{"id":951,"date":"2020-06-08T15:47:31","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T15:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/?p=951"},"modified":"2020-06-08T15:47:32","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T15:47:32","slug":"guarnieri-named-mvts-quarterly-mpg-mvp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/other-news\/2020\/06\/08\/guarnieri-named-mvts-quarterly-mpg-mvp\/951\/","title":{"rendered":"Guarnieri Named MVT’s Quarterly MPG MVP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Veteran driver rewarded with new car for being Mesilla Valley’s fleet-wide fuel efficiency leader for the quarter<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

By Al Muskewitz
<\/strong> 
Nick Guarnieri was a little worried when his managers at Mesilla Valley Transportation called him back to their Nashville terminal for what he thought was a safety meeting last week, but, boy, was he in for a surprise when he got there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

He knew he hadn\u2019t had any incidents, so he figured the safety meeting was just routine, and the managers weren\u2019t letting on when he arrived. He still didn\u2019t have any idea what was to come even when company president and CEO Royal Jones asked him why they summoned him during the video conference.
 
You could have knocked him over with a feather, though, with what happened next.
 
Jones awarded the 29-year-old driver with the keys to a 2020 Nissan Versa as the MVT driver with the best fuel efficiency for the second quarter ending in May.
 
\u201cI was like, \u2018wow,\u2019\u201d said Guarnieri, who has been with MVT for about two years and driving for six. \u201cI was a little nervous because I thought I was in trouble or something, but it ended up being something really good.
 
\u201cI knew about the car reward, but there are so many drivers in the company I didn\u2019t think about it because it looks hard to get to and hard to win. I wasn\u2019t really trying to win it. I was just working and sticking to the basics and just won the car.\u201d
 
Guarnieri got 9.42 mpg driving 36,461 miles on his regional\/dedicated route up I-65 from LaVergne, Tenn., to Cincinnati, more than 150 percent better than the national average for the big rigs for a comparative savings to the company of more than $5,500.
 
He might not have actually had the lowest fuel efficiency in the company in the quarter, but the four drivers ahead of him \u2013 Roberto Sandoval (10.58 mpg over 54,679 miles), Melvin Fejeran (9.73\/60,013), Billy Chastain (9.45\/60,013) and Isaias Almaraz (9.44\/45,687) \u2013 already have won vehicles in the program making Guarnieri the top eligible driver for the prize.
 
Sandoval, a 20-year MVT veteran, remains the leader for the yearly $25,000 fuel efficiency bonus that will be awarded in November; he has won that twice previously. The company has awarded 30 cars and 28 motorcycles in the bonus program\u2019s existence. The next quarterly winner will be announced in August.
 
\u201cWe\u2019re all about taking care of the drivers and showing them respect,\u201d Jones said.
 
Guarnieri already had three cars at his Shelbyville, Tenn., home \u2013 two muscle cars and a family vehicle \u2013 and was thinking about getting a Hummer H1. The Versa (in MVT blue, of course), which gets a fuel-conscious 39 mpg on the highway, will be a big help for the errands his wife needs to run while Nick is on the road.
 
\u201cYou could say we both (won it),\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m always working so she has to deal with me being gone all the time, so it\u2019s kind of a reward for both of us.\u201d
 
While winning the car might have come as a surprise to Guarnieri, the fact he was in the running for it shouldn\u2019t have been. He\u2019s typically among the fuel efficiency leaders in the Nashville fleet. \u201cI think I\u2019m doing OK,\u201d he said modestly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Mesilla Valley driver Nick Guarnieri checks out the new car he won for being the company’s fuel efficiency leader for the quarter as MVT marketing executive Hector Sanchez looks on. (Top photo) Guarnieri looks on excited as company president and CEO Royal Jones makes the announcement via video chat. (Photos by Shane Jackson)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

His secret to getting good gas mileage is as simple as paying attention and knowing your route.
\u00a0
\u201cIt depends on where you\u2019re going, where you\u2019re driving, the roads,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re going the same road over and over, just study the road and look how the mountains and hills are. You can learn from that and start applying less on the gas pedal and doing more coasting on the hills. It\u2019s kind of hard for someone who just drives everywhere. If you stick to the basics you should get some good mpg in any terrain.
\u00a0
\u201cSome people have an advantage over others where they\u2019ll be driving one road all the time. They\u2019re always going to get the best mileage. I drive (Interstate) 65 all the time. There\u2019s a big uphill, but there\u2019s a really long downhill, so I could leave my foot off the gas pedal for like three or four minutes. You\u2019re gaining mpg off just coasting.\u201d
\u00a0
With corporate offices in Las Cruces, N.M., operations and recruiting centers in El Paso, Texas, and terminals in Colorado, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas, MVT is one of the largest 100-percent dry van carriers in the country with 1,600 trucks.
\u00a0
It had a big hiring month in April, bringing on 150 new drivers. Even at the height of the coronavirus crisis, it didn\u2019t furlough any drivers and shifted several routes to keep the drivers moving.
\u00a0
Obviously, fuel economy and green business is important to MVT.
\u00a0
Jones\u2019 passion is racing and he has brought the engineering and fuel-saving concepts in that sport to the trucking industry. The company takes advantage of the newest technologies to remain as efficient and green as possible and even has its own division to help other companies meet their aerodynamics challenges. The greener they are for the environment, the green they are on the bottom line.
\u00a0
The company average, discounting local drivers or owner operators, swings about 9 mpg, equating to an annual savings of about $22 million against the industry average. Just the difference between 8 and 9 mpg saves about $7 million.
\u00a0
\u201cPeople for years were just accepting of the fact trucks got four miles to the gallon,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWhen I first started this business, the truck I used to drive I could get five and a half out of them and we\u2019ve just taken continued down that path and taken fuel to another level and understanding. Fuel mileage is nothing more than the lack of need for horsepower to propel this object on flat level ground from A to B.\u201d
\u00a0
Nick Guarnieri, who has been with MVT two years, gets it.
\u00a0
\u201cIt\u2019s important because trucks do let out a lot of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and getting the most mpg out of your truck can help the environment,\u201d he said. \u201cNine mpg on truck doesn\u2019t sound like a lot because cars get like 40, but we\u2019re hauling the heaviest stuff so if you get the most out of your truck you can do something to the environment.
\u00a0
\u201cIf all the trucks were getting good mpg on the highway, the environment would be a little different than it is now.\u201d

Al Muskewitz is the Editor of Wright Media. He can be reached at <\/em>musky@wrightmediacorp.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here for available truck driver jobs with Mesilla Valley Transportation.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veteran driver rewarded with new car for being Mesilla Valley’s fleet-wide fuel efficiency leader for the quarter By Al Muskewitz Nick Guarnieri was a little worried when his managers at Mesilla Valley Transportation called him back…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,7],"tags":[159,259,258],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":966,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions\/966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}