Hogan Transports’ hands-on approach to fatigue and other safety challenges earns the
St. Louis-based truckload carrier recognition as CCJ’s first Innovator of the Year.

In the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 23, Jim Lager ordered two drivers to park their trucks and rest. Carriers shut down drivers all the time when they bump against hours-of-service restrictions. These two drivers, however, were perfectly legal under the hours rules. In fact, most of the drivers Lager has grounded in the past four years were operating well within the federal safety regulations.

Lager is fatigue supervisor for St. Louis-based Hogan Transports, which operates about 1,000 trucks throughout its truckload and dedicated businesses. Each night, Lager monitors 200 or more drivers – 239 were driving on the night of Feb. 22-23 – who drive between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Based on information drivers provide to him nightly in phone calls and voice mails, his own verification of their status through satellite tracking and even reviews of messages between the driver and dispatch, Lager identifies drivers who might need special attention.

The position of fatigue supervisor was the product of Hogan’s executive-level attention to safety and loss control, including a lengthy management safety committee meeting held every month. CCJ recognized Hogan Transports as an innovator in June 2004 for its simple yet unusual approach to fatigue management and for the management safety committee that produced the idea. We spotlight Hogan once again as the most innovative among the carriers profiled in 2004.

Companywide commitment
If your picture of an innovator is an upstart or new kid on the block, Hogan Transports isn’t it. The carrier has operated in St. Louis since President David Hogan’s grandfather launched it in 1918. For decades, the company focused strictly on local drayage. By the 1970s, it had broadened its scope to regional operations. And by the late 1980s, Hogan Transports was operating nationwide truckload service. The company now is in its third generation. David Hogan has worked in the business for 26 years and has been president for 21.

The idea for the management safety committee came about five years ago, Hogan says. “Like most carriers, we had the safety department driving safety.” While that may seem obvious, the problem with this approach, Hogan says, is that safety can become compartmentalized and underappreciated by other departments that must be involved in promoting it. “We needed a way to help drive the process throughout the company.” Today, Tom Lansing, vice president of safety and driver services, calls the management safety committee “the key to the whole safety program.”

On the last Thursday of each month, a group of about a dozen people meet for several hours to analyze Hogan Transports’ safety performance. The committee includes Hogan, Lansing, the chief financial officer, vice presidents and leaders of various operating departments, senior safety officials and representatives of Lockton, the carrier’s risk management consultants. The point is to draw safety and operations together so that each understands the needs of the other. “You have to have good dialogue among the departments,” Hogan says.