Best Driver Jobs

January 2017

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Cover Story 16 January 2017 BestDriverJOBS www.bestdriverjobs.com safe or as fully alert," he says. Pitt Ohio, a full-service transporta- tion and logistics provider based in Pittsburgh, operates one of the largest less-than-truckload fleets with next-day service in the Atlantic and Midwest re- gions. The company is a past recipient of the CCJ Innovator of the Year award. After speaking to Leana, Fields and Pitt Ohio started working with Jirs Meuris, a doctoral candidate at the Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh. Meuris administered a survey to employees of Pitt Ohio. Participation was voluntary and responses were kept confidential. Employees sent completed surveys directly to the university in sealed envelopes. Ninety-four percent of Pitt Ohio employees, drivers and non-drivers, par- ticipated. Researchers then provided Pitt Ohio management with anonymous results that showed a high percentage of its employees did not have emergency savings. National statistics show nearly half of American consumers would have trouble finding $400 to pay for an emergency. For Pitt Ohio, the survey results showed: • Two-thirds of employees did not have enough savings to cover up to 60 days of expenses dur- ing an injury or illness. • More than half pay regu- lar interest on credit cards. • Thirty-three percent worried about their financial situation. As part of this research project, Pitt Ohio provided researchers a report from its Safetybox software. The de-identified data was used by researchers to correlate financial distress to the safety perfor- mance of drivers. "What they found is that financial worry leads to more distractions, and made drivers 50 percent more likely to have a preventable accident," Fields says. Once the research was complete, management of Pitt Ohio "started talk- ing about reasonable solutions to remedy this," he says. The company decided to start a financial efficacy program that includes emergency savings accounts for employees. To partici- pate, employees can sign up voluntary to make a weekly payroll deduction. The funds are automatically deposited into personal accounts at a local credit union. Pitt Ohio contributes to the fund if employees make payroll deposits for six months without any with- drawals. It also contributes if employees go 12 months with no deductions, he says. The contribution amount is the same for all employees. Out of 2,700 employees, approximately 1,200 are Jim Fields, chief operating officer of Pitt Ohio, helped lead the creation of a financial efficacy program for the com- pany's driving and non-driving employees.

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