The Virginia Trucking Association presented its 2016 Safety Awards on May 12 during its Annual VTA Safety Management Conference, held at the Renaissance Portsmouth-Norfolk Waterfront Hotel in Portsmouth.
The safety awards are generously sponsored by Nansemond Insurance Agency of Suffolk.
Intertrans Carrier Company of Gordonsville, VA was presented the 2016 Grand Trophy for Fleet Safety in Virginia. This award is presented to the company that was judged to have had the state’s most effective motor carrier safety program during 2015. Intertrans Carrier Company won the award in their division with an accident frequency rate of .29. In 2015, their Virginia-based drivers worked a total of 176,800 hours with no fatalities.
Russell Bryant of Amelia Court House, VA, and a driver for J.R.Tharpe Trucking Company, Inc. in Rice, VA was named the 2016 Virginia Truck Driver of the Year. Russell has been a professional truck driver for over 41 years and had driven over 5.7 million miles without an accident. Company management describes him as “an exceptional truck driver, who puts everything he has into his job.”
David Newman of Bealeton, VA and President of J.D. Newman, Inc. out of Elkwood, VA was named the 2016 Virginia Truck Safety Professional of the Year. In 2015, his company traveled over 2.8 million miles with accident ratio of 0. He has led his company to achieve an outstanding level of safety performance.
Fleet Safety Awards were presented to the following companies that had the lowest 2015 Virginia accident frequency rate in their class of competition:
- Englander Transportation, Inc. – Roanoke, VA
- Intertrans Carrier Company – Gordonsville, VA
- J.D. Newman, Inc. – Elkwood, VA
- Paxton Van Lines – Springfield, VA
- Southeastern Freight Lines – Lexington, SC
Improvement Awards for the fleets which had the greatest percentage of improvement in their accident frequency over the previous contest year were won by J.D. Newman, Inc., Elkwood, VA; Englander Transportation Inc, Roanoke, VA; and FedEx Freight, Harrison, AR.
Fleet Safety Certificates were awarded to the following companies who had an improved safety record over the previous year:
- Englander Transportation Inc. – Roanoke, VA
- FedEx Freight – Harrison, AR
- Fleetmaster Express, Inc. – Roanoke, VA
- Hilldrup Moving & Storage – Stafford, VA
- Houff Transfer, Inc. – Weyers Cave, VA
- Howell’s Motor Freight – Roanoke, VA
- Intertrans Carrier Company – Gordonsville, VA
- J.D. Newman, Inc. – Bealeton, VA
- Pepsi Cola Bottling Co of Virginia – Weyers Cave, VA