Hogan’s Eckhoff Named to America’s Road Team

 

Stover, MO (June 5, 2007) --  Steve Eckhoff, a Hogan Dedicated Services driver for six years, was one of a group of 16 elite drivers chosen to serve on the American Trucking Association’s (ATA) America’s Road Team.

While in past years, the team has been limited to 12 members, this year the ATA was so impressed by the finalists, the team was expanded. The 2007-08 team has a combined 366 years of experience and 30.5 million accident-free miles. They were chosen from a group of 35 finalists in a selection process that includes interviews and a review of candidates’ safety knowledge and community service.

            “I can compare the feeling of being named to this team right up there with the births of my kids and grandkids,” says Eckhoff.  “When the folks at Hogan told me they wanted to nominate me, I never dreamed I would make the team.  I was just so flattered by Hogan’s faith in me and their desire to put my name on the nomination – but to make the team is really indescribable.”

            The group of drivers chosen to serve on America’s Road Team every two years take their mission very seriously, and consider it an honor to have been chosen to represent their profession to the four-wheeler world.

            “Certainly, I don’t take it lightly at all,” says Eckhoff.  “The team has an important mission and I’m more than proud to be part of it.”

With the support of the ATA, sponsor Volvo and their individual trucking companies, each member of America’s Road Team devotes as much as five days a month to team activities. They hit the road with other captains for ATA programs such as Share the Road, which educates the public about highway logistics like big rigs’ blind spots. Individually, they pound the pavement in local communities, visiting Chamber of Commerce meetings, church groups and classrooms.

“We’re very proud that Steve was chosen for the team.  Hogan couldn’t be more pleased with his service and his commitment to safety,” says Mark Wyman, Director of Recruiting at Hogan.  “I wish we had a hundred more just like him.”

Eckhoff returns the sentiment to Hogan.  “They’ve treated me so well, been so supportive,” he says.  “I have a great run and the company shares my focus on safe driving.”

In April of 2005 the Commercial Carriers Journal named Hogan as its “Innovator of the Year” for their proactive safety programs. Hogan enjoys an outstanding safety record by constantly evaluating new safety methods and continually training drivers in the most recent safety techniques. The company was also the 2002 Grand Prize Winner of the Truckload Carrier’s Association safety contest.

Besides having a hand in safety education, one of the team’s most important tasks is to promote a positive image of truck drivers to a public that sometimes clings to out-of-date or unfair stereotypes.

            “We’re just like everybody else in America; we have families, we work hard, we play hard,” he says.

Owner operators or company drivers looking for new opportunities with a safety-oriented company should  call Hogan at 800-444-6042 or visit www.hogan1.com.