drivers, to MC Express’s driver recruit- ing and training process. “The retention part is hard,” Mitchell said. “But we kind of went outside the box a couple years ago when there was a severe driver shortage. “I find that it’s easier to take a guy
who thinks he wants to be a truck driv- er and send him to school, get him cer- tified and then train him properly than it is to hire a guy who’s been driving for 25 years and has figured out how to break all the rules and try to get him to conform to what you’re supposed to do. We started doing that.” “We are very selective when it
comes to hiring student drivers,” said Fred Fraser, director of safety. “Less than five percent of the student appli- cants received make it to the point of orientation prior to starting classes at Arkansas State University-Newport. My philosophy is not to waste time by ‘blowing smoke up their tail.’ Tell them the good, the bad and the ugly of being a truck driver. This same philosophy goes for hiring all drivers.” MC Express has partnered with
ASU-Newport for three years. “Our success rate in students completing the course is over 90 percent and, so far, we have zero reportable accidents involv- ing these students since the program started,” Fraser said. After a student completes the
course at ASU, the student is assigned to a trainer at MC Express for at least six weeks. “Our trainers are seasoned veterans that complete a ‘train the trainer’ orientation prior to starting. The biggest part of the trainer job is to recognize teachable moments. My safety department uses this teachable moment philosophy on every driver in the fleet, from the students to the 20-year veterans.” And, Fraser said, even if a driver
decides to leave MC Express, they’ve done a service to the industry by prop- erly training them. “We feel it is our duty that if any driver decides to leave us for greener pastures that they are a better professional when they leave than they were when they came in.”
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The Mitchells Fortunately however, MC Express
has several longtime drivers including 12 who have been with the company 10 consecutive years or longer and even “driver No. 1, Tommy Brewer” who has been with Mitchell since the doors opened 22 years ago.
MDR TO MC Mitchell considers that one of his
greatest professional accomplishments— having owned and run a trucking com- pany for more than two decades. “Trucking is not easy. Trucking is
not for everybody,” Mitchell said. “You really don’t understand the difference in two-cents. You make two-cents, and it was a really good year. You lose two- cents, and you lost a lot of money.” Despite the challenges, Mitchell
always knew he was destined for a career in trucking. After moving to Jonesboro, Ark., from Memphis, Tenn., during his sophomore year of high school, Mitchell began working for his dad at MDR Cartage. “I worked on the dock loading
and unloading freight, and I worked in the shop. My main job was washing the trucks and trailers. I started at the ground and finally worked my way up into dispatch. The rest is history,” he grinned. “I worked for my dad for 10 years.
As a matter of fact that’s how we met. She’s from Ohio. She was working as a traffic manager for a company, and we hauled her freight. We got to be best
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