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 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.

He knew he hadn’t had any incidents, so he figured the safety meeting was just routine, and the managers weren’t letting on when he arrived. He still didn’t 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.
 
“I was like, ‘wow,’” said Guarnieri, who has been with MVT for about two years and driving for six. “I was a little nervous because I thought I was in trouble or something, but it ended up being something really good.
 
“I knew about the car reward, but there are so many drivers in the company I didn’t think about it because it looks hard to get to and hard to win. I wasn’t really trying to win it. I was just working and sticking to the basics and just won the car.”
 
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 – 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) – 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’s existence. The next quarterly winner will be announced in August.
 
“We’re all about taking care of the drivers and showing them respect,” Jones said.
 
Guarnieri already had three cars at his Shelbyville, Tenn., home – two muscle cars and a family vehicle – 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.
 
“You could say we both (won it),” he said. “I’m always working so she has to deal with me being gone all the time, so it’s kind of a reward for both of us.”
 
While winning the car might have come as a surprise to Guarnieri, the fact he was in the running for it shouldn’t have been. He’s typically among the fuel efficiency leaders in the Nashville fleet. “I think I’m doing OK,” he said modestly.

His secret to getting good gas mileage is as simple as paying attention and knowing your route.
 
“It depends on where you’re going, where you’re driving, the roads,” he said. “If you’re 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’s kind of hard for someone who just drives everywhere. If you stick to the basics you should get some good mpg in any terrain.
 
“Some people have an advantage over others where they’ll be driving one road all the time. They’re always going to get the best mileage. I drive (Interstate) 65 all the time. There’s a big uphill, but there’s a really long downhill, so I could leave my foot off the gas pedal for like three or four minutes. You’re gaining mpg off just coasting.”
 
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.
 
It had a big hiring month in April, bringing on 150 new drivers. Even at the height of the coronavirus crisis, it didn’t furlough any drivers and shifted several routes to keep the drivers moving.
 
Obviously, fuel economy and green business is important to MVT.
 
Jones’ 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.
 
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.
 
“People for years were just accepting of the fact trucks got four miles to the gallon,” Jones said. “When I first started this business, the truck I used to drive I could get five and a half out of them and we’ve 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.”
 
Nick Guarnieri, who has been with MVT two years, gets it.
 
“It’s 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,” he said. “Nine mpg on truck doesn’t sound like a lot because cars get like 40, but we’re hauling the heaviest stuff so if you get the most out of your truck you can do something to the environment.
 
“If all the trucks were getting good mpg on the highway, the environment would be a little different than it is now.”

Al Muskewitz is the Editor of Wright Media. He can be reached at musky@wrightmediacorp.com

Click here for available truck driver jobs with Mesilla Valley Transportation.