Horizon Transport Drivers’ Appreciation Draws Big Crowd – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
ELKHART, Ind. – Approximately 1,000 people—800-900 of whom were drivers for Horizon Transport showed up at the RV/MH Hall of Fame Event Center Saturday, June 1st for Horizon’s annual Driver’s Appreciation Day.
As the drivers arrived, they were loaded down with logo items and a swag bag. The morning was for mingling, visiting vendors, playing corn hole or visiting the museum. There were also learning sessions in the theatre—one on taxes by H&R Block and another on tips for running their business by Horizon’s Executive Vice President Andy Cripe and Safety Instructor Randy Torrence.
Topics included finances—including having a maintenance reserve set aside. Cripe suggested instead of using a high-interest credit card, using a much lower interest line of credit. He suggested managing their time, including planning vacations and preventative maintenance around slower freight cycles. Cripe told the drivers to realize that they are their brand and reputation is everything on all levels, and to be willing to embrace change and technology.
Cripe told them, “Any change we do is because we think it’ll be better for you. I can’t think of a time when helping you isn’t helping us so give us the benefit of the doubt.”
There were plenty of door prizes to be given away but the focus was the 2024 Ford F350 truck that every driver RV Business spoke to claimed was going to be theirs. Including Mark Aldrich, who said he was driving for Horizon for 13 years. He said he liked the freedom working for them allows and added, “Hopefully it’ll be in that truck!”
But not if Linda McMahon and Tonya Matthews have anything to say about it—the two women each were claiming it was “their truck” as they checked it out. Linda’s been driving for Horizon for eight years and said she liked “everything” about driving for them. It’s the only place she’s driven for and said, “If it works, why change? I love Horizon—I’m one of their biggest fans. They’re an all-around good company.”
Tonya’s been driving for Horizon for 3 years and 13 years as a driver all together. When asked what made Horizon different, she said, “How they treat their drivers—just look at this—it doesn’t get much better than this.”
Edmond Gross Junior and Charles Holt were also hoping to win that truck. Holt said he earned 263 entries and Gross earned 268. Holt explained they received a ticket for every load delivered and when they hit 40 loads they receive an extra 40 tickets.
Holt said he appreciated Horizon for the “reloads”—getting a load on the way back was “pretty common and means making more money,” he said.
Jasmine Brents has been driving for Horizon for almost 5 years and said she liked the “freedom—being on the road, seeing the sites. I never realized how much I like driving! Horizon is a good company. I’ve been with some that were so-so,” she said, adding that they take care of their people.
Lunch was catered by Nelson’s and after lunch they recognized drivers who’ve achieved one million miles and President Rob Jackson said, “We have our first two-million-mile driver—the first time in our company’s history.”
The two-million-mile driver was Mark Hall.
Hall of Fame winners were announced as well—there were 50 drivers entered into their Hall of Fame, which means they had 1,000 deliveries and/or drove one million miles. And the lucky winner of the truck was Loyd Drinkhorn, Jr.
