Heavy Duty Trucking, May 2018

HDT MAY 2018 60 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM With almost 34 years under his belt working for a fleet and its successive operator David Myers still draws on the twin strengths of analytical thinking and hands on experience that first propelled him into a career in fleet management I grew up on a farm he says so heavy equipment was familiar to me before I joined Food Service Specialists in 1984 as a computer operator Back then I also drove trucks for the company part time in the summer which helped lead me into operations His original employer was acquired in 1988 by Sysco and subsequently became part of the Sygma Network a wholly owned subsidiary established by Sysco in 1984 to provide foodservice distribution services tailored for restaurant chains Sygma has been on a steady growth track since it shipped its first case of product in 1985 Its fleet of some 1000 power units and 1400 trailers mostly multitemp units delivers exclusive food and non food goods to restaurant clients under a commitment to provide customized distribution that strives for order accuracy and on time delivery The operation currently serves over 15000 chain restaurants through 15 distribution centers to tally annual sales of some 68 billion Since starting in the IT department almost 34 years ago Myers has steadily advanced as well into upper operations management He held various leadership roles in information services and warehousing before being promoted to vice president and general manager of Sygma Chicago in 1998 then of Sygma Illinois in 2000 and of Sygma Pennsylvania in 2004 In 2010 Myers was named regional vice president and general manager with responsibility for multiple distribution centers in the East In 2012 he was appointed vice president of operations with responsibility for all distribution centers Myers assumed his current role in 2015 which places him over all field operations including safety oversight and DOT compliance as well as inbound logistics Last year Myers launched a data driven campaign aimed at transforming the Sygma tractor fleet into one of the newest most cost effective greenest and safest in the foodservice industry He says the goal was to account for each power unit and its lifecycle costing and relate that to how it affects the companys operations as a whole To make that happen he leveraged comprehensive fleet analytics working with two finance lessors Fleet Advantage and Element Fleet Leasing The result was to formulate a plan that drastically slashed how long they keep trucks and changed how they acquire them and how they spec them for efficiency safety and driver appeal What we haul varies by customer Myers says We might provide everything a restaurant needs to operate or we might supply everything except locally sourced produce We have 15 distribution centers arrayed across the country to provide stretch distribution so one center may cover an entire region However the way the fleet had been running its trucks amounted to a different and very unfavorable kind of stretching We SPONSORED BY Reading the signs Crunching the numbers led David Myers to rethink how long to run trucks how to acquire them and how best to spec them