Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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COVER STORY | CAREER LEADERSHIP AWARD 56 commercial carrier journal | march 2018 vidual, too, I try to learn a little every day. If you're not growing and learning new things every day, then you're dying. I've always took that to heart. Mike [Jef- fress] has been my teacher, mentor and friend through the years, and he has taught me so much. And he still teaches me every day. You think you learn ev- erything in this industry, and you better think again." WANTING TO GIVE BACK Hilton has tried to pass some of what he has learned back into trucking through his involvement with several industry groups. He offi cially joined the Technology & Maintenance Council in 1994, hav- ing fi rst becoming involved in TMC by volunteering to help develop fl atbed securement standards. "I learned real quick that to really learn and be supportive of the orga- nization, you had to get involved," he says. Hilton served as chairman of S.7 (Trailers, Bodies and Material Handling Study Group) from 2002 to '06 and helped develop several rec- ommended practices, including RP 738, "Spec'ing Guidelines for Cargo Securement Systems Used on Flatbed Vehicles," and RP 739, "Maintenance, Inspection and Operating Guidelines for Cargo Securement Systems Used on Flatbed Vehicles." He earned the Silver Spark Plug in 2006. In 2007, Hilton served a year as vice-chair. He became general chair- man and treasurer in 2008 and served as Future Truck chairman from 2011 to 2014 and served two terms on the board of directors. He was the Peggy Fisher Study Group Leadership Award recipient in 2014. Considering the many accolades that have followed Hilton in his career, it's the work he put in to developing the S.16 Service Provider Study Group that makes him the most proud. "I felt really strong about getting them into TMC, about them hav- ing their own group," Hilton says of service providers. "It's great to have those people at the meetings and develop relationships with them." Service provider involvement, Hil- ton says, initially was met with some pushback. "What do you mean 'We don't need them in here?' " he says of the naysay- ers. "We use these guys every day. Let's make them part of the team so we can communicate with them." Having service providers involved with TMC, Hilton says, was about much more than simply networking and communicating. "They are developing RPs that have to do with the provider side of things, like prioritizing shop work load," Hilton says. "That's always been a big issue, getting in a shop. It's nice hav- ing a voice there." Their involvement, Hilton says, also gives fl eets a voice in helping the ser- vice provider learn the expectations of their customers. "The value [service providers] bring is getting to know them, build- ing the relationship with them and being able to have a say in their study group that [fl eets] may feel they're weak on," he says. "Helping them focus on their weak areas enables us to give them direction on prob- lems we're having that they may not even be aware of. Twenty-four hours [downtime] is good, but that should not be our goal." It's also helped grow TMC. Cur- rently, there are more than 150 service provider members. "When I fi rst started it, there were like 26," Hilton says. In 2009, Hilton served as secretary of the Arkansas Trucking Associa- tion Maintenance and Technology Council, and as vice-chair in 2010. In 2011, he served as the association's chairman and also chaired the state technician competition. GROWING THE INDUSTRY Trucking is a career that has a history of benefi ting the people who put forth the effort, and that's some- thing Hilton says he hopes to make clear to the generation entering the workforce. "Give it a try," he says. "Look into the industry. Get involved in this industry, and learn what it's about. I don't think a lot of people know Hilton joined the Technology & Main- tenance Council in 1994. His many roles with the organization include serving as general chairman and trea- surer in 2008. After surviving a two-week "prove yourself " period at Maverick Trans- portation, Hilton hasn't worked anywhere else in the last 30 years.