From The Driver's Seat: Thankful For Our Driving Force

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. It's Dave Royals. It's gonna be a great week coming up. We got driver appreciation week coming up, and, I I look forward to that time of year every year. And it's a special week. You know, we have driver appreciation week at Averitt. Even though we do driver appreciation all we all year long, we take this week and do some extra stuff just to make it extra special. Hey. I've got Barry Blakely with us today. How are doing, Barry? I'm doing great. How are you today? I'm doing great. Gonna be a great driver appreciation weekend. Oh, looking forward to it. Always look forward to driver appreciation week. You know, we had the softball tournament here a while back, and there was tons of people, and it was a lot of fun. You know? There were a lot of people. And that was all in one place. Right? Yeah. Driver Appreciation Week is gonna be spread out That's right. Across the whole system. We have activities going on in in every service center, having prizes that are awarded or given out and as well as, meals and a lot of celebrating our associates. It really is. I think that's the idea. We're just celebrating our associates, and what company a that we have and we're allowed to be a part of. I think it's awesome that we do that, but we're showing the appreciation because they're the ones that make the company. Really, they're the face of the company. Our drivers are the ones that are developing the relationship with our customers and helping us keep our promises to the customers and really the foundation of what we do. Really is. Gary always says our driving force is people. And I think that's the key, that we are all associates and we try to treat everybody the same way and the best way possible. And I think that sets Averitt apart and it comes back from our culture, think, don't you? I certainly do. You know, when you think about all the things that we do, you know, we have drivers who are doing local pickup and delivery or running shuttle at night or or, throughout our system through, all week or or miles away from home and truckload or handling dedicated accounts, our drivers do a tremendous job. It's not an easy job. No. But, they do a great job where, they keep safety, you know, as a priority and just do a wonderful, wonderful job. Part of driver appreciation, it's not just the cookouts that we have and the giveaways that we have. When I say we do driver appreciation all week, there's a lot of that. We do cookouts all year long, so that's part of it too. But the equipment that we keep and the safety that we have on the equipment, for instance, all that, that's showing driver appreciation because we're really thinking about the drivers when we're doing a lot of that. We are. If there's a safety feature that's offered from one of our OEMs, we try to make sure that we're purchasing it and it makes a difference. Hopefully it makes the job somewhat easier, but it certainly keeps us safer. Right. It really does. That's part of driver appreciation. And think we'd be remiss not to mention the profit sharing and how good the profit sharing has been lately. Profit sharing has been good this year. Has. We've continued to have a strong year. Revenue was a little slow, as everyone knows, the first part of the year, but summer's been good. And we had a great June followed by a solid July. Of course, we just finished August and expecting to see some pretty good results. And that all relates back to us. Every associate gets to share in that, the profit. Gary always says, riding the sky's the limit on how much we can Yeah, sure. It's a team sport, right? All are on the same team. We may have different roles and things that we do, but it is about taking care of customers growing our revenue. It really is. So we do I think we do a lot to show the appreciation for the drivers. Mean, when we're in meetings and times we're talking, they're always asking, wonder how that's going to impact our drivers, right? Yeah, absolutely. Think anytime we make a decision, to ask ourselves two questions. How does it impact a customer? And then certainly, how does it impact our associates? So yeah, I think we try and make the right decisions that they continue to move the company forward and benefit our associates and our customers. I think so too. Think Averitt sets itself apart with that. We set ourselves apart all year long, and we make a little extra effort now in Driver Appreciation Week. So I'm looking forward to being out there. I am as well. One thing I would like to say, know we talk about this is driver appreciation week, but there's a strong supporting staff there that we need to recognize as well. Whether it's maintenance or doc or office people, you know, we have a really good group of associates that support our drivers every day. So thank I want to thank them, everyone, for for the job that they do in supporting our drivers. I agree with that. It really is a power one. You know, it's all of us together. It's all of us. Like you mentioned, the others, we're all on the same team. But everybody supports everybody. It's a great there's no other company in my mind as good as Averitt Express at this point in time. I have to agree with you. I think so, right? Well, Barry, it's been great. I'm really looking forward to Driver Appreciation Week. Looking forward to getting out and shaking hands with all the drivers. But if you got anything you want to tell our drivers? I just want to say thank you for the job that you do every day. It's a difficult job. A lot of sacrifices that you make, and, our customers appreciate you very much and and the wonderful job that you do. I hope you have a great week this week and look forward to seeing you. Thank you, Barry. I appreciate you. Take care. I really love Driver Appreciation Week. I enjoy it every year. I also enjoy being out every year and talking to our drivers and our dock associates and all the folks that are out there supporting our drivers. It's all one big team and we all appreciate it. This particular week, we do some extra stuff. I want you to, if you're driving by today, if you're a driver and you're stopping this week at any service center, stop in and see them. There's going be lots of activities and food at all the service centers. There's going to be gifts given away all the time. Something really for you all to participate in. We want to show our appreciation, so make sure you're stopping and taking advantage of all that. But most of all, we look forward to seeing you. We look forward to talking to you. We look forward to shaking your hand and saying hi and telling you directly how much we appreciate what you do. I look forward to seeing you all on the road. You all have a great driver appreciation. We can be safe out there.