In an ongoing effort to recognize the special contributions of private fleet drivers to their companies, NPTC has announced a new program that will honor drivers whose high performance standards are among the very best in the industry nationwide.
The NPTC National Driver All-Stars program will be held annually. It will honor the top 100 company or leased drivers of NPTC fleet member companies based on how well they uniquely serve their companies with extraordinary levels of service. Designed as a complementary program to the NPTC Driver Hall of Fame, National Driver All-Stars is intended to widen the circle of opportunities for private fleet drivers at all stages in their careers to be recognized for exceptional performance on a national scale. A top-notch driver with a highly successful record of service for as short a duration of three years is as eligible to compete for national recognition as the 30-year veteran.
The metric scorecard used in the All-Star program includes five key areas: customer service (uniform/appearance, on-time delivery records, attitude/conduct, customer service representative skills and customer feedback, loading/unloading, and overall team player profile); safety (zero number of DOT reportable accidents, OSHA reportable injuries, and MVR-verified traffic violations); compliance with company standards (attendance, participation in safety meetings, training, paperwork, role modeling other drivers, and the like); regulatory compliance (hours-of-service, DVIR, MVR, etc.), and personal attributes (voluntary community service).
Eligibility requirements to participate are: the company must be an NPTC member; the company must include a current MVR record of the driver candidate for the past three years; and the driver must be regularly employed or leased and be actively driving for the 12-month period beginning June 1, 2008, through May 31, 2009. A company may nominate one driver per year.
Driver candidates will be evaluated on the merits of their performance of the general All-Star program standards as uniquely expressed in meeting corporate expectations of the private fleet. The program recognizes that what constitutes acceptable on-time delivery at one company may mean 30 minutes; at another, 60 seconds. A driver who unloads and sets up products in customer stores will meet a different definition of “customer service” compared to the driver with longer runs, fewer stops and no unloading. A top driver from any of these companies could be recognized as an “All-Star.”
Driver candidates, therefore, are not competing against an arbitrary national standard of the private fleet industry in general, but the internal high standards of the member company. The challenge of the judging panel will be to select the top 100 drivers as the exemplars of the “best of the best” among private fleets.
Drivers selected as an NPTC National Driver All-Star will be honored in a recognition ceremony at a special luncheon to be held on Friday, Sept. 11, 2009, immediately following the association's National Safety Conference, which will be held at the Hyatt Dulles Hotel outside Washington, D.C. Drivers are expected to attend this ceremony in order to be formally recognized. Companies with a winning driver are responsible for all expenses related to their driver's participation. A separate registration fee will be charged by NPTC for the recognition ceremony and luncheon. Details of the program can be found on the NPTC web site at www.nptc.org.
Gary Petty is president and CEO of the National Private Truck Council. The council's web site is www.nptc.org. His column appears monthly in FLEET OWNER.
