WEST SIDE TRANSPORT NEWS — APRIL 2015

THE FIRST WEST SIDE GALA IS A HUGE SUCCESS

The first West Side Gala was a huge success! There were 310 office employees & drivers present including many spouses and

significant others. The evening began with social time, followed by a 3 entrée buffet dinner of Grilled Sirloin, Salmon and

Chicken Bruschetta. Also on the buffet were Field Greens, Roasted Corn Salad, Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Carrots, Bread &

Butter & a fabulous Dessert Bar. Master of Ceremonies for the night was Safety Director Dave Figler. Also speaking during the

awards ceremony were President & CEO Don Vogt, COO Ron Joseph and giving the benediction was Driver Thornton Dixon.

Mr. Joseph extended a special thank you to the spouses & significant others of all West Side Employees for their love and sup-

port in a challenging business. Employee awards were then presented and the evening ended with comedian Mike Armstrong

from the Bob & Tom Show, as well as fabulous door prizes. Every West Side employee received a door prize ranging from

$250.00 - $10.00. Additionally 5 grand prizes valued at $500.00 were awarded. Grand Prize Winners were as follows:

50” Flat Screen TV – Frank Marcolini

Xbox One Game System & $125.00 Gift Card – Les Hopper

$500.00 Gift Card to Marriott Hotels – Sue Pauly

Smart Power Snow Blower – Junior Garcia

iPad & Case – Soye Thomas

All major award winners were also put up in the Hotel at Kirkwood. Additionally all employees who live further than 50 miles

from Cedar Rapids were also put up in either the Hotel at Kirkwood or The Clarion Hotel. It was a great evening and one that

employees are already taking about with excitement & anticipation for next year. The date has been set, so mark March 5th

2016 on your calendars now! We hope to see you all there.

January—Richard Appleby

February—Daniel Smith

March—Eric Ellsworth

April—Linda Maisonneuve

May—Charles Smith

June—John Meier

July—Richard Umberger

August—Jesse Baker

September—Matt Stoudenmire

October—Andrew Vanderhoff

November—James Moore

DRIVER OF THE MONTH 2014 TRAINER OF THE YEAR

**JESSE BAKER**

2014 OUTSTANDING GRADUATE

**BRYAN DEININGER**

2014 DRIVER OF THE YEAR

**ERIC ELLSWORTH**

2014 WEST SIDE AWARD WINNERS

SAFE DRIVING AWARDS

500,000—Brian Garrick

500,000—Kevin Hofecker

500,000—Tim Hull

500,000—James Moore

500,000—David Reuhland

500,000—Richard Umberger

1,000,000—Dave Fleming

1,000,000—Gary peldo

2,000,000—Will Parrish

2,000,000—Steve Willson

2,000,000—Ed Yoder

IN MEMORY OF PHIL OGG

Employee: May 2001 to March

2014

Driver of the Month—June

2003

Driver of the Month—March

2004

Driver of the Month—January

2005

Driver of the Month—

November 2007

Driver of the Month—

October 2008

Driver of the Year—2003

Gold Service Award—2011,

2012, 2013

December 2012—250,000

Accident free Miles

March 2014—429,883

Accident Free Miles

YEARS OF SERVICE AWARDS

Bruce Barnes—5 Years

Daniel Bathhurst—5 Years

Jeffrey Burch—5 Years

Jeffrey Garrison—5 Years

Gary Gibson—5 Years

William Goodrick—5 years

Michael Hunt—5 Years

Johnny Long—5 Years

William Lynch—5 Years

Charles Phillips—5 Years

John Poprick—5 Years

Steve Casey—10 Years

Norman Harlan—10 Years

John Kuczaj—10 Years

Phil McDonald—10 Years

Dave Fleming—15 Years

Lee Geno—15 Years

Ron Painter—15 Years

Sheila Robetson—15 Years

Sue Smith—15 years

Scott West—15 years

Brent Wilfong—15 years

Julius Miles—20 Years

Bill Duncan—25 Years

DRIVERS WE LOST IN 2014

Phil Ogg

James Spaeth

Michael Williams

2014 GEM AWARD WINNERS

Steve Swick

Joseph Juliano

Dwayne Tingle

Ramdy Donath

Trent Todd

Jonathan Earle

Jerry Anderson

Tony Hobbs

Robert Creed

Brandon Padgett

Roy Glassburn

Joel Quintus

Gregg Vieira—X2

Herbert Simmers

Brenda Pope

George Shelton

Charles Obborne

John Blackford

Will Hiles—X2

Karduan Kweyaiisuo

Harry McMillen

Cory Reyner

Rodney Sherren

Chad Bush

Michael Price—X2

Shelly Barney

Waylon Ream

Aaron Wing—X2

Levi Francis-Core

Larry Scott

Daniel Wolfe

Frank Marcolini—X2

Andrew Vanderhoff

Steve Casey

Robert Mathews

Brett Hines—X2

William Goodman

Richard Meng

Ernest Howard

Justina Cepeda

Brandon Dates

Justin Kilgore

Terry Brown Jr.

Brian Chamberlain

Marlon Hayles

Jerome Huckeba

Kevin Hunt

Thomas Kolat

DuJuan Johnson

Sales & Customer Service

I am excited to announce that Jim Russo has joined West Side Transport as the Vice President of Sales. Please help me welcome Jim to West Side and assist him in any way possible while he adapts to our family.

As you many of you know the freight market was light for a large part of January and Febru-ary but most analyst predict very over saturated markets in March, April, and May. We agree with those figures and freight levels in March have been very strong and we are showing even better num-bers in April. With this surplus in freight our number one priori-ty as a sales team is to find driver friendly freight and to better utilize our drop equipment.

I am pleased to announce that we were awarded new long haul lanes from PepsiCo totaling around 2,900 loads per year. The following lanes went into effect on 3/16/2015.

Cedar Rapids, IA – Atlanta, GA

Cedar Rapids, IA – Carlisle, PA

Indianapolis, IN – Carlisle, PA

Indianapolis, IN – Atlanta, GA

Danville, IL - Atlanta, GA

Atlanta, GA – Indianapolis, IN

In addition to this longer haul PepsiCo freight we will be adding more freight from Whirlpool out of North Liberty going to IN and OH destinations. We are also currently in talks with Pella Win-dows to start taking freight to the Northeast United States from Pella, IA for them. We are com-mitted to finding better Length of Haul freight for our Network Fleet division and the addition of these lanes marks the start of that effort.

With the addition of Jim Russo we are currently adding custom-ers like Aleris International where we have been awarded lanes for both assets and logistics

Sales & Customer Service Cont.

alike. We have been awarded 452 loads per year and are secondary on 45 other lanes originating from Lincolnshire, IL; Davenport, IA; and Lewisport, KY. Other accounts that we beginning to work with are Pittsburgh Glass Works who spe-cialize in lanes from the PA and OH area back to the Midwest, and Electrolux which we are primary on a lane from Anderson, SC to Statesville, NC. We have commit-ted to taking one load per day on the Electrolux lane with hopes this will grow.

Some other accounts that we have been requesting information from are Georgia Pacific, Ascena, UPS, Home Depot, and Ace Hardware. Making sure that we have the driv-er friendly freight from driver friendly companies is our number one priority and we will continue to work towards a better West Side Transport.

RECRUITING

As we all know it is difficult to re-

cruit drivers today. That is why it’s

vital to have good relationship with

an established ad agency like High-

tower to promote West Side

Transport. I asked Katie our ac-

count representative to introduce

themselves to the West Side

Transport family.

When it comes to recruiting driv-

ers, nobody does it better than

Hightower. Hightower specializes

in all media outlets designed for

the truck driver industry. Hightow-

er recently built West Side

Transport a new recruiting website,

westsidetransport.com, which is a

crucial component to a successful

recruitment strategy. Our lead web

developer, Morgan Bondurant,

worked with Justin Walters on a

daily basis to create a new recruit-

ing platform for West Side

RECRUITING CONT.

Transport. Hightower works with Justin

Walters to create monthly advertising

plans to increase recruiting results and

seek out new internet services, creative

services, recruiting tools, consulting and

media placements in the trucking industry.

Hightower believes having one main point

of contact to handle all things related to

recruiting works best. West Side

Transport’s Media Coordinator, Katie

Scanlon, provides daily feedback and track-

ing for all media sources to assist and sup-

port all recruiting efforts involved with

West Side Transport. A good working rela-

tionship between customer and agency is

vital for success on both sides. We are

Hightower, we know trucking.

New Website

West Side Transport worked closely re-cently with Hightower Ad Agency to create a brand new website to help promote West Side Transport and West Side Logistics.

If anyone of our drivers are interested in making extra money try our referral pro-gram that pays $250 after driver is hired, $250 after 2 months and $500 after 6 months of employment with West Side Transport. Use our new website and sub-mit your referrals information through our web based application. Make sure to put your name and driver code in the referral question of the application.

Also another feature all our drivers should take advantage of is our picture uploading feature at the bottom right of the site. We want to see what you see how there on the road. Take advantage and have fun with it because we are going to use those pictures through out the year and especially in our year in review for our 2015 West Side Transport Gala.

APRIL ANNIVERARIES

1 Years

Aaron Bahlmann

Lisa Chase*

Howard Gamblin

Eric Harms

Amber Holt

Ben Kifer

Christoph Kyle

Derrick Logan

Michael Novotny*

Anthony Oronce

Kristie Pohlman*

Michele Roman*

Dustin Sallee

David Taylor

Jack Tolliver

Ivan Vanderlinden

Brian Vincent*

Boun Yang

2 Years

Ian Alindogan

Michelle Church*

Adam Fuhrmeister*

Roy Glassburn

William Goodman

Thomas Kirkpatrick

Wayne Politte

Jacob Sells

3 Years

Will Hiles

Thomas Ingram

Ed “Skip” Prime*

Marlon Randle

Darren Robinette*

Patrick Senser

4 Years

Ray Maxwell

Michael Vaughan

5 Years

Betty Burkholder*

MARCH GEM AWARDS

Frank Marcolini—Worked with

another WS driver to dig a trail-

er out of a snowbank .

Donald Oberg—Rescued a hot

Ford load—new account.

Bill Lynch—Hand dried the roof

of a trailer at the shipper on a

auto parts load.

Sterling James—Came out early

to rescue a Aldi load.

John Kuczaj—Rescued an auto-

motive load.

Anniv. Cont.

6 Years

Michael Hunt

9 Years

Keith Dreesman

11 Years

Phil McDonald

12 Years

Richard Meng

14 Years

Kendall Ford

Matt Maybanks*

15 Years

Richard Cameron

20 Years

Will Parrish

21 Years

Julius Miles

*Office/Shop Employees

APRIL BIRTHDAYS

Zachary Allen*

Stefon Austin

Sherri Babatz

Kristopher Bailey

Shelley Barney

Michelle Bassett

Daniel Bathurst*

Jonn Betzer*

Penny Bundy*

Matthew Cassidy

Christopher Chavis

Sheila Clobes

Jason Conyers

James Dillon

Daniel Evers

Roy Flippo

Ronnie Foster

Adam Fuhrmeister*

Lee Geno*

Bill Goodrick

GregHanserd

Matthew Hendershot

Isaiah Johnson

Pam Jordan

Mike Karr

Tracie King

BJ Kost

Felita Lawrence

Shawn Leyse*

Dustin Loomis

Frank Marcolini

William McCraney

Mandy McCrary*

Pat McDonnell*

Timothy McElwain

Ronald McGraw

Joel Mingo

William Mixon

James Moore

Tim Morse*

Ron Myers

Cory Richmond*

Steven Robertson

John Rogers

Kyle Schveiger*

Steven Schwartz

April Birthdays Cont.

Vanna Sous

Joseph Spitzley

James Stray

Ron Suttill

Andrei Valiev

Ivan Vanderlinden

Kim Varo *

Brian Vincent*

NEW ARRIVALS

Victor Youngs & Holly Tay-

lor a baby boy born March

13. Trevor Anthony weighed

6lbs. 13 oz. and was 19 3/4”

long. Congrats to all!

TIPS FOR SUCCESS

**Important Info to Help With Miles**

1) Be sure to commit Y or N to your preplans within an hour of receiving a preplan. This will allow the system to automati-cally send the load to you once you send your empty call.

2) Be sure to send ALL MACROS in the right order. Everyone has a macro card that literally has each macro in the right order. So let’s start sending the right macros in the right or-der please. This is the fastest way for the system to recognize where you are and get you paid for detention when you need it.

3) Use macro 16 often. If your eta will be changing by more than 30 minutes later or sooner, use it and let me know. I will update the eta and then the planners can see who is available when.

4) When you are on the road and running, do not take more than a 10 hour break unless the delivery or pickup time requires it. Taking too long of a break or shutting down early on a load we picked up yesterday means we are running on yester-day’s money and wasting time that could have been used be-fore. The more we get done on yesterday’s clock, the more we have available to do on today’s clock.

5) Have the right attitude! Every-one will be frustrated by short hauls and such. Just remember, sometimes, doing 2 or 3 short hauls in a day is still just as many miles as a single long haul. It’s a little more work, but that’s why we pay extra for the short hauls. Just keep your head up and keep moving. When we stop and ques-tion every load that is under 200 miles, we waste a lot of time that could have been spent getting through it to the next better load.

RIDE-A-LONG

Driver manager Lindsay Bates did her

ride-a-long with Heather Waingrow who

is a NF driver on her board. Lindsay says

the whole experience changed how

she looked at many aspects of the

driving job. “There are so many

things you can’t control...other cars,

time to fuel, hooking & unhooking

from trailers, finding trailers, paper-

work.” This job is “extremely hard”!

Heather also made a video of Lind-

say dollying down the trailer which

has apparently gone viral with our

drivers on social media...and Lind-

say’s now famous quote “Who said

trucking is easy.”

HUMAN RESOURCES

With spring here I want to send a quick reminder on our Footwear Policy. This policy requires ade-quate footwear for employees and other personnel performing tasks where there is a reasonable potential for foot injury or other personal injury from slip, trip and fall incidents. This includes but is not limited to exposure to fall-ing and or rolling objects, work-ing in close proximity to wheel and track vehicles, performing any type of maintenance activi-ties and operating material han-dling equipment.

Adequate footwear is defined as footwear that provides protection from hazards in the foot protec-tion area. Adequate footwear includes shoes or boots with slip resistant soles.

Open toed shoes, flip flops, san-dals or shoes of similar construc-tion and material must not be worn when working as they do not provide adequate protection.

Please contact Amy at ext 164 with any questions. Happy Spring!

FUEL

It looks like spring is finally here!!! We made it thru another long winter. April is a good month to focus on getting a fuel bo-

nus. The idle time requirement for the Network and Midwest regional fleet is 5.56% for the month of April. Dedicated, Spe-

cialized and 500 club drivers have an idle bonus requirement of 2.56% in April. Below are the minimum required MPG per

tractor to qualify for the fuel bonus.

Did you know that there are fitness centers, walking trails and basketball courts available to drivers at many Travel Center of

America locations? Drivers can access the fitness rooms 24/7/365 with their Ultra One card. Just swipe your Ultra

One card and it allows you to enter the fitness room—no cost to you. If you are interested in getting more information

on available sites please visit the following site http://www.ta-petro.com/amenities/stayfit. Here is an interesting tidbit

for those of you who cannot get to a fitness location; but, still want to get in some quick exercise….walking around

your tractor and trailer just 32 times is equivalent to one mile.

Fitness Rooms at 54 sites! Here are just a few. TA Montgomery, AL TA Jacksonville South, FL TA Brunswick, GA TA Lake Park, GA TA Lake Station, IN TA Porter, IN TA Whitestown, IN TA Walcott, IA

MPG requirements Idle requirements

Sleepers

2009/2010/2011 Freightliner 6.3 Network fleet 5.56%

2012 Peterbilt 6.3 Regional fleet 5.56%

2013 Freightliner 6.6 Dedicated 2.56%

2013/2014 Volvo 6.7 Specialized 2.56%

2015 Freightliner 7.0 500 club 2.56%

2015 International 6.9

Day Cabs

2011 Volvo/2012 Peterbilt 6.3

2014 Volvo 6.4

2015 International 6.4

FItness Rooms Cont.

TA Baltimore South, MD Binghamton, NY TA Greensboro, NC TA Mocksville, NC TA Bloomsburg, PA TA Greencastle, PA TA Manning, SC (Jimmy Ardis

Manning Travel Center) TA Knoxville, TN (outdoor) TA Nashville, TN Petro Ocala, FL Petro Atlanta, GA Petro Carnesville, GA Petro Gary, IN Petro Joplin, MO Petro Bordentown, NJ Petro Mebane, NC Petro Girard, OH Petro New Paris, OH Petro North Baltimore, OH Petro Perrysburg, OH Petro Raphine, VA

Walking Trails at

over 144 sites!

Hoops at 27 sites!

SAFE DRIVING AWARDS

Ian Alindogan 253,933

Ray Belanger 264,796

Phillip Kolc 261,336

Steven Pauley 257,178

Ronald Smith 265,106

Harry McMillen 509,253

Gloria Miller 505,775

Steve Casey 1,750,681

SHOP

New Trucks!

Yes, new trucks are arriving starting in

May. If you have any questions about

the new trucks see Tim Lund in the

shop.

Right now we have a mix of trucks that

will start arriving in May and end in

November.

28 – International ProStar (Day Cabs).

175 – Freightliner Cascadia (Sleeper and

Day Cabs). 100 of the sleeper trucks

are manuals and 35 are automatics.

203 – Total

The trucks will arrive in Cedar Rapids.

During this process of moving out and

moving in we will need your help. Our

goal is to make your transition from

one truck to another as smooth as pos-

sible.

When you know you’re going to move

out of a truck make sure you:

1. Pack up your personal items before

you arrive.

2. Make sure we have a complete list

of items to repair before you leave

your old truck.

3. Do a quality pre-trip on your truck

that you are assigned to. Even if it

is new.

4. Pick up any trash in your truck.

Remember, another driver will

need to move in.

5. Be patient. There will be a lot of

activity around here for the next 7

months.

We are excited about the arrival of the

new trucks. Help us to help you!!

Thank you,

Dangers of Spring Driving Weather One of the incorrect assumptions often made by professional drivers is that speed can be increased in the spring because there are less extreme weather conditions such as ice and snow. There are many other hazards which confront drivers during this time of year. Drivers should remain cautious when faced with the follow-ing road conditions:

Rain – sudden downpours can reduce visibility and increase stopping dis-tance of the vehicle by creating a slick roadway for the truck and other vehicles around you. Rain will also produce road shimmer which can be distracting to all drivers.

Wet Pavement- this creates a slip-pery surface which will reduce the trucks handling and increase your stopping distance (up to 4 times the normal stopping distance).

Fog- this causes low visibility and recognition in the field of travel. Fog is often compounded with wet road-ways which creates poor traction for your truck and the other vehicles on the road.

Standing Water- this creates a loss of traction and can cause loss of control which can place you in jeopardy of a jackknife (or spin while bob-tailing). It can eliminate visibility for other drivers as well which can cause a collision.

Road Construction- road projects frequently begin or resume in the spring. Construction zones create unforeseen hazards with equipment and work crews. This requires your special attention as to the need of reducing your speed, making lane changes, lane diversions and tempo-rary stops to permit road equipment or materials to be placed. The re-

building of bridges and ramps on the interstates is currently underway in many parts of our region.

Soft Shoulders- these are prevalent during this time of year due to the amount of melting snow and rainfall. Be careful to avoid letting the tractor and trailer wander on to the shoul-der. Be cautious of narrow roadways and loose gravel after heavy rains as this can cause loss of control which could result in a rollover.

High Winds- these can occur sud-denly and without warning. High winds with the other elements of spring can create a hazard to all vehi-cles such as loss of control, weaving, sudden lane change and unexpected-ly hitting the brakes.

Animals- They are incredibly active during the spring months. Some are emerging from hibernation and other are entering mating season. This will result in more animals crossing the roads. Many animals, especially deer, are most active and dawn or dusk. Remember, don’t veer for deer.

Bicycles- Spring also brings cyclists out to the roadways. Driving along-side a cyclist can make traffic maneu-vers, from turning right to parking more dangerous. Be extremely alert and cautious when you are near a cyclist.

Spring Driving Tips

Check Your Lights- since spring rain hinders driving visibility, make sure all lights are working by conducting an inspection every time you stop or park the vehicle.

Replace Wiper Blades- Worn out blades may not be up to the task of clearing water away from your wind-shield.

Check Your Tire Pressure- Harsh winter weather can deflate tires. Check tire pressure during your in-spections and remember proper tire pressure can increase MPG’s.