We are the Voice of Trucking. Welcome to Key Up New York, the official podcast of the Trucking Association of New York. I am Kendra Hems, President with the association. I'm joined today by Kate Kennett, our Vice President. Welcome, Kate. Thank you. Kate also serves as our liaison to the TANY Safety Council. And as we've talked about before, one of the key components of TANY's strategic plan is safety, including training and education, of course.
And one of the biggest things that we do each year related to that is our annual Truck Safety and Education Symposium. It was just held the first part of April. It's the second year we've had it, I think, since the pandemic. We're back in person, two years, second year. So we are starting to see our numbers come back up, which is awesome. But it has traditionally been one of the more popular events that we do through the association.
So, Kate, do you want to talk maybe a little bit about why you think this event is so popular? Sure. I think it's popular for a number of reasons, but it really affords attendees the opportunity to connect with agencies that they might not normally do, especially maybe not in a negative situation.
It gives them like that positive interaction with them, because most of the time, if they're reaching out to an agency, it's because there's an issue, not to build a relationship or to discuss anything positive. It's, I have an issue with this. I have a problem with that.
So this gives them the opportunity in a much more positive atmosphere to build the relationships, to ask the questions, to have a one-on-one, if they have a question with DOT that they didn't want to ask either on the phone or in writing, they just want to have more of a casual conversation and see if they can get their question or concern addressed or answered.
And they can do so without the fear of any kind of, you know, we're going to come after you. I can't believe they just admitted this. It's not like that. They're there to help, and they just want the carrier to be safe. So the access to the agencies, the ability to build those relationships with them, the ability for us to have those relationships, those ongoing good relationships with the agencies, it's important.
And there's always networking too, which is a great component of this. We have our welcome reception, talk about a casual environment. That's really a casual environment. Have a couple drinks, the vendors can talk to attendees in a low pressure situation. So it's more of a friendly conversation, less about selling of a product or feeling like you're being sold a product.
Yeah, and it touches on a number of things. Networking is probably one of the biggest, aside from safety, of course, safety being the priority of this particular event. But the networking, I think, is a big piece of that. You had mentioned access to the agencies. So the agencies are all partners in this, and we'll talk about that in just a little bit.
But it's also being able to network with your peers and other motor carriers and talk about what they're doing that's working as it relates to safety and sharing some best practices. So I think over the years, it's really become known for that, and I think that access, that casual kind of low pressure environment has really been a big draw for folks coming in.
So we always have panel presentations, well not panels every year, but a lot of times we have panels, and this year one of the key focuses as it relates to safety was the route to safer roads, because one of the things that we're always talking about is how do we improve safety on our highways.
So one of the panels was comprised of motor carriers where they shared what they're doing in their own organizations as it relates to safety. So do you want to speak maybe a little bit to some of the key takeaways that you found from that particular panel?
Absolutely. So the motor carrier panel, we kind of developed it so you'd hear from a small carrier or medium sized carrier and a large carrier and hopes that someone in the audience will find a piece from each of those or any of those that they can learn, take back and apply in their, you know, given a fleet situation.
So they all had something to offer and not every idea is scalable so you might have heard this great opportunity or idea that the small carrier did but it's not feasible for a large carrier to do.
And that's okay. There's plenty of information that came from that that was good takeaways but the overarching theme, there are actually two, is they all built a safety culture, and not just from the ground up, but from the top down and if you don't have that top down buy in, it's an uphill battle that you may never win.
So getting that safety culture, the buy in is integral to making that happen. And then the other thing that each one of them spoke to and they all have excellent safety programs and in my opinion successful, is not always calling a driver in and telling them there's something wrong.
It's highlighting something they did well using that sandwich effect you start with hey did this really great, but I noticed you need some work on your breaking technique or whatever the item is that really needs to be addressed.
Either do the sandwiching technique or bring them in just to tell them, hey you did a really great job wearing your seatbelt every single day or not having, you know, a lane departure or whatever the event is, just bringing them in or contact them to say hey you're doing a really great job.
Forget the sandwich effect like reinforce that positive because the positive reinforcement is something that all of them use that that tactic and it seemed to be working well for all three carriers that represented on the panel.
Yeah, and I think it's such a great message, because too often you do hear employees complain like well the only time I hear about anything is when I've done something wrong. So it's really great to kind of start to shift that narrative so they recognize that there's a lot of positive
that's happening and they're being recognized for that, those positive actions as well. And it was such a great time because one of the things that we did do at this year's symposium was announced a new program that Tanny's launching called focus.
It's in partnership with Together for Safer Roads and it's really about building that culture of safety within your organization. We're excited about the program because what it does is it's not just like a training program where you go to sessions or you do webinars, it'll be a cohort of about 10 fleets, and those fleets will be working together as they're starting to implement these techniques within their organizations
for lack of a better word I guess, as it relates to building that culture because as Kate mentioned as we saw in these three carriers that is really the key component of having a good safety program is you have to have the culture to back it up. Doesn't do any good to have policies in place. If you don't also say we are a safe organization, and it is embedded in everything that we do.
So we're really excited about the focus program it'll be a topic for a future podcast so keep your ears out for that, but we'll be talking a little bit more about that and what it's going to mean to our members, specifically.
One of the other great segues though with that panel and what they brought to the table is that we also every year as part of this symposium, recognize our fleet safety award winners it's a great program that really highlights the safest of the safe fleets on on our highways here in New York State so Kate do you want to maybe talk a little bit about the fleet safety awards and how we determine, I say we it's not really we but how the winners of those awards are determined and selected.
Sure. So, just so you all know the applications are usually out really beginning of January so if it's January, go to NY trucks that or click on the link and download the application. It's really easy. We asked for some pretty basic information we asked for a one page about your fleet safety culture, and then all that information is turned over to the judging committee and they take a holistic approach.
When they look at all your information it's not just about how many accidents you had per mile. They want to know what type of operation, you have the makeup of your fleet. What driving environment are you in, are you on the highway are you in the city and kind of take that exposure into account as well.
That committee has has a lot of work to do and a big responsibility to choose the top five that of the good carriers because every one of them is a great carrier that applies, and they are tasked with selecting the top five. And those five get the opportunity to apply for the grand trophy. And there we really dive deep it we asked for three years of detailed data, detailed information, you know binders full of information, and then those are judged and ultimately the grand
trophy winner is chosen. And it is not an easy task. The top five are selected for a reason. And those reasons come out in the information that they provide and it is challenging to really look at that and determine who ultimately receives that grand champion award. So this year, I'm happy to announce that it was Clinton stitch out of Cicero New York, and I had an opportunity to speak with Steve Irwin, Clinton, the transportation manager for Clinton stitch.
While we were at symposium so let's take a listen. Alright, so now we're here with Steve Irwin, Steve is the transportation manager with Clinton stitch co op out of Cicero New York. Steve you've been coming to this conference for many years do you remember about when you first started coming to these.
Yeah, I think today it was probably back in the late 1980s. To be honest with you, dating myself, but been been attending Tanny events since the early 80s but I think coming to the symposium was late 80s, early 90s.
At the time it was a little different it was geared more towards driver information, but it has since transitioned really to motor carriers and safety and along those lines I want to take a moment to congratulate you and Clinton stitch, as you were just awarded yesterday with our champion of fleet safety award. So congratulations for that. Thank you.
I just wanted to pick your brain a little bit, you know we're here about safety, it's promoting safety within the industry. Can you share maybe some best practices that led you to winning the award that other motor carriers might want to consider adopting.
I think for us. One of the things is, we make safety, a culture in our business. Everybody has to buy into it. You need to reward drivers for doing good things just as much as you want to reprimand them for doing bad things they need to know that you're paying attention to
not only the bad but also the good I think it's really important to do that and we try to do that on an ongoing basis. That's perfect. And I think one of the other things that impressed me about what you guys do is how much you have adopted technology and telematics,
and I can say that's been a shift that we've seen here we do an exhibit hall with this conference every year, and there has definitely been a transition in terms of the types of vendors and companies that are here and it is a lot of technology telematics that can be used to help improve safety programs
Can you speak a little bit to how you guys have incorporated that? Absolutely, especially with the coming on of AI intelligence. What the technology is allowing us to do now is become proactive with safety versus reactive. You know years past it was always when something was reported to you or in the case of cameras you saw an incident. Now we're able to take all that information and basically AI can predict the drivers that need attention and the drivers that don't.
And again going back to what I said earlier, so we reward the drivers that don't need intervention and we work with the drivers that do and it's being proactive which I think is really helping a lot. And how have your drivers felt about that adoption of the technology? So there's always some a little bit of apprehension especially with the cameras, but what our drivers have discovered because we share it with them,
more than 92-93% of the time a camera exonerates a driver versus making them guilty. And drivers are beginning to realize that hey I got a better chance of this getting me out of a jam than putting me in a jam. And so the drivers are actually really bought into the cameras. And again it's important to reward those drivers that you never see films on. You got to let them know, hey we're looking and we're not seeing you on film. So that's important.
So that is a great point. That reward aspect I think is critical. Because it's like we talk about it all the time right? It's when somebody's doing something wrong that you have to talk to them and it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease kind of thing. And we don't take enough time to really acknowledge those that are doing the right thing every single day.
Yep and that fosters with the drivers. You know they kind of puff their chest, the guys that don't have problems and it kind of makes the other drivers want to be like them. They want to be that guy. Right, absolutely. So what advice would you give to carriers that might be hesitant to adopt some of this technology?
My advice is that the technology in the long run will benefit you tremendously. Both with safety and other operational things. We've discovered a lot of things using the technology that's available to change the way we do business to be honest with you. Don't be afraid of the cameras. I think the cameras are the best thing out there. They will help you. They've gotten us out of countless problems with insurance companies. Again it's 92-93% of the time it exonerates the driver.
And that's so important. Absolutely. Well great. Well I really appreciate you taking some time to join us. Congratulations again on your award. Thank you very much. Any closing thoughts you'd like to share with the audience? No, it's just encouraging to see this many people here. You know I keep coming back year after year after year because every year I pick something up. There's something new, something different. There's always something to be learned here. You never stop learning.
That's great. Always keep learning. Excellent. Well thanks again. Appreciate it. And we'll see you in the audience. Okay, thank you. Thanks Steve. All right. Well that was great to hear from Steve and I think you know he brought a lot to in terms of just why he finds the symposium so valuable but one of the things that we were talking about kind of on the front end of this was the agency participation.
And it's really is a true example of a public private partnership. Tani works very closely with our state partners we've talked before on this podcast about the importance of that collaboration and while we don't always see eye to eye on every single issue, one of the things that we all agree on is how important safety is and working together, obviously, is just so much more impactful, and when we're trying to get that message across and educate.
So Kate maybe you want to speak a little bit about how the agencies are involved in this event kind of right from the start, as we're planning it. So the planning committee for the symposium. It includes state agencies as well as as member companies. So we have state police New York State Police, New York State Department of Transportation Department of Motor Vehicles, Governor, Governor's Traffic Safety Committee, and
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and it would have been easier to say those acronyms because I'm tripping over all the names but just to, I think our whole trucking language is jargon and acronyms but there you have the full names. You're welcome. But they help us identify things that are coming down the road whether it's a regulation or it's it's enforcement initiative, it's whatever it is that they have going on.
They let us know and do we need to address it do we need to have a session on it. Is it something that our members and the attendees need to be aware of so they really help kind of let us know what's coming down the pike, not to use a pun but. But it's a pun.
A little bit of a pun. Yes, but it is important because they're out there on roadside they're seeing what's happening or they're in the carriers doing the audits and they're seeing some of maybe the repetitive issues that come up so having their voice as part of this is really important
and then of course from the motor carriers, their engagement in the planning committee, also important because they can talk about, well it'd be nice to have more information on this or this is a question that's been coming up a lot. So it really does guide the planning of the event.
The agencies also participate in the event itself serving on panels giving presentations. And they also we also held a safety exhibition, well the safety exhibition but where I was going was the route to safer roads. We talked about the motor carrier panel but we also had an agency panel this year as well. In addition to other presentations so do you want to talk maybe a little bit about some of the key takeaways from the agency side in terms of their presentation.
Sure. So, I don't think that Jonathan and Castro with DOT and Rob Lopez from GTSC compared notes or presentations necessarily but I thought it was very interesting that both of their presentations kind of uncovered or, you know, let us in on some trends
they were seeing and lack of seatbelt use, as well as inattention, driver distraction. Those were increasingly more the root cause of a fatal, a fatal crash than, than in the past, and I think, for the most part distraction we all kind of understand with all the technology
and all the bells and whistles and everything just, you know, even passengers just taking your attention away. The one for me that was somewhat shocking was the seatbelt use because, I mean, we've had the laws and the books forever and it's somewhat ingrained it's just a habit. And some of those videos would show like it looked like they were wearing a seatbelt but it wasn't actually clipped.
I guess like what's the point in that some of those fatals that that Jonathan showed the videos on very impactful, but the driver was thrown from that seat from being hit or bumped or, and they can no longer control the vehicle because they're not in the seat, they're trying to grab you know a steering wheel to help pull themselves back up only exacerbating the situation so I was I was shocked that the lack of seatbelt use was still so prevalent.
Yeah, and those and you're right those videos were so impactful because it does show have the driver had their seatbelt on. They would have been in the sea, able to control or get regain control of the vehicle and the outcome of that particular accident may have been very, very different. So, key takeaway for all our listeners if you don't have your seatbelt on right now, please put it on.
Very, very, very important cannot stress that enough. So you'd mentioned Jonathan the Castro, he's with the he's the director with motor carrier compliance with New York State Department of Transportation and DOT and DOT has been a longtime supporter of this event so I was able to grab Jonathan for a couple moments and kind of talk to him about DOT support and some of the things that he was going to talk about at the event this year so let's tune into Jonathan.
So right now I'm joined by Jonathan the Castro Jonathan is director of motor carrier compliance Bureau with the New York State Department of Transportation, known Jonathan for more years than we probably want to admit to at this point. He has always been a strong supporter of this conference. Can you talk a little bit about why the department feels it's so important to be engaged in events such as this.
Well, you know education for the motor car industry is huge. There's a lot of rules and regulations that the companies have to follow but more importantly, this is an opportunity for not only the motor carriers to engage with each other but for us to engage with them on best practices on how to stay safe on the roads.
So this is an excellent opportunity for us to engage with the motor carriers and speak with them face to face, and gives us a great opportunity to learn the challenges in the motor carrier industry by engaging face to face with the company owners and the drivers and the technicians.
Great. I think that's so important and one of the benefits about this conference is it gives an opportunity for the motor carriers in attendance to engage in a very kind of non stressful environment right versus having someone knock on your door and say hey we're here for an audit.
Right. And you know it's funny I was just getting coffee and gentlemen from Lightning Express came up to me, I had a conversation with him over the phone about a year ago over an issue he was having and you know he complimented me on helping him out with understanding a few things and, you know, he just gave me some feedback on some issues he's having now.
So, having those face, it was great to meet him face to face, rather than on the phone. Right. So, this afternoon you're going to be speaking and actually presenting to the crowd here today on emerging issues in commercial vehicle safety, can you give us maybe just a couple key high points that you would like the audience to know in terms of what you're speaking about today.
Sure, I'll just talk about one that you know is important everybody and that's teen driving. Really not a motor carrier compliance issue but just about everyone here has a child or a niece or a nephew. Teams, you know, you know, we, we, they turn 16, we get them a learner's permit, and we put them behind the wheel of a vehicle and we let them go down the road and, you know, there's training that they need to get and actually the motor car industry is is the best trainers in the
world on safe driving. So we'll talk a little bit about that I'm also going to talk about some of, you know, the low hanging fruit in safety, and that's seat belts, we'll talk about how easy it is for a driver to put on a seat belt and I'll talk about some, some tragedies where
drivers hurt themselves and others simply by not wearing a seat belt so we'll, we'll go through some things of that nature. A couple of things that may have been hit on during the conference but there'll be a couple of surprises that people will will get from me today. That's great. So I know you started your career I believe as a motor carrier investigator, an inspector.
Yes, it was like 1993. 1993 September. So you know the date. Can you speak a little bit maybe to what are some of the biggest changes you've seen in the industry.
When did you first start? Massive changes. So in 1993, I mean I'm old enough to understand what the letters ICC stand for and just a Commerce Commission, and I live through the highly regulated industry where you know motor carriers had to have tariffs on file follow have special routes that they had to follow, and that deregulation changed the industry, it allowed new entrants into the industry. It, that caused issues of its own.
So when I first started in DOT, I was doing really regulatory oversight on the economic front, and that moved to the safety front quickly. Why did that happen? I think the world changed and figured out that, you know, safety was much more important than the economic regulation of the industry.
I think that's so important and that's the reason why we're all here today. That's the purpose of this conference is it's all about safety. We do touch on some operational issues as well. We just actually heard a great panel presentation on our Jails to Jobs initiative that we've previously done a podcast on.
But really at the end of the day this conference is the Truck Safety Conference. It's a true partnership between private industry and public administration. Really appreciate you being with us today. Thank you. Any additional thoughts you'd like to share with our audience? Well just, you know, these conferences are huge to me. Membership in an association like Taney for a motor carrier is a step in the positive direction.
It's known, there's been studies on this, if you engage in associations, go to safety meetings, you're going to be safer. And this is all about returning home every day without having an incident. And so, highly recommend coming to these conferences. You will get information out of here that you would not have gotten if you didn't engage. So, looking forward already to next year's conference. Awesome.
Well thank you again so much. Appreciate you being here and best of luck on your presentation coming up. Thank you. Thanks, Jonathan. All right. Well that was great to hear from Jonathan and one of the things that I do like about Jonathan, he's one of those presenters that I think sometimes it can go one of two ways. He's very, very direct, but his intent is to really, you know, impress upon the audience about how important these issues are that he brings to the table.
And as Kate mentioned, one of the big things he did speak about this year was the seatbelt use and the distracted driving as well. But in addition to DOT and you had mentioned GTSC, the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee, we'd also received some updates from FMCSA and DMV. So I know there was kind of a pretty big nugget that came down this year. So you want to talk about that a little bit from DMV?
Sure. So part of one of FMCSA's regulations has to do with the drug and alcohol clearinghouse. And as it relates to the Department of Motor Vehicles actually downgrading licenses for anyone, any driver who is in the drug and alcohol clearinghouse in the prohibited status.
So if there's a driver out there that's in the clearinghouse and prohibited, they will be downgraded as of November 18th of this year. So 2024, November 18th, this is the deadline. This is the must enforce DMV has to do it and they're prepared to do it and they are doing it. So November 18th, if you're not sure, check that clearinghouse and get that rectified so you can be on your way back to either not losing your CDL or getting it back if you've already lost it.
So yeah, and that is so important because as we've talked about before, one of the things that we've seen with the legalization of marijuana across many states, New York being one of them, is that uptick in positive drug tests and lots of times because it's an education thing for drivers where they are thinking, well, it's legal now so I can smoke it or use an edible or whatever the case may be, not realizing that it is still prohibited at the federal level.
And you are going to test positive and potentially lose your ability to drive. But these are otherwise safe drivers and we want to make sure they're not losing their CDL, and they're able to complete the SAP process and get back on the road so really important piece of information both for the motor carriers to know as well as drivers that may have had a positive test.
So overall, it was a great event. One of the things that I think we touched on a little bit was the safety exhibition that goes along with this. And one of the key pieces that Kate had noted early on is that this is really a low pressure environment and it gives access and so the safety exhibition. We have companies that have different services that they can provide to motor carriers whether it's telematics or equipment, insurance, things of that nature.
But the agencies all have booths at this event as well. And again it just gives an opportunity for attendees to build those relationships they can ask questions without fear of any kind of, you know, negative impact from that, and it's again one of the reasons why this event I think has become so popular. And I will say you know getting back to the beginning of this when we talked about safety being one of the key components of Tanny's strategic plan.
I'm going to revert back to a previous podcast where we talked about the atry study that shows if you're a member of a state trucking association or a national trucking association that you are safer than your peers on on the road that may not be or may previously had been. And this is one of those reasons why is events, just like this. So, as we are now wrapped up for 2024 we're already talking about 2025.
So Kate maybe you want to give a couple highlights on what to expect with this event next year. Sure. And I'll preface this by saying we're not normally this far ahead, or even have ideas for the next year's event, but this idea came forward and we realized if we're going to do it, it's going to take a year to put it together.
But it's going to be a mock, a live mock trial. So, there'll be different sessions dedicated to different aspects of a trial so it might be a deposition of really anyone but you know, typically a compliance officer or officer of a company being deposed about policy about you know different things they're going to try and catch you on.
It might be what a driver needs to do or an accident scene, and everything in between. It really is to better prepare our members or attendees, in case they're ever in a situation where they have to litigate and defend themselves and see what it's like to be in the hot seat, literally, because it's going to be live and we're going to touch upon a lot of different, a lot of different aspects of it so. And it is important because it touches on not just safety.
Safety is obviously a big piece of this because we want to ensure that motor carriers understand the things that they can do to kind of prevent being in this situation in the first place so that's part of what will come out of these sessions. The other side of it those we talked a number of times about this prevalence of these nuclear verdicts that have been hitting the trucking industry over the last several years, and events like this can also help carriers prepare for that.
So, just being able to be there kind of witnessing the type type of questions that are being asked or how the attorneys figure out how to get what they want out of the individuals they're questioning. It really goes a long way and helping carriers ensure that all of their safety
requirements are correct that they're following their policies, and also just preparing in the event that they're ever in that type of situation that they know what to say or what not to say so we're really looking forward to it we're excited about it. Really, again just excited to see that all come together. So with that, I think we've anything else you want to touch on coming out of this year's event.
We covered it all don't we covered quite a bit and one of the big things that we wanted to do was not just talk about the event but also just give some of the takeaways and a couple key things for listeners to learn that we learned from the event itself so
hopefully we accomplished that today. And I really hope that you'll consider joining us next year. The event will be in beautiful Saratoga Springs, New York, quaint little town if you've never been there it's a great opportunity to visit scheduled for November 11 through ninth 2025 crazy that we're talking about that.
But you can monitor our website www.my trucks.org for more information as it becomes available but hopefully we see all there so Kate thank you so much for joining me today appreciate it. No problem that commute was really long. My office is right next door. Well I really appreciate you taking the time to get over here. It was an effort. So that's this up for this episode of key up New York, we hope that you liked it. And please follow us tell your friends. See you next time.