Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | MAY 2014 37 INNOVATORS J&R SCHUGEL TRUCKING New Ulm, Minn. course of 11 drivable hours per day, the maximum time loss is roughly 33 minutes. But, as Merches points out, J&R Schugel's drivers average less than 7.5 hours of driving per day, and on average only three hours per day are spent in 65-mph zones, equating to a maximum potential time loss of only nine minutes. "I ask them, 'Can you give me nine minutes?' " Merches says. "They see that it's not that big a difference, and that's how we create the buy-in." While the impact on drivers is minimal, the effect on J&R Schugel's safety performance has proven dra- matic. Rear-end collisions dropped 53 percent from 2011 to 2013, with only one in 2012. And because drivers were changing lanes about 30 percent less at 62 mph rather than 65 mph, lane- change collisions dropped from 25 to only seven in the same time period. J&R Schugel's CSA scores refl ect the results of its 3-mph slower initiative. In 2010, the company had a Crash Indicator Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC) score of 97 percent; in December 2013, it was only 7.1 percent. Also, unsafe driving violations dropped from 286 to 180. For its safety improvement, J&R Schugel was recognized by the Truck- load Carriers Association as a division A s the trucking industry began to climb out of the recession in 2010, car- riers were scrambling to fi nd a competitive advantage over their peers. With the dawn of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Compliance Safety Accountability program, carriers searching for effi ciency gains also were tasked with improving their safety performance. In 2009, Minnesota became a pilot state for the CSA program, and J&R Schugel Trucking – a 600-truck refrigerated and dry van carrier based in New Ulm, Minn. – began to take a closer look at new procedures it could implement to improve its safety scores. The 3-mph rule By mid-2011, not only were accidents a concern; J&R Schugel also was facing challenges with driver satisfaction at a time when the industrywide driver short- age was rearing its head. Company executives knew that being seen as a driver- friendly fl eet was crucial to its growth and future success. J&R Schugel operates its trucks with speed governors set to 65 mph. When the company instituted a new guideline in 2011 that asked drivers to go no faster than 62 mph, naturally it was met with skepticism. From a safety standpoint, the difference between driving 65 mph and 62 mph can be huge, says Clay Merches, J&R Schugel's vice president of safety and human resources. A truck traveling at 65 mph equates to 95.33 feet per second; at 62 mph, the truck is traveling almost 5 feet per second slower. "That doesn't sound like a lot, but it could be the difference in stopping short of a rear-end collision," says Merches. During the rollout, Merches laid out how slower speeds affect drivers. Over the The carrier creates 'Slower is Faster' driver coaching to improve safety performance and increase productivity and fuel economy. J&R Schugel's driver coaching effort gets loads delivered quicker, safer BY JEFF CRISSEY