Q&A: How Driver Relationships Drive Safety at Southern Freight Services
Kelsey Wolfe Photo: Jim Park
">Kelsey Wolfe Photo: Jim Park
">Kelsey Wolfe's career took a 90-degree turn when her father started a trucking company and asked her to help out in the office. Her take-charge attitude has helped the fleet maintain an exemplary safety record and enviable culture of safety and driver engagement.
Wolfe, Southern Freight Services' director of safety, human resources and recruiting, is Heavy Duty Trucking's pick for its 2016 Safety & Compliance Award. Her father, a veteran of the trucking industry, started the Morristown, Tenn.-based SFS in 2012. Wolfe was ready to return to school to finish her nursing degree at the time, but she soon took command of some of the 48-truck fleet's most important back-office aspects, managing safety programs and driver recruiting and retention.
She implemented drug testing programs, inspection protocols and electronic logs, and last year saw the fleet's crash frequency drop from 1.61 to 0.89. But while her dedication to her craft is evident in the fleet's performance, she believes it is driver relationships that are key to the company's success.
HDT: First off, congratulations on the HDT Safety & Compliance Award. How important is this sort of recognition?
Wolfe: Honestly, I really didn't expect that call to begin with, but I definitely didn't expect that to happen. I think the fleet, from the feedback, they're proud.
I know all of the drivers and I've got their phone numbers memorized and I've hired all of them [except] three I didn't hire, they were here before I got here. Two were at my high school graduation. So they're very excited because I'm the one with the least experience in the building.
I was going to return to school to finish nursing, and Dad said, “Well you've got a month until school, so just come here and you can help answer phones and whatnot.” And other ...Read the rest of this story