RVBusiness, September/October 2019

Horizon management is also focused on its efforts to maintain a high level of safety Transport companies arent going to survive 35 years without having intense focus on safety and compliance Schrock related In some ways it has hindered our growth We are very particular in who we hire We screen every driver and research shows that we only hire one out of every 10 applicants because of our higher standards It has become tougher in recent years but even with our standards there are still some people that fall through cracks Despite that I have to say we have been able to maintain the highest standard in the industry As a testament to the professionalism of its drivers Schrock said that Horizon has a Hall of Fame in its office There is a photo of each individual driver and right now we have 60 drivers that have achieved 1 million or more safety miles or made 1000 deliveries I often go down and look at wall and its humbling to see what they have accomplished Technology Compliance Transform Industry Both Schrock and Braun acknowledge that the biggest change over the years in the transport industry has been the advent of technology and its impact on driver safety When I started in 2005 we would hire a driver and give him a six inch ruler a pen and a log book Thats how logs were done said Braun Nowadays the business has morphed into pure digital technology All the logs are done electronically on a smart phone or tablet Its actually made things simpler as the software is fairly straightforward Logging hours of service is just not very complicated Horizon Transport remains family owned and operated The Schrock family seen here at the annual driver appreciation day is focused on making the company a great place to work for its drivers As Schrock noted We have our own IT team and they developed an app that is integrated with the operations system At the end of the day the drivers just hit send and it dumps into our system It not only is more efficient but it has improved on the safety for our drivers In the old days Horizons Driver Hall of Fame now numbers 60 professionals who have either logged one million or more miles or made 1000 deliveries there were instances when they were driving when they shouldnt have Now they know their service hours down to the minute Its truly their bible and has really advanced operations as far as our driver base Without a doubt automation has changed how we do business Its interesting because in many ways tasks are more streamlined while in other ways they are more encumbering Theres a great feel of automation provided by the app Braun added What we attempted to do is allow our drivers the capability to manage their delivery business essentially from a device I think that we actually went a bit further with the technology by making it so user friendly that drivers tell us its very easy to use As Marion has said it does everything but drive the truck It really eliminates what previously were burdens for our drivers because its so simple to use Schrock also related that while technology has become much more prevalent so has government oversight The result is that the average age in the driving pool is now lower than in the past The workforce in general among our driver base has changed he said Years ago the majority of our drivers were retirees Now because of all the rules and regulations and all the logging required our average driver is 51 years old I support a lot of the new compliance because it keeps our drivers safer But theres no doubt it changed our pool of drivers because CDL licenses are required for some of the units The cost of equipment is also higher because when drivers buy a truck they have to outfit it with hitches that can drastically raise the cost The rates have come up but not in accordance to the cost of living and the cost of equipment That said our team continues to stay ahead of the curve We always strive to be the best and maintain the same standards that have distinguished our company for 35 years Horizon Transport 100 N State Rd 19 Wakarusa IN 5748622161