It's a Team's Life
Expedite Expo 2015
Landstar- Don Van de Laar, Bob Bailey, Bob & Linda Caffee
This was our last year to attend the Expo in Wilmington, OH as the Expo is moving to Lexington Center, Kentucky in 2016.
We attended our first Expedite Expo in 2004 in Detroit. We were able to experience the heat, rain, and humidity that the truck stop parking lot endured during the Expo. In 2006 the Expo moved to Wilmington, OH and most of the booths were inside the air-conditioned convention center.
Ten years later the Expedite Expo is once again going to adventure to a new location with much more needed space not only for exhibiters but also for hotel rooms. We wrapped up the 2015 Expedite Expo in grand style.
Some of the highlights of the show for us were the TA/Petro sponsored pre-trip challenge. Several helped with the judging and scoring through the six sessions. We had drivers come through that were just getting into trucking and had never preformed a pre-trip to Dave Mayfield, Mayfield Express who has done this many times. Dave found the most defects and was the top winner. This was the first year of doing the Pre-Trip Challenge and we are thinking of new defects and also better ways to streamline the challenge for 2016.
Some of the pre trip defects were easy to spot, others where tricky, and others required you to really look to find them. As Terry O'Connell mentioned "All of the defects are hidden in plain sight" and he was right. Once people were told were the defects were they surprised they missed them. One of the defects that a few missed was the load bars lying in the back of the truck unsecured. Next year we will try and get Homer Hogg, TA/Petro Technical Training Manager, to perform a pre-trip after everyone has competed to show how to perform a pre trip and show how he found all of the defects.
Henry and Bob talking transmissions
We had four automated transmission workshops at our truck and it appeared Henry Albert, Team Run Smart Pro and Bob had a great time talking. They discussed tricks and tips to fine-tune the driving to get the maximum performance out of their trucks.
We had our truck open to attendees and it felt like several million people went through our truck and also discussed our skirts and trailer tail. We spent a lot of time talking about fuel mileage and aerodynamics and some of our specs.
We also had our drivers walk each morning at 8:00 am and most found this to early in the morning to rise and shine. Thanks to Homer from TA/Petro for walking with us. It was hot and muggy each day but we still had a good time chatting and it was a nice way to start the Expo.
Thanks to CIS for another awesome Casino night we had a great time and the room was over flowing with people that wanted to play and could not get a chair. I thought back to Casino night when it was in one of the smaller workshop rooms and how this event has grown. I hope the Casino night will be held at the new convention center.
We are back to work now and getting some much needed rest after two jam-packed days of Expediter Expo! Thank You to OnTime Media for making this happen.
Bob & Linda Caffee
TeamCaffee
Saint Louis MO
Expediters since January 2005
[email protected]
Expediting isn't just trucking, it's a lifestyle;
Expediting isn't just a lifestyle, it's an adventure;
Expediting isn't just an adventure, it's a job;
Expediting isn't just a job, it's a business.