Commentary: 3 Ways HDT is Investing in Your Success

It’s all about you.

That’s right. At Heavy Duty Trucking, our editorial team’s main goal is to give you the information you need to help run your business more efficiently, more safely, more profitably.

We work hard to make sure the information we offer is the best that it can be. We want to make HDT your indispensable, trustworthy, go-to source for the latest online news, best how-to articles, most informative test drives, best webinars, most useful events, and in-depth analysis and insight to help you make sense of the fast-changing trends and technologies in our industry.

And we do this with the most experienced, award-winning team of editors in the business covering trucking.

But I also believe we always have to keep striving to do better. That’s why I’m pleased to tell you about three new investments in our editorial product taking effect this month:

1. Behind the Numbers

This new column in our Hotline section replaces the former Economic Watch column, addressing similar topics related to economic indicators, with a bit of a different angle. Evan Lockridge, who has moved on to other opportunities, approached the business and economic news from the perspective of a longtime trucking reporter. In Behind the Numbers, Jeff Kauffman comes at the topic from an economic analyst’s viewpoint. He’ll be explaining what various economic statistics and trends mean to your business as a trucking fleet operator. Why should you care about rail carloads, for instance? Turn to page 24 to find out.

Kauffman has been a recognized authority in trucking, logistics and transportation equipment for almost 30 years. The longtime global head of freight transportation research for Merrill Lynch, he now heads up his own transportation consulting firm, Tahoe Ventures. He’s a frequent contributor on national news outlets such as CNBC and the Wall Street Journal and a speaker at trucking industry events.

2. Driver Wellness

 The response to HDT Truck Fleet Innovator Sergio Rojas at our Heavy Duty Trucking Exchange event this year was tremendous. Rojas, wellness director for Hirschbach Motor Lines, has a wealth of experience in holistic wellness programs. He’s worked with athletes and celebrities, made regular appearances on TV, and was even named to lead the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition.

But a few years ago, Sergio discovered a newfound passion for working with truck drivers. Every other month in this Driver Wellness column for HDT, he’s going to share his insights on what fleets can do to help their drivers stay healthy and happy, and how that affects driver retention, safety, and other aspects of your business.

3. HDT Editorial Advisory Board

 One of the best ways we can make sure we bring you the information you need is staying close to our readers. Our editors have always worked to maintain relationships with fleets, talking to you at conventions, interviewing you for stories, communicating by email, taking your calls, interacting on social media, visiting your terminals. And we’re going to be doing even more of that.

But now, we’ve launched an HDT Editorial Advisory Board to add some more structure to the process. This board is made up primarily of executives and managers with a variety of areas of responsibility and expertise, representing fleets of a variety of sizes and types. They’re strong thinkers, active within the trucking community, with great communication skills, who aren’t afraid to tell us what they think, both good and bad. 

This advisory group will help us shape HDT’s editorial content. Members will be a regular sounding board for HDT’s editors, and help us keep our finger on what’s really important to our readers. And you’ll sometimes hear their voices as part of our editorial content as well, with guest columns, interviews, and more.

You can see who’s on the Editorial Advisory Board on page 6. We’ll be rotating the board out every couple of years, so if you’d like to participate on the board in the future, let me know!