Bruce Outridge

Fleet Safety Council Kitchener Holds Social Media Panel Discussion

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Bruce

Just wanted to send a shout out and thank you to the Central Chapter of the Fleet Safety Council in Kitchener Ontario. They held a panel discussion today on the importance of having a social media policy in place and ways to protect your brand on the web. I was honoured to be one of the five panelist called upon to talk about social media. Thank you again to the Central Chapter for having me out today, It was a lot of fun!

Social Media is a hot topic again. The Board at TTSAO will be holding a social media presentation next Wednesday June 18, 2014 where I will be presenting on the topic. I am looking forward to presenting to their group. Everything has good and bad and social media certainly falls into that area.

All the best with your social media campaigns.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is an artist, author, consultant, and speaker specializing in marketing and the transportation industry. For more information on Bruce and his work please visit his website at www.outridgeenterprises.ca

Preparing for the big test.

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Bruce

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The commercial driver retest, yes it is that time of year or should I say five years. As a holder of a commercial licence I have to rewrite my licence every five years by conducting a written test. Now I have driven trucks for over 25 years and now teach courses in the transportation industry and still I feel the need to prepare when conducting a rewrite. The fact is in the industry we use a lot of slang for truck components and reviewing the basic book helps get the terminology back into my working brain.

Preparation for any test is important and one of the things I wasn’t very good at in my years in school. Now as an instructor I see many students that underestimate the importance of a test. They often don’t take notes, are checking phones and other media, and don’t take seriously the importance of recapping and doing homework. If they fail the test they blame the school or the system. I recently had two students, one did the suggested reading and home work, took notes during class and aced most of the tests given during class. Another student missed classes, didn’t read the book suggested, checked his phone in class and of course ended up doing poorly on the tests. The important note is that the first student that did well knew nothing about transportation going into the course, where the second student had previous experience with equipment and transportation.

Never trust that because you have been in an industry for a long time that you automatically know what may be asked on a test. You may know the procedures, but often it is the terminology that throws you off. If you are used to calling something by its slang name and you don’t recognize the proper name you may answer the question incorrectly. No matter how well you know a subject, review is always important and if you are taking an important test it is important to take notes and realize the importance of taking a test. You want to get the maximum correct, not the minimum.

About the Author
Bruce Outridge is a trainer and consultant with over 30 years of experience and author of the books Driven to Drive and Running by the Mile. For more information on Bruce and his work please visit his website at www.outridgeenterprises.ca

Lane management, fact or fiction?

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Bruce

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It is amazing to me how we forget the basic rules of the road after driving for a while. There used to be respect and consideration for others on the roadways, but today that has changed drastically. The biggest thing I have seen is that attitudes have overtaken courtesy. We are all in a hurry to get where we are going but we need to get back to courtesy on the roadways.

Much of that starts with training. Most people getting their licenses these days are taking some type of training course, whether it is for a basic license or a commercial license. So my question is what are they being taught? Are they being thought to tailgate people on the highway, are they being taught to drive in the left lane even if no other cars are present? From what I have seen this seems to be the main stay of how people drive these days. Recently on returning from a business trip in Windsor Ontario I was amazed at how many people are driving blindly down the road without any regard as to who is travelling around them. They don’t move over when driving in the left lane after passing someone, they don’t look in their mirrors, they tailgate or use their vehicles to bully others, and many are still using cell phones and technology while driving down the road. Have we gotten to the point where laws, respect, and common sense are over ruled by our own need to hurry to where we need to be? Hey you don’t have to believe what I say, just take a look around you. Even on social media the other day it showed a truck passing a stopped school bus on the right shoulder of the road while it stopped to pick up kids, what was that driver thinking?

So what is the solution? Heck if I knew that I would be the Minister of Transportation, but here is what we should be doing. We need to start with the individual, we need to begin with ourselves. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time as the joke states. We need to change our driving habits one person at a time. Start with yourself, do you use your cell phone while driving? If so make a pact with yourself to not use your phone while driving. Are you one of those people that are always rushing and running late? Work on leaving earlier so that you have more time to follow the rules of the road. Are you one of those people that stay in the left lane and never move out of the way for other vehicles, then it is time to learn proper lane management and do your best to stay off to the right when not passing others. Some will argue that you can’t conduct proper lane management on the QEW in Toronto and I would give the benefit of the doubt for that area, but I see the same thing happening out on the open road. If you forget to move back over then that means you are not paying attention to your driving. If you’re an instructor lets start teaching our students the proper way to operate on the roadways. Let’s start teaching the basics of road courtesy and let’s get our roadways back to where they used to be before life became so hurried.

About the Author
Bruce Outridge is a transportation consultant and author of the books Driven to a Drive and Running by the Mile. More information can be found on his website at www.outridgeenterprises.ca

Five Questions You Should be Asking Carrier Representatives

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Bruce

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As we roll into trade show season, the carriers will be out in full strength looking for potential candidates for their fleets. They’ll look real slick, have those glossy brochures available for you to take home, and will try to entice you with new

Bruce Outridge

equipment and promises of getting home regularly. Most of them are honest and will do their best to meet the wants and needs of the candidates joining their teams, but is that the information you really need to know? Many new drivers and potential drivers don’t know what to ask when talking with carriers and often are disappointed when the environment at the company isn’t what they expected.

Where does the company run and how long am I expected to be away?
This is the first question to be asking a recruiter. Why, you ask? If they run to California on a regular basis and you want to be home every night you won’t be happy there for long. Match the carrier to your lifestyle, not the other way around.

Do you pay hub miles or PC miles?
Ask the carrier how you are being paid for mileage. Hub miles mean you are paid for every mile you run where as PC miles means they are using a program that estimates the miles. Many are paying via PC miles and there is nothing wrong with that, but you need to make sure it is fair. Ask them to show you a normal run to a city like Chicago and show you the mileage. If they pay 500 miles to Chicago, but your delivery is on the far side and you run 550 you may find you are not making as much money as you could. Also ask about other items like pick ups, deliveries, and border crossings to see how they pay for those items.

What is the maintenance program like at your company?
This is extremely important for owner operators to ask, but ask about their maintenance and repair operation. You don’t want to work for a company that doesn’t care about preventative maintenance or the cleanliness of their equipment.

What are the company culture and incentive programs like?
Make sure you ask about the company culture, is it safety oriented, do they appreciate their employees, do they have a safety program or benefit program? These aren’t necessities but carriers that appreciate their drivers and staff are where you want to work. You certainly want to know that you are appreciated for working hard.

What are the options for growth at the company?
You may only be looking for experience at this point but if you happen to sign on with a good carrier there is no reason to think you have to leave them if you are happy there. I always look for a company to call home hoping for a twenty year career. Ask if there are places to grow in the company should it be a good fit. How will you know you are moving up in your career, do they honour you with better runs, better equipment, better pay? Are there options to moving into the office in safety, recruiting or more? Look at your long term goals along with the short term and you may find you hit a home run when signing on with a carrier.

Carriers are looking for people that want to work, but it is important that you also interview the carrier to make sure that you are going to work for a company that cares about you. There are many good ones and many that are not so good. You may feel you have to take the first carrier that comes along, but often that is not the best way to make an important decision such as where to go to work. Be proactive in your search, you’ll be glad you did. Good luck with the search!

About the Author
Bruce Outridge is a transportation consultant with over 30 years experience and author of the books Driven to Drive and Running by the Mile. For more information please visit his website at www.outridgeenterprises.ca

How Good is Your Company?

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Bruce

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You’ve probably ready them in the trade magazines, you know the ones, the ones that report on how good a company is to work for. I’ve read them many times and know of many of the companies that they talk about. Business is hard and hats off to any company that gets a mentioned in those reports, you must be doing something right and it is a long hard battle to reach the top. Many times though the reporting structure is based on a variety of positions and people in the company and information received in ballots and so on. So you can take all of those factors into account before weighing the truth or you can work from your own criteria. Often you will find that the fleets mentioned have different types of operations and are really not competing against anyone but themselves. Now I am not judging the facts or asking for recounts or any such things. I just bring this up to ask you one simple question and the only answer that matters is yours. What do you think of your company as far as a place of employment?

Why did I ask you this? I asked you this to get your thought process going about your career. The only person that can answer that is you and you should be the only person that matters from your career standpoint. So how do you like where you work? First remember this is not a perfect world, and how people rate where they are will be different for everyone. For me a good company to drive for is a place where they give you steady miles with little wait time, good quality customers that understand the importance of a quality carrier, clean well maintained equipment, operational staff that has been in the driver’s seat and understands the frustrations and importance of the position. Finally you want a carrier that cares about their employees and their families. If there was a death in your family and you had to get home from a location 1000 miles away, how would they do that, would they expect you to return home on your own in due time, or would they put you on the first plane back home and take care of the truck later? If you can answer positively to these questions then you probably work for a good carrier and should be happy they treat you well. Every driver should do their own driver evaluation every couple of years to make sure the carrier you work for is meeting the career goals you have set for yourself. This will help keep yourself working towards your own goals and not be swallowed up by day to day operations of a normal truck driver.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a business and leadership consultant for the transportation industry.For more information visit his website at www.outridgeenterprises.ca