From the Driver's Seat: Red Thinkin' Rewards

Welcome to from the driver's seat, an Averitt podcast for all Averitt associates to keep up with news and information across our network. Make sure to subscribe on your preferred podcasting app so you'll be sure to be notified the moment a new episode drops. And now, director of driver services and hosting from the driver's seat, David Broyles. Hey, everybody. It's Dave Broyles. Got a great podcast coming up, but I wanna talk about one thing first. I wanna talk about if you haven't used all your uniform allotment, please do that before the end of March. Make sure you're using all your allotment again. We've talked about this this first quarter. We want you looking sharp. We want you looking when you're getting out in front of those customers, we want to make sure you're as sharp as you could possibly be. Buy new uniforms. Get rid of the old stuff. Make sure you're wearing the new stuff. Get out there and make sure you're building our culture. Our uniforms are the basis for Averitt's culture, and we wanna make sure you look good. That's why the that's why the uniform allotment's out there. We want you to spend it. We want you to buy new uniforms. We want you looking good. But today, we're gonna talk about another little project. We're gonna talk about Redfinkel rewards, and I got some guests with me. I got Dusty. How you doing, Dusty? Good. How are you? I'm doing great. Alaina, how are you doing? I'm good. How are you? Good. Good to see y'all. You too. Glad y'all are here. And, we're gonna talk about Red Thinking Rewards points. And, you know, we've been doing the Redfin rewards points for a while now. You know, we started this years ago, and it's a way for, drivers and associates. Right? So we're for everybody to earn points based on meeting KPIs. And what's KPI? Right? So it's measurements to say, hey. Your your mileage, your maybe it might be m p g, might be idle time, might be no accidents. But there's ways for drivers to earn points. So let's talk about the Red Thing is award program a bit a little bit. Talk about detail about how do you earn points, Dusty? Absolutely. So, you know, we have this saying here at Averitt that you share in the effort and you get to share in the reward. And our Red Thinking Rewards program is just another way for offer for us to offer associates and availability to do that. So they can log in to our website and redeem those points for thousands of merchandise, travel, and experience options. And they can earn points in a couple of different ways. The first is through that KPI or key performance indicator. So depending on your position in the field or here at corporate, you have certain goals that we ask you to meet. Based on your job performance and exceeding those expectations, you can earn points through our KPI program. We also offer service milestones. So for every five years of service that you meet, you're gonna receive red thinking rewards for that as well. And our referral program, you know, we're really focused on recruiting great people for the future. You know, I think mister Sasser says that the most important decision that we make every day is who we're bringing on board here at Averitt. And so if you are referring people and they're putting your name on their application, regardless of their hire status, you're gonna receive Red Thinking Rewards points for that. Right. And also for safe driving. So every year that you remain, safe and you receive that milestone for safe driving, you're gonna receive Red Thinking Rewards points as well. But, you know, when you look at the opportunities in there to to spend stuff and buy stuff with your Red Thinking Rewards points, It's, like, endless when you open a catalog up. You know, it's kinda like you know, it kinda reminds me of the old days, the Sears Roebuck catalog. You know, you used to flip through it and look at stuff. And that was I remember when I was a kid, you'd go through that and look at all the stuff. You'd say, wow. I'd like to have that. You know? They're I'll get that twenty two. I'd like to have that twenty two. You know? It's all kinds of stuff. What's the same thing when you start going through the catalog? It's like getting the candy store. You know? Hey. Yeah. I like to have that fishing rod or something. There's thousands of stuff in there, isn't there? There is. And, you know, whether you have five thousand points or one million points, and some associates do have one million points. Oh, they have some over. Right? Yes. And, you know, no matter the point value you have in your balance, there's something for everyone. And, you know, when I talk to to drivers and associates, I like to tell them, it's kind of like an Amazon. Really, anything you want. Anything you want, from kitchen scissors to, you know, a a vacation getaway, whatever, you may be needing at that time is really available to you. Yeah. I think you were there, and it was several months ago. I think we were in Nashville, and and a and a driver had talked about his dishwasher went out. Yes. Remember that? Yes. And and, you know, and and we ordered him a dishwasher right there on the spot with his with his points, you know, for his wife. You know? So he had a dishwasher go out. Right on the spot, he ordered a dishwasher, and it was delivered to his house, and he could put it in. Made his wife's day, I'm sure. So that made that made his day. Right? Because he had a happy wife. Yes. That that that's just one of a lot of examples, though. Right? Talk there's another one with the track talk about the tractor one, for instance. Yes. We have a driver, Bradley Martin. We met at a cookout when we were up in Cincinnati. He was there, and he collects tractor parts. And he was just kinda talking to us about it and, was looking for some specific parts that he hadn't found yet for his collection. And we were able to find those for him through and use his points, to purchase those those parts. Mhmm. And that's why there's a catalog. Right? No. No. That so we can do, it's called a just for you, order, a special order, which is what we did for him. And, that is when we can source items outside of the catalog. So maybe you've been wanting something, that's just just not in the catalog at that time. We can look for on Amazon, for example, Best Buy, any other store or, outside source that that would have that item. Well, I wanna share a story on that too. Yeah. You know, I've got a personal story that I'll I'll share and share it with share it with you all. I'm a share it with the drivers. You know? We were we were riding, I guess, on cookouts, and you were telling me this about what you're just now talking about. You know, you can hey. You can use your worth thing awards points for anything and and you can share it. Like, you know, everybody knows I think most people know my wife works for Averitt too, so she's got points. And, you know, we can share the points between the two of us. But anyway, you know, you were saying that and I said, you know, I said, I'm not a big cruise guy. You know, I said he want we we were wanting to do something like that. So we were talking and you said, hey, you can do anything you wanna do. And I said, okay. I said, that's that's kinda cool. Got to thinking, you know, Vicky and I like to go to concerts and the Eagles were in concert at at Las Vegas at the Sphere. And, if you haven't if you haven't seen the Sphere, you need to go Google that because it's awesome. I can't so got talking to you, and you got me in touch with somebody at the at the QIC, and they started talking to me. And they said, okay. Hey. When you gonna go out? And we gave them some dates, and they said, okay. So they came up with some seats, and they actually got me some seats. Then they actually got me some a better seat. You know, they called back and said, hey. Turn those seats back. We found you some better seats. So they kept looking and even got a better quality seat than what I had before. We're sitting in a great place. We'll go out to listen to the Eagles and the Sphere. You know, Averitt paid for the trip through Averitt Rethinking rewards points. So I got to kinda go on a mini vacation of what I really wanted to do, which was go listen to the Eagles at the Sphere. And it was a phenomenal and and then we're gonna share a picture, you know, of of the of what we did with me and my wife out there. But it it's kinda cool. We actually did something totally different, and, you know, I'm not not advertising for the Eagles. While the concert was great, it was great to go watch the Sphere, What's cool about it is that, you know, we'd earned the Red Thinking Awards once, and we were able to pay for that pay for that vacation. Yes. Because what you said, you can do anything you want to. Right? You can. And it's not, it's a very doable thing to do. You know, the amount of points that, you and Vicky put together to spend on that, is really the average number of points that associates have. Yeah. So, you know, again, going back to, sharing your points, Vic putting Vicky's and yours together. Yeah. We have the gift your points program within Red Thinking. So any associate could go in and gift a number of points of their choosing, to any associate in the company. So that's what we did here. We gifted your points to Vicky and combined them. Yeah. And you mentioned that gifting the points. We've had drivers actually gift other drivers points because they wanted something. They didn't have enough points to get it right. And somebody said, well, hey. I've got a ton of points I don't really need. I'm gonna gift it. How cool is that that they share that kind of It's so cool. We have, we had a story last year. One of our dedicated leaders had retired, and, he had always wanted this grandfather clock that was on the catalog. And so his, associates, out of that location pulled their points together and actually gifted, a number of points to that, over three hundred thousand points to him, and he was able to get that grandfather clock before he retired. I mean, that that that's just that's that's Averd Associates being Averd Associates. Right? That's our culture. That's really what it's all about. Absolutely. So that's a that's a great program to be able to gift that and then people recognizing that, hey. Somebody wants something. Hey. We've got it. We we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna help. Absolutely. And I think it's important to know that, you know, there are associates out there, as Elena was saying, sitting there with a million points in their account. Yeah. And when we speak to these associates, what we most often hear is, well, I don't really know what I want. Right. So I would challenge you if you're sitting out there banking points because you don't know what you want, go home and look at what you need. You know? Do you need a new refrigerator? Do you need a new washer and dryer? Do you need a new TV? You know, unfortunately, one of the burdens that comes with owning a home is that there's always something that needs to be replaced or done or, you know, something that needs to be new renewed. Right. And so if there is that in your life, if you're facing that challenge where you have a need and not necessarily of want, come to us and let us know. You can always email us at red thinking at averett dot com, and we will reach back out to you and start that process of the just for you process that Alaina was speaking about to help you get whatever it is you need in life. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, it really is. Anything y'all want anything somebody could think about it. Basically, if you can buy it, you can buy it with Red Thinking Rewards points. Is that That's right. Is that a good analogy? Yes. You know, we were just in Knoxville for a cookout, couple weeks ago, and I met, Christopher Gibson. He's a team shuttle driver. Yeah. And he actually just remodeled his home, and was sharing with me. He used points to purchase, televisions and appliances for his newly, remodeled house as well. So you I mean, whether you're, you know, shopping for fun or, you know, in a time of need, you can really use your points to, aid you in in those Right. Those things. I think that, you know, and it all goes back to, okay, well, how do I get points? You do what you're supposed to do. Right? Right. That's really what it's all about. Do a good job. Do what you're supposed to do, and you'll earn points because, you know, it's it's a change in behavior. It's idle time, you know, and, you know, miles per gallon, that's a big deal for us, you know, in a you know, the better miles per gallon, you save fuel. Fuel's a big cost. Mhmm. You know, anything we can do to cut that fuel cost down. So that's why it's important that we measure that kind of stuff and get the behavior right Mhmm. So that, hey, there are people are idling when they need to idle. You know, they're taking their time, saving the miles per gallon, all that kind of stuff. And those means and and you're getting rewarded and actually getting paid for it. Right? Because it's actually a lot money because you could like, you can go buy a washing machine or Well, you really are getting paid for it because when you're making a positive impact and you're receiving red thinking rewards, you're saving, cutting down on cost and saving money here. So you're also getting that money back into your profit sharing program. So it's really a double kind of whammy there where you're earning red thinking rewards points and you're getting those profit sharing dollars as well. Right. It's a big deal. It really is. You know, all those things that the that that we measure Mhmm. Are good things for the company. If you meet those goals, you're it it's it's providing more profit. It's providing better revenue, and that comes back, like you said, in profit sharing. Big deal. Right? Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I think it's great. I you know, like I said, I loved our vacation. It was fun, and, it was great. I'm glad you brought it up and got and got to tell me and Vicky about it and Yeah. And, you know, that you were able to, do that. It was it was a lot of it was it was great. It was a good it was a good time, good good vacation. But it was really interesting that, you know, the reason I shared shared the story was I thought it was unique, you know, something that we were able to do with Red Bank rewards points. And I wanted to share that story so other people would know, you know, that you can do things like that. But Absolutely. And if you haven't ever, please log in to the program. Right. If you are sitting out there, you're new to the company, or maybe you've been here a while and you've just never taken the time to log in to your Red Thinking Awards, let me encourage you to do so. You never know what you might find on there. We're continuing to improve the website every day. We're adding merchandise to that website, to our catalog, and we're also doing some position specific things. So we're looking and investigating items that are very specific to drivers that will help them while they're on the road. Or our preventative maintenance team, we're looking at bringing specific tools into the program for them. Oh, that's cool. So we love being able to have that feedback. If you don't see something in the catalog that you think would benefit a majority of associates, reach out to us and let us know because we can absolutely work on adding that into it. That's that's really cool. I I didn't know we were doing that. That's really cool. You can specific things that the the drivers I know we had drive driver GPS, trucker GPS so they could get and things like that. A lot of drivers have done that. That's been a big deal. Right? Yes. As well. That's a very popular item. Yeah. That's one of my options. Yes. Yes. Well, anyway, hey. We appreciate it. And, you know, I think it's a great program. You know, it's a it's a way to say thank you Mhmm. Absolutely. To the driving force. I think it's obviously, you know, a way to say, hey. Thanks for the for a great job. And then they get rewarded based on what they want. I think that's the cool part of it is just it's not a reward. We're saying, hey. This is the reward you gotta have. Hey. You pick anything you want, and that's the reward that you get based off of that is. So you're rewarding yourself with anything. Right? That's right. And, you know, a lot of our associates, are using their points to do good things and and award others. You know, I'd like to bring up Clarence Brown. He's a Atlanta West associate city driver. And I worked with him last year. He had some points saved up, and he noticed a a young girl, at his church that didn't have a bicycle, but there were other kids that that had a bike, and she was kinda sitting off to the side and, just watching them play. And he called me one day, and, we talked, and he wanted to use his points to to buy a bike for her so she could play too. So we we ordered one. It was in Team Matters. We shared that photo and Wow. So she had a bike and got to to play with the other kids. And, you know, that just speaks again to our culture, the quality of people we have, at Averitt, our associates. And, you know, they're not just using these points for themselves, but they're really using them to help others. And and I think that's incredible. Yeah. It says a lot about our associates. Right? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Really a great thing. Dusty, any last words you wanna have for our audience? I would just encourage associates to continue reaching out to us. Log in if you have not. That helps us know the engagement to the program, and also let us know your feedback. Red thinking at averett dot com is our email address, and we're always here to help you. And also keep an eye out for your quarterly statements. If you haven't received those, let us know because we'll make sure that you get them. You're gonna get them in your email as well as in your mailbox, and that's gonna tell you what points you have to use, how you can spend them, and kind of give you the, instructions to log in as well. So that would be my challenge to associates. Log in and let us know your feedback. Thank you, Dusty. Appreciate it. Blaine, any last words? I'm just I'm so proud of this program. You know, it it's really just watching so many good things come out of it and, you know, anything that that I can do to help or we can do as a team to help our associates, we're here for you. And, you know, keep earning those points and and spend them on anything that that you may need, but we're here for you. And, thank you for for having us on the podcast today. Well, we appreciate it. Thank you all so much. You great program. You all do a great job managing the program for Averitt, and it's really a good strong program. I'm glad to see it healthy and doing well and, exciting Exciting things. So thank you all so much. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you all for listening in, and it's a great program. If if you haven't logged in your Red Thinking Rewards points, you really need to. There's a lot of opportunity out there. And, you know, that's a great program that Averitt put together, you know, and it rewards people, it rewards drivers. And, you know, as you think about that, you know, if you're talking to other drivers out there and you say, hey, y'all got a red red thinking you got a red thinking rewards program or something similar in your company? They probably they may not even have one. That may be somebody if sharp you need to look at and say, hey. That you need to come over to Averitt. You know, that may that may be a benefit that has someone and helps them make the decision and say, hey. I wanna be an Averitt driver. Think about that. We're gonna need your help this year. Twenty twenty five is gonna be a big year. We're gonna have a lot of growth. We're gonna need everybody out there doing their part, bringing drivers in. So keep keep looking at that. Take a look at that. Bring some people in just like you. Looking forward to it. Thank you so much. We'll see you out on the road.