CCJ Innovators: USA Truck gives drivers authority to plan, self-dispatch loads

CCJ Innovators profiles carriers and fleets that have found innovative ways to overcome trucking’s challenges. If you know a carrier that has displayed innovation, contact CCJ Editor Jason Cannon at jasoncannon@randallreilly.com or 800-633-5953.

In its first-quarter 2020 investor presentation, USAT Capacity Solutions (CCJ Top 250, No. 60) had a timeline with 2007 to 2016 labeled as “The Lost Decade.”

The report notes that financial results for stockholders were unsatisfactory, but in January 2017, an era of “New Leadership” began that marked a turning point for the Van Buren, Arkansas-based company since it was founded in 1983 and had an initial public offering in 1992.

James Reed became president and chief executive, and in 2018 and 2019, the company was back in black.

Nick Wakefield, vice president of human resources, driver recruiting and retention, joined the company’s USA Truck division in 2018. He describes the culture going into 2020 as one where management empowered people to see problems and bring solutions.

Improving the work experience for drivers was a major focal point. From weekly driver pulse surveys, management found drivers requesting more control over their work-life and home time. USA Truck already got drivers home weekly through regional operations and its dense freight network that reaches from I-35 to the Eastern Seaboard.

Planning loads for the fleet’s 2,000 trucks was a fairly manual process, said Blair Ewell, who joined USA Truck in 2019 as senior vice president of operations. Earlier this year, Ewell and his operations team presented an idea to Reed to improve load planning and driver home time, but it carried risks.