Ace Transportation & Dynasty Transportation
Lafayette, La.

Spearheaded consortium of trucking companies to obtain state funding for a driver training simulator they believe will improve safety and retention.

In September 2000, Louisiana trucking executive Bob Lagneaux was nominated for the state’s Workforce Investment Board (WIB), which helps individuals and companies access information and services to increase employment.

At one of his first WIB meetings, Lagneaux learned of the Incumbent Worker Training Program from the Louisiana Department of Labor, a grant program that helps businesses train their current workers with assistance from local colleges and other training providers.

Lagneaux is chief financial officer and vice president of administration for Lafayette-based affiliated carriers Ace Transportation and Dynasty Transportation, as well as Total Transportation Services, which serves as an administrative services company for the two carriers. Together, Ace and Dynasty operate about 1,900 trucks with more than 90 terminals, primarily in Louisiana and Texas.

Immediately after returning to his office from the WIB meeting, Lagneaux called Richard Yandle, risk manager for Total Transportation Services. Lagneaux wanted to obtain an incumbent worker grant to provide the company’s drivers, who are all owner-operators, with advanced simulation training. “We felt that the truck driving simulator was the only way to provide drivers with real-life types of situations to teach them the accident avoidance techniques they needed,” Yandle says.

To apply for the grant, Yandle contacted officials at the state Department of Labor and the Louisiana Technical College (LTC) in Lafayette, a school that offers commercial driver training.