As part of our ongoing commitment to give our freight agents a rewarding, results-driven environment in which they can thrive, we launched a new steering committee initiative late last year.
Comprised of four agents—Bill Hagan, Ecuador; Paige McGregor and Tom VanCompernolle, Kansas City; Lindy Knapp, Arizona—the Tallgrass Freight steering committee meets quarterly with company leadership to discuss feedback and opportunities for improvement.
And here’s the kicker: those meetings aren’t just talk. We also build in time to make a plan to implement the feedback so that freight agents can see their ideas in action. It helps keep our leadership team accountable, too, so that we know we’re doing everything we can to make Tallgrass Freight the best place to be a freight agent.
Our steering committee recently held its first quarter meeting. Discussion included feedback on our new Decision Engine, which we recently released to our freight agents for internal use and feedback. Thanks to the steering committee, we’ve already collected input that we’re using to improve the Decision Engine, including adding a quick quote button for non-customer quotes, as well as enabling faster navigation throughout the platform.
The committee also compiled topic suggestions for Tallgrass Freight’s continuing education series, including a truckload market update and DAT pointers.
Additionally, committee members relayed feedback regarding the implementation of several performance metrics to help freight agents better track their own success, as well as that of their customers. Considerations underway include month-over-month and year-over-year growth or decline, as well as showing positive or negative growth in customer margins. There’s also an interest in monthly recognition, whether it’s celebrating new customer growth or freight agents with the highest monthly improvement.
And thanks to feedback collected by the committee, we’re currently evaluating a change to the steering committee itself. Rather than sticking with the same steering committee members for a specified term, there’s interest in rotating committee members for each quarterly meeting so that we can ensure the highest amount of participation and input possible.
Now comes the fun part—putting these ideas into action! We mentioned it earlier, but that’s such an important part of our steering committee. We don’t simply want to collect all of these great ideas and then leave the notes in a pile to collect dust. Instead, we want to make an action plan so that we can build an even better business—and show our freight agents just how much we value their input, participation and leadership.
We’ll host another steering committee meeting in the coming weeks, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted on the outcome. If, in the meantime, you’re interested in starting a new chapter with a company that truly values your talents and expertise, we’d love to talk with you about becoming a Tallgrass Freight agent.
