Danny Herman Trucking hopes you had a Merry Christmas and are geared up for a great New Year! Published Bi-Monthly for Danny Herman Trucking, Inc. November/December 2017 Volume 15, Issue 6 Your G.O.A.L. for 2018 1 A Word From Our President WELCOME Hello to all! I hope this newsletter finds all of you doing well. I will start off by wishing all of you a Happy New Year. I hope all of you and your families had a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope all of you were able to spend some time with your family and friends, get some needed rest, and recharge for the New Year. CONTENTS Speaking of the New Year, it has been a good start as it NEWSLETTER pertains to freight volume and miles. We saw business pick up and take off much faster this year than we have in years past. From the looks of it January, overall, should 1 A WORD FROM OUR PRESIDENT be strong. We anticipate all of 2018 to be a strong year. Joe Herman, President of DHT With the ELD mandate going into effect, the new tax 2 OPERATIONS - SALES reform being signed into law, and the overall economy continuing to strengthen, 2018 has all of the ingredients for a good year. Weigh Less in 2018 The Sale View for 2018 We held our annual driver safety meetings on January 2nd and 3rd in El Paso. It was good to see all of you. I hadn’t seen some of you since last year, and with others it 3 SAFETY was the first time I had the opportunity to meet you. We covered a lot of information in the four hours of each meeting and I hope all of you got as much out of it as I did. For Your G.O.A.L. for 2018 those that were not able to attend, the meetings were recorded and will be available on DHT-U. 4 MAINTENANCE There were a couple of items that were discussed that I want to put some emphasis on. Good Things to Happen in 2018 The first one is “Scale Tickets”. Several people in attendance raised the issue that when they T-Call with some of our other drivers, those drivers have failed to weigh the load 5 PASSING ALONG TESTIMONIES that they are handing off to them. Going forward when you pick up a load that is more than 25,000 lbs. (on the bills) it is your responsibility to weigh the load at CAT Scales or a Certified Scale to ensure that your weight is legal on the gross as well as your axle 8 MARKETPLACE CHAPLAINS weights. This is to be done at the nearest set of scales to where the load was loaded or Balancing Work and Family picked up. If the weight is not legal, we can then take it back to the shipper and have it While Being Absent reworked to insure that it is legal. In the event you T-Call with another driver, and you do not have a legal weight ticket prior to the T-Call or swap, that driver will not switch loads until you attain a legal weight receipt. This has been our policy all along and it is just a 9 LEGAL SHIELD common courtesy to your fellow driver. It appears some drivers have not been following it this policy, but from now one, you must. 11 DRIVERS OF THE MONTH On a similar subject, as the weight ticket is the issue of how trailers are dropped at other locations, whether that be a customer or one at our terminals or drop locations, we are 12 DRIVERS OF THE YEAR seeing far too many trailers being dropped with defects like a flat or blown tire, lights that are out, or other damages. Going forward all drivers are instructed to report any 14 NEW HIRES defect to maintenance when picking up a trailer. We will then do a movement on the trailer to determine who the preceding driver was, and if it is determined that it was a defect that should have been reported by the previous driver and was not, disciplinary 15 ANNIVERSARIES action may be taken. Both of these items are elementary and shouldn’t even have to be mentioned, but it is upsetting to the driver that goes to pick up a trailer with damage that could have been prevented by the previous driver by doing a proper post trip inspection and reporting the defect. The majority of you do a great job at this, but it appears that a few are not. I know that we are all better than this, now let’s show it!! During the past few weeks we have been experiencing some extremely cold temperatures across the country. Please insure that you put fuel additive in when fueling and before heading into cold weather. Maintenance has been sending out Qualcomm Messages on this, but please keep an eye out on the weather for the areas you are traveling and be sure to add fuel additive before getting into cold weather. Fuel additive is not effective if you wait to put it in when you get into the cold weather, you must plan ahead. If you have any questions on whether or not to add fuel additive please feel free to contact DANNY HERMAN TRUCKING, INC. | November/December 2017 Operations & Sales 2 cont’d from page 1 down the highway. If you are ever in doubt about the weight on maintenance; they will be more than happy to assist you. the bills being accurate, please weigh the load. I would like to This past weekend was very icy and cold in the Southeast and recognize Alfredo in El Paso for presenting this idea which has Midwest. I commend all of you for doing a great job in this weather. many benefits. Many of you had to shut down, but you did a great job of notifying dispatch so that we knew you had to, and in turn we were able to In closing, I would like to thank all employees at DHT for the notify our customers. As we have always said, if the weather gets efforts they put in, not only for the business, but also for the bad and you feel it is not safe to be on the road, please get off the caring and compassion we all show for each other daily. Most of road and to a safe location ASAP. The most important thing is your us must work to support ourselves and a family. The environment safety and the safety of those around you. We just ask that you that has been created at DHT makes this the best place to work notify dispatch so that we know you are safe and so that we can in the country. There will always be ups and downs, but in the notify the customer that we will be late. NO LOAD is worth more end DHT is one big family that I am very proud in which to be a than your safety or the safety of those around you. We are in the member. winter months so please continue to be safe. Best wishes for a successful 2018! In closing, I want to thank all of you for all that you do. We have a great group of professional drivers and I appreciate all that you do Blake Grindstaff, VP of Operations for DHT. I pray that all of you have many safe miles, not only this month and this year, but always. God bless you all!! Joe The Sale View for 2018 Hello everyone and Happy New Year to you and your families! I Weigh Less in 2018 hope that everyone had a wonderful and blessed Christmas and Holiday Season with friends and relatives. As we move into 2018, all indicators I know that I did, and now, I am show an improving economy ready to get back to trucking! and in turn an improving trucking environment. 2017 was not a banner I am enthusiastic about 2018 year, but overall it was a decent year. and what it holds in store for the The promise of better things to come transportation industry but more important, for Danny is always exciting and my goal is to Herman Tucking and our families. We see the markets make 2018 a historic year for DHT. continue to tighten and some great opportunities The cards are stacked in our favor onboarding to enhance our customer base and increase and we will make the most of this miles to those willing to run. I know that if the wheels aren’t opportunity to improve the company turning, YOU aren’t earning! It is always our goal to seek and the lives of our employees. the long-haul, driver-friendly fright that keeps you in the seat and moving. I want you to run all the miles you can Effective January 1, we will no longer require drivers to weigh legally to be able to provide a good living for you and your loads that are less than 25,000 pounds. As most of you are aware, we have always required every load to be weighed to family. prevent issues after we leave the shipper. We have realized The Danny Herman Trucking Team is looking forward to that this is overkill and decided to make this change. If the what this New Year will bring us, and I hope you are as bill of lading shows a weight 25,000 lbs.