Safety first companies?
 

Which companies truly care about safety.?

UPS is good about fixing trucks if you have a problem. Never been forced to take out an unsafe truck. So So on driver safety. Sometimes they can push guys a little hard and they will hurt themselves. Usually as you get older you just start working more safe. Not worth a long time injury. Young guys get pressured more, because they will feel they need to do more. Older guys don't get that pressure as much, because we won't push ourselves beyond what we should do.

I'm thinking that depends on the company. While the older drivers may not FEEL as though they need to run balls-to-the-wall all the time, that doesn't mean their dispatcher thinks the same way. :shock:

SYSCO is real big on safety. It's so much, it's like rocket science.

Personal opinion: Driver safety starts and ends with the driver them self. As someone else said in another thread - learn how to say 'no'.

SafeStat Results as of January 26, 2007 Carrier Selection List Download Data
US DOT# Carrier Name State City County
Code Service Center Power Units Last FMCSA
Compliance Review SEA Value
(VEH_SEA)
661515 LEISURE FITNESS INC DE NEWARK 003 Eastern 38 2.36
934215 BLOOMINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT MN BLOOMINGTON 053 Midwestern 109 4/1/2002 2.36
84324 R O HARRELL INC VA SOUTH BOSTON 083 Eastern 78 2.34
133693 SPECIAL DISPATCH INC MO HAZELWOOD 189 Midwestern 44 7/1/2003 2.34
176560 JOSEPH S CHOW LTD BC RICHMOND 000 Western 29 3/8/2000 2.34
267748 UNIVERSITY WHOLESALERS INC VT COLCHESTER 007 Eastern 12 7/31/1989 2.34
269878 ACTION TRANSIT ENTERPRISES INC PA PITTSBURGH 003 Eastern 10 2.33
395748 CIMARRON COACH OF VIRGINIA INC VA FALLS MILLS 185 Eastern 35 2.33
571855 DIAMOND TRIUMPH AUTO GLASS INC PA KINGSTON 079 Eastern 90 8/25/2004 2.33
190194 BEACH TRANSPORTATION COMPANY MT MISSOULA 063 Western 110 12/11/1996 2.32
270798 WOODLAWN MOTOR COACH INC MD BALTIMORE 005 Eastern 142 2/19/1998 2.32

Sysco has very good equipment but drivers are not as good

Inspection Selection System (ISS-2) Recommendation*
(As of January 26, 2007)
Carrier Name: SYSCO FOOD SERVICES OF HOUSTON LP
US DOT #: 152595
ISS Inspection Value: 35
ISS Recommendation: PASS
Basis for Recommendation: Safety

There's like one trucking company on that list .

Is this better?

Lower the SEA number the better. This is for equipment only, as drivers don't have a lot of control over this.

If you want more information on a company look here. http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SafeStat/Saf...?PageN=results

910928 THE HOME DEPOT SUPPLY INC FL ORLANDO 095 Southern 3342 0.01

734951 MT HOOD BEVERAGE COMPANY WA KENNEWICK 005 Western 113 1/26/2001 0.04

261883 TNT LOGISTICS NORTH AMERICA INC IN INDIANAPOLIS 011 Midwestern 230 10/16/1986 0.04

277959 G & J TRANSPORTATION SERVICES INC OH CINCINNATI 061 Midwestern 484 6/23/1988 0.27

172924 SYSCO FOOD SERVICES OF BALTIMORE LLC MD JESSUP 027 Eastern 135 9/30/2002 0.38

290357 UNITED PARCEL SERVICE CANADA LTD ON CONCORD 000 Eastern 162 3/3/1999 0.46

512428 SYSCO FOOD SERVICES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA INC FL OCOEE 095 Southern 133 0.5

43633 THE NOEL CORPORATION WA YAKIMA 077 Western 117 9/20/1990 1.03

40137 KOCH FOODS LLC TN CHATTANOOGA 065 Southern 94 2.92

Here is how some of the large carriers stack up, listed from the largest down

21800 UNITED PARCEL SERVICE INC IL AURORA 043 Midwestern 56642 10/18/2004 15.83

54283 SWIFT TRANSPORTATION COMPANY INC AZ PHOENIX 013 Western 18708 5/24/2006 67.93

264184 SCHNEIDER NATIONAL CARRIERS INC WI GREEN BAY 009 Midwestern 12268 2/10/2003 31.69

80806 J B HUNT TRANSPORT INC AR LOWELL 007 Southern 11874 2/27/1997 44.08

53467 WERNER ENTERPRISES INC NE OMAHA 153 Midwestern 10618 8/29/2005 26.45

63585 WAL-MART TRANSPORTATION LLC AR BENTONVILLE 007 Southern 6954 9/9/2004 9.53

303024 U S XPRESS INC TN CHATTANOOGA 065 Southern 6074 5/24/1994 53.46

74432 MARTEN TRANSPORT LTD WI MONDOVI 011 Midwestern 2852 10/31/2006 94.88

154712 MERCER TRANSPORTATION CO INC KY LOUISVILLE 111 Southern 2011 2/9/1993 50.23

05790 CRST MALONE INC AL TRUSSVILLE 073 Southern 1507 2/14/2006 88.55

Was very surprised how good Mt Hood is. They run a lot of old equipment. Also that UPS in Canada is better than UPS in the US. Also thought Martin was a better company.

You will find that in general "chemical tanker" companies have extremely high concerns and practices focussed on safety overall. Considering the general work environment and nature of the equipment...it has to be done that way.

Brown67: Are you on feeder yet ? They don't push us at all. If they do we just tell them to basically get bent (in the "UPS" way) and just do it the way the bid is run. All else fails, run your bid safely and grieve it. The only time I may push it a little is Christmas to get the air stuff to the hubs....I'm too old to run hard. Remember the UPS motto: "We can't be fired-slaves have to be sold"....

Been with Roehl for a year now and I have had no issues concerning safety. This morning, I was in pea soup fog in Ohio. Told my DSR that I was not moving out of the TS until things improved. Was told to use my judgement on the matter. I waited 2 hours until the chatter on the CB died down about not being able to see exit ramps, signs and other trucks. I have yet been forced to drive when I did not feel conditions were safe even if it ment that the pickup/delivery had to be postponed. Last week in the snow/ice storm around Indy, again I said "not driving" due to freezing rain. No argument and the pick up was postponed 24 hours.

Soladad

Re: Safety first companies?
 

I started working safely at 22, and still do. I know older guys that push too hard and biff it. It depends on the individual.

Not in feeders yet. Waiting on two drivers to retire. Both have 31 years and want to wait until the next contract is settled. We had a vacation slot open up, but If I took it I would fill in at our center and all over my Local. Local 17 is all of Wyoming and Colorado except for Denver Metro area. I don't want to travel that much.

My company, PSC (Philip Reclamation Services Houston, Inc) is pretty damn good.

I called my transportation manager once and told him I was at a rest stop and needed a nap because I was getting the nods (infant son and I had a bad night)- he said take a couple of hours and he'd have the customer service rep call the customer. No problem.

I've had the boss call me and tell me to turn around because there was a chance of ice in north Texas. No problem.

I've refused partial and full loads because the packaging was suspect. No problem.

I've left a site -and pissed off any number of people there- because they were absolute idiots about the hazards of the Allyl Alcohol they were supposed to offload from a railcar into my tanker. No problem.

I've called my dispatcher and shut down in Hunstville because I was out of hours and didn't feel like driving the last hour and a half into Houston, thus causing me to miss my next day's run. No problem.

I've recommended replacing all eight of the tires on a tanker instead of fixing the one flat tire. No problem.

I've pulled over in Houston rainstorms and been late for appointments. No problem.

I've refused to pull numerous trailers because of defects- a little aggravation, but no problem.

-p.

well, I can say Maverick is definately safety concious because they have invested millions into something I have never heard of from any other company, lane departure system. It's not like eaton vorad, although we have those in our trucks also. Lane departure watches the lines on the highway and if you start to go over those lines, it has a seperate speaker system that kinda growls through those speakers on the side you are going too far over. It is also nullified by blinker usage for about 20 seconds, so it has multiple positive effects, one, it will wake your butt up if you doze off, and it will remind you that you didnt use a blinker. Its annoying at first, but it will tend to make you a better driver because you want to stay between the mustard and mayonaise.

Inspection Selection System (ISS-2) Recommendation*
(As of January 26, 2007)
Carrier Name: MAVERICK TRANSPORTATION LLC
US DOT #: 178538 MC #: 150231
ISS Inspection Value: 72
ISS Recommendation: OPTIONAL
Basis for Recommendation: Safety

My guess is they must have been having too many accidents. That pushed the score up. That is why they are going to the Lane Departure system.

But they seem to have good equipment.

Only other problem I see is they has their broker authority revoked in June 1990 and April 2006. They got it back in November 2006.

I think you would find that safety goes hand in hand with turnover rate. The lower the turnover rate, the safer the company. After all, if a company cares about their drivers enough to warrant a low turnover rate, it is likely they also care about their drivers' safety.

Safety and Turn-over are individual stats that I believe are unrelated. Safety starts with the driver, not company policy. Policies are BS any way. Plenty of drivers leave great companies. Trucking has too many people making crazy, impulse descisions to be able to define reliable if-then stats.

CRST has a low score so assume they keep the equipment well maintained ?

A low score of what? Maintenance is something a responsible company does. Because CFI trucks are rotated for new trucks, most of the work is under warranty so they are very willing to get done what needs done. Regular servicing is done in order to comply with the warranty or else it will be voided.

Companies who own older trucks try to get work done at company terminals whenever possible in order to keep costs down. That means that when things need done, it may have to wait until you get there.

I've travelled cross the country with trucks burning oil due to heads needing replaced along with blown turbos. Companies can be unwilling to pay maintenance costs even after the work is done. They could care less about your inconveniences or lack of productivity.

So a company that has new trucks every so often is a company that will take care of them which keeps you rolling and helps to simplify your life.

Without a warranty, companies can be unwilling to do the proper maintenance, prefering to run them until they quit rolling, thinking they are reducing expenses while increasing their own maintenance bill and costing the driver time and personal cash.

Thats when a driver gets online or picks up a trucker mag and looks for another company.

The company I work for doesn't own any trucks and really doesn't have any drivers employed either.. LOL The drivers and most employees are employed by one company who leases the drivers to the parent company. All but a hand full of the trucks are leased and not owned by the company. The lease company maintains the trucks. The paremt company does own and maintain all the trailers though.

I've seen that too. The trick is that the leasing company and the trucking company are owned by the same guy.

You think safety is only driver related? :shock:

Your first statement was that Safety and driver Turn-over were related. Your assumption was that if a company had low turn-over, then the company should be safer.

My counter-point was that drivers leave safe companies all the time for stupid impulsive reasons.

Safe companies are those who have newer equipment. They get work done on warranty.

Unsafe companies are typically smaller outfits who have older equipment and they wait until the truck can't roll before they fix anything. Even then they may put the driver out by not being willing to pay for it.

Safer companies should have lower turn-over, but usually they have the same turn-over rate in the first year. For drivers after 1 year, the turn-over rate is much lower. The first year turn-over at CFI for example is the same as anywhere else, 120%. For those who stay with the company the first year from then on, the turn-over rate is 17%. CFI is a safe company.

I don't think safety is only driver related. I have driven for unsafe companies. I believe safety starts with the driver.

Nowhere in any of my posts do you see me saying that safety is the ONLY reason for driver turnover.

Not necessarily. Most of the larger carriers lease their new trucks, and neglect to do any of the preventive maintainance on them (or they skim on it). ALL of the major carriers turn their equipment over every few years. That doesn't make them safe companies. A 2 month old truck can get an OOS violation just as easily as a 20 year old truck. It all depends upon who is caring for the truck.

If you actually believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I'll sell you. Check the SafeStat records for some of the largest carriers, and then come back claiming that "typically", small companies are unsafe.

Many carriers don't have that high of a turnover rate..........EVER. And most of those carriers with low turnover rates are ANAL about the maintainance of their trucks.

The safestat results say differently. Current DRSEA for CFI is 54.46. FMCSA considers anything above 75 to be deficient. CFI is pushing it.

If you check further, you'll see that CFI has 289 State reported crashes in the last 30 months, 115 of those causing injury, and 11 of them causing fatalities.

Looking at their driver data, you'll see that in the 8238 driver inspections in the last 30 months, 362 of them resulted in an OOS order. That isn't too terrible. However, out of 2745 drivers, there have been 1134 moving violations. That is pretty bad.

Now let's look at their vehicle inspections - in the last 30 months, there have been 5104 vehicle inspections, and 535 of those inspections resulted in an OOS order. That means just over 1 out of 10 CFI trucks that gets pulled in for a vehicle inspection get put out of service. Seems pretty darn high.

In fact, looking at their past SafeStat numbers, CFI is currently the worst its ever been.

Now I understand why you chose your Avatar photo.

Typical response from someone who can't think of a logical rebuttal to anything I posted. :roll:

Yes it was . I've never worked for CFI but I don't know how you can rave about a company that.... a.offers one whole day home for every 7 out , that is pathetic b.does a ton of northeast c.doesn't pay all that well .

Notice his "driver-recruiter" signature line - that will give you all the answers you seek. :wink:

He probably doesn't even drive , just a recruiter trying his hand at typical phony used car salesman tactics .

Don't you just hate when someone bitch slaps you with the facts, and you have to retort back with this weak response. :lol:
OH SNAP.

He's not the first to do it, and I doubt he will be the last.

If I had a picture of puppies and kittens next to my name, it wouldn't change the FACTS that I posted.

I prefer the Petercar avatar myself, but the horses butt is amusing. :lol:

They probably got a lower score because of 2 reasons, 1 they started training students, and 2 drivers taking shortcuts. You can preach safety to a driver but what he does out on the road may be different. But if they upper management isnt concerned about safety, neither is anyone else. But I know for a fact how they are about safety I have seen it first hand. I was tarping a load it was snowing really hard and windy and it was late. I had a hard appointment time that I was running tight on due to waiting for shipper. The tarp was so slick I decided it wasnt really a safe thing to tarp it at that time. I called Maverick, they said do not get on the load, bungee it in a few places, we will just have to change the appoinment and you tarp it when you get up in the morning.

And since you like looking up companies and reseaching, check this out, then ask your company is willing to match it.


$10,000 DOT Inspection
A clean DOT inspection equaled a big payday for Maverick driver Lester Carpenter.

Carpenter, a resident of Gore Springs, Miss., won the $10,000 grand prize in Maverick’s Inspection Perfection contest. The contest gave every driver that received a clean DOT inspection in 2004 the chance at the grand prize. At the end of the year, Carpenter’s name was drawn.

Carpenter, who has been with Maverick for eight months, was stunned by his good fortune. “I couldn’t believe it. My wife thought I was playing a joke on her; we were both shocked,” he says. “This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime type things.”

Carpenter plans to use the money to pay off some bills and have fun with the rest.

He says his time with Maverick has been great. “Even before the prize, I’ve really enjoyed working for Maverick,” he says. “They do things the right way, and I get a lot of time at home.”

Maverick created the contest to encourage safety and DOT compliance, the company says.

“People were surprised that we would give $10,000 away, but that is how serious we are about safety and compliance at Maverick,” says Dean Newell, vice president of safety for the Arkansas-based company. “It is always great to be able to give drivers some incentive and reward for doing things the right way.”
--Kristen L. Walters

Oh and something else


Maverick is installing the Iteris Lane Departure Warning System on it’s entire fleet of 1000 trucks. More inside….

The Iteris system is currently in use on over 8,000 commercial trucks in the U.S. and Europe, with more than a billion kilometers traveled so far.

Maverick Transportation, Inc. is a logistics and transportation company headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, which provides mainly flatbed trucking services. They will begin the deployment of the LDWS in December of this year and expect to have their fleet fully outfitted within one year.

"Maverick is committed to safety and feels that this technology will further enhance our efforts to make our highways safer for both our employees and the driving public.," said Steve Williams, CEO of Maverick and current American Trucking Association (ATA) Chairman. Installing Iteris Lane Departure Warning systems into all of our trucks further demonstrates our commitment to safety."

The decision by Maverick to include Iteris' Lane Departure technology in its fleet of trucks came after months of comprehensive field testing.

The Iteris' LDW System uses a windshield-mounted camera that tracks the lane markings and provides "virtual" rumble strips anywhere there are lane markings. Using image recognition software and proprietary algorithms, the system monitors the relative position of the truck and if it unintentionally crosses the lane markings, the system automatically emits a distinctive rumble strip sound on the appropriate side depending on the direction of travel, alerting the driver to make a correction. Use of the truck's turn signals automatically overrides the system.

“Maverick consistently examines the effectiveness of our safety program and we regularly survey our drivers to determine their satisfaction level and opinion on prospective safety technologies," said Dean Newell, vice president of safety for Maverick. "In fact, one driver recently commented that the Iteris LDW system is the best safety device he has tested. We believe implementing this technology is a good financial investment, but more importantly is the right thing to do."

For more information, visit www.Iteris.com.

The lane departure cost maverick over 1 million to put in their trucks. Id like to know if anyone else on this site reading this has lane departure and Id bet money noone here does. The whole ? is about safety conscious companies, and I said Maverick was, and since you dont work for them, you have to look at a score and judge how safe their upper management is but to turn around and tell me what I see everyday with my own 2 eyes aint gonna happen.