safety.”
Judging process
The judging process for the TCA's National Fleet Safety Awards begins with the determination of the top companies in each of six mileage divisions. The division winners are selected based on accident frequency only. The top three winners in each division then compete for the two grand prizes.
The grand prize-winning companies are judged on their overall safety programs, both on- and off-highway. Some of the factors considered include safety program organization, employee driver/independent contractor selection procedures, training, supervision, accident investigation, inspection and maintenance of equipment, and such outside activities as general highway safety.
In an effort to ensure the highest level of integrity in the contest, all grand prize finalists are audited by independent auditors not affiliated with TCA or the carriers.
Division winners
The companies named as the top divisional winners, based on low accident frequency per million miles, are (listed first through third place):
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Division I, under 5 million miles
StageLine Express, Coopersville, Michigan
Excargo Services, Houston, Texas
Rochester Cartage, Rochester, Minnesota
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Division II, 5 to 14.99 million miles
H O Bouchard, Hampden, Maine
Stallion Express, Beebe, Arkansas
Lydall Transport, Glen Allen, Virginia
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Division III, 15 to 24.99 million miles
D & D Sexton, Carthage, Missouri
Usher Transport, Louisville, Kentucky
Stagecoach Cartage & Distribution, El Paso, Texas
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Division IV, 25 to 49.99 million miles
MacKinnon Transport, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Erb International, New Hamburg, Ontario, Canada
Metropolitan Trucking, Maywood, New Jersey
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Division V, 50 to 99.99 million miles
Groupe Robert, Rougemont, Québec, Canada
Carter Express, Anderson, Indiana
Koch Companies, Minneapolis, Minnesota
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Division VI, 100+ million miles
Bison Transport, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
May Trucking, Salem, Oregon
Roehl Transport, Marshfield, Wisconsin
