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Nominations Sought for Best Fleets to Drive For Contest

The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) recently announced the opening of the 2010 Best Fleets to Drive For contest. The annual survey and contest will be administered by CarriersEdge, a leading provider of online driver improvement programs, with support from official media partners Ramp Media Group (publisher of Over the Road and Pro Trucker and the soon-to-debut Driver HEALTH magazine), and Over the Road magazine in Canada.

Now through Oct. 31, 2009, company drivers and owner-operators may nominate their trucking companies by e-mailing Nominate@BestFleetsToDriveFor.com or by filling out an application form on www.bestfleetstodrivefor.com.

Best Fleets to Drive For identifies the North American for-hire trucking companies that provide exceptional workplace environments for their drivers. Nominations can only originate from company drivers or owner-operators for their employing or affiliated carriers that operate 10 trucks or more (whether TCA members or not). One driver nomination is all that is needed to nominate a carrier. After that driver’s employment/affiliation has been verified, telephone interviews will be conducted with the nominee’s management to evaluate the carrier in areas such as benefits, professional development, driver and community support, safety record and company culture.

Following the interview, a selection of the nominee’s drivers will be surveyed to corroborate the information collected. The top finishers will be identified as Best Fleets to Drive For, and the highest scoring fleet in each of four categories will be named that category’s overall winner.

One significant change has been made for 2010: the contest now recognizes the operating differences between fleets that utilize owner-operators vs. fleets that employ company drivers. Thus, four overall winners will now be selected, one in each of the following categories: Best Fleet for Owner-Operators (with over 100 drivers and under 100 drivers, respectively), and Best Fleet for Company Drivers (with over 100 drivers and under 100 drivers, respectively).

Being selected as a Best Fleet to Drive For is an honor that generates more than just immediate publicity value; the recognition also boosts the carrier’s attractiveness to potential drivers and provides a foundation from which the carrier can gauge its current driver satisfaction. Herb Schmidt, president of Con-way Truckload, one of last year’s winners, says, “Being recognized as a Best Fleet to Drive For was especially meaningful for us because there is no better testament to our success than feedback from our drivers. We are always working to improve our drivers’ experience in the workplace – the award lets us know we are on the right track.”

The contest benefits not just the winners, but the entire trucking industry, as the data collected provides a wealth of success stories that can be shared with other companies who may wish to adopt or follow the winners’ best practices.

“This survey focuses attention on promoting the companies that are already doing a good job, and pushes others to follow in their footsteps — continually improving the overall average and status quo,” says TCA President Chris Burruss.

“We’ve learned a lot from last year’s contest winners, who demonstrated that, regardless of the economic climate, fleets that invest in their people are more productive and more profitable,” adds Mark Murrell, president of CarriersEdge.

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