The Grumpy Pete

The guys at the Mini Chrome Shop did a great job building a 1/64th replicate of the 379x Peterbilt.

It’s no coincidence that the winners of the last 3 ATA Safety Manager of the Year Awards are FleetRisk Advisors clients – Dupre 2011, Maverick 2010 and Roehl 2009. Not only are they more profitable and safer these days, they are being recognized for their innovation, leadership and results by their peers.

At the annual 2011 Awards Dinner at the ATA Safety Management Conference in Albuquerque NM, Al Lacombe from Dupre Logistics was given the prestigious ATA Safety Manager of the Year award. This award is the highest honor given at the national level to a safety professional in the transportation industry whose professional qualifications, safety programs, and achievements are deemed most outstanding among their peers.

In addition, two FleetRisk clients (Dupre Logistics and Roehl) have received the ATA Presidents Trophy – the highest safety award given to motor carriers in the United States.

Benoit Gagne and his trusty team of organizers did another wonderful job in hosting this year’s annual truck races and show in St Joseph de Beauce. The weather played a role in many ways, first there was the after effects of Hurricane Irene which forced high flood waters to close many downtown camping grounds, and second intermittent rain caused stoppages in the racing until the rain cleared and track dried. The main-street parade was simply amazing with the 2-mile parade drive lined with thousands of trucking people and fans. Trucking is a valued profession in Canada and particularly in Quebec – the rest of the world should take note and learn some lessons in how to recruit young people to the profession and keep them there.

Brian Forst from NH did especially well this year with his 379 Pete highly-tuned by local CAT engine expert Doug Burdick from Pittsfield NH. Doug placed well in both loaded and bob-tail divisions.

Despite being a poorly attended overall event, the show and shine part of the weekends festivities resulted in a second place for TGP. There’s always stiff competition no matter how many trucks show up, and the dedication shown by fellow truckers never ceases to impress me. First prize went to PHV Truckings rebuilt green W900 called “Got Cleavage” – if you’ve seen the girls on the hood you’ll know why. Paul has done a great job with his rebuild and will be a tough competitor this summer. Chris Davenport from C A Davenport was there with 3 of his spectacular fleet and team of dedicated drivers. Great job Chris and thanks for being such a great advocate for our industry.

See you all at The Buck in PA.

Mike Bradford definitely does not suffer from vertigo – take a look at his picture from the tower crane at Berube’s.

As a driver who’s covered almost 2 million miles using nothing but the sun, moon and stars to navigate in Australia, having the latest mobile computing platform from Qualcomm is quite a revelation. The MCP200 (MCP stands for mobile computing platform) transforms the cab into a mobile operations center and it’s definitely a system no driver should be without in America.

The MCP200 offers multi-mode communications (terrestrial and Wi-Fi) as its standard with satellite as an option, automated satellite GPS vehicle positioning, electronic log books, two-way information delivery for dispatch, weather & traffic information, navigation, color  touch screen display, vehicle performance monitoring, trailer monitoring, tamper-detection alerts, interactive video training, in-cab document scanning for proof of delivery etc & in-cab internet access.

No more getting lost for The Grumpy Pete (like he did recently on the Cross Island Parkway on Long Island)!