Central Region September 2013 Driver of the Month

 

 

Please join us in congratulating Dan Robinson, our September Central Region Driver of the Month!

 

Dan is approaching his 15 year anniversary with the company and to say the least his accomplishments are many. He transferred over to the Intigral Glass account in September 2011 from the JoAnn DCS account and has made a lasting impression. The customer thinks very highly of him and is impressed with his work ethic as a driver and team player. Dan has accomplished many things in his illustrious career, he is constantly there to assist and has helped many accounts.

FLEXIBILITY- Dan’s flexibility speaks volumes. Whatever you need him to do he does it with pride. He has covered various loads for Intigral in all 3 plants not to mention helping various accounts in the Central Region. He is available whenever management needs him.

SAFETY- Dan is a cut above the rest! He currently sits at 982,125 miles collision free and will achieve his Million Mile Award by the end of this year! He is ranked in the 99th percentile in the entire company, and is the number 1 driver in the central region (the only other driver is an incumbent hire at TRU) based on his safety scores. He has had 0 HBE’s in 15 years, 0 collisions in 15 years, and 0 Workers Comp in 15 years. Here is a summation of his 384, 15 YEARS ON ¾ OF A PAGE!!!!:

LOGS- Dan sends in accurate and clean logs and on time.

FUEL- Dan protects our most expensive cost fuel, he continuously shuts his truck off when it is not necessary to run it.

PEOPLE- Dan has made many friends here at Intigral and is well thought of at all plants. Dan promotes what JB Hunt is, a strong and safe company.

DEPENDABILITY- Dan reports on time and is always here when you need him.

Dan is one of the top drivers here at Intigral and in all of JB Hunt. Congratulations Dan, you deserve this!



Central Region New Employee

 

 

 

Join us in welcoming Chris Cortash to the Central Region!

 

Chris was born and raised in Rochester, NY and graduated from SUNY Brockport in 2003 with a degree in Communications. He previously work for J.B. HUNT at the PPG account from 2004 to 2006. He then worked for Ryder from January 2006 until he came back to JB Hunt this month, where he's learning the PrimeSource and Jamestown Container accounts.

 

Chris has a wife and a 16 month year old girl. Welcome to the team, Chris!

Customer Shows Appreciation - Brandon Denison PSP Seymour, IN

All, I wanted to extend a thank you to Brandon for his extra efforts with our Christmas push over the last few weeks and in particular over the last couple of nights. The DC put a lot of freight on the transportation team at the last minute. It was imperative that we be able to rely on Brandon's abilities to coordinate these of out of process additions to make this successful. I am happy to say that even though expectations were high, they were still exceeded.

Regards,

Jerry Troupe
Transportation Manager
Pet Supplies Plus DC

Central Region Promotion Announcement

 

 



Please join us in congratulating John Goodwin  in his promotion to Account Manager for our Limited brands business.

 

John came onboard with JB Hunt in July of 2011. He was a Senior Transportation Sales Coordinator at the Columbus, OH ICS branch. He held that position until April 2013.  He joined the DCS Central Region as a Dedicated Manager In Training. As a DMIT he worked with AGC and Limited Logistics. In May of 2013, John was promoted to Account Manager to start up our MBM account in Columbus, OH. The account has thrived under John guidance thus far and has certainly been considered a "flawless startup".

John graduated from Bowling Green State University in 2005 and holds a bachelor's degree in business. He is married with two daughters (Lucy and Marlee) with another baby girl on the way. In his spare time John is an avid OSU football fan.

John will be taking over the AM role at Limited Logistics. The Limited is a challenging two site fleet (Ohio and New Jersey) with 26 tractors and 28 drivers. Please join us in congratulating John on this well deserved promotion.

Central Region Promotion Announcement

We  are pleased to announce the promotion of Jeremy Stout to Transportation General Manager.

Jeremy began with JB Hunt as an Operations Supervisor at the Home Depot account in Van Buren, OH in April of 2011, where he was responsible for the local fleet of 32 drivers and 7 slip seats. At the DCS kickoff in 2012, he was a part of the Home Depot team that received Account of the Year for the Central Region.

 

In May of 2012, Jeremy was promoted to the Logistics Coordinator role at THD Van Buren  He was responsible for the daily planning of 70 - 80 trucks per day. Jeremy quickly promoted to Account Manager of Champion Windows in Cincinnati, OH. In his current role, he has worked closely with Champion to redesign their delivery routes to service customers once a week instead of once every 2 weeks. He has also helped increase the truck count from 10 trucks to 12 as well as help maintain the account's injury-free streak up to an impressive 345 days thru this week.

Jeremy is a graduate of The Ohio State University with a Bachelor's degree in Operations Management. He is a die-hard Buckeye fan and in his free time, enjoys attending sporting events, golfing, snowboarding and hosting the annual JB Hunt Fantasy Football League.

Please join us in congratulating Jeremy on this well deserved promotion.

Do Drivers Prefer to Drive White Vehicles?

PPG is holding its annual Automotive Color Trend Show on Tuesday at the Technical Center in Troy, MI with data showing what colors were most popular on 2013 models and what to expect as far out as 2017 based on the paint supplier's research.

Last years result were as follows:

1.  White
2.  Silver
3.  Black

Central Region New Employee

 

 

Please join us in welcoming Troy Smith to the Central Region!

 

Troy is our new DMIT in the Tabor Region.  Troy worked in the restaurant industry with Bob Evans as a Assistant General Manager for three and half years . He was also employed as a Director of Operations for Smith and Associates construction company for two and half years. Most recently, Troy worked for Rent-A-Center as Lead Assistant for the last 9 months.

Troy is a graduate of The Ohio State University in 2006 with Bachelors in Business Management (Not to be confused with OSU's Heisman winning QB)

Troy loves sports, especially football, hockey and golf.    His lifelong goal is to be a PGA tour player.    He certainly is in the right town, seeing that its the home of Jack Nicklaus.

Central Region New Employee(s)

 

From left to right:

Don Peterson is our new Account Manager at the Cargill account in Swanton, VT. Don brings six years of owner-operator experience, seven years of management experience with Schneider National Carriers, as well as 24 years of military transportation and logistics experience with the US Air Force, where he retired as a Chief Master Sergeant. He holds a BS degree in Business Management from the University of Maryland and is currently an MBA student at Union Graduate College in Schenectady, NY. Don and his wife Judi have four children and will be moving to Swanton from Ticonderoga, NY.

Working under Don is Edward Thompson, our new Operations Supervisor for Swanton. Edward enters his new position with five years industrial sales and account management experience. He holds an MBA from Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY and a BS degree in Business from Champlain College in Burlington. He is a Swanton native, currently residing in Highgate Center, VT with his fiance and two children.

Mike Ryan is our Central Region DMIT, residing (sort of) in Jordan, NY, and recently graduating with a BS degree in Business Management from SUNY Geneseo. For the past two months he has been stationed in Swanton and has done a fantastic job holding down the fort while we searched for permanent management. Before his stint in Swanton, he trained at several other accounts throughout the region including Cargill Liverpool, Cargill Batavia, Family Dollar Rome, and Jamestown Container Rochester.

Customer Appreciation Day - Marco's Style

We hosted a luncheon with our client at Marco's Pizza yesterday.  We believe they enjoyed the food and the focus.

J.B. Hunt Customer Appreciation Lunch

You make our driver’s life easier by improving the delivery experience. We want to show our appreciation for a job well done.  We are all one family here at Marco’s!

Central Region New Employee

Please join us in welcoming John Noga to the Toys R Us team!

John was born and raised in Niles, OH and attended Niles McKinley High School. John spent eight years with the Ohio Army National Guard as an MP. He graduated from Walsh University in Canton, OH.

John  has been in the transportation industry for approximately 15 years, working with various companies such as Fed Ex Logistics, Ryder Logistics, and JoAnn Fabrics. John has been with J.B. Hunt two previous times working at the JoAnn's account in Hudson, OH and the Ellwood City Forge account in Ellwood City PA.

Welcome Back....3rd Time is a Charm!!!!

A Note from Our Maintenance Team

Just wanted to thank you again for your team and the effort they put in. We have several divisions utilizing Maintenance, and, understandably, everyone wants to get their service work and repairs done during weekends and driver time off. Juggling wants and needs can be extremely difficult if everyone does not follow the schedule they agree to. Our shops are overbooked every day, and overtime is scheduled each week to accommodate the need, much like when a customer surges and you add trucks to cover.

When we commit to overtime to cover scheduled workload and the unit does not show (or shows late) it causes a costly chain reaction that negatively affects our company and creates a title wave of overdue equipment. Your team by far does the best job of adhering to schedules and notifying us in advance when they will miss, allowing us the opportunity to compensate. I can't overemphasize how much this means to our department.

Thanks Again,
Rick Easley

Wexner Optimistic

Holiday sales should be good for Limited Brands this year, probably better than last year, even though consumers are nervous.
That was the prediction offered by Leslie H. Wexner, chairman and CEO of the Columbus-based retailer known temporarily as L Brands, at the company’s annual investor update yesterday in New York.
“I think business is remarkably good, considering all the static,” Wexner said, referring to the partial federal shutdown and debt-limit debate. “I think our year will be good, perhaps very good, unless Washington completely mucks everything up.”
However, Wexner added, “I think the consumer is just nervous for obvious reasons. I think we all are. ... There’s financial instability that exists in the world. ... We as a country were kind of a bastion of stability; now we’re the epicenter of stupidity.”
While Wexner was optimistic about the holidays, he was less so about some retailers’ forays into the popular-again outlet business.
“Typically, it’s the beginning of the end,” he said. “Coach became a discount outlet brand, and as they were growing their outlet channel, they cut their own throat.
“I think the outlet business is a terrific business, but don’t delude yourself. Whether it’s Gap or Nordstrom, you’re cutting off your own water. It’s really hard to have a dual identity.”

Why Safety Comes First.....

The trucker who was responsible for the deaths of a family of four back in late 2012 has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. He pled no contest to four counts of vehicular homicide and one count of vehicular homicide involving an unborn child, in exchange for which the prosecution dropped manslaughter charges.

 

The 37-year-old driver, Josef Slezak, was more than three hours over his HOS limit when he apparently fell asleep at the wheel and drove his rig into a line of stopped vehicles at 75 miles per hour. The two cars in front of him were occupied by the Schmidt family. The cars were slammed together and then forced under the trailer of the truck in front of them.

Traffic had come to a standstill when a truck had broken down and its driver had failed to pull it to the side of the road before stopping.

Despite dodging four additional manslaughter charges, Slezak will still serve 20 years in prison. He received the maximum allowable penalties for all the other charges leveled against him.

Drivers....Start Your Engines!

Tiki got to see an Indy style race car during the visit to the Hoosier State last week.  This makes 7    states that this plastic false idol has visited.

The states include Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.  Pretty good coverage for a $5 trinket.

Tiki Wants You Too Malachi (Children of the Corn Reference)

Tiki visited the land of the corn  (Greenville, OH) and got a thumbs up from Scott Tully last week!

Marco's Pizza Store Delivery

Last night I met driver Nick Anaya at the Milan, MI Marco's pizza store.  The intent was to watch an unattended delivery with the new loading methodology used by MPD. I talked with the GM Megan as she was closing the store.  She was extremely happy to see someone from the delivery company.  She showed me some particulars about her store layout and the preferred delivery pattern for Milan.  Soon after she locked the doors, our rental tractor and 53 foot reefer pulled into the parking lot.

After Nick put out his cones and successfully backed into the entrance area of the store, we assembled our ramp and ensured that we knew about how many boxes of cheese we would be delivering into the cooler.  We applied the appropriate decal to each box so the store can ensure freshness and stock can be rotated if needed.

We stacked the cheese into the cooler and then started transporting the two pallets of frozen and dry product into the store.

 Lastly, we rotated the flour and stacked the new 50 lb bags in an orderly fashion.

The final task was up to me.....we mopped ourselves out the door.

Our delivery was 30 minutes early, without issue, and Nick left to make his 6 other stops.  He has been with us for 2 years on the Marco's account.  According to Nick he lost 30 pounds when he first started with us due to the physical labor associated with the job.  We are lucky to have a driver who is concerned with safety and a quality delivery for MPD to the Marco's stores.

Central Region New Employee

Please join us in welcoming James Hayes to the Central Region Team!

James was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky and attended Greenwood High School.  James lettered all 4 years in soccer and swimming.  He played intercollegiate soccer for Western Illinois University.  James is a graduate of Vincennes University with an Associates degree in Pre-Law.  He also has a Bachelor of Science from WKU in Marketing Management.

James was enlisted in the Army from July 2003 to February 2008  We all thank him for his diligent service to our country.

James has a great amount of experience in the security business.  He has 4 years with Guardsmark and 1 year with Murryguard. 

James has 4 beautiful children -- Jocelyn, Makayla, Michael and Christopher.  In his spare time he likes hunting, fishing, refereeing soccer, and the great outdoors.

We are excited to have James as an Operations Supervisor at our Home Depot location in Van Buren, OH.

 

Central Region New Employee

 
Please join us in welcoming Edwin J. Nagle IV (Joe) to J.B. Hunt! 

Joe started his career in transportation in September 2003. He started working for his father at Nagle Toledo, Inc. a refrigerated trucking company in Walbridge, OH. Over the course of the next six years with Nagle, Joe held the positions of Administrative Assistant, MIS & Accounts Receivable Specialist, Logistics Coordinator, and ended as an Operations Manager.  

Joe left Nagle to purse a transportation career outside of the family business.He started with FedEx National LTL in Toledo, OH in March 2010 as a Billing Associate. In January 2011 FedEx National LTL and FedEx Freight merged and Joe accepted a promotion to Operations Supervisor in Columbus, OH.  

 Joe left FedEx Freight in early October 2013 to continue to advance in the transportation industry with JB Hunt DCS Joe is currently working for the Home Depot account in Van Buren, OH as an Operations Supervisor. Joe enjoys spending time with his wife Jamie of six years and his children Penny and Edwin Nagle V. 

Joe----Welcome to your new career with J.B. Hunt!

Central Region New Employee

Please help us welcome Sam Marcotte to the Central Region.  Sam is a new DMIT in the Kleeh Region. 

Sam Marcotte graduated from Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio with a bachelors degree in Business Administration and minor in marketing.

Sam started four years at kicker and punter while in college earning all conference honors. He enjoys watching football, playing pick up basketball and hanging out with his two year old niece.

Welcome to the team!

Central Region New Employee

We would like to welcome Chris Enslen, our new DMIT in the Ohio region.

Chris is originally from Bellevue, KY, which is located across the river from downtown Cincinnati, OH. He Graduated from Bellevue High School in 2000 and joined the United States Marine Corps in 2002. Upon completion of boot camp, Chris was trained to become a Motor Vehicle Operator (The military's equivalent of Semi-Tractor trailer trucks and CDL vehicles.)

 

Chris was stationed in Okinawa Japan until November of 2003. He returned to the States and spent three years at Camp Pendleton, CA . While Stationed at Camp Pendleton, he served two tours in Iraq. After his last deployment to Iraq, Chris accepted orders to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri to be a Motor Vehicle Operator Instructor. Chris was responsible for training and licensing over 3000 Marines on different variations of vehicles that could move up to 40 tons or 80,000 pounds.

 

Chris returned to Camp Pendleton, Ca from Missouri and spent his last 5 years of active service in California and overseas.    He was deployed to Afghanistan twice and supervised the operations of his unit. Chris recently exited the United States Marine Corps in May of 2013.

 

From the entire Central Region, Thank You for your service to our country.  We appreciate you helping keep us safe. 

 

Welcome to J.B. Hunt and Dedicated Contract Services.  We are proud to have someone with your background on our team!

Tiki Goes West

The travels of TIKI continue as he hit the state of Oklahoma on Tuesday.  

 

People doubting the influence of the wooden Tiki should probably ask Rich Schwartz what occurred on the softball fields of Cleveland just after I removed the fake idol from the office at Intigral.  Its pretty scary stuff.

Central Region New Employee

Please welcome Tyler Hall, the newest member of the Central Region.  Tyler is the new Operations Supervisor for the C&S Wholesale account in Yorktown, IN. Tyler is a proud alum of the Bradley University Braves, where he studied Marketing.

 

Tyler joins J.B. Hunt after working for AFN Logistics as a Carrier Representative in Chicago, IL. He originally hails from Taylorville, IL (near Springfield), which is where he became a big fan of St. Louis sports. In his spare time, he roots on the Rams and Cardinals and is waiting on another strong October push from the Red Birds!

 

Please join me in welcoming Tyler to the Central Region!

Central Region Promotion Announcement

Please assist us in congratulating Jamie Kleemook in his promotion to Transportation General Manager.

Since taking over as Account Manager, Jamie has clearly proven himself worthy of this promotion and is well positioned to lead and grow PPG Dedicated into the future. Those that work closely with Jamie understand his drive, passion, and commitment to excellence in everything he does. He has successfully grown the business in all facets from personnel to truck count, and has also taken on the oversight and management of the high risk PPG Flat Glass account, which is opening doors for regional fleet bids throughout DCS. At the same time, under Jamie's leadership, we are seeing record numbers from safety and profitability within the PPG Global Fleet operation.

We look forward to Jamie's continued success and growth within PPG Dedicated.

Tiki tries to reverse the Curse

The Tiki from Intigral continues his tour of the Central Region.  Today's goal was Chicago, IL, home of Wrigley Field and the Cubs.

Not sure of Tiki had any impact on the curse of the billy goat?

Tiki moves on to the land of Hoosiers next week.

Superior Performance at Toyota Owensboro

On September 25, 2013 the 50 Driver Toyota Owensboro fleet achieved 2 years of driving without having a DOT Preventable Collision.

During this time the drivers have logged approximately 7 Million miles without a DOT Preventable Collision

The driver take great pride in their work and have set a high standard of professionalism for themselves and their driving abilities.

What makes this accomplishment even more impressive is that the fleet is called upon many times to assist in other accounts. They are often in unfamiliar equipment and locations outside of their own account. They have assisted over 25 accounts within and outside the Region .

Pictured and leading the way are Al Skarya and Bob Pratt standing in front of the Team Toyota Driver board.

Al and Bob have over 3.5 Million safe driving miles and counting each.

 

 

CiCi's New Equipment

 We visited CiCi's corporate office in Coppell, Texas.  During the AAA, we got the opportunity to see one our newest Reefer trailers.

Falcon Moves Locations

Falcon Packaging has moved into a new facility in Greenville, OH.  The entire staff is excited to be in the new digs.

John Schaar - Earns his stripes at AGC

After two years of fantastic service with AGC-Hebron, Oh, John Schaar has finally earned a personalized safety helmet.  According to John, this did not come easy.  His continued presence on the production floor did not go unnoticed.

Fly the Friendly Skies -- CiCi's style

Iconic US food chain, CiCi’s Pizza, is exploring growth opportunities in non-traditional venues after introducing several new restaurant prototypes designed exclusively for airports.

Tom McCord, VP of real estate and franchise development, comments: “It is exciting to offer airport prototypes that are built around exceeding the expectations of today’s travellers.

“We are fully committed to opening CiCi’s units in some of the country’s most highly visited airports, and we’re eager to find well-qualified franchise partners who are passionate about delivering on our brand promise.”

CiCi’s airport units will offer passengers a variety of pizzas, salads, sandwiches, wings, drinks and a “novel” breakfast menu designed for portability.

McCord told Airport World that Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport is at the top of the brand’s wish list, followed closely by Houston; Miami; Los Angeles; Denver; and Salt Lake City airports.

“We’re highly saturated in the Dallas market, as that’s where our headquarters are. We have huge brand recognition there and we’re building up our reputation in the other cities.

“We’ve identified the areas where we can grow substantially. International passengers won’t recognise our brand as much but we’re known throughout the US for our quality, variety and value for money.”

He adds that the company is “absolutely” hoping to break into the global market, explaining that future expansion aims to bring CiCi’s to Mexico, Canada and Puerto Rico, among others.

Flexible store design models have been developed already, including protoypes for food courts, ‘grab and go’ locations and a custom-designed kiosk.

While the company would like to partner up with airport concessionaires, McCord also says that it will be targeting individual airports as well.

The company publicised its plans at the 2013 ACI-NA conference and exhibition in San Jose last week, where McCord says there was lots of interest from delegates.

“The show was very helpful due to level of brand recognition that we have in North America,” he explains. “People were really friendly and excited that we want to get into airports.”

McCord says that CiCi’s is currently meeting with franchise prospects and selecting airport consultants to get the brand into America’s passenger terminals.

“Our goal is to get units opening within the next two years.”

TIKI vs Woody

Tiki made an appearance in Columbus, OH this week.  He did not get socked by Woody, but he made an appearance in the ICS office in Hilliard, OH.