From The Driver's Seat: Meet Driver Support

Welcome to From the Driver Seat, the Averitt podcast for all Averitt 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 Royals. Hey, everybody. I got a great podcast today. Got some good BS. Before I get there, wanna talk to you just a little bit about uniformity again. And I talk about this a lot. I know y'all hear me a lot, but it's really an important part of our culture. Make sure you use it every bit of your allotment and get the new uniforms. We got the new things out with Ooby, and there's some really nice shirts and pants and coats. Spend your allotment, get new stuff, make sure we're looking great. Part of our culture is really an important part of our culture, so we wanna make sure we're doing And speaking of culture, think that what we're going to talk about today is part of what sets our culture apart from a lot of companies is that's our driver services organization. And I'm really proud of it, not necessarily because I was involved in helping get this thing set up, but where it's evolved to and how it separates us from other companies. And our driver services organization does that. And we have two parts of the driver services organization. We've got one part that talks on the phone all the time. Those are the folks at corporate. They'll reach out. All of you have probably talked to one of those folks at one time or another. They'll call and say, how are doing? Then we got another part that are out in the field, they're spread out in different places at service centers, different service centers. We got nine of those folks, a lot of backgrounds. And I got two of them with me today. How are you all doing? Good. Good. I got Jersey Crest. I got John Murphy. Right? Yeah. How are doing, John? I'm doing wonderful. John, where are you at? I'm out of Knoxville. Knoxville. Okay. Yeah. And I know you you've you've been with Averitt for a few years. Right? How many years you've been with us? This year, it will be thirty nine. Thirty nine years. That's impressive. You know? Yeah. Gonna be exciting to have forty years next year. Right? Hit the forty year mark. Right. Get another week of PTO. Right? That's always good. Have a conversation with Gary and I, but that's that's that's that you've here that long. So you've got a lot of background at Averitt. Right? Correct. I I started out in Truckload like most drivers do. And then So you drove? Yes. Okay. Started out driving. And then when we opened up Charlotte, my wife at the time, she worked for Averitt. And me and her both transferred over to Charlotte, and we helped open up Charlotte when we started in the North Carolina region. Wow. That's a long time. Right? It's been a few years. Yeah. Then after Charlotte, moved back to Nashville, and I worked the dock and shuttle drove down there for a number of years. And then I'm transferred over to to the dispatch office for LTL. And then after that is you and I sat down and talked, I went into driver services and been here ever since. You've done a great job since you've been here. I know you did a great job for the past too. So that's a lot of experience at Averitt Express. Right? Well, we we have a few. And you're ex military. Right? I was. I was in the army for a number of years, and then when I got out, that's when I joined Averitt. Joined Averitt. Yep. Joe, you I know you've been with Averitt quite a while too. Tell us a bit about your background. Yeah. It was fifteen years in February. Wow. I started out in Truckload. After a couple years, I became a Driver Trainer. And then our site director at the time was on me to come run local. But I ended up running Dedicated for a year. I ran night shuttle for several months, and then I came over and ran city. And then you approached me about what Murph talked about getting into driver services. I did that for three years, and then I got into safety as a safety coordinator for a couple years. Yeah. Up in Kentucky. Right? Yeah. Out of Cincinnati. But my true calling was to be in driver services. And Yeah. Reached back out and snuck you right out of safety back in driver services. And it was a good learning experience in safety, but I think my true calling is to is to be helping our drivers. Yeah. I guess the key to it is the background like y'all folks have. And everybody has a little bit of different background. You take all the nine folks, the driver support specialists out in the field. We've got people that spent thirty years in HR, for example, people that have been fleet managers and worked in payroll, and drivers that have been shuttle drivers and drivers that worked in truckload all the time, the whole time. Lot of different experiences, and I think that's what helps driver services being able to relate to the drivers out there. Don't you think that's important? Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, with the all of us combined, I think we sat down at one time and said we had over a hundred and fifty years of combined experience within our our our team. And I think that's what sets us apart is our vast background experience that we can rely on each other, each teammate, and for different aspects, and and and they can help us out as well as the drivers. I think I I think what you said is exactly important. I know y'all have a a bit like a team text. I'll call it that for lack of a better term. But I know, you know, if if somebody asks a HR question, you might reach out to Anita, for example, and say, hey, Anita. What about this? Are you able to get that response? Every day. Every day. Yeah. We work very well as a team. You know? So if I get asked a question, and I I can reach out to Murph or or Casey Gender, who if it's a technical question, she's very good on the technical side of the job, Anita. We just have a great team. So Makes it easy to answer questions to drivers when they get when they have things right. And what I tell what I believe in, if I get asked a question and if I say, I don't know, and leave it at that, that's a problem. But if I get asked a question and I don't know the answer, it's okay to say, I don't know, but I'm gonna reach out to somebody and find out, and I'm gonna get right back to you. John, what do you like about the job so much? I mean, I know I know you're you know, you've done a lot of things there at Averitt. You could've went just about anywhere to work somewhere else, but you put chose driver services. And why do you like it? I like it for a a number of reasons. I think looking back over my career and the different positions that I that I that I've done, it all comes full circle into this job. I mean, you you bring a lot of that experience with you. Yeah. I get that. You know, something that I think y'all do that's unique too is for the Truckload organization, for instance, I know y'all do orientation for the new drivers coming in. Right? Yes. Correct. Talk a little bit about the orientation and what y'all do. Well, you know, you're meeting with the driver, and you're basically spending two, three, or maybe four hours sometimes just talking about how Averitt does things in Truckload. We do a full presentation and, you know, I tell drivers that are new, you know, between onboarding and orientation, you've had a lot of information through and I don't expect everybody to retain everything, but that's why before we part ways, I give them my cell phone number. Because I remember the feeling of being out there all by yourself and needing help with something. And, you know, your fleet manager is managing, you know, forty, forty five drivers and they're busy. So I tell them, if you really need help with something, and I mean this, you call me anytime, any day, and if I don't have the answer, I can reach out to somebody in Cookeville or whatever to resolve your your issue. So That's a that's a great thing, I think. But I think that orientation is really important. It gets it's that next step where it takes takes the fear of the unknown away a little bit. Don't you think, John? Yeah. What what's unique about what we do in this orientation, we sit down with that driver one on one. I have a checklist that I start with, and I go down through this checklist of it may be as simple as checking the permits for this driver, making sure he's got a DVIR or logbook, gate keys, fuel cards, the whole nine yards. And I tell all of them, you know, a what's what Averitt likes to do is make sure that you're ready on day one. We just don't throw you a set of keys, hand you a truck, say good luck. You know, we wanna make sure that you're as most prepared because anytime that you go to a new company, paperwork's always different, policies are always different, procedures are always different. You always have that question. So sitting down with that driver one on one, I think, is critical on before letting him go so he understands what he needs to do, and he'll have all the tools to be successful. And y'all call new drivers occasionally. Right? Well, not occasionally, but, I mean Yeah. Ever so you don't call them every day, but you do call every new driver that comes in. Correct. We we when the day they start or the week that they start, usually the next week, every team member that we have, will call that driver at least once a week up to two months. And usually, I'm the last one to call them. I called, I think I called four yesterday and just congratulated them on the two months Yep. Of being here and, you know, ask them if they had any questions or, you know, needed anything, stuff like that. And most of them are are at that time, they're they're they're into their role. They know what's going on and stuff like that. But just to reach out to them, they're always very thankful that the company this company continues to do that and checks up on them. So they're they're very grateful about what we do. We've nine locations that we're at in different service centers. And you all are available. You're at Knoxville. You hang out most of time right there at the driver support center. Joe, I know you hang out sometimes at the shop and sometimes up at the other part, depending on It on the service center, what the layout is, I think, what what we take advantage of. You know, we cover Atlanta East, Atlanta West, both of those at different times of the week and stuff like that. But, yeah, I think it's a great opportunity for a driver that's got an issue and he wants to sit down and talk to somebody face to face, doesn't wanna talk on the phone maybe. If you can stop at one of those nine locations Come see us. That's a great time to be able to come see somebody face to face and ask questions and and get any issues they might have straightened out. Right? Sometimes they just need a need somebody to talk to. They're out there for, you know, sometimes days at a time, speaking to their sales or or speaking to the radio. But sometimes, you know, but just to sit down with somebody and just to let them talk. Let them vent their frustration or whatever is going on or just, you know, be that be that support for them. I think the little things that we do means a whole lot to those drivers out there. There's no better feeling than when you can sense a driver is at that breaking point and you kinda talk them off the cliff. That's it's very rewarding to be able to do that, but it it just you know, drivers need to understand there's people that they can reach out to. In other words, if I'm having a problem, if I don't talk to somebody about it, I don't know if there's a problem and I can't fix it. So I encourage our drivers if something's bothering you or something's going on at home or you need to talk to somebody, reach out to us, reach out to your fleet manager, but, you know, communicate. Reach out and talk to somebody. Well, y'all do a great job. I think I think the the opportunity for the driver services organization is to help drivers. All the backgrounds that y'all the nine folks have that are out there that are in field, plus the five that are corporate, they're a little different role. But y'all have a great opportunity to draw off all that experience. I think it it makes y'all a successful successful group. I'm really proud of the team. I think y'all do a great job. So we really appreciate that. So thank you so much for what y'all do. Johnny, last words for our drivers out there? Well, I just wanted to say, you know, thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything that you do, but not only for the drivers, but for their families. I mean, for the families at home, you know, that we need to thank them as well. I mean, they sacrificed a lot being away from their loved ones and stuff like that. So I just appreciate everything that they do both both in the truck and at home. Joe, any final words? I couldn't have said that any better. Sacrifice that a over the road driver makes, you know, being away from your family, your loved ones for five, maybe six days a week, that's a big sacrifice. And I, for one, am very grateful to the drivers that are committed to being professional, but and devoted to Averitt and taking care of Big Red, keeping Big Red between the lines. It's just I I'm gonna share. When I came to Averitt fifteen years ago, we did orientations in in in person. Right. I was with two other carriers before I found Averitt, and I knew probably two hours in the orientation. I'm like, this carrier is different. They truly care about their drivers, and I think that starts at the top with Gary and all the way down through leadership. So I just I knew I had found my home when I came to Averitt. I agree with you on that. It's but I think it I think it all that goes back to Averitt culture. Right? Absolutely. It's the culture that we live in. It's our it's our culture, and it's different. It's different than other places. It really is. And it's hard to explain to you. You've been here for a little while too. But, hey, Averitt is a little different, the culture's different. And but I'm proud of our culture. Proud of y'all. Appreciate what y'all do. Thank y'all so much. Thank you. David. It was an honor. I appreciate it. And thank y'all for listening. You know, I'm proud like I said, I'm proud of the driver services organization and the service that we provide to our drivers. I'm glad that we're able to provide that to drivers. It's not something that every company does or anybody does it like we do it. And that is a tribute to Averitt and and what we are able to do for our drivers and help our drivers. And that's all driver services organization is about is how how we can help our drivers become the happiest they can be, and Averitt will be the best place possible for a driver to be. That's what it's all about. And remember that when you're out talking to folks out out on the road, other folks that's not with Averitt that might be a good Averitt Averitt associate. That's the key. It's part of it that nobody else does is what the driver's service organization is. That should help you on the People Like You program. We appreciate what you do out there. Look forward to seeing you all on the road. Thank you all so much.