Two Weeks til Kickoff 2014

OK folks.......it's just about that time again.  We will be descending upon downtown Louisville for our annual Kickoff Meeting in 2 weeks.  I will begin to communicate daily to you via the blog, so make sure and check for daily updates.

We have some exciting additions to this years kickoff and a great guest speaker for Friday night.  Don't forget---I need your vote for our prestigious Driver of the Year Award.  It is always the highlight of every Friday banquet to honor the best of the best.

We will staying at the downtown Marriott in the best city the bluegrass state has to offer.

Mark Byrd, our 2012 Central Region Driver of the Year.

 

Knowing your Dollar Stores

Showing that many Americans are still pinching pennies, the largest dollar store chains are planning to open more new stores nationwide in 2014 than they have since the economic recession started.
Dollar General Corp., which operates 11,061 stores in 40 states, wants to open 700 more of its yellow stores in the coming year. Plans are to also remodel or relocate another 525, said company spokesman Dan MacDonald.
It’s not known if any new locations are planned locally.
This past year, Goodlettsville Tenn.-based Dollar General opened 650 new U.S. stores, including 58 openings in Ohio such as Millville Avenue in Hamilton. There are now 771 Dollar Generals statewide.
Dollar General’s growth has accelerated since the start of the so-called “Great Recession” in Dec. 2007. The first full year of the downturn in 2008, the retailer opened 450 new stores, MacDonald said.
“Our business model is solid in good times and bad and is probably more relevant to customers when times are bad,” he said.
Competitor Family Dollar Stores Inc. runs 8,000 storefronts in 46 states, said spokesman Josh Braverman. Plans are to open 525 more stores and close 80 locations nationally in fiscal year 2014. The company’s fiscal year started in September.
That compares to 500 store openings for fiscal 2013, including the newly opened store at 130 Main St. in Hamilton. In fiscal 2012, Family Dollar opened 475 stores such as the one at 199 S. Riverside Drive in New Miami.
By comparison, 180 new Family Dollars opened between September 2008 and August 2009 in the U.S., according to Braverman.
Meanwhile, Matthews, N.C.-based Family Dollar is also undergoing a major renovation of stores — 800 were remodeled last fiscal year, and another 800 remodels are planned this year, Braverman said.
Coolers and frozen food sections are being added to renovated locations, he said.
“Over the last few years we’ve really put a lot of emphasis on improving our assortment in our food category,” he said.
Dollar General this year introduced tobacco products, a move Family Dollar made the year before.
Similarly, Dollar General is also offering more frozen and refrigerated food items including frozen vegetables, frozen meals, eggs and milk in stores as it adds cooler doors, MacDonald said.
In 2003, Dollar General introduced a new format that sells produce and meat. Dollar General Market, as the concept is called, opened a Mason location in 2007.
Dollar stores negotiate prices of stocked items with vendors. These discount stores also tend to spend less on advertising to keep prices low.
Prices at Dollar General for the same item tend to be 30 to 40 percent cheaper than a typical drugstore, and 15 to 20 percent cheaper than a standard grocery store, MacDonald said.
Most of Dollar General’s items are priced below $10, with about 25 percent of goods selling for $1 or less. Family Dollar’s average transaction is about $10, with about 30 percent of merchandise priced at $1 or less, according to the companies.
Family Dollar says its average customer is a female head-of-household in her mid-40s earning $40,000 a year.
Angel Gibbs, shopping with her daughter Jaylen Parker on Tuesday at the Main Street Hamilton Family Dollar, said they shop there “all the time.”
“Not only is it convenient, there’s good prices. It’s about good deals,” Gibbs said. She gets text alerts for two daily deals from the store.
The Main Street store is in walking distance for JoAnn Brumley of Hamilton.
“We come at least twice a week, just to grab our little necessities that we forget at the big stores,” said Bramley on Tuesday, shopping with her granddaughter Diana Marez.
Seventy percent of Dollar General stores are in communities with populations of less than 20,000, according to the company. Family Dollar in the past has looked to open in strip shopping centers, in urban and suburban areas. Now Family Dollar prefers to build new stores to suit, company officials said.
By the end of 2011, dollar stores in the U.S. had outnumbered drugstores, according to research by Ann Natunewicz, vice president of retail services for commercial real estate firm Colliers International, in San Francisco. Colliers has Cincinnati and Dayton offices.
“In 2007 to 2008 when we saw families getting pinched on their personal incomes, there’s always a migration to value, to anything that’s discounted,” Natunewicz said.
“Especially in small communities, people just found them to be a convenient place to shop,” she said.
Consumers continue to be tight spenders, thanks to pressures on their pocketbooks from higher payroll taxes, concerns about rising health care costs, high unemployment and underemployment, reductions in food stamp benefits and expiring long-term unemployment benefits.
As a result, shoppers are spending more on necessary items and less on things they don’t have to have. Discount retailers are expanding food merchandise in direct response to that trend, and the introduction of tobacco drives repeat business, Natunewicz said.
“Whenever you have a recession, people cut back on discretionary spending and they spend more on consumables or necessary items,” she said. “Even the dollar stores have seen some erosion in the confidence of their shoppers.”

Interesting Perspective from Werner COO

This article was published in the latest version of "The Trucker".....its worth a read:

Derek Leathers is an imposing figure physically.

Standing at well over 6 feet tall, the president and COO of Werner Enterprises still looks as though he could strap on the pads and handle himself well on the football field, which is exactly what he did some 20-plus years ago at Princeton University where he earned a degree in economics and immediately launched his career in the trucking industry.

And in those 20-plus years since, he shunned a possible banking career because he wanted a job with more people contact than finance afforded, and he’s become an authoritative and respected voice in trucking.

He’s in demand all over the country as a lecturer and turns up on just about every panel discussion about driver issues.

So it was no surprise that he was one of four panelists on a discussion titled, “All About the Driver” at the recent American Trucking Associations Management Conference and Exhibition held here.

Here are some of the statements Leathers, 44, made as a response to questions posed to him and the other panelists during the 90-minute discussion.

• About 40 percent of the drivers Werner hires are right out of school and the company works hard during the first 90 days of employment to not only help further develop the skills of driving a truck, but to develop an understanding of the industry.

He calls it a finishing process, which at Werner could take anywhere from five to eight weeks and is a vital step because of the changing demographics and changing personalities of young hires.

“We give them a sort of a healthy introductory dose to trucking and I don’t mean the mechanical side or the driving side,” he said. “I mean an industry orientation into the lifestyle they are now entering because as we look at the turnover graphs it would be my contention it’s not so much large truckload carriers at 99 percent and midsize at 80, it’s really those that hire students at 99 percent and those that don’t at a lower number because within the large truckload fleets what you really see is the student turnover rate that’s well into the 100 percent and maybe as much as 200 percent within those first 90 days.”

There’s no silver bullet to making sure young drivers make it past the 90-day mark, he said.

“I think it’s commitment across our organization that you have to literally hold their hands at a significantly higher level than what you do for an experienced driver,” he said. “When I say experienced I mean six months of experience, not someone who’s been around five or 10 years, just somebody who’s been through the initial issues with the loading process at the customer level, or the global communication devices. Those things are very alarming to a new driver in the industry. They have enough to worry about with safety and just driving the truck appropriately that any little wrinkle added causes a great deal of duress.”

• Weekly miles, equipment, pay, benefits and home time are factors that play key roles in driver retention.

“We continuously examine and look at these and I think it’s a combined effort across the board,” he said. “In particular, I think we’ve put a stronger focus on getting drivers home more often, building jobs that allow them to get to the house at least once a week. The days when a driver would be out on the road for two or three weeks and then come home for three or four days, seem to be evaporating right before us. Pay is important. We all know we have a pay problem in the industry, but we also know we are not in a position financially to be able to afford wholesale pay increases until we get better support from the customers. Our focus on the pay side has been more on performance-based incentives (Werner has more than 300 pay packages). That’s what a lot of fleets are doing, building pay packages that incentivize drivers to be all that they can be and make sure that the best drivers’ pay goes up more based on their performance than one year on the calendar that happened to pass.”

• Pay by the hour for all of trucking is a long way off, if ever.

“It’s [pay by the hour] been a short consideration to be blunt,” Leathers said. “We look at all kinds of pay. We do have drivers in our fleet today that for dedicated reasons might be paid other than by the mile. Fundamentally it’s my perspective that we can’t disconnect on how we are paid by our customers and have our driver paid by some different format. The culture of the for-hire carrier unlike the private fleet with scheduled routes is that we are only as good as the person in the cab who is able to be a voice on their own behalf and ultimately on our behalf. In other words, if they are being delayed, if they are somehow impacted in a negative way, they are going to let us know because in that same way it’s alerting us that our truck is not moving and producing revenue and if we were to disconnect those two events and pay by the hour, you would lose the single biggest point of light you have in your fleet relative to the inefficacies, which is a driver raising his or her hand. I don’t want to lose that.”

• Signing bonuses are probably not the best idea for a carrier.

“As we see the industry get infatuated with signing bonuses and things of that nature, the difficulty in that approach is that we end up creating our own churn because they jump fleet to fleet to fleet and we all experience this 90-day phenomenon where you are trying to invocate them into your culture and they are in the cab of a truck halfway across America.”

• The federal government needs to stay out of the issue of driver pay.

“You are not going to see us lining up soon asking the government to get in our business,” Leathers said in response to a report that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has been reviewing an Australian study that shows a positive link between pay by the hour and safety. “I think it’s a misnomer that we don’t all wake up every day and work as hard as we can to focus on safety and it’s a bit demeaning for them to think somehow they are going to do it better than we do when it is our primary mission every day.”

But with that said, Leathers offered a perspective that’s not popular in all segments of the trucking community.

“If you really want to shine a light on what is going on out there it’s through electronic logging,” he said. “Until we know that everyone is operating on a level playing field, until we can visibly see we are all playing by the same rules, I think the experimentation we continue to have tinkering with Hours of Service, tinkering with pay methodology or tinkering with anything else, doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s way too dark out there. Turn the lights on. Get us on electronic logging, get us on a standard format. Let’s prove as an industry that we are serious about compliance and that we are committed to making sure we obey the laws of the land as they are written before they get to write new ones.”

The industry can argue all it wants about electronic logging devices, but the longer total implementation gets delayed the more things may be thrown at the industry with which it disagrees, Leathers believes.

“It’s positive once you get it through the knothole, once our drivers are comfortable with it,” Leathers said of implementation of ELDs, “and I do think it’s a good thing that it illuminates on the dash with wasted minutes because with truck prices going where they are right now, we can’t afford to waste a single minute for a lot of reasons.”

Ho Ho No No

UPS, the world's largest package-delivery company said it couldn't deliver some shipments by Christmas Day as rising online retail orders contributed to deliveries overwhelming its capacity.

U.S. online holiday retail sales were projected to climb 15 percent to a record of more than  $78 billion by Forrester Research Inc. in a published report last month.

What Are Customers?

 



 

Customers are very important people here at J.B. Hunt.

In person, on the phone, and in correspondence. 

 

Customers are not dependent on us.

We are dependent on them.

 

 

Customers are not an interruption of our work;

They are the purpose of it.

We are not doing them a favor by serving them:

They are doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity.

 

Customers are not outsiders to our business;

They are the most vital part of it.

 

 

Customers are not cold statistics-

Names on the computer screen or ledger sheets.

They are flesh-and-blood human beings

With feelings and emotions like our own.

 

Customers are not always right,

But they are always customers.

 

Customers are always welcomed guests

And should be treated as special guests.

 

 

Customers are people who bring us their wants.

It's our challenge to serve them cheerfully and equitably.

So they will return to enjoy our Customer Value Delivery.

Again and again and again.    

Rates Expected to Rise

New federal rules that cut into trucking productivity did not push rates up for most shippers in the third quarter, according to a survey by Wolfe Research.

 

The third quarter survey found 68 percent of shippers saw no change in truckload spot rates after revised hours of service rules took effect July 1.

 

Of the rest, 29 percent of the shippers surveyed said spot rates rose 5 percent on average in the wake of the new rules, which limit truck driver work time.

 

The quarterly "State of the Freight" survey by Wolfe Research provides data that supports anecdotal reports from shippers and carriers dealing with the rules.

 

"There has seemingly been only a modest impact thus far," said the research firm, which surveyed shippers with $20 billion in combined transportation spend.

 

That doesn't mean a more severe impact isn't coming. Truckload carriers are expected to press for higher rates in contract negotiations next spring.

 

That's what Kate Scott, director of logistics at Wendy's Quality Supply Chain Cooperative, told a recent transportation conference she expects.

 

“We were projecting about an 8 percent impact to the rates, not counting in transportation time delays,” Scott said. “We’ve seen maybe a 2 percent impact."

 

However, the third-largest fast food chain expects a bigger impact when it negotiates truckload transportation contracts next year, Scott said.

 

The revised HOS rules require drivers take a daily break and limit the use of a 34-hour restart that lets them begin a new work week in less than two days.

 

Most trucking companies and many truck drivers oppose the new rules, which reduce the distance truckers may drive, which cuts into drivers' weekly pay.

 

Truckload carriers claim the new rules reduce productivity by 2 to 4 percent, limiting the number of "turns" a driver and truck can complete in a work week.

 

Truckers are responding by rethinking or adjusting their freight mix and line-haul operations to get the best utilization they can from existing tractor-trailers.

 

The majority of shippers — 78 percent — told Wolfe Research service had not declined, but 22 percent saw tighter capacity attributed to the HOS rules.

 

The New York-based research firm estimated a 2 percent overall loss of truckload capacity as a result of the rules, based on its survey results.

 

One shipper told Wolfe Research carriers seem to be planning loads further in advance, making his “last minute loads” more expensive and difficult to cover.

 

Other shippers said some freight lanes have been affected more than others and weekend load orders suffered the most when it came to service.

The Clock is Ticking

On the surface, the new hours of service rules that took effect July 1 don’t seem that different, but appearances can be misleading.

The daily driving limit is still 11 hours, the daily on-duty limit 14 hours and the weekly limit 60 or 70 hours, depending on how many days are included in the work week.

But seemingly small changes — a mandatory 30-minute break, new weekly restart requirements — can add up to lots of lost time, especially when congestion, loading or unloading delays, highway construction and other unpredictable events are thrown into the mix. And time, along with miles, is money.

Mark Montague, industry rate analyst at spot market load-matching service DAT, put a lot of thought into how the new rules could complicate drivers’ schedules and lives. A former dispatcher, Montague knows how a broken-down car, a construction-related detour, or just a busy roadway can complicate the best-planned routes. The longer the trip, the more opportunity for trouble.

In a recent post on DAT's Freight Talk blog, Montague came up with a scenario to show how the new rules could turn a two-day trip from Chicago to Houston into a three-day trip.

I won't go over his entire scenario here, but I'll tell you it doesn't take much to add hours to the driver's clock. Heavy commuter traffic, single lane traffic through a construction zone and delays caused by accidents, and Houston, we have a problem.

There’s been debate over whether the new HOS rules will make highways safer. However, there’s no question the rules will make a tough job harder.

It's going to take more than a truckload of planning, cooperation and skill for drivers, carriers and shippers to compensate for lost flexibility and productivity.

Wreaths Across America

Many of you that have known me over the years recall when I lost both parents in 2010.  Here is a little update for Christmas 2013.  My father is buried in the Georgia Veterans Military Cemetery in Milledgeville, GA. I asked the director of the facility to send me a picture of the wreath at his gravesite this year to share with my siblings.  This wreath is courtesy of a program called Wreaths Across America. 

The Wreaths Across America is a wonderful program and helps honor veterans in a very special way during Christmas.  I am a great believer in this program and want to make you aware of   the special work they do to honor those that help protect our freedom.

Merry Christmas Central Region

I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your contribution to our region, division and company.  Our company was built from a vision of one man.  This vision is now over 18,172 employees strong.   Our challenge is to keep the vision alive and strong well into the future.

I can remember celebrating Christmas with our drivers in the early 90's.  Mr. and Mrs. Hunt would have fresh fruit delivered to all the facilities in the field for the employees to enjoy during the week of Christmas. Each manager did not go home until we were sure every driver who wanted to be home for Christmas had a load to deliver this promise.  We actually had a department of specialists that worked in a group called the North Pole to help us achieve 100% of our drivers getting home for the holiday.  This commitment to our people must continue for J.B. Hunt to flourish.

Enjoy tonight and tomorrow with the ones you love.  Cherish the moments when your children first wake up on Christmas Day.  Those moments are gone much too quick. 

We appreciate everything you do to make us all successful.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas Arrives Early at Toys "R" Us

As usual, the team at TRU-Youngstown, OH continues to celebrate and recognize our drivers.  The spirit of the season rings evident from Sue, John and Sam.  Your drivers bring Christmas to the children in our Central Region (I had to build a Cozy Coupe last night).  Thanks for bringing it back to our top-flight driving team!

HOS Rules Hampering Drivers

Leaders of the American Trucking Associations called for a rollback of the new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Hours-of-Service rules in the wake of two reports showing the rules are having a negative impact on fleet productivity and drivers’ quality of life. The HOS rules, designed to reduce driver fatigue and improve road safety, went into effect on July 1. They limit the maximum average work week for truck drivers to 70 hours and require specific weekly and daily rest breaks.

The American Transportation Research Institute, the industry’s nonprofit research organization, studied the effect of the new rules and reported these impacts: More than 80 percent of carriers experienced productivity loss. 82. 5 percent of drivers surveyed said the rules had a negative impact on their quality of life. 66 percent of drivers said they have increased levels of fatigue. 67 percent of drivers reported decreases in pay since the rules took effect.

ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said, “From the outset, ATA was confident the hours-of-service rule changes were based on politics, not data. Well, now we’re seeing mounting evidence that rather than solving anything, these rules are creating many problems for drivers and fleets alike.”Another study by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) Foundation found results similar to the ATRI analysis.

The OOIDA reported 46 percent of drivers surveyed said they felt more fatigued after implementation of the rules, 53 percent reported no impact on fatigue, and just one percent indicated they felt less fatigued on the road. However, on the income side, the OOIDA reported more than 60 percent of drivers experienced less income after the rules.

The ATA is calling on Congress to stop the new rules until an independent review can be completed, which is proposed by the TRUE Safety Act, a bill introduced by House Reps. Richard Hanna (R-NY), Tom Rice (R-SC) and Michael Michaud (D-Maine).“The TRUE Safety Act will put the brakes on these rules until they can be thoroughly vetted,” Graves said. “We’re confident that once they are independently and objectively reviewed, FMCSA will have no choice but to undo what it has done.” -

Jobs Returning To Clyde

Whirlpool Corp. is moving production of its commercial front-loading washing machines from Mexico to the company’s Clyde plant. –
The move will create 80 to 100 new jobs during the next three years at the Clyde plant. –
The Clyde plant is the biggest washing machine plant in the world and Sandusky County’s largest employer. –
Whirlpool is also the largest employer in Marion County. The Marion manufactures the dryers that accompany the front loading washers being built in Clyde.

Central Region November 2013 Driver of the Month

 

Please join us in congratulation Chris Doering, our Central Region Driver of the Month!

Chris Doering is a 17 year, Million Mile Veteran with JB Hunt. Chris is a newer addition to our Niagara Sheets fleet, and before that Chris worked for a few other DCS accounts in the NY/OH region.

Since his employment at Niagara Sheets, Chris has gone above and beyond to help out and service the customer. Chris is a team player and always has a positive attitude with everything he does. We have utilized Chris to help out at other neighboring accounts (Lenco, Whirpool, & Goya Foods) when needed. He is dedicated to JB Hunt, to the accounts that he works for and I am so pleased to have him as part of the team here at Niagara Sheets.

We know that if anything out of the ordinary comes up that we need help with, we have no doubt that Chris will get it done safely, on-time, and with no questions asked. We have had many compliments from our customer on the hard work and dedication he has shown during his time here. It is a real pleasure to work with Chris and wish we had more of him to go around!

Truly Speechless

Our leader here in DCS took 1st Prize in the Ugly Sweater Contest.  Nick certainly led from the front with this treasure.

Swift Pre-Announces

Swift Transportation Company, Inc. (“Swift”) (NYSE: SWFT) announces that it expects Adjusted Earnings Per Share (“Adjusted EPS”) to be within the range of $0.33 to $0.36 for the fourth quarter of 2013, compared to management’s previous expectations of $0.40.
  
The lower than expected Adjusted EPS in the fourth quarter of 2013 is primarily related to four variables. First, during the fourth quarter, Swift has experienced unfavorable accident claims development, specifically related to our current year claims, and to a lesser extent on prior year claims, resulting in a negative impact on insurance and claims expense of approximately $12 million, or $0.05 of Adjusted EPS. The second headwind experienced during the quarter was associated with new fleet start-up and integration related costs. During the quarter, Swift was awarded several sizable new dedicated contracts. These new dedicated contracts in addition to the ongoing integration of both Central Refrigerated Services and a new 300 truck owner operator fleet during the quarter resulted in higher than expected start-up and integration related costs. While very excited about the long-term potential associated with each of these items noted above, both the short-term costs, as well as the short-term utilization impact of these items were underestimated. The final two variables experienced during the quarter were the severe weather experienced throughout the United States and the negative impact associated with the recent changes to the hours of service regulations, both of which negatively impacted Swift’s operational metrics, including overall miles, utilization, and engine idle time. Swift remains committed to continue to focus its efforts on training all driving and non-driving personnel on these new regulations, including the more than 3,000 new employees and owner operators brought into the Swift team from the expansions noted above, with the goal of minimizing the utilization and mileage impact on a go forward basis.
  
Richard Stocking, President and Chief Operating Officer of Swift said, “While we are disappointed by the impact of the extraordinary challenges we experienced this quarter, we remain committed to our goals and confident that the depth and breadth of our service offerings, combined with the fanatic discipline we have instilled in our people, systems and processes will enable us to achieve our stated long-term goal of a 15% compounded annual growth rate on Adjusted EPS between 2012 and 2017.”

Something to Look Forward in 2014

According to the 2013 U.S. Freight Transportation Forecast, compiled by the American Trucking Association, the trucking business is in for a period of significant long-term growth.

The forecast, which was released in June, estimates that overall freight revenue in the U.S. will reach $1.3 trillion annually in 2024, up 63.6% from 2012. Trucking will see its share of that revenue rise to 81% in 2024 from 80.7% last year.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Transportation predicts that trucks will carry 36.6% of the country’s freight by 2020, up from 33% in 2001. That’s the biggest gain during this period among all freight-transportation options.

Meet Me in St Louis!

A major pet supply chain, Pet Supplies Plus, is targeting St. Louis as a growth market.

The Michigan-based company is looking to add up to 15 locations in the St. Louis area in the next five years, officials said. Already, there is one Pet Supplies Plus location here, on Manchester Road in Ballwin.

Company officials estimate that each store creates between 10 and 20 jobs, and prompts $250,000 in local development contracts. The average startup cost, per store, is between $608,300 and $1.4 million. The franchise fee is $40,000 for a single store.

Company executives are seeking single unit and multiunit franchisees, officials said.

The St. Louis expansion comes as Pet Supplies Plus looks to nearly double its number of stores in the next five years.

In the case of Pet Supplies Plus, founders Jack Berry and Harry Shallop opened the first Pet Supplies Plus store in 1988 in Redford, Mich. They started partnering with franchisees in 1991 and today, the Livonia, Mich.-based company today has 280 locations in the Midwest and East Coast.

Overall, pet food stores are a $15 billion industry, dominated by major players PetSmart (40.1 percent market share) and PETCO (19.7 percent market share), according to research group IBIS World Inc. This past September, IBIS Wold analysts reported that Pet Supplies Plus has $500 million in annual sales, representing about 3.2 percent of the market.

 The company “differentiates itself by providing all-natural food products,” analysts wrote.

 

 

 

The North Pole Never Closes

 

Neither does Toys "R" Us apparently.  Toys ‘R’ Us is the latest retailer to say it will open its doors 24/7 leading up to Christmas.

It plans to be open around-the-clock — 87 straight hours — from 6 a.m. on Dec. 21 to 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

“With only eight shopping days remaining until Christmas, we are offering customers extended, uninterrupted time in stores, providing them the opportunity to shop whenever is most convenient for them — whether early in the morning or late at night,” Troy Rice, executive vice president of stores and services, said.

Marketing Plan for Ohio

Ohio Governor John Kasich on Wednesday said Les Wexner, founder of Columbus-based L Brands Inc., which owns Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, has agreed to help sell Ohio, which the governor said is overlooked.

While California has an ocean, the Buckeye State’s charms often aren’t discovered unless someone moves there and “the cool factor matters,” Kasich said.

“I don’t know whether we’re going to have a Victoria’s Secret-type marketing plan for Ohio, but it isn’t a bad thought, is it?” Kasich said during a year-end review event with legislative and Ohio Chamber of Commerce leaders.

Governor  Kasich wants Limited Brands Chief Executive Les Wexner, whose retail empire includes the lingerie peddler, to lead a marketing campaign for Ohio, as Northeast Ohio Media Group's Jeremy Pelzer notes.

PPG Sells Paints

In his role as director of marketing for PPG Industries' architectural coatings business in North America, Tom Dougherty tries to make sure the company's paints are in the shopping carts of do-it-yourselfers and professional contractors across the U.S. and Canada.

One of his biggest challenges, though, comes when he's socializing in and around Pittsburgh and has to explain that, yes, PPG sells paints in its headquarters' hometown.

Even when he mentions one of its major paints labels, Olympic Paints & Stains, which has wide distribution through the Lowe's home retail chain, many consumers don't connect the brand with PPG. The company's name and logo aren't displayed prominently on the cans. Adding to the confusion, PPG doesn't operate any of its company-owned stores in the Pittsburgh region.
But the issue of identifying PPG's paints and where to buy them may become easier in coming months, as the company works to integrate brands and stores acquired as part of its April purchase of AkzoNobel's North American decorative paints business.

The $1.05 billion deal to buy the Dutch paints maker's North American architectural unit added mega-brand Glidden to PPG's portfolio as well as Liquid Nails, Flood, Devoe, Dulux and Sikkens. The acquisition -- the second-largest in the company's history -- pushed PPG into the number-two market position among North American paint makers, behind Sherwin-Williams.

In addition to Olympic, PPG already had the Lucite, PPG Porter and Pittsburgh Paints brands

Christmas Cheer at Toys R Us

Twas four days before Christmas, when all through the TRU Office
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Sam soon would be there.

Very Simply---Winners!

 

Recently, PPG announced that they would be having a contest on who could decorate their cubicle the most creatively for Christmas. The categories included Best Logistics Theme, Most Creative, etc. Since we have a great working relationship with the PPG team, we were asked to participate.  The judging was to be held on December 6th at 1200 right before the PPG Christmas Party.

 

We brainstormed on some fun logistics themed decorating ideas and started to gather some supplies. Since we had only been told about the contest a week prior, time was not on our side. We decided that we would take the approach from the movie Elf, with Will Ferrell.  All the employees left for the day on Dec 5th, but the JB Hunt team started to decorate. When everyone returned to work on Dec 6th, the WOW factor really set in.

The JB Hunt team decided to decorate the entire quad of cubicles instead of focusing on just one desk.

 

 

After all the glitter finally settled, this is what remained. A Christmas tree with PPG and JB Hunt ornaments, lights, hand made snowflakes, angels, and garland, wrapping paper, presents, tree skirts, candles, and even a fire place, well sort of. Hahah, we used the big screen TV that usually displays "trucks on a map" and turned it

into a fireplace, actually we just put a YOUTUBE video on it of a fire burning.

 

 

So we went on a tour of all the PPG decorated cubicles and to our amazement, we were chosen as the overall winner in the most resourceful category. We were given a trophy and a gift basket full of delicious cheese and crackers.

Hit the Road Cindy, Monica, and Stephen!

Our CDP team hit the road this week in Northern Ohio and Indiana to bring attention to our hiring need at Family Dollar-Ashley, IN. 

 Cindy Nelson and Monica Cato braved -9 weather with snow and wind  to deliver the message to potential drivers about our new driving opportunity in Ashley, IN.  The CDP team tagged over 325+ trucks in Ohio and Indiana in 2 days.

 Stephen Fowler places yard signs strategically at a busy Indiana intersection.

Our team from Arkansas was fascinated by the Amish population in Northern Indiana.

Central Region Promotion Annouoncement

Please join us in congratulating Naomi Eaton on her promotion to Account Manager for the Hebron, KY DCS Toyota site. In this new role, she will act as a customer liaison between Toyota and the JBI/JBT divisions monitoring over 800 loads monthly in addition to managing the 7 Driver DCS Milk Run Fleet.

Naomi joined the J.B. Hunt team in January of 2013 as an Operations Supervisor for the Toyota account in Owensboro, KY. After four months of stellar performance, she accepted the role of Logistics Coordinator where she was regularly received nods from Toyota. In June 2013, Naomi was formally recognized by Toyota as an integral part of the winning JB Hunt DCS Kaizen Challenge team and eventually took over all duties related to this Kaizen. The “Obvious Oversized Oversight” project resulted in lower cost, shorter lead-time, and improved customer service in transporting service frames to Toyota dealerships.

Naomi arrived at J.B. Hunt with 8 years of prior experience in logistics. She began her career in transportation with Watkins Motor Lines taking advantage of their tuition reimbursement program where she performed various duties related to dispatch, OS&D, billing, and contractor payroll. After FedEx purchased Watkins, Naomi then accepted a position with Averitt Express and spent the next five years in various support roles while she completed her Masters degree in Human Resources.

Since being part of the JB Hunt team, Naomi has also completed Toyota Kaizen carrier training and the Leaders 201 program.

Let's all congratulate Naomi on her promotion and wish her continued success.

Great Food & Good Times-Tully's

Tully's is a great chicken restaurant in upstate New York.  Scott Tully is now a proud owner of some Tully's garb...... a request he has had for months.  Enjoy it Scott....its the next best thing to downtown Batavia, NY!

Family Dollar-Ashley, IN Startup

We are planned for 50 tractors here in Ashley, IN.  This would reflect our largest Family Dollar fleet in the Central Region.

We have the use of our Mobile Command Center here on-site.  Lucky for us, because without this trailer would be crammed into a 5 X 7 space with four managers on-site.

Scott and Elvis are working hard to get the business off the ground. 

The Mobile Command Center in all its glory.  This ESPAR heater runs off diesel and we also have electric plugged in for lights and internal power needs.  This unit was formerly a SIMULATOR that was moved from account to account.  It is now a fully depreciated asset providing a resource to our region for Startups and Account Blitzes.

Probably Overdue

You deserve and need a new Will Rogers photo.  He is now 18 months old.  As you can see, he is fascinated with the bathtub and bubbles.  Live is pretty darn good at this age.

The Home Depot is Growing!

Home Depot chairman and CEO Frank Blake, keynote speaker at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce breakfast Monday, said the retail giant is exceeding growth expectations, which is a sign that the housing market is back.

Home Depot for the second quarter compared to 2012 saw the largest sales growth in same-store sales the company’s had in more than 20 years, he said.

“It is a sign of the housing market coming back,” Blake said. “But to give you a perspective on just the size and power of the company that Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank founded just slightly over 30 years ago, in three months of the second quarter of this year, our business grew $2 billion. That’s pretty amazing.”

Blake anticipates the market will continue to recover based on what’s happening in areas of the country hit hardest by the downturn, such as Florida, California and Arizona.

“It’s home price appreciation, so people, their houses are getting out of negative equity situations, and so people are willing to invest in their homes again,” he said.

A headwind to the recovery is that it continues to be difficult for families to get credit, particularly for new homeowners.

“As part of the correction to the crash there are very strict standards around mortgages and how much of a down payment you have to make and the (credit) score you need to get loans, and so it’s much harder to qualify for mortgages now,” he said. “Particularly for the first-time homebuyer, you’re seeing a lot of the younger generation that have significant student debt, and so you’re actually seeing a slowdown in sort of that early first-time homebuyer.”

Blake said much of the retailer’s growth is coming in the form of online sales, which spiked more than 50 percent in the third quarter.

“People, they want the comfort of shopping in their home, being able to pick up in the store, being able to return in the store, the breadth of selection online. We’re seeing big growth online,” he said.

The shale oil boom in North Dakota has allowed the retailer to open a new store in that state next month. There are also plans to open stores in Mexico.

“But you know, the new store growth is not the significant part of our growth stream. It’s mostly online and in-store,” he said.

Among those at the breakfast, held at the Cobb Galleria Centre, was county chairman Tim Lee, who said he was grateful that Home Depot’s corporate headquarters are in the county within the Cumberland Community Improvement District.

“Where Home Depot goes, so does the economy,” Lee said. “The stronger their sales are, it’s a good indicator as to where the economy is going overall, as people use more discretionary income for home improvement, and it’s also an indication that the building market, new homes, is starting to come back and show signs of improvement, which for our area specifically is a catalyst for economic growth. Combining their strength with the recent news of economic development in Cobb County (the Atlanta Braves moving here) the future looks bright for Cobb.”

Blake touched on the community service of Home Depot, such as the $80 million the retailer’s foundation committed to nonprofits dedicated to improving the homes of veterans.

Every year from Sept. 11 to Nov. 11, the company also makes a concentrated effort to serve its communities. This past eight-week span saw more than 350 projects to help veterans completed.

“Many of these projects are right here in Cobb County, from performing critical home repairs to building wheelchair ramps to refurbishing transitional housing for formerly homeless veterans,” Blake said.


Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Home Depot CEO Company growing market recovering

Setting the Standard

Millions of truck drivers subject to the Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration drug and alcohol testing regulations may be subject to hair testing for alleged drugs in addition to the urine testing currently authorized under the FMCSA rules, if recently proposed federal legislation is enacted. Relying on the results obtained by Arkansas-based J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc., which has been using hair testing in its drug screening procedures for over seven years, Rep. Rick Crawford (R.-AR.) and Senator Mark Pryor (D.-AR.) and others, introduced bills in both houses, entitled the ‘Drug Free Commercial Driver Act of 2013” (S. 1625; H.R. 3403) :  (Senate Bill 1625) to allow motor carriers to conduct hair testing for drugs, as an alternative to urine testing, for certain DOT-required drug tests.

J.B. Hunt reported that by using hair testing for pre-employment drug tests the company had rejected more than 3200 prospective drivers between May 2006 and February 2013. Meanwhile, only 90 applicants failed urine tests required by federal regulations, the company said. J.B. Hunt reportedly regards hair testing as superior to urine testing for pre-employment purposes. The bills would permit, but not require, truckers to use hair tests for pre-employment and random drug testing of drivers, instead of urine tests.

Hair testing can detect drugs used within the past 90 days, while urinalysis testing has a much shorter look-back period. (Hair testing, however, may not detect very recent use. Accordingly, while it may be suitable for pre-employment and random testing, it generally is avoided for reasonable suspicion or post-accident drug testing.)

“This is all about trying to create a safe environment in the industry,” Rep. Crawford explained, as reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on October 31, since it helps identify “chronic drug users instead of relying on a two or three day snapshot.” Sen. Prior added that “right now, our companies are saddled with duplicate drug-testing procedures that are wasting time and money,” referring to DOT’s refusal to accept any drug testing other than urinalysis under its testing regulations for transportation employees.

Various industry groups, including the American Trucking Association, reportedly have voiced support for hair testing, although the owner-operator Independent Driver Association opposes the method, claiming it is too costly, discriminates against certain ethnicities, and is not relevant to random testing.

New Equipment Lands in North Tonowanda

Shiny New Vented 53' Trailers = Happy Customer at Niagara Sheets!  3 of 50 have landed from Hyundai - Tijuana Mexico

Thankful Memories-An Attitude of Gratitude at Tyson's and Southern States

Last week we teamed up with both Tyson and Southern States - Park City, KY to provide a Thanksgiving meal for our drivers and feed mill employees...

At Tyson, we provided 15 pounds of turkey catered by Owensboro's famous Moonlite BBQ...

 At Park City, we covered a quarter of the cost for a Cracker Barrel catered meal...