INSIDE THIS ISSUE 7300 Clyde Park, S.W., Byron Center, MI 49315 www.mtstrans.com Phone (616) 455-8850 Fax (616) 281-7553 Breakdown 24/7 (800) 968-3188 Digest 2015 Issue 3 Len’s Compliance Corner 2 Early Findings of Drive Cam 3 PeopleNet updates 4 Fuel tips to help you score big 5 The MTS web 6 New MTS employees 7 Recruiter turned “Capt. Hollywood” 8 Winter Survival 9 Visualize your portion size 10 Stretch it out 11 PeopleNet gone mobile 12 What Drive Cam Is... 13 Workers’ Compensation and YOU! By Mary Stachura – Safety Department As employees go about their day-to-day work assignments, injuries can occur. In calendar year 2014, MTS employed an average of 1,022 employees and 82 injuries were reported. Below is how Terminals ranked for injuries for the year: Toledo 13 Byron Center 10 Lima 9 Belvidere 7 Kansas City 7 Grand Prairie 6 Marshall 6 Laredo 5 Bertrand 4 Flint 4 Lansing 3 Port Huron 3 Indianapolis 2 Highland Park 1 Spring Hill 1 Tulsa 1 Turkey Time! Employees at our Indianapolis terminal were treated to a delicious deep fried turkey meal put on by Terminal Manager Kenny Luchetta. Yummy!
Transcript
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
7300 Clyde Park, S.W., Byron Center, MI 49315 www.mtstrans.com Phone (616) 455-8850 Fax (616) 281-7553 Breakdown 24/7 (800) 968-3188
Digest2015 Issue 3
Len’s Compliance Corner 2 Early Findings of Drive Cam 3PeopleNet updates 4Fuel tips to help you score big 5The MTS web 6New MTS employees 7Recruiter turned “Capt. Hollywood” 8Winter Survival 9Visualize your portion size 10Stretch it out 11PeopleNet gone mobile 12What Drive Cam Is... 13
Workers’ Compensation and
YOU!By Mary Stachura – Safety Department
As employees go about their day-to-day work assignments, injuries can occur. In calendar year 2014, MTS employed an average of 1,022 employees and 82 injuries were reported. Below is how Terminals ranked for injuries for the year:
Toledo 13Byron Center 10Lima 9Belvidere 7Kansas City 7Grand Prairie 6Marshall 6Laredo 5Bertrand 4Flint 4Lansing 3Port Huron 3Indianapolis 2Highland Park 1Spring Hill 1Tulsa 1
Turkey Time!Employees at our Indianapolis terminal were treated to a delicious deep fried turkey meal put on by Terminal Manager Kenny Luchetta. Yummy!
MTS Digest Page 2
Compliance Corner
By Len Marchlewski—Compliance Manager
Winter Driving and Hours of ServiceAs we are getting into winter driving, drivers often find travel slow at times. This limits the amount of miles that can be driven within the FMC-SA’s federal guidelines. The Compliance department often gets calls from drivers asking for “an extension” to get to their destination. There are only a few situations that allow for a driver to drive past their 14 hours of On Duty Time or their 11 hours of Drive Time.
For Home Daily Drivers, there is the 16 hour Short Haul Exemption. If you start and stop at the same terminal each day, you may qualify for this extension. This allows you to have an extra 2 hours of On Duty time once per week between 34 Hour Resets. If you were stuck at a shipper or held up
in other ways, this can help you utilize all more of your 11 Hours of Drive Time. It never allows you to drive more than 11 hours!
If you find yourself out there and something unforeseen comes up such as an accident that creates a stoppage or some sort of detour on the highway, you may qualify for the Adverse Driving Exemption. This extension can only be granted if the situation could not have been known at the time of dispatch, and
your run could have otherwise been completed except for this unforeseen incident. Forecasted weather and construction do not meet the criteria to be granted the Adverse Driving Exemption.
Avoid the “Big One”
Speed and Space management is even more crucial during the winter months than at other times of the year.
Visibilities are lower, roads are slicker, and unsafe drivers are even more of a threat.
Watch your Following Distance— not giving yourself enough time to stop can get you caught up in a bad situation.
Lower your Speeds—this will increase your opportunity to stop in plenty of time when the unfortunate occurs infront of you.
Stay out of the 3rd Lane—not only is it against the law to drive in the 3rd lane in most areas, but driving in the 3rdLane on snowy roads creates a white out for other drivers, which could lead to a big wreck.
Wear Your Seatbelt— not only is it required by law and MTS policy, it could save your life in the event a bad accident did occur!
Be alert and keep your eyes on the road and always leave yourself a way out should something happen in front of you.
“To train, educate and guide the MTS Team on FMCSA Rules and Regulations, and encourage, and enforce the safe, legal and effective operation of the MTS fleet.”
MTS Digest Page 3
DriveCam is more than half deployed in our fleet, and some interesting numbers are starting to surface.First and foremost, we have a lot of really sharp drivers at MTS! We have numerous fine examples of our drivers saving some 4-wheeler’s bacon when that person makes a bonehead maneuver around our truck.The universal facts in all these situations are the MTS drivers are buckled in, not playing with a cell phone or other distraction, running a sane speed, and are alert to their surroundings. That is the very best way to drive defensively.
On the downside, we have a small amount of drivers who are disappointing in their performance:
• No seat belt.• Playing with a phone or texting.• Playing with food going down the road.• Squeezing a yellow light, thereby entering intersections when a light is red.• Cornering too fast.• Panic stops.
Some panic stops are due to late hazard recognition. The driver is daydreaming and staring off into space instead of paying attention to what his rig is rushing into. Other panic stops are directly due to the driver being way too close to the vehicle in front. Some of those are near-misses only because the driver took it to the shoulder or next lane at the last second.
The universal fact in these situations are the MTS drivers are living on luck. Luck eventually always runs out. Drivers who operate with numerous unsafe, bad habits are repeatedly shown in studies to have far more accidents and near-misses. To which we all say, “Well duh”.
Our goal with these drivers is to coach them back from the edge regarding their unsafe behavior, and try to effect more professional conduct through education. If, after coaching and showing the result of high-risk behavior on DriveCam, there is no change, we will remove these high-risk drivers from our fleet before something tragic happens.
Overall, DriveCam is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do. It shows us exemplary performance of our professionals in tight situations. Should those tight situations turn into an accident, we have a strong witness in favor of our driver. For others, it is a coaching tool to help raise their level of professionalism by showing an unbiased view of what’s happening out there on the road in close-call situations.
Early Findings from DriveCam Deployment
By Jeff Wood - Safety Director
MTS Digest Page 4
A new Icon will be showing up on your screens in December!
This December we will start rolling out Navigation to our touch screen displays. This will be tied in with a new fuel optimization program we will also be launching some time in December.
You must use your WorkflowIt is your Start Trip the will trigger Navigation to plan your route.
Once the Fuel program is added, it is the Start Trip that triggers the Performance Bonus. The information we use to calculate your bonus miles is interlocked with Workflow. We will have no way to separate the two.
• This is an automated system that will load the address on file. This may take you to the office and not to the loading dock. As the driver it is up to you to use common sense and not drive through an industrial park lake to get to the dock!
• Once Nav is running, you can get back to the Safe Screen by hitting the 2nd button down on the right on a BLU2, or the House button on a PD4
• To return to NAV use the Navigation Icon on the safe screen• Remember to keep your volume turned up so you’ll get your HOS warnings if you’re in Nav, and your direc-
tions if you’re in Safe Screen• Once we enable the fuel program, you will be prompted to enter your fuel level to the nearest 1/8th of a tank.
You must enter this information to get your fuel stop calculated and to start your miles for our Performance Bonus program.
• If your truck gives you an “eLog System Disconnect” warning, the system is not receiving any engine data. Any miles in that truck will not count towards your Performance Bonus.
Your OER button will be moved off Home Screen! If you need to manually trigger an On Board Event recording, use the Red button on the BLU2 or the PD4.
MTS Digest Page 5
Fuel Tips Offered to Help Score Your Monthly Bonus
In order for MTS to remain viable in our sector of the industry, we need to control our fuel usage. That mostly boils down to how our profession-al drivers operate the equipment. It is so vitally important to improve on how we consume fuel that MTS is willing to pay every company driver a monthly bonus for doing nothing more than driving smart and safe so we reduce our fuel consumption.
The following will be the criteria for the monthly performance bonus:
• Average MPG of 6.5 or greater• Long idle time below 40%• Over RPM must be less than 2% with the threshold being 1800• No negative CSA points for the month• Zero safety incidents for the month – This includes but is not limited
• Zero late loads• No disciplinary action from your TM or another member of manage-
ment.• Use the preferred fuel list to choose your fuel stop for the day.
Make sure to do good pre- and post-trips of your equipment, avail yourself of the terminal inspec-tion lanes where available.
Diesel additive-Fuel additives are once again available to be purchased in the truck stop using your EFS card for the winter driving season. From December to February diesel fuel is pretreated at the truck stop to between -5 and +5 so additive may not always be required. Additional additive is only required to be purchased and added when the actual air temperature drops below that rate or if gelling is starting to occur.
Excessive idle-As the weather turns colder, be extra cautious about how much time is spent idling your truck when you are not driving. If you have to use a breathing machine to assist your night’s sleep, you may want to try one of the suggestions below instead of idling too much. Excessive
idle time has a negative impact on your driver bonus and you can do the fol-lowing to help limit that time;
• Park at a truck stop that has idle air. The EFS cards are already pre-approved for the window adaptor, HVAC, electricity, basic internet, and 45+ channels of DIRECTV.
• Park and plug into a terminal when space allows.
• Limit idle time to only sleep time when too excessively hot or cold.
• Utilize a bunk heater more often.
• Use a power inverter as much as possible for your C-PAP or other needs.
• Fuel optimization and turn by turn navigation fuel optimization and turn by turn navigation
Over the next 3-6 months, MTS will be implementing a new program that will stream line the way we purchase fuel and the route we take to get to our des-tination. The new system will compute how much fuel is in your tank while taking into account the price of fuel in route from state to state. More infor-mation will follow but I hope everyone takes the time to generate some feed-back on this program and how we may improve it from there.
By Scott Luurtsema—Energy Compliance Manager
MTS Digest Page 6
Who has the “most important” job at MTS? You do!
I love the recent Halloween, and almost everything about it. Fanciful skeletons, ghouls, shiny black crows - these things decorate my kitchen year-round. However I hate - absolutely hate – spiders! I’m only able to kill them myself because I don’t want to give my fear of spiders to my kids.
Oddly enough, I do appreciate a perfectly constructed spider web. Glistening with morning dew in the sunlight. Intri-cate, delicate, yet super tough. I love the interconnected points, and how if something hits it in one corner, it telegraphs the news throughout the web to its architect.
I always think about MTS in the same way. In my years here, I’ve seen it grow from a small regional carrier into a Transport Topics Top 100 carrier. A company that now spans from Canada to Texas, with little dots all over the place on my office map. Those dots make me think about all our interconnected people. Maybe I’ve heard it said just one too many times by some folks, but when we start down the “my department is the most important because …” Well, you’re all wrong. And you’re all correct!
Just in Byron Center I think of Joel in Breakdown, handling the environmental issues to make sure we don’t get pollut-ants into our nearby creek. And he still works in Breakdown, with so many dedicated folks, keeping our trucks moving 24/7, in all weather. Yes, that’s mighty important!
Then I see Elmer in the trailer shop. He’s someone I’ve counted as a friend long as I’ve been here. He’s part of a huge staff of mechanics who move trucks and trailers in and out for service and repairs, efficiently as they can, while making sure they are all safe. I say “Hi” to Robert in Compliance, one of several folks who help keep our drivers legal on the road. We have two “Tracys” in Scanning and Billing, making sure we can invoice and get paid for all the loads we haul. I see Payroll folks, and then our fabulous Accounting department. They keep the money flowing for paychecks and the company’s bills, and we all need to thank them!
Far from the web’s center, each terminal is a part of this intricate web, keeping this company running. I regularly rely on Jacob Cameron, Dulce Olivares, Mike Eddy, Terry Payne, and Prudence Lee. When we lose someone it leaves such a hole, as when Toledo’s Bonnie Bone passed away recently. Her loss didn’t just affect the Toledo location, but also the folks who worked with her throughout our company system. I hear wonderful things about Gordon Lubbers in dis-patch, and Liz Mercer in Customer Service. Doing a bang-up job in Toledo is Cheryl Kelley, and also Shawn Irwin in Burton.
In my humble opinion, the position that keeps us rolling (pun intended) is our drivers. For us in Billing, they could be reduced to codes and TO numbers on a piece of paper. In dispatch, they are pieces of the puzzle that includes putting together truck, trailer, driver and load to service our customer.
I, for one, work hard to remember our drivers are not seen daily, but their toil is felt throughout this beautiful, intricate web we call MTS. Without these hard-working pro-fessional men and women, putting in those long hours, being on alert every moment they are behind a wheel, running in all weather, MTS would have been finished long ago. From one of our newest drivers, Brock Avalos, to Issac Steffen, to Lazaro Rodriguez, who recently passed his 10-year anniversary with MTS - I appreciate and thank them all. Interconnected, we are all here for the same goal. And thankfully without the spiders!
By Regina Wood - Accounting
MTS Digest Page 7
Welcome new employees!
Terminal Employee Name Hire DateBurton, MI Courtney Carver 09/14/15Burton, MI Jordan Erwin 10/13/15Burton, MI Scott Stebbins 10/19/15Grand Prairie, TX Daniel Cox 09/08/15Grand Prairie, TX Jose P Gonzalez 09/08/15Grand Prairie, TX Eric Miller 09/08/15Grand Prairie, TX Samuel Camacho 09/14/15Grand Prairie, TX Terrance Huff 09/14/15Byron Center, MI Tyler Rose 10/05/15Byron Center, MI Rusty Terpstra 10/05/15Byron Center, MI Tray Terpstra 10/05/15Byron Center, MI Charles Purcell 09/08/15Byron Center, MI Esan Sommersell-Mckenzie 09/09/15Byron Center, MI Matthew Gunnink 09/14/15Byron Center, MI Garlan Verburg 09/18/15Byron Center, MI John Wrage 09/21/15Byron Center, MI Ronald Kuszewski 09/21/15Byron Center, MI Nathan Pearson 10/12/15Byron Center, MI Regina Pell 10/15/15Byron Center, MI Lindsay Vandalsen 10/17/15Byron Center, MI Aisha Jackson 10/19/15Byron Center, MI John Elenbaum 10/26/15Byron Center, MI Kelvin Kelly 10/26/15Byron Center, MI Troy Scott 10/26/15Byron Center, MI Gregory Deboer 11/02/15Kansas City, KS Mary Schorgl 10/19/15Lansing, MI Crispin Bernal 10/19/15Lima, OH Tammy Gayheart 10/26/15Marshall, MI Curtis Harris 09/08/15Bean Station Justin Trent 10/21/15Port Huron, MI William Deland 09/08/15Port Huron, MI John Normandin 09/28/15Toledo, OH Terry Sharp 10/07/15Toledo, OH Kimberly Bradley 09/28/15Toledo, OH Conner Hoepf 09/28/15Toledo, OH Alissa Hall 10/05/15
MTS Digest Page 8
By Regina Wood - Accounting
Thomas Erickson is one of our driver recruiters out of Byron Center. Soft-spoken and easy to be around in his day job. He’s a family man and a husband. Fits right in as part of the MTS hard-working Byron Center employee family.
But on selected nights when the downtown neon lights blink on, Tommy becomes
“Capt. Hollywood”. His alter-ego is self-described as a scuzzy, ill-mannered rock star straight out of Sweden, with a huge fan base in Japan. Just go with it.
Tommy is the song writer, lead singer and guitar play-er for the band “Slumlord Radio”. They’re, a Michi-gan-based three-piece band that cranks out “scuzzy, fuzzy powerslop”. They might come closest to being conventionally categorized as Detroit-flavored rock-n-punk. Just don’t make that genre box too confining.
Slumlord Radio songs sometimes start hard-edged and stay that way. Just about the time you think you have them figured out, a song bridges into something totally different. Smokey, bluesy even, but still all Slumlord. Then just as you get lulled into “hey, what’s
this change?”, the tune slams back into its original chainsaw mode. With song titles like “Lizzy Lot Lizard”, “White Owls and Cheap Champagne”, and “Debonair Dolemite” you are compelled to hit the play button to see what these guys are all about.
Slumlord Radio playing live is high-energy and big fun! Audience interaction is definitely part of the show, too. Been there, seen them play, and it’s never dull.
With a purple velvet jacket that probably hasn’t seen a cleaning since the band started 5 years ago, Tom-my and his buddies - Mike Todd on bass and Matt Claucherty on drums -take full ownership of a stage. They are loud, fun, and did I mention loud? They leave everything on that stage while perform-ing full-throttle sets of originals, with an occasional cover tune thrown in. Slum-lord-style, of course.
With five CD releas-es to date, the band has a wide range of music to fill up their shows. The newest album, “Too Pretty for Tijuana”, has been promoted on Detroit radio sta-tions, internet blogs and online ‘zines. If you walk by my office in Byron Center, you just might hear the strains of “Bullwhip”. Bullwhip is also the band’s first video, searchable for viewing on-line.
I have to admit, the song is so good that it’s stuck in my head and I find myself singing along to it.
Check them out! facebook.com/SlumlordRadioMIslumlordradio.bandcamp.com
PeopleNet ConnectedDriver™ brings daily work directly to your
mobile device! Through this companion application to the
PeopleNet system, drivers can now receive important updates and
information while away from the vehicle – including dispatches,
hours of service availability and messages.
PeopleNet
ConnectedDriver™ is
available for both iOS
and Android mobile
devices.
PEOPLENET CONNECTEDDRIVER™
™
FEATURES & FUNCTIONALITY
Home screen dashboard to view trip information
View trip history, current trips and future trips
View trip details and notes based on route
information, ETA and appointments
View miles traveled, gallons of fuel used and MPG
Message history available for all vehicles
eDriver Logs summary overview
read-only messaging LOGIN – The driver must know his/her Company ID, Driver ID and Password to log in to the application.
HOURS OF SERVICE – The driver log information
that’s displayed is date and time stamped on the home screen. The date and time shown represents the last time the truck was synced with the PeopleNet Fleet Manager. Please note this data is near-real time and will update based on your company settings for check-calls or service calls made by the device, OBC or software. The PeopleNet in-cab device is accurate and will always show the actual time in which a duty status was made and display current HOS clocks and timers.
FIRST TIME USERS – It’s normal for there to be no
information in the app immediately after first use. Data will appear after the user logs in, and messages or trips are sent to or from a vehicle the driver is linked to.
MESSAGING – The messaging feature will
display all vehicle messages sent to the driver. The messages that the driver sends from the in-cab display will not appear on the application until a call is made from the truck to the PeopleNet Fleet Manager.
The DriveCam Program
What DriveCam IS…...
DriveCam is a passive recording system—this means that it operates in the background until something causes it to go to work. Hard braking or hard cornering, a very bumpy road or a collision event are examples of what would trigger an auto-matic recording. You can also manually trigger a recording at the touch of a button should something happen that you think should be recorded. Each recording is 12 seconds long—8 seconds before the triggering event and 4 seconds after.
What happens to a recorded video? Any recorded video—whether an event triggered or manual triggered re-
cording—is uploaded to the DriveCam review panel. Each video is re-
viewed to determine if there is anything relevant that the MTS Safety De-
partment should see. If nothing relevant exists, the video goes nowhere.
Should there be something that is determined to be of interest to MTS,
then the video gets forwarded on to the Safety Department for further re-
view.
What does MTS do with the video? In the event of an accident, we will gather all available data from the truck, includ-
ing the video, to defend you as the driver and MTS as the carrier in the event of a
lawsuit. Occasionally on other videos, it may reveal driving behavior that is
deemed risky or unsafe—following too close, use of a hand held mobile device, or
failure to wear your seatbelt. Should any of this type of behavior be seen, MTS will
use the video as a coaching tool to help that driver become a safer driver.
What DriveCam is NOT Most people do not like the idea
of “Big Brother” watching over
them. DriveCam is NOT a re-
mote controlled camera that will
allow anyone to look in on you
anytime they wish. YOU are in
control!
There are only two things that
will trigger a twelve second vid-
eo recording— 1) a G-force
event such as hard braking,
hard cornering, a bumpy road or
a collision event. 2) if the record-
er is manually started by you!
If the Green Light is on—the unit is powered up and there are no events to be
uploaded.
If the red light is on, there is an event stored to be uploaded on the next daily
upload
The red and green lights will flash quickly while a recording is in progress
To force a manual event, push the blue button. To force the upload of an
event, hold the blue button for 20 seconds. When successful, the red light
