Heavy Duty Trucking, December 2020

HDTs EMERGING LEADERS 2020 IDENTIFYING THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST RISING STARS IN TRUCKING rucking historically has often been something of a seat of the pants business with businesses guided by instinct experience and hard work People who had worked in it a long time learned what worked and what didnt and passed that knowledge T along to younger generations But todays young trucking professionals are taking a more data driven consistent process approach to making their companies more successful and thats very apparent with this years HDT Emerging Leaders To qualify for this award Emerging Leaders must be under 40 years of age and work for a for hire private government or vocational fleet The award nomination is open to those employed in any aspect of a fleets business whether management maintenance operations marketing safety IT training or elsewhere We look for young professionals who are influential innovative and successful who can point to outstanding accomplishments and leadership qualities and who have a passion for the trucking industry This years class of Emerging Leaders are showing how data analytics and implementing consistent processes can drive improvement throughout the company That may mean bringing more visibility into preventive maintenance scheduling in the shop more real time insight into how departments are performing compared to goals and budgets analyzing the profitability of specific routes and customers developing step by step best maintenance practices creating a workflow for breakdown teams that brings data from many sources into a single easy to use app improving driver safety with real data from how drivers perform on the road gaining granularity into payroll or streamlining the recruiting process At the same time they emphasize the importance of people When implementing more data driven approaches and automating processes they say the people on the front lines using that data to make decisions and using those workflows must be involved Data must be understandable and actionable to those using it Workflows must truly make the job easier not more complicated Theres an emphasis on getting the right people in to the right positions creating better corporate cultures and on technician and driver recruiting and training When asked about their top challenges for 2021 and beyond every honoree cited the need to attract new people to their companies and to the industry especially technicians and drivers and to keep them happy On the next few pages youll meet this years five Emerging Leaders presented in alphabetical order DECEMBER 2020 HDT 33 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM