Show Your Colors day-Post #5

Our team in Monroe, OH at The Home Depot representing Cincinnat (Trecia Rhodus), Central Michigan (Alan Boadway) and Wright State (Dustin Hatfield). 

 

Show Your Colors Day-Post #4

Erik  Bynum represents our Maintenance Team well with the Top 25 ranked Louisville Cardinals Sugar Bowl T-shirt.

Show Your Colors Day-Post #3

Hope all is well. We may not be part of the Central Region anymore, but we saw your blog post and thought we'd share some pictures with you. I'm surrounded by OSU fans up here but still holding out for the SEC. Go South Carolina!

Final Mile-Solon, OH representatives Mark Overholt shows his love of OSU and David Hood sticks up for the SEC!

 

 

 

And then there is our DMIT in Solon...Mr. Chris Jubeck.  Its been a tough year for Happy Valley!

 

Show Your Colors Day-Post #2

Traci Kilger proudly represents the Niagara University Purple Eagles.  Traci is a former swimmer at NU, so she has earned the right to wear the purple.

Traci is our Account Manager at Niagara Sheets in North Tonowanda, NY.

Show Your Colors Day-Post #1

Okay.....I will be first today.  I am wearing the orange today representing the Orangemen of Syracuse.  Go Cuse!

Tomorrow-Show Your Colors

I would love to see photo's from the region showing you supporting the college of your choice.  Tomorrow is College Colors day, so be loud and proud!

Central Region Driver of the Month-July 2013

Congratulations to Jack Wilson, our Central Region Driver of the Month for July 2013!

Recently at Marco's we had to do a complete redesign of the routes because of the new DOT rules.  It was a very difficult and stressful transition on every driver.   However, with all of the complaining and frustration from some of our employeesth, not once did I hear something negative from Jack, (other than his standard response when I ask how it's going for him to which he always replies "it's rough out there" with a smile on his face). Jack worked some of the longest hours of any driver and just kept working. For three weeks in a row Jack was not able to make it home Friday morning like he is supposed to because of missing keys for a store on his route.  Jack never once complained.  He simply reminded me that it was effecting his DOT hours and wanted me to know about it so that he did not miss any deliveries because of a reset issue. 

During the transition not only did Jack work hard and long hours, he was incredibly flexible, stayed positive and still provided next level service at every store. While many other drivers were making significant mistakes because they were hurrying through their deliveries Jack was taking extra time where needed to ensure each customer was happy all while doing it safely.

The following Email an example of the feedback I hear from MPD regarding Jack often, what's so great about this example is that it came during one of the accounts most challenging weeks. While other drivers at the account where receiving negative feed back almost daily, this was what the head of customer service had to say about Jack...

I am always reporting issues that arrive day to day so I wanted to take the time to tell everyone about a call I got today. Desiree Holcomb, owner of the Spring Lake, MI store called to let me know she loves her new driver that she has since the DOT changes. She says that Jack always goes out of his way to make sure things are perfect before he leaves. She says he always asks her if there is anything else he can do.

I personally want to thank Jack for his “Unity Wins” attitude and for being a valuable asset to the Marco’s Pizza Distribution team.

Lisa Wasiloff

Customer Service Manager

Marco’s Pizza Distribution

1435B Holland Rd

Maumee, OH 43537

 

This email would be great feedback anytime but to get it last month was an wonderful statement about this drivers value here!

Jack has always stayed out of driver complaining secessions every night and when there is an issue while he is on his route, he always handles it on his own and sends me a short message letting me know that he has taken care of things.

Jack is one of our reliable drivers. Jack has been around through smooth and rough times and just keeps coming in to do his job and do it well.

Everyone at the account says that if we had a full account of guys like Jack, all of our jobs would be better, the only problem we would have would be that we would not get enough negative feedback from the drivers to help improve the job for them.

Jack could earn driver of the month every month but this month I can not believe there is a driver more deserving!

Black and Yellow..Wiz would be proud!

Here is the J.B. Hunt Team prior to the breakfast and competition today.  The breakfast included 1400 people including America's Road Team.

Day #2-Truck Driving Championship Salt Lake City, UT

The pre-trip testing and driving course competition took place today.  Here are a few shots to give you an idea of what Mark faced here in Salt Lake:

 

 

Day #2-Truck Driving Championship Salt Lake City, UT

Mark and his family represented strong this morning.  Here is the entire clan outside the arena before the NTDC breakfast:

From left to right (Aunt Debbie, Uncle Mike, Mark, Jeri, Skyler, Blake).

Day #1 -Truck Driving Championship Salt Lake City, UT

As a team building exercise yesterday evening, Ray, Ken and I decided to hike a large mountain.  This was quite a challenge due to the high altitude in Salt Lake City.  Here is a few shots of the successful journey:

Day #1 -Truck Driving Championship Salt Lake City, UT

Yesterday, Mark Overholt participated in the written examination portion of the championship.   He felt very confident of his score.  We know Mark and Ray spent a great deal of time working on this segment of the competition.

 

 

Salt Lake City Here We Come

This week, hundreds of the nation’s top professional truck drivers will head to Salt Lake City for the 76th National Truck Driving Championships and National Step Van Driving Championships to compete for the Bendix National Truck Driving Championships Grand Champion.

This year, 422 drivers representing all 50 states will compete in the “Super Bowl of Safety,” Aug. 20-24 at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Each year, NTDC is hosted by American Trucking Associations and for the third straight year, Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC is the sponsor of the Bendix National Truck Driving Championships Grand Champion award.

Each state sends competitors in eight classes of vehicle, ranging from straight trucks to tank trucks, as well as an affiliated competition for step vans.
These drivers will test their mettle over four days, demonstrating their driving prowess on a world-class safety course, their knowledge of the industry and safety practices in an exhaustive written exam and an inspection to show their expertise and familiarity with the trucks they work with every day.

In addition to the NTDC, the nation’s top vehicle enforcement officers will compete in the 21st annual North American Inspectors Championship, hosted by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.

True Driver and Family Appreciation

C & S in Yorktown, IN hosted a family appreciation event on August 11, 2013.  Here is some feedback from Connie:

 

Wow! The box of "goodies" was awesome! Everyone was able to take a prize home today! Thank you very much....

We had a total of 26 adults and 11 children! Very good turn out....

8 drivers and guests, Jeff Holle and wife Rhonda, Scott and Staci Tully with their 2 children, Jon Morgan, Elvis Sehic and girl friend Chyeral. My daughter Melissa helped with the planning and prep today along with 2 of my grandchildren!

Melissa was the "photographer." She is going to try and get the pictures to me by tomorrow evening, We took pictures of all the children/grandchildren in the "big trucks." I want to take the pictures and do a collage to enter in the 2014 JB Hunt calendar. Once I get the pictures, will forward....

All I can say is WOW in regards to the wonderful preparation by the C & S management team and the region support folks.

Congratulations Are In Order!

Please join us in congratulating Brandon and Bethany Denison on the birth of their baby boy Timothy! Timothy weighed in at 7 lbs 10 oz and 18" long. Mom, Brandon, and baby are all doing great!

J.B. Hunt Named Top 10 3PL

 

LOWELL, Ark. — J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: JBHT) announced today the Company has again been named a top 10 third-party logistics (3PL) provider in the Inbound Logistics Top 100 3PL Excellence Awards, published in the July edition of the magazine. J.B. Hunt ranked fifth overall.

“J.B. Hunt is proud of our ability to safely and professionally handle transportation requirements across a wide variety of industries,” said Shelley Simpson, President, Integrated Capacity Solutions and Chief Marketing Officer. “Our asset-based, integrated, and flexible 3PL model gives our customers peace of mind; they know their freight is in good hands, from start to finish.”
Each year, Inbound Logistics editors select the best logistics solutions providers by carefully evaluating submitted information, conducting personal interviews and online research, and comparing that data to readers’ burgeoning global supply chain and logistics challenges. IL editors selected this year’s class of Top 100 3PLs from a pool of more than 300 companies. The service providers selected are companies that, in the opinion of IL editors, offer the diverse operational capabilities and experience to meet readers’ unique supply chain and logistics needs.
“How a logistics solutions provider enables scalability for its customers is a key factor in the editors’ Top 100 3PL selection process,” says Felecia Stratton, Editor, Inbound Logistics. “In today’s economic climate, 3PLs must produce direct savings for customers by optimizing the transport network, reducing inventory-to-sales ratios, or advancing the order-to-cash cycle. But it’s just as important for a logistics partner to act as a business change agent, driving their customers’ ability to match demand for their products more closely to supply, aligning enterprise operational performance to the larger economic trend. That is what J.B. Hunt does, and why we are happy to recognize it as a 2013 Top 100 3PL.”

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/08/12/5107976/jb-hunt-transport-services-inc.html#storylink=cpy

How Cargill Helps Dairy Farmers at the Farm

Cargill does more than just sell feed to farmers.

Jay Giesy is a dairy specialist for Cargill in New York where he primarily focuses on nutrient requirements for cows.

"We want to balance nutrients avaliable from the farm with what's not avalilable on the farm and pull that together to meet all the requirements of the cow," says Giesy.

Besides balancing rations Giesy also helps produces manage their balance sheets in terms of feed cost, while also assisting with managment issues like record keeping of first laction cows, transition cows and high somatic cell count cows.

- See more at: http://www.dairyherd.com/dairy-news/Cargill-assists-dairy-farmers-in-various-ways-219033641.html#sthash.u7GFbaZ6.dpuf

Big Winner in July - Toyota!

Amid the gloom of bankruptcy in the city of Detroit, one bright spot has been the performance of its hometown automakers.

General Motors (GM, Fortune 500), Ford (F, Fortune 500), and Chrysler have been gaining ground from competitors, posting solid profits, and winning historic praise for the quality and drivability of their products. They are producing standouts in some of the industry's most hotly contested segments. The mid-size Ford Fusion is selling as fast as dealers can load the delivery trucks, while the full-size Chevy Impala has won an unprecedentedly high rating from influential Consumer Reports.

But a closer look at the sales numbers and financial results just published reveal that the big winner for the month of July was -- hold for it -- Toyota.

That assertion will draw hoots and hollers from Detroit loyalists. They point out -- correctly -- that the local teams have added market share this year while Toyota (TM) has lost a smidgen. And they will complain -- also correctly -- that Toyota is getting an unfair advantage from the cheap yen and is boosting sales with unusually high incentives.

All true. Yet take a look at what happened last month:

--More Americans bought cars and trucks with the Toyota emblem on the hood than with the Chevrolet bowtie. Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie ... and Toyota, anyone? That's despite the far lower number of Toyota dealers and Toyota being far less competitive in the industry's hottest segment: full-size pickup trucks.

--Also in July, Toyota Motor Sales in the U.S. sold more light vehicles than Ford Motor Co. -- again despite having far fewer dealers and selling far fewer trucks. Ford has been having a fabulous year, but last month, Toyota outsold it to become the second-largest car company in America.

--Toyota appears well on its way toward producing more than 10 million vehicles worldwide this year, which would represent an all-time record for any automaker. GM and Volkswagen will have to fight it out over second place.

As one analyst gleefully exclaimed, "The samurais are back!"

Toyota's July surge came despite the announcement that it would pay $1.6 billion to compensate vehicle owners who suffered financial losses as a result of sudden, unintended acceleration between 2009 and 2010. The settlement will compensate Toyota owners who sold or traded in their vehicles at a loss with $125 to $10,000 per car, depending on the level of depreciation. It does not, however, cover individual personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits that will have to be contested later. The first case to go before a jury is starting in Los Angeles. (Toyota also announced a voluntary recall on Wednesday of 342,000 Tacoma trucks over faulty seatbelts).

Top 10 Newcomers-Marco's Pizza

Marco's Pizza ranked No. 2 this year on the Nation's Restaurant News' Top 10 Newcomers, part of the trade publication's prestigious Second 100 list that reviews the second-largest 100 restaurant chains.
On the overall list of restaurant chains ranked from 101-200, Marco's came in at No. 166, up from No. 189 last year. The rankings are based on Marco's outstanding growth for 2012. Food service sales were $197 million last year, compared to $148.7 million in 2011 and $115.4 million in 2010.
The Second 100 ranking includes chains that generated at least $134.4 million in sales in 2012 and compared three years of data on each brand.
NRN wrote, in part:
Marco's Pizza boosted its system sales by 32.5 percent in the latest year with a sales growth strategy that balanced specialties like South Philly Cheese Steak Pizza with promotions such as the Big Square Deal combo to counter those of bigger rivals.

• Latest-Year sales growth: +32.5%
  
• Second 100 sales rank: 166
  
• U.S. unit count: 334 (+21%)
  
• ESPU: $645,900 (+7.1%)

That 32.5% increase was the largest among the seven pizza chains included in this year's Second 100, and Marco's ranked No. 3 overall for its systemwide sales growth. In a stronger economic climate, CEO Jack Butorac says the numbers could have been even higher. Marco's commitment to quality, artisan pizza and its relatively inexpensive initial investment make it very attractive to franchisees.
"To build a casual dining place costs millions of dollars; if you build a Marco's, it's $300,000," Jack says.
Marco's closed out 2012 with 334 units nationwide, which landed it at No. 17 on the list of total units nationwide, up five spots from the preceding year. It's on track to open 125 more stores by the end of 2013.

The Limited names new CEO

Diane Ellis, 55, former Brooks Bros. president and chief operating officer, will lead the New Albany-based apparel retailer beginning Aug. 26. She replaces Linda Heasley, who left The Limited in February to become CEO of plus-size retailer Lane Bryant.
“Diane brings an impressive track record of success in both specialty retail and mass retail,”Scott King, senior managing director of Sun Capital Partners and a board member of The Limited, said in a statement. “Her expertise in consumer behavior, branding, and store operations will add energy and momentum to the exciting initiatives underway at The Limited.”
Ellis was an executive at Brooks Bros. for six years. While at that retailer, she helped revamp stores and oversaw such departments as information technology, human resources, retail and outlet stores, planning and allocation, product development, sourcing, supply chain, e-commerce and finance.
Ellis has “a bulletproof resume and experience in consumer products and specialty retail,” said Matt Wilson, who follows retail for SBC Advertising.
Ellis was one of the leaders at Brooks Bros. who successfully introduced the brand to a new generation of consumers and helped it branch out into women’s and children’s apparel, Wilson said.
“She will be a super-sharp leader,” Wilson said. “She knows both sides of the house from operations and finance to merchandise assortment and marketing. She’ll work with a similar footprint with The Limited at 259 stores; Brooks Brothers has about 300 stores in the U.S. and internationally, plus a vibrant online and catalogue business

New Straight Truck for Intigral

Intigral and Rich Schwartz have a new straight truck they want to show off! Looks sharp in our opinion.

L Brands June Sales Flat

L Brands, which owns stores including Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works, said Thursday that revenue at stores open at least a year was flat in June, falling short of expectations. Shares slipped in premarket trading.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a 2 percent increase.
This metric is a key gauge of a retailer's health because it excludes results from stores recently opened or closed.
L Brands Inc., which was formerly known as Limited Brands, said Thursday that total revenue for the four weeks ended July 6 rose 2 percent to $1.1 billion from $1.08 billion in the year ago period.
For the year to date, the Columbus, Ohio, company's revenue at stores open at least a year rose 2 percent. Total revenue rose 5 percent to $3.9 billion.
L Brands also owns the brands Pink, Henri Bendel and La Senza. It has 2,616 stores in the U.S. and its brands are sold in more than 700 company-run and franchised locations worldwide.

We're #1

Just a few years ago, Toyota's future seemed pretty grim. In 2010, the automaker initiated a huge recall of Toyota and Lexus vehicles, which generated months of bad press and, for some consumers, a lingering mistrust of the brand. (Even though some claims of "unintended acceleration" turned out to be false.

In March of the following year, Toyota and other Japanese automakers suffered a crippling blow in the wake of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. The twin disasters caused more than 15,000 deaths, destroyed countless homes, businesses, and factories, and seriously curtailed Toyota's ability to produce vehicles. The situation only got worse in the second half of 2011, as flooding in Thailand took another bite out of Toyota's manufacturing capacity.

But things are very different now. The recall headlines are gone, if not forgotten, and Toyota's production has returned to previous levels.

 

 

And that may explain, in part, why Toyota is now the world's biggest automaker.

According to Detroit News, Toyota sold 4.91 million vehicles during the first six months of the year. That gives Toyota a slim lead over #2 automaker General Motors, which sold 4.85 million vehicles from January 1 through June 30. (Volkswagen came in third with 4.7 million.)
Toyota can't rest on its laurels, though. The company's sales are off 1.2 percent for the year, hurt largely by slow sales in China, where Toyota and other Japanese automakers have endured boycotts and problems in the wake of territorial disputes between Japan and China.

General Motors, on the other hand, is on a roll, with sales up four percent in the U.S. this year. And for a portion of the second quarter, GM even outpaced Toyota's global sales.
What's keeping Toyota ahead of the pack? The answer could be as simple as its heavy trucks -- the sort of trucks that GM doesn't make. As the world's economy recovers, causing upticks in construction, shipping, and other industries, sales of big trucks are growing. That gives Toyota something of an edge -- at least for now.

Evolution of a Business

Employees at Miller's Farm Supply, a locally owned farm and hardware store in Zionville, confirmed this week that they now carry Southern States feeds and can order other products from the cooperative, which closed its Boone store last week.

The Boone and Lenoir stores were among at least 17 locations closing this month as part of a new strategy by Southern States Cooperative to focus on more profitable avenues. The stores offer farm supplies including feed, fertilizer, plants, tools and fencing.

"Always sad when a local business closes its doors -- with the recent closing of Southern States in Boone, (we) have seen many new faces," Miller's Farm Supply posted on its Facebook page July 27.

The post went on to announce that is now a Southern States feed dealer and that it can order other products locals were accustomed to buying at the cooperative.

"Anything that they sold, we can get it," co-owner Terri Miller confirmed on Tuesday.

Gimme 7, Gimme Lucky 7!

It seems like a long time ago that Anthony Warchol was manning the controls of the second shift at The Limited.   Yesterday marked 7 years with J.B. Hunt.  Please tell Anthony congratulations on this achievement.