2026 Benefits Enrollment

Welcome to from the driver's seat, the Avid podcast for all Avid drivers to keep up with news and information across our network. Make sure to subscribe on your preferred podcasting app to make sure you're notified as soon as every episode drops. And now, hosting from the driver's seat, director of driver services, David Royles. Hey, everybody. It's Dave Broyles. Got a great podcast. We do this podcast every year, and I always look forward to it. We got a great guest. Got Marcia Brock. How are you doing, Marcia? Hello, David. I'm doing great. You know, it's that time it's getting close to that time of year again. Right? And Yes. It is. Annual enrollment. That's right. And, you know, you and your team are always doing working on benefits year round. And then come around October, it's time for everybody to sign up, and that's an important time of year, isn't it? It is very important. So when are we starting this year? Well, David, we're gonna start October the sixth, and enrollment's gonna go through October the twenty fourth. We have a lot of new associates this year, obviously. And those new associates, I think it's important that they understand, hey, take a look at everything we send out and all the stuff that's coming in the mail. Right? That's right, David. And, you know, it's it's it's everybody. It's new associates. It's, existing associates. And, of course, you mentioned the new associates. What's so important for them is this is their first opportunity to enroll. And to let you know as far as benefits, we consider a new hire to be someone who was hired October the first of twenty twenty four. So last October, if you were hired after October the first, you're a new hire. And what that means is on on any of the life insurance policies, you don't have preexisting, you know, things like that. You don't have to go through evidence of insurability. You you're automatically you have a guaranteed issue. Right. And so that's why it's so important because you don't wanna wait until, you know, something happens and try to get coverage because you might be turned down. Right. But, but for existing associates, I mean, you definitely need to look at what you've got and make sure that everything is still in check. You know, do you do you still do you have children still on your plan? Do you still need children on your plan? Do you have children that need braces or need glasses? You know, just making sure that you're in the right plan and and, don't like to talk about this a lot, but even your beneficiaries. Yeah. You're making sure your beneficiaries are up today. This it's just so important. So enrollment is not just about enrollment. It's almost like, you know, it's you're doing a a checkup on all your benefits. You need to look at them, make sure what you've got what you need. Yeah. And, you know, you never know what you're gonna need. Right? And and the other the nice thing about, what our benefits and I think, you know, we cover a lot wide spectrum of everything possible just about the We do. That the social could need. Don't you think? We do. And it's almost like we have the lifestyle benefit. You know, we've got something for no matter what phase you are in your life, if you're, fresh out of college or if you're getting close to retirement, we've got something for everybody. And our goal is really to keep, our benefits affordable and, and to be able I know we were having some conversation earlier, but we also want people to have some of the supplemental products that help offset some of their co pays and deductibles when things happen in their life. It's really important. I think that, yeah, life changing events, there's things that are gonna happen, you know, if you're what if what if they got married this year? They Oh, it What what happens there if they wanna bring a spouse onto their insurance? Well, we're hoping that when they got married, they added it at that time because you have to do it within thirty one days. But if you didn't, they'll just add them during annual enrollment, and the coverage will start January the first. Now they will be required to provide dependent verification. We need to verify, the eligibility of that spouse and any children that may come on the plan, but that's what they do. I don't think people understand, necessarily sometimes that they haven't had a problem. How about how important are the benefits are and how great the benefits are that we have. Do you I mean, I don't know if everybody understands how great the benefits really are. I know low cost, y'all have done a fantastic job of keeping our costs down. Well, you know, it's a team that works on this, but you're right. We have no no no cost, low cost benefits. And, and, you know, we're talking about why people need to look at everything. With annual enrollment, we want people to call, like, quick. We want them to call now. Don't wait till October the twentieth. We want you to call October the sixth. We want Colonial's phones to start ringing so that you can you can get a hold of them, and you can ask all those important questions. And, you know, like years past, I'm assuming we're gonna give something away if you do it early. Right? We are. Yes. We're gonna be doing the red thinking reward points again. Oh, that's great. And the sooner you enroll, the more times more chances you have to win. And it doesn't matter how you enroll. Everyone is gonna be enrolled. Yeah. You know, you you can do it online, I guess. You can. Call or you can You can do it on my portal. And, the best route to go is go to inside Averitt. All of our information about enrollment is gonna be on inside of Averitt. It's gonna give us the the timeline when when enrollment's happening. It's gonna give you the links to go online. It's gonna give you the telephone numbers. It's gonna we'll we'll have our enrollment guide there if you wanna be able to see what, the the rates are, the coverages, things like that, documentation required during enrollment. And, and, you know, we've talked about several reasons why you need to enroll. We've not even mentioned if you're tobacco free. Right. You need to do it. You need to go. You need to you have to you need to do the enrollment. You need to say I'm tobacco free. My spouse is tobacco free because that affects your rates for your your medical insurance because you don't get a discount if you don't enroll. If you enroll, you get a discount. And then on the life insurance and some of our other policies, some of the colonial and and, even the long term care, you get tobacco. You get that discount for being tobacco free. So we want people to enroll and test and attest if they are tobacco free. Right. And then, and then also, if you're in the FSA, if you're in the flexible spending account through WEX, you have to reenroll every year. It doesn't the the government doesn't allow us to carry that over. You have to reenroll. What's your talk just quick what's f I I know what FSA is because I've been enrolled. But talk a little bit about what FSA is and how it works. Yeah. And, FSA is a flexible spending account. We have it for medical bills, and we also have it for for child or elder care. And so the child or elder care is if you need to pay for day care expenses or or for elder care for a parent or or your, or your spouse. And then but as far as the medical FSA, that's to pay for office visit co pays, deductibles like if you're in the hospital, prescriptions, if you co pays when you get glasses or you're when you go to the dentist, you know, when you have an out of pocket expense for maybe a crown, that's what you use that for. And it's all tax for tax it's tax pretax money. Right? Pretax. And you say they say it's about twenty percent. So let's just say I I like to just easy math. If if if you're spending forty dollars they're out there. You've saved eight dollars Right. You know, in taxes. And, and also, David, I wanna say anybody that has FSA now, I'd really like for them to to log in and see what their balance is or call WEX or I'll call the benefits team. You know, I think I mentioned on the last podcast, we have a wonderful our benefits team. They love helping people, and they can look up and see, you know, how much money they have left. And, they like to spend other people's money. They can they can tell them how to spend their money, you know, because you can roll over so much. But they can tell them, you know, hey. This is this is how you can because we have the FSA store. Right. You know, where you can purchase stuff before the end of the year. You can buy, like, blood pressure cuffs, band aids, sunscreen, contact solution, all that pretax. Yeah. And it's mailed to your home. Well, it's like it's like getting an increase. Right? It is. I mean, you know, if you It is. Yeah. It's like an increase. It's, you know, it's a you know, if you say the you know, if you spend a thousand dollars on FSA, it's two hundred dollars. That's a lot of money in a year's period of time. You start adding that up. Yeah. And, it it saves you a lot of money. It's like getting an increase. And why not why not spend it and not have to not have to spend the tax money and save some money for everybody. Right? Right. It won't it's your benefits. Right? It's your benefits. It's your benefits to use your benefit. Yeah. It's important, I think. And, you know, and all the stuff that y'all offer on the Colonial side of the business, I think that's important. Everybody needs to take a hard look at all that stuff because there's so much that y'all offer. You know, there's you know, it's just, like, you know, the different life insurances and the if you're in the hospital stay overnight and critical all the stuff. But everybody needs to really take a hard look at all that and see what you're interested in getting. Right? They do, David. And if you ask me, like, Marsha, what's new? I'm gonna say the big the biggest what's new is the colonial because we are gonna have just a few changes with that, but it's to the good. For most associates, they're gonna see, a reduction in their cost. So they're gonna see a savings, and then they're gonna see a better benefit. And, and plus just, increased customer service. And, you know, that's what we know all about customer service with Averitt. That's right. I think I think it's gonna be huge. I I'm just so excited for for the Averitt team and but it's it's crucial. I just wanna say that, and I don't know if I can say that enough that It's very important. If you currently have a Colonial product, you need to contact Colonial and and see what the changes are and what are you know, how it affects you and your family. The Teladoc thing. You know, that's always been a great deal. But I think, yeah, I think we have a possible change coming up there for high deductible folks. Right? We do, David. And, you know, Averitt is in tune with the legislation, all the changes with the laws. And and I think I may have mentioned the high deductible health plan is controlled Right. By the government. In January, we'll be able to allow associates in the high deductible health plan to be able to use the Teladoc at no cost. No cost. That's right. That's a great benefit there for the folks that are in the high deductible plan. I mean, we've done that for years for the, in the other plan right there. But We have. We have. And, you know, Teladoc is so much more than than what I think any of us realize because it's if you're sick, if you have a strep throat, a cold, sinus infection, it's also behavioral health. You know, if if you if you just feel like you need somebody to talk to, your spouse, your children, whatever, If they're on the health plan, you know, they can they can make the LTL. And you're not having to wait for an appointment tomorrow, next week, or next month. You can you can talk to somebody, you know, right then. You don't have to wait. And, and then also dermatology, which is huge because with dermatology, that's a specialist co pay if you're in the traditional health plan. And, you know, we've talked a lot about saving money instead of paying sixty dollars. It's free. Wow. Yeah. It's free. And, so we we want people to take advantage of that, and I think virtual care is is here to stay. Oh, yeah. It's not going anywhere. Sure. No. And, you know, we have the and and I don't wanna get off, you know, enrollment, but we, you know, we have the Hinge Health that we want people. That's the physical therapy Yeah. Where it's free in both plans, and we want our associates to take advantage of both, you know, of of the Hinge Health and the Teladoc. And then, you know, it just doesn't end with calling Colonial or doing your enrollment, but you need to make sure I wanna say, you wanna make sure you cross the finish line. Right. You need to make sure that you submit your enrollment. You need to make sure that you receive a confirmation. And when you receive your confirmation, you need to review it. You need to make sure that you're in the right plans, that you've not accidentally removed any anybody from your plan or or, deleted any plans. And if anybody needs to call the benefits team, call us. We'll be glad to go over your benefits with you because, October is when we can help you. We can right the wrong, and that's what we want people we wanna help. That's what we're here for. Yeah. Your team does a great job. I've called over the years, several times asking questions and things, and I've always been able to get great response. So, yeah, I would I would recommend call the benefits team if you need help or if you got questions. Yes. You know, and that's but, you know, during during October, let's call let's call those folks. Let's get make sure everybody looks at it. And, you know, when when people are out, you know, and you think about all the benefits that we have and the cost of the benefits and how much better that our cost is than everybody else's cost. You take a and I see that all the time because I talk to new new associates coming in. And, it's just it it it's really important, I think, you know, like, that's one of the biggest things you could do if you were talking to a new associate coming to work at AEWART Express. You need to make sure they understand our benefits. That's how you that's how you recruit somebody if you're talking to somebody. You know, you see somebody out and you say, hey, let me tell you about our benefits, you know, and ask them to compare benefits from where they're working. And I I doubt that they're gonna have anything better than we've got, especially for the cost. Speaking about that, you know, Averitt is self insured Yeah. On our benefits. And and what that means is it means that Averitt covers the cost of our insurance. Averitt covers eighty percent of that cost. Associates cover twenty percent of that cost. That is that is so unheard of. Right. And it and, you know, it's something we're proud of. You know, we're proud to be able to do that, and and that's why we offer all the things that we do, like, you know, even health screenings that we we did. And, and, you know, all the wellness benefits and all the wellness rebates that you get for your wellness because we know if you take care of yourself, you know, you're gonna save some money. You're gonna save you money and you're gonna save the plan money. That's right. And which I like to say comes back to us in the profit sharing plan. It does. Pays back all the time, doesn't it? It does. With with our products through Colonial, our new products, and even with the long term care, you take these policies with you when you retire. You take them at the same price that you're paying as an as an existing associate. When you go into retirement, you take them at the same price. That's that's a that's a great benefit. It really is. I don't know if I'll ever retire, but it's a great benefit. Well, we don't want you to. So so but I'm I'm telling you it's there just in case. In case I decide to retire. Yeah. No. I'm not planning on retiring anytime soon, but that yeah. Yeah. I know a lot of people that wanna retire. I don't know if I ever retire or not, but Yeah. It'll it'll it'll it'll work itself out. But Yep. You'll be here for a while too. You're gonna be here walking? I'm gonna be here a while too. You when you'll hang out for next ten years? Okay. Fifteen years? Nah. Ten. Let's say ten. Yeah. Let's say ten. Alright. Well, hey. Any last words for the associates, Martha Mar Marcia? I guess, again, I wanna say thank you for what you do, and, please enroll. Please, don't wait till the last minute, and, we're here if you need us. Thank you again. Great which the work y'all do and your team does, it's awesome. Thank you. I think the benefits, if you everybody takes a look at them, they'll understand what I'm talking about when I say our benefits are awesome, what a great job you've done with them. So we appreciate what you do. Thank you so much. Appreciate all that. You're welcome. And again, think about October. Think about and make sure you take a look at everything. You're gonna get a mailer. And do it soon. Don't don't wait. Don't be the person that waits till October twenty fourth and something happens, and the next thing you know, it's November and you forgot to do it. Don't do that. Get it done in that first part of October. Just go ahead and finish it and get it out of the way. But make sure you take a look at it and really study it and make sure you get what you need. And, also, when you take a look at all these benefits and you say what we got, when you're out there and you're you see other drivers, talk to them about our benefits versus what their benefits are. Our benefits are amazing, and it's really a great benefit. It's a way to it's a way to go recruit drivers like us, and we need more drivers this year coming up than we've ever needed before, so we're gonna need y'all's referral. Thank you all so much for listening. We'll see you out on the road.