Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/252139
COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | FEBRUARY 2014 29 INNOVATORS SAIA LTL FREIGHT Johns Creek, Ga. workers hands-on experience moving equipment around the yard. Once they earn a commercial driver's license, Saia splits their workdays between the dock and behind the wheel for one year. The safety record of drivers that complete the company's CDL program exceeds that of the more experienced drivers it hires, says Rick O'Dell, chief executive offi cer. "We know the work history of people working for us," O'Dell says. "We train them to drive the way we expect them to drive." Training continues in the cab. Drivers receive immediate feedback and alerts from systems that monitor their spac- ing, lane departures, fuel effi ciency and other safety and performance metrics. Saia also uses active safety systems such as adaptive cruise, collision mitigation and electronic stability control. To maximize the benefi ts of these technologies, Saia has built a custom performance management system to stay on top of the increasingly vast and complex data it collects from the fi eld. Driver warnings Last year, Saia conducted an experiment to evaluate the benefi ts of transmitting video footage of critical safety events, such as sudden deceleration or "hard braking" incidents. The video evidence is captured with the same windshield- mounted camera used by Saia's lane S aia LTL Freight, a publicly held and largely self-insured carrier, continues to make big strides in safety. From 2009 to 2012, the Johns Creek, Ga.-based company saw improvements in the key metrics of hours between employee injuries (9 percent), hours between city accidents (27 percent) and miles driven between line accidents (24 percent). Saia also has won the Safe Fleet Award from the American Trucking Associations for three consecutive years, from 2010 to 2012. The advancements the company has made in driver training and safety technologies have played a signifi cant role. During a one-week period, all of Saia's incoming and veteran drivers are trained – or retrained, as the case may be – on the Smith System for defensive driving. All drivers, regardless of experience, have to be recertifi ed each year. Saia also sources drivers from within. Its dock-to-driving training program gives The less-than-truckload company has made advancements in driver training and safety technologies. Saia LTL Freight creates system to get a full view of driver performance BY AARON HUFF