Recruiting, Hiring, and Coaching Your Way to a Culture of Safety

What does it take to be nominated as Driver of the Year? 6,000,000 accident-free miles in a career is a good start.

Jan Quarnberg is a driver for Barney Trucking and was recently selected as a Lytx Driver of the Year. He’s been a professional truck driver for over 40 years and has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the Lytx/DriveCam Good Driving Award and the Glen Barney Haul of Fame award. In the 6,000,000 miles that he’s driven, Quarnberg has never been involved in an accident and has never had any driving violations -- an incredibly impressive record.

On this show, we talk to all kinds of managers, executives, and industry thought leaders, but rarely do we get to sit down with a driver doing the hard work every day. In today’s conversation, Jan shares with us how he got into trucking, what his day-to-day looks like, and his thoughts on safe driving. Plus, he shares some of the craziest things he’s seen on the road in his career.

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The Fleet is brought to you by our friends at Lytx. Whether you manage a fleet of five vehicles or 5,000 – Lytx is here to help. 

Lytx fleet dash cams are powered by best in class machine vision and artificial intelligence designed to help commercial fleets and drivers operate more safely, efficiently, and profitably.

Go to Lytx.com/thefleet to learn more today.

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The Fleet is created by the team at Mission. To learn more about our creative studio and network of podcasts, go to mission.org.

For much of our show, we’ve focused on our market here in the United States, but what about the rest of the world?

Fleet Managers that get assigned to international markets quickly learn just how different other countries operate compared to the United States. 

Size of roads, availability of refueling stations, access to repairs and maintenance, laws and regulations, traffic density, and accessways, it’s endless, the myriad of systems in play around the world. 

Meet Raj Bajaj, Vice President for Webfleet Solutions International, a Bridgestone Tire company. They are on a mission to make it easier to operate a fleet anywhere in the world. And to do this, it requires highly sophisticated and localized data plus an intimate knowledge of how each country operates. 

All of this data is used to gather better insights to make better recommendations on how to more efficiently operate a fleet. 

If you’ve ever been curious about how international markets prepare for maintenance, how critical infrastructure around the world plays a massive role in how goods are shipped or wanted to know why a tire company would want to buy a software company, this is your episode.

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The Fleet is brought to you by our friends at Lytx. Whether you manage a fleet of five vehicles or 5,000 – Lytx is here to help. 

Lytx fleet dash cams are powered by best in class machine vision and artificial intelligence designed to help commercial fleets and drivers operate more safely, efficiently, and profitably.

Go to Lytx.com/thefleet to learn more today.

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The Fleet is created by the team at Mission. To learn more about our creative studio and network of podcasts, go to mission.org.

Where does a city turn in order to make their roads safer? Who does a private fleet call to improve driving conditions for its drivers? 

Because these questions went largely unanswered, a new organization was created to better address solutions for safer roads.

From companies like ABInbev and UPS to city governments, Together for Safer Roads, or TSR for short, is a global coalition on a mission to create safer roads. David Braunstein is the President of TSR and he joins us today to discuss how the organization has been making impacts for decades. 

From redesigning roads and intersections, to providing data and data collection systems to improve civil engineering decisions, TSR is playing a part.

David also discusses how TSR funding helps to enable smaller fleets to gain access to new technologies like Machine Vision or In-Cab cameras to help improve driver safety. 

And the impacts from these solutions aren’t just local. They are global. Learn more on today’s episode with David Braunstein.

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The Fleet is brought to you by our friends at Lytx. Whether you manage a fleet of five vehicles or 5,000 – Lytx is here to help. 

Lytx fleet dash cams are powered by best in class machine vision and artificial intelligence designed to help commercial fleets and drivers operate more safely, efficiently, and profitably.

Go to Lytx.com/thefleet to learn more today.

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The Fleet is created by the team at Mission. To learn more about our creative studio and network of podcasts, go to mission.org.

We are psychologically incapable of putting down the phone. 

That might sound horrific, but Dr. Paul Atchley, a Professor of Psychology at the University of South Florida, has studied human behavior for decades and he’s convinced distracted driving is part of our everyday lives, that people want more entertainment and connectivity options while driving, and most importantly, we as a culture find it acceptable to exhibit these behaviors. 

So what can be done? 

On this episode of The Fleet, Paul educates us about distracted driving from the perspective of our brain. He explains why we behave the way we do, and how to prevent distraction. He tells stories of international policies that are much more effective at preventing distracted driving accidents and how some cities and private companies are doing it too.

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The Fleet is brought to you by our friends at Lytx. Whether you manage a fleet of five vehicles or 5,000 – Lytx is here to help. 

Lytx fleet dash cams are powered by best in class machine vision and artificial intelligence designed to help commercial fleets and drivers operate more safely, efficiently, and profitably.

Go to Lytx.com/thefleet to learn more today.

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The Fleet is created by the team at Mission. To learn more about our creative studio and network of podcasts, go to mission.org.

Driver shortage? 

There’s no driver shortage. 

So why is the trucking industry having such a hard time filling its open jobs? 

According to today’s guest, the cause is not a shortage of drivers, but an abundance of options. 

Joining the show is FreightWaves’ Grace Sharkey. FreightWaves is like the Bloomberg of transportation -- they report on all the logistics, trends, and news that fuel the global supply chain.

In today’s conversation, Grace uncovers the abundance of opportunity available to drivers today, and why the antiquated industry is struggling to meet drivers on their terms. She also discusses how she thinks labor wages will roll back and how new innovations will make shipping easier and possibly less expensive. Plus, find out what she thinks happened to her Beyonce facemask that just never arrived and what happens to your goods that just magically disappear in transit.

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The Fleet is brought to you by our friends at Lytx. Whether you manage a fleet of five vehicles or 5,000 – Lytx is here to help. 

Lytx fleet dash cams are powered by best in class machine vision and artificial intelligence designed to help commercial fleets and drivers operate more safely, efficiently, and profitably.

Go to Lytx.com/thefleet to learn more today.

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The Fleet is created by the team at Mission. To learn more about our creative studio and network of podcasts, go to mission.org.

About 35 percent of U.S. trucking miles are driven empty. This means that roughly 1 in 3 trucks we see on the road are empty, traveling between jobs, burning fuel, time, and miles with nothing to haul and no money being made.

Convoy is on a mission to change that. 

Joining the podcast today is Grant Goodale. Grant is the founder, former CTO, and now CXO of Convoy, an on-demand trucking service for arranging regional and local shipments.

Today, Grant tells us how his team is transforming the trucking and shipping industry by helping connect drivers and companies with orders around the country. Grant talks about how they built the Convoy network from the ground up, how they vet for and encourage safety among drivers, and how they are building a future without those time-sucking, fuel-guzzling empty miles.

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The Fleet is brought to you by our friends at Lytx. Whether you manage a fleet of five vehicles or 5,000 – Lytx is here to help. 

Lytx fleet dash cams are powered by best in class machine vision and artificial intelligence designed to help commercial fleets and drivers operate more safely, efficiently, and profitably.

Go to Lytx.com/thefleet to learn more today.

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The Fleet is created by the team at Mission. To learn more about our creative studio and network of podcasts, go to mission.org.

Earlier this season we sat down with Giovanni Bertolino of Enel X to discuss electric vehicles and the infrastructure needed to support them. Today, we dive even deeper into the world of EVs and what you need to know about implementing them in your fleets. 

Joining us for that discussion is Tim Campbell, the founder and Managing Director of Campbells Consultancy. He is one of the UK's most experienced commercial vehicle consultants in helping fleets transition from diesel to electric or hydrogen fuel cells. As he puts it, switching to “alternatively-fuelled vans or trucks is the start of the journey, not the end.”

In today’s conversation, Tim takes on that journey and helps answer the questions you don’t even know to ask about switching to EVs. From how to power your vans to what type of chargers to use to why it matters whether or not you are leasing your land to the role weather and location play in it all, Tim shares his take on everything you need to know about EV fleets.

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The Fleet is brought to you by our friends at Lytx. Whether you manage a fleet of five vehicles or 5,000 – Lytx is here to help. 

Lytx fleet dash cams are powered by best in class machine vision and artificial intelligence designed to help commercial fleets and drivers operate more safely, efficiently, and profitably.

Go to Lytx.com/thefleet to learn more today.

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The Fleet is created by the team at Mission. To learn more about our creative studio and network of podcasts, go to mission.org.

What trends should fleet managers and industry executives expect to see in the next year, 5 years, and 10 years? And how will these trends affect the day-to-day for drivers on the ground?

Joining the podcast today is Rajesh Rudraradhya, CTO of Lytx. Rajesh shares his vision for the future of fleet technology and what he is working on today to meet that vision. Plus, he dives deep into the key trends facing the industry as a whole - including cloud and increased connectivity, the impact of 5G, video as the new GPS, and the growing role vehicle sensors are playing in keeping drivers safe. 

From crosswind detection and weather-based speed recommendations, to sensors that can not only recognize black ice but communicate the location of that black ice to other drivers in the vicinity -- Rajesh and his team at Lytx are building the future of vehicle safety. Learn more on today’s episode.

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The Fleet is brought to you by our friends at Lytx. Whether you manage a fleet of five vehicles or 5,000 – Lytx is here to help. 

Lytx fleet dash cams are powered by best in class machine vision and artificial intelligence designed to help commercial fleets and drivers operate more safely, efficiently, and profitably.

Go to Lytx.com/thefleet to learn more today.

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The Fleet is created by the team at Mission. To learn more about our creative studio and network of podcasts, go to mission.org.

Today we have a special guest uniquely positioned to offer both a perspective on driving and on coaching -- Herschel Evans, Safety Trainer and Driver for Yellow Corporation. Herschel was recently awarded Lytx’s 2021 Coach of the Year and was the first-place winner in the For-hire Trucking category. Among countless impressive accomplishments, he has maintained a flawless driving record with over 3 million accident-free miles.

Today, Herschel explains how he got his start as a trucker 33 years ago, why he fell in love with the industry, and how his role has evolved from driver to coach. He tells us his philosophy on coaching, what he looks for when he conducts road tests, and why 3 decades later he still values being on the road more than anything else. Plus, he shares some of the craziest things he’s seen behind the wheel and why safety is always top of mind.

His personal story will give you first-hand insight into the driver’s world and what it takes to recruit and retain drivers for your fleet operations.

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The Fleet is brought to you by our friends at Lytx. Whether you manage a fleet of five vehicles or 5,000 – Lytx is here to help. 

Lytx fleet dash cams are powered by best in class machine vision and artificial intelligence designed to help commercial fleets and drivers operate more safely, efficiently, and profitably.

Go to Lytx.com/thefleet to learn more today.

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The Fleet is created by the team at Mission. To learn more about our creative studio and network of podcasts, go to mission.org.

Today’s guest is Jerry Glass, the President and founder of F&H Solutions Group, a consulting firm that advises companies on a range of labor issues. As a company, Jerry and his team have negotiated more than 800 collective bargaining agreements, and, as he puts it, over the 15 years since he founded the company, “they’ve seen everything.”

Jerry offers a valuable look into labor unions, labor shortages, and how today’s economy is affecting transportation companies. He discusses the necessity for apprentice and on-the-job training programs, why managers and owners have to start thinking about hiring from a 5-year and 10-year perspective if they want to have long-term success, and how to work with unions to embrace new safety technology. Plus, Jerry touches on the increased competition for workers we are seeing across all industries, why that competition is causing smaller operators to get squeezed out, and what you can do to stay relevant in today’s economy.

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The Fleet is brought to you by our friends at Lytx. Whether you manage a fleet of five vehicles or 5,000 – Lytx is here to help. 

Lytx fleet dash cams are powered by best in class machine vision and artificial intelligence designed to help commercial fleets and drivers operate more safely, efficiently, and profitably.

Go to Lytx.com/thefleet to learn more today.

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The Fleet is created by the team at Mission. To learn more about our creative studio and network of podcasts, go to mission.org.