Author: T. Ellis

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Performance Recognition

Recognizing Driver Excellence

Our team would like to acknowledge a few of our drivers who have demonstrated exceptional levels of dedication, positivity, professionalism, and hard work. These drivers have been chosen for their remarkable contributions and commitment to excellence.

“Tina Barlow is one hard worker and a great driver. She is always willing to help out and go that extra mile! Tina really cares about her job and strives to do a great job every single day. I have come to learn this about her in the time I have been her DM.  She has a lot of knowledge and experience in the field and Tina is someone I know we can count on to get the job done. Not only that, but Tina is a great person all around. She has an amazing personality and a joy to work with. Tina is a great asset to our team!!” 

– Jon-Michael, Driver Manager

“Anthony ‘Antman’ Collins is quite simply the man out there. He transitioned to an OTR driver from 4 on 4 off, around the time I first started here and he has continually done a great job. I can rely on Anthony to pay attention to detail, and do the right thing every single time. He communicates very well every step of the way, and has a positive attitude the whole time. Anthony is never afraid to help us out and he stays out on the road for two weeks at a time for us which is not easy to do. As a matter of fact, this week Anthony is helping out by staying out an extra day, when he could go home. A testament to his exemplary effort. Thank you for all you do Anthony!”

– Kanen, Driver Manager

“Chris has been an Owner Operator with Marvin Keller since May of 2017. Chris is a hard worker and runs a consistent schedule which makes him reliable for us. I always know when he is going to be leaving out each week. Chris is a problem solver and anything he can take care of on his own he will. He will arrive early at locations and with his downtime; he looks over his truck and makes sure everything is in good working order. He can also take care of some of the repairs himself which helps with the repair cost. Overall, Chris does a great job for us, and that great job was recently noticed by one of our brokers Transloop. Matt said Chris has been on several of his loads and he has done a great job for him. This just goes to show that Chris is a professional handles himself in a professional manner in all he does.”

– Amy, Owner Operator Manager

“I want to give a huge shoutout to Travis Bartles for their exceptional dedication and passion for the job! Not only does he consistently deliver on time, but his attention to detail and genuine care for every load and customer is evident. It’s clear that Travis takes pride in what he does, bringing a positive attitude and a strong work ethic to every journey. We truly appreciate your commitment and the energy you bring to the road every day.”

– Andrew, Driver Manager

A huge thanks goes out to these drivers for their outstanding work. We appreciate all that you have done and continue to do to help us be the best carrier we can be. Keep up the great work! 

🤩
Categories
Performance

Driving Excellence: The Impact of Driver Scorecards

Our elite fleet is recognized as one of the best in the industry, thanks to our commitment to high performance standards. Every quarter, we assess individual driver performance through what we call Driver Scorecards. The scorecard helps us identify both strengths and areas for improvement. With these results, our team is able to give the proper tools and resources that are needed to help every driver perform at the highest level.

Key Categories in the Scorecard:

Driver time:

  • Miles Driven: We track how many miles each driver covers in the quarter.
  • Total Driver Time: We analyze the total time spent driving during the quarter.
  • Available Drive Time: We examine the percentage of available drive time based on the driver’s schedule.

Safety:

We closely monitor several key safety metrics to ensure safe driving practices:

  • Harsh Brakes
  • Speed
  • Cruise Control usage
  • Idle Time
  • Anticipation (smooth driving)
  • Hours of Service (HOS) violations

The Purpose of the Scorecard:

The goal of the quarterly scorecard is to provide actionable insights for both the driver and the company. Here’s why we invest in this process:

  • Recognizing Strengths & Areas for Improvement: The scorecard highlights where drivers excel and where support or training may be needed.
  • Setting Goals & Improvement Plans: Both drivers and driver managers look at the data and work together to establish improvement goals. Whether it’s reducing harsh braking or increasing available drive time, the scorecard provides a clear foundation for performance goals.
  • Accountability: Your individual performance impacts the entire fleet. This shared responsibility ensures that we all work together towards achieving our collective goals and maintaining our standing as a top-tier carrier in the industry.

The Driver Scorecard is more than just a report—it’s a tool for growth, accountability, and continuous improvement. Our goal is to help every driver achieve elite-fleet status, where safety, efficiency, and performance are fully optimized. By collaborating closely, we ensure that each driver remains safe, efficient, and consistently performs at their best, setting the bar for excellence and leading the way in the industry.

Categories
Referral

$2,000 Referral Bonus Blitz!

We know how important it is to find great talent, and we appreciate the effort it takes. That’s why, for this special campaign, we’re doubling our Referral Bonus from $1,000 to $2,000!

Refer a driver and help your team win the jackpot! The team with the most referrals wins limited-edition MK apparel!

How it Works:

  • Each Driver Manager and their drivers are on a team.
  • Teams can communicate and collaborate easily through the Drive MK app.
  • We’ve got recruiting materials like brochures and business cards ready to go – just reach out to your Driver Manager!
  • Your Driver Manager will help you stay on track, promote the referral program, and keep the team motivated to hit those goals.
  • The more drivers you refer, the more you and your team can earn. Let’s work together to win big!

Referral Bonus Blitz:

  • $100 for each driver application & 500 MK Pro-Points
  • $2,000 Bonus: $850 paid out once seated; $575 at 3 months; $575 at 6 months

Team Amy:

RANDALL BAYLES, JOHN BERGIN, MICHAEL BOOKER, HAROLD CAIN, ANTHONY DENT, TIMOTHY GARRETT, ANTHONY GILIO, NICHOLAS HARJUNG, TERRY HODGE, CHRISTOPHER HOPPER, TIMOTHY MCBRIDE, DOUGLAS MCCLENDON, MARK MCKINLEY, BOBBY MILLER, RHONDA MILLER, CHRIS MILLER, JUNREY MONTEJO, ERIC MORAN, RANDY MURPHY, KEN NEWBY, DANIEL NUNEZ, WADE OWENS, JAMES RHEINECKER, GEORGE ROBINSON, OMER TERRY, CHRISTOPHER THOMAS, DAVID WARD, AND ROBERT WILLIS

Team Andrew:

DENNIS ANTHONY, TRAVIS BARTELS, CHARITY BATTLEY, MICHAEL BODINE, TERRANCE BOGAN, CHEYENNE CLARK, DIAMANTE COVINGTON, BRIAN DOUGHTY, JEFFREY EFIRD, BENJAMIN FOSTER, ELIJAH GREENWOOD, PHYLLIS HILL, CODY HUFFMAN, JORDAN KALE, MATTHEW MCCANTS, NADIA MCCLURE, CHARLES MCGREGOR, JLONNIE MCLEOD, DMARKIS NEAL-TAYLOR, BOBBY PALMER, TERRANCE PARKS, GEORGES ARNELD THEODORE, AND TODD WRIGHT

Team Jon:

TINA BARLOW, LARRY BLANKENSHIP, BRENT BOEHM, JESSICA BRANHAM, TERRY BRANHAM, EMMA BRANNON, DAVID BRUCHMAN, KIM BRUCHMAN, DEBORA COLEMAN, BRIAN DISKIN, ERIC DONEY, KERRI DOSS, ALLEN FITZGERALD, KAMENN GITTINGER, MOLLY GRIBLER, JASON GRIGSBY, CIERA HAYMER, EDWARD HREZO, CHRISTIAN JOHNSON, KIMBERLY KUFFEL-GILLARD, ERIK LOY, DALTON MEDLEY, CLAYTON PATRICK, CAROLYN SHOEMAKER, AND HUGH SHOEMAKER

Team Kanen:

ROBERT BENTON, JEREMIAH BRUBAKER, WILLIAM CALDWELL, ANTHONY COLLINS, JUDY COLLINS, DEVIN DUNCAN, DAN EMEL, MARK FAVREAU, JERRY FROST, SEAN JOHNSON, MARK JORDAN, JOHN KLEDZINSKI, KYLE LUESMANN, JACOB MERCER, ORVILLE MERRILL, RICHARD MERRILL, SCOTT MILLER, JOHNATHON NEUMANN, BLAKE NORMAN, CHRISTOPHER PEARCE, FRANKIE RICH, FRANKLIN ROJAS, DANIEL SCHMITT, DARRELL SEAMAN, DAMIEN STRONG, AND WESLEY THOMAS

Team Chris:

MARC BEAR, JASON COLEMAN, DAVE WILLIAMS

Campaigns Ends: April 30th, 2025

Categories
Uncategorized

How to Build a Good Relationship with your Manager

I’m sure we’ve all had a job where we felt like a number, a nameless cog in the machine. Is that company still around? The most successful organizations are those who have employees who are highly engaged within their companies and have good relationships with their managers. It goes without saying that people who are happy in their jobs are generally more successful and, by extension, so are the companies they work for. In a 2017 survey by a human capital management firm, 93% of respondents stated that having trust in their supervisor/boss was essential to being happy in their jobs. Good employee/manager relationships have numerous benefits:

  • Improved productivity; employees who feel valued by their managers are more committed and invested in their roles and provide better performance.
  • Better customer service by leaving a positive impression on customers.
  • Increased retention and more new employees; happy employees are more likely to stay motivated and more talented and skilled employees will be attracted to the organization.

At Marvin Keller, we strive to train driver managers to be great coaches who are responsive and helpful. We value your input as it helps us to define and solve problems. While management works hard to solve problems, they don’t have all the answers. You are out there on the frontlines every day and have more valuable information than you may realize; you have a vantage point that we in the office do not. We appreciate and welcome all input to help other drivers in their everyday routines. This makes a big difference, especially for new drivers just learning the ropes. It also helps your manager learn more about what you have to deal with so they can be prepared to help.

Here are some ways you can improve your relationship with your managers:

  • Be effective with communication. Always err on the side of over-communication.
  • Prevent conflict before it starts by bringing up issues or concerns before it becomes a problem.
  • When dealing with conflicts, handle them rationally and gracefully, without jumping to conclusions or becoming angry or defensive. Approach each situation with an open mind; your manager will be expected to do the same.
  • Be open and honest while still being respectful. Transparency will put everyone on the same page and allow positive change to occur.
  • Avoid making excuses. If you don’t have all the tools you need to do the job, bring your concerns to your manager. Otherwise, the expectation is for you to do your job without being hounded.

Your input is invaluable and we encourage everyone to put forth their ideas or suggestions. That’s why we’re bringing back the MK Connect program where we explore what new and helpful information you’ve learned to share with the office and other drivers. Everyone in an organization is responsible for the success of said organization. Your contributions make the difference between success and failure and we encourage everyone to feel comfortable sharing their input so we can continue to grow and be the company of choice for drivers. If you believe your concerns are not properly being addressed, feel free to reach out to another manager for help.

Categories
Maintenance & Equipment

A Guide to Fuel Efficiency – Maintenance Campaign

MK is launching a new Maintenance Campaign focusing on tips and tricks for improving our fuel performance. 

Those who complete the campaign activities by March 31st, 2025 will receive 200 pro-points! When you complete the activities, please be thorough in your response. We would love to hear your feedback!

Campaign Materials

Fuel Efficiency.pdf

A Guide to Fuel Efficiency – Campaign Form

If you have any questions, please reach out!

Categories
Recognition

Driver Spotlights

Every week, each of our driver managers takes a moment to acknowledge one of their drivers for their outstanding performance. We want to give a special thank you to the following drivers for their exceptional work, which serves as a great example of what it means to be an MK Driver.

Ken Newby – Plowed the snow from our drop lot in Mattoon – we appreciate it!

Randy Murphy & Jason Grigsby  – Helped Silgan in Seymour IN get a trailer that was frozen in the ice unstuck. Thank you for helping us keep our customers happy! 

Dave Bruchman – Helped fellow driver who had a trailer that slid off the fifth wheel get it back up enough to safely take to a shop and then followed her to make sure she made it.  Thank you for being so willing to help out

Brent Boehm – Brought a truck to the terminal from Sullivan on his day off for us. Thanks for being someone we can count on!

Arneld Theodore & Anthony Collins – Arneld jump started his own truck which saved us lots of time and hundreds of dollars on a service call. Anthony ordered parts and fix his truck’s heat over the weekend.  This also saved us downtime and lots of money for a mechanic. We appreciate the extra work from both of them!

Categories
Announcement & Hot Topics

The Necessity of Providing Safe & Reliable Service

If you’re asked what you do for a living, I think most of you, if not all, would respond that you are a truck driver. But that’s only partly true. In reality, you are freight movers. Driving is just the means to accomplish that and the most time-consuming and demanding part of the job. As professional freight movers, you work in the service industry. Your job is to deliver products to customers safely, on time, and in good condition.

Working with customers directly is the lifeblood of trucking operations. No trucking company can survive working solely on the spot market. In order to attract and maintain customers, companies must bring value and good service to their operations. A major part of that is ensuring that accepted loads are picked and delivered on time. This is especially important when carriers are plentiful and shippers have a lot of options; they can afford to be picky. Marvin Keller must always strive to be an elite fleet, which is one that stands out and is a go-to company for customers to move their freight. While we in the office aim for timely updates and communication and proactive problem-solving, we have to count on the drivers to execute the plans.

Everyone has heard at some point that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. This metaphor applies in business as a team is only as successful as its lowest-performing member. How you perform directly affects your team and the entire company. MK is fortunate to have a great team of professional drivers and we frequently get compliments from shippers, receivers, customers and brokers. This is one of the reasons we have been in business for 60 years. In order to maintain that level of service, we hold all employees to high standards of performance. Here are a few examples of the standards we expect from drivers.

  • On-time pickup and delivery: This requires proper trip planning to know what you have time for and ensure you leave with enough time to make it. Of course, there are always unplanned issues; trucking isn’t perfect and we understand that things happen in transit. Just keep in mind that pickup and delivery times are not suggestions; these times are when the customers expect loads to pick and deliver. We must do our best to provide this service.
  • Safe Transport: Most loads are required to be secured, sealed, and weighed by the driver. There are some shippers that may do all this themselves, but for the most part, it is the driver’s responsibility to ensure that each load is properly secured for transport and isn’t going to shift. It also must be weight by the driver picking up to ensure it is legal. Most trailers are required to be sealed, either by shipper or driver. These three things are very important as any violations or issues that arise from a lack of diligence can be inordinately expensive. There have been innumerable instances of load shifts due to harsh brakes or quick turns that have resulted in rework charges in the thousands, often wiping all revenue from the load and even putting us at a negative on the loads. Overweight tickets and claims due to missing product on broken-sealed loads can also cause us to lose more money on a load than we’re making.
  • Adherence to DOT regulations: Now that E-logs are the norm and drivers can no longer fudge their paper logs without notice, it’s important that HOS regulations are followed. If you are unsure how you should be logging your activity, or have questions about more complicated regulations like split breaks and personal conveyance, reach out to your driver manager. If we get violations, you could be put out of service, get hefty fines, and our CSA scores take a hit. Customers look at these things when considering which companies to work for.
  • Communication: This is very important. If you’re running behind, let your driver manager know so we can alert the customer/broker. If your load doesn’t match your dispatch, communicate that. If you’re overweight, broken down, having trouble with the truck, can’t get out at the expected time, or any other issue that will result in a customer failure, communicate. Customers are understanding; they all know that things happen on the road and they are forgiving as long as we let them know what’s going on and keep them in the loop.

Marvin Keller is looking forward to a prosperous 2025 with a focus on growth, performance improvement, and the employee accountability that is necessary to succeed. Always reach out to your driver manager if you want help with improving performance and providing great service to our customers. We are committed to being the fleet of choice for all our customers.

Categories
Referral

Winter Referral Campaign Winner!

The excitement of our Winter Referral Campaign has wrapped up, and we’ve got some thrilling results! Our first-place winner is Jordan Kale!

But that’s not all – there was a two-way tie for second place. Cody Huffman & Brian Doughty!

Congratulations to our winners! Thank you all for participating. Stay tuned for the next referral – you won’t want to miss it!

Categories
Performance Recognition

MK Elites – Q4 2024

We would like to present the MK Elites for October to December 2024! Congratulations to the following drivers! Your dedication to prioritizing safety and upholding these high standards is deeply valued.

  • Terry Branham
  • Jessica Branham
  • Dave Bruchman
  • Junrey Montejo

The Pro-Formance Scorecard is designed to evaluate your driving skills based on 12 different risk factors. Breaking down your performance into specific categories helps you identify the areas you need to improve. These factors are divided into these sub-categories: Safety, Compliance, and Performance, each rated out of 100. The goal is to score green in all three categories to achieve MK Elite Status!

A driver can earn 1,000 Pro-Points for each green score in Safety, Compliance, Performance, and MK Elite (green in all three categories). This means you can get up to 4,000 Pro-Points!

You can find the Safety Scorecard in the Resource Library.

Keep up the great work and strive to improve your driving performance! We’re here to help in any way we can!

Categories
Announcement & Hot Topics Industry News

Freight in 2025: Light at the End of the Freight Recession Tunnel

While experts don’t believe the freight market will jump dramatically early this year, all signs indicate that we’ve reached the bottom of the recession and that the market will see a gradual upturn this year.

In the beginning of January, the Outbound Tender Reject Index (OTRI) hit the highest levels since 2022. The OTRI, a statistic that simply measures the number of offered loads that carriers are declining, is considered one of the most accurate indicators of the freight market. For example, in January of 2024, the reject index hit around 1.5%. Carriers were only rejecting that much of what they were offered. This month, it reached over 10%, a dramatic increase. In addition to this, spot rates have increased an additional 10% since 2023. There are a number of factors contributing to this recovery.

  • Warehouse inventories are finally decreasing from the pandemic-era glut.
  • Capacity is leaving the market. Carriers popped up all over the place in 2020-2021 to cover the increase in freight during the pandemic. But due to the unusually long freight recession, many carriers without financial resiliency having exited the market. The fewer carriers competing for freight, the more freight there is for those still in the market.
  • Economic optimism. The expected policies of the incoming administration have created optimism in the markets and increased consumer confidence and spending.
  • Due to a number of economic and geopolitical concerns, ocean container rates have been steadily increasing. These issues involve uncertainty about potential new tariffs, rerouting vessels to stay out of the Red Sea where many ships have been attacked by terrorists, and concerns of potential port worker strikes. All this volatility has driven rates upward. Long-term ocean container rates are generally negotiated at the beginning of the year, so rates will stabilize, but only time will tell in which direction they will go.

It’s still very early in the year to have a good idea how much improvement will happen in 2025, but analysts expect slow gains of possibly 3% in contract freight in 2025 with gains picking up speed after this year. While they are not as optimistic as before about a robust recovery, they are confident of these smaller increases. Marvin Keller has been through worse, like during the Great Recession of 2008, and is much more resilient now. Rates are already going up this year and we’re gaining new customers. Things are looking up for the freight market and Marvin Keller in 2025.

Transport Topics, https://www.ttnews.com/

Freight Waves, https://www.freightwaves.com/