Heavy Duty Trucking, December 2020

EMERGING LEADERS FOCUSING ON CONSISTENCY TO DRIVE UPTIME CHARLES LLOYD Maintenance Manager Paul Transportation Tulsa Oklahoma Lloyd grew up accompanying his father on his truck parts routes then worked at the same company rebuilding transmissions and differentials to help put himself through college to earn a management degree He worked for Cummins for more than four years in the warranty department We processed all the catastrophic engine failures and major claims and that gave me a lot of technical knowledge He then worked for Rush Truck Centers for more than seven years He brings valuable insights from those experiences to his new role as a fleet maintenance professional Director of Maintenance Bruce Stockton recruited him Lloyd said to bring a different way of thinking Ive managed technicians for eight years you have a different sense of urgency when youre running a dealership shop and he wanted me to bring that to the table improving throughput so we can minimize downtime and keep trucks out of the dealership That said however its good for me to realize how it works in the dealership isnt necessarily how it works here Your paradigm should always be shifting you should always be looking for new ways to do things better ways to keep your employees happy better ways to keep your equipment up and running for cheaper We found a happy medium amongst each other to where Im comfortable with how hard theyre working and theyre comfortable with the intensity that I bring Lloyd also brings a lot of technical knowledge to the table Hes been doing a lot of one on one coaching getting my hands dirty saying Here are some shortcuts to do it faster There are days my dress pants are all dirty by the time I get back to my office Hes looking to create more consistent processes in the companys maintenance program and also fostering a more proactive approach Helping people see that what they do matters and that they can cut costs they can be an element of change of an element of waste Looking to 2021 Lloyd said hes working to build a stronger team even in a time of uncertainty Theres a lot of things that are out of our control but lets focus on whats within our control For instance improving technicians interactions with drivers Thats one thing I pushed a lot at the dealership the driver matters Lets make them feel like we want them and need them KEEPING THE HUMAN ELEMENT IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRISTAN NOLAN Product Owner Werner Enterprises Omaha Nebraska Nolan brought his fleet maintenance experience to the companys rollout this year of the Werner Edge an innovative technology solution featuring modern tablets for drivers and a more efficient easy to use workflow for drivers and other personnel Key performance indicators for driver dwell time have been cut in half training time to proficiency in the app have been cut by more than 60 and solutions for vendor optimization and DOT maintenance inspections are being launched under his leadership Although his father was a trucking mechanic Nolan started his career in the payments and insurance industry He switched gears and joined Werner in 2014 where he has had roles in maintenance training and safety This year he moved to IT to help with Werners digital transformation where he acts as a liaison between the IT team and the people using the products Part of my responsibility is to develop strategy vision whats next what are we going to build how does it bring value is it viable in the organization Nolan explained One of his efforts has been the breakdown management app thats part of Werner Edge A lot of folks have been handling breakdowns the same way for many many years he said Werner wanted to make the process faster and easier for both drivers and breakdown agents A lot of information is needed to make those decisions he said And its in a lot of different places So one goal is to consolidate and aggregate that information into a single workflow Nolan is now on four product teams working on similar improvements for other parts of the business Im supporting our maintenance our equipment our safety and our driver applications to try to work with the business units and determine whats next and then execute that on a tactical level Really the challenge is recognizing the human element he said We cant leave our drivers behind we cant leave our office associates behind as we develop kind of these rapid change models Nolan likes to get people who have been in these jobs the longest involved as part of the development process Looking ahead Nolan said hed like to bring the benefits of connecting systems and companies and using process automation to make things more efficient for others in the industry HDT DECEMBER 2020 36 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM