By Chris Coleman
Sweat drips off your nose as you wearily survey the inside of your trailer. Inside, a literal beach of sand (with no umbrella drink) awaits you. Or maybe once you’re inside, that fifteenth nail head breaks off just like the other fourteen did before it. Infuriating.
For me, one of my worst trailers ever was scraping bushels and bushels of rotting and moldy soybeans out of a hopper-bottom. Do you, like me, find yourself asking why? Why must I sweep out trailers?
3 Ways Sweeping Affects You
Prevent Trailer Rejection – Rejection happens most often with a food-grade load. The trailer is combed over to ensure no foreign debris could get into the packaging or food. Very often, these shippers are in difficult regions to find loads out of. You’ve got one chance to get a load out of there.
But when you get stuck with a chronically neglected trailer, it is nearly impossible to get it clean enough for a picky shipper. And that means a delay, sometimes for many hours, before you can get another load out of that remote place.
Protect Cargo – Beyond just the obvious nail ripping a hole in something or sand ground into a tire sidewall, the loss of customer confidence can be incalculable.
Pride of Ownership – As members of an ESOP, every dollar that’s spent on unnecessary miles, hours, claims, and repairs comes straight out of our pockets. Folks, this isn’t just a clever marketing gimmick. We, as Nussbaum employees, own actual stock in the future of our company. That stock’s value can be directly affected by how we all manage our assets and resources.
Why Should I Enter the Summer Sweepstakes?
I know each driver is already implicitly paid through mileage and activity pay to do every aspect of their job here at Nussbaum. We are all trusting the next driver to care for our equipment as much as we do. However, the recent rash of dropped dirty empties, rejected trailers, and broken promises is frustrating for all.
Here’s my pitch: enter the Clean Trailer Summer Sweepstakes.
Is it about fun? Maybe a little. Most people like to win money.
However, the real purpose is for each driver who does their job to have the opportunity to be counted. Literally. Every. Single. Time they sweep a trailer. We need data to help us figure out the feasibility of tracking and verifying thousands of potential sweep (and other asset management) events per year. All to decide how to best encourage the result we all want – clean, safe, and productive trailers.
So, regardless of whether it’s a prize or silent duty that is motivating you, please let us know you care enough to endure the heat, snap a few pictures, and send a properly formatted submission to sweepstakes@nussbaum.com. Learn how to submit by clicking here.
Thank you and happy sweeping!
