Vanguard Services in the driver's seat
Company leases workers to meet rising demand in logistics industry
By James Harper / Star correspondent
Posted: May 9, 2008
As the nation's third-largest driver-leasing company, Vanguard Services has added customers, opened an office in Nashville, Tenn., and launched a driver-on-demand service to meet that need, said Scott Sigman, the Indianapolis-based company's director of business development.
Vanguard's driver work force now totals more than 1,100 men and women at its Far-Northside headquarters and four regional locations that also include Dallas; Allentown, Pa.; and Greenville, S.C.
"We provide the detailed work of recruiting and certifying professional drivers," enabling customers to focus on their core revenue- generating business areas, said Jim Malarney, Vanguard's
president.
"From the beginning, we have tried to instill two basic core values in our work force -- safety and customer satisfaction -- and these values have served us well in building a long-tenured, successful business ," he said.
Among Vanguard's secrets of success in filling this niche, Malarney said, are its stringent employment standards -- only one of eight drivers interviewed is hired -- and its low turnover, which has allowed
it to nurture decades-long relationships with customers such as Bridgestone-Firestone, Pepperidge Farms and General Electric.
John Rigel, 44, who has been driving for 18 years including the past two for Vanguard, appreciates the shorter trips to neighboring states like Ohio and Illinois, which allow him to spend more time at home with his wife and seven children.
"It's stable. They've been fair with me," said Rigel, an Acton resident. "I don't have to drive constantly . . . so I get to watch my kids grow up."
Bulk-distribution warehousing centers in Indianapolis, Plainfield, Whitestown, Mount Comfort and elsewhere have helped with driver-recruitment efforts, Vanguard's Sigman said, because it allows
for those shorter regional trips, rather than long cross-country routes.
Experienced drivers for Vanguard can earn annual incomes of $30,000 to $80,000, Sigman said. However, the TDL industry still faces a driver shortage, he added.
"There is a shortage of drivers," agreed Clayton Boyce, spokesman for the American Trucking Associations, though he couldn't give a specific number. He said that shortage has eased, however,
because of to a steady decline in freight since January 2007.
One solution to the driver shortage has been an effort by companies such as Vanguard to work with local educators to get the word out to 18- to 21-year-olds about employment opportunities. The Supply Chain
Orientation and Research Education pilot program encourages interest in TDL and manufacturing.
"The ultimate goal is to prepare them for college-level courses that will lead to future careers," University of Indianapolis professor Leslie Gardner said of students in the SCORE
program. That includes on-campus classes for high school seniors to help them earn college-level credit toward a TDL-related degree, she said.
Jim Hopkins, president and chief executive of Laibe Corp., an Indianapolis well-drilling company, has worked with Vanguard since 2005.
"Originally our manufacturing personnel were handling customer deliveries, and that consumed too much production time while they were on the road," Hopkins said. "Vanguard is now handling all of
our deliveries. They are extremely reliable and very responsive."
Greenwood resident Mel Lawson, 74, is semi-retired now, but said he has driven for 49 years -- 34 of them for Vanguard.
Vanguard is "the best company I've worked with," he said Wednesday, as he prepared to team up with Rigel to drive two well-drilling trucks from the parking lot at Laibe to Baltimore for shipment overseas.
"(They) are just good people. It's an overall good working relationship between the drivers and the company."
My good friend and fellow freightdawg, Scott Sigman, works for Vanguard Services in Indianapolis. Vanguard is in the business of driver leasing to logistics companies who need to flex their workforce to meet demand.
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