​The 2019 Trailer Safety Week (TSW) went off without a hitch June 2-8,2019. This national awareness campaign, which aims to educate end-users on trailer safety including safe towing practices and maintenance, saw incredible growth in its second year.

​Trailer Safety Week 2019 was a success thanks to onsite event hosts Lane Trailer Mfg. Co. and Midsota Manufacturing, the many TSW Allies and the hard work of the NATM staff.

The week featured two successful events at Lane Trailer Mfg. Co. in Boone, IA and Midsota Manufacturing in Albany, MN on June 7. Attendees included consumers, trailer dealers, government officials, state troopers and DOT representatives. Both events featured U-Haul’s trailer demonstrator, an interactive module wherein a car, towing a trailer on an elevated treadmill track is loaded with weights to show the dangers of improper loading and trailer sway.

Lane Trailer focused its efforts on reaching out to the local university, Iowa State. All trailers used by Iowa State undergo annual DOT inspections done through Lane Trailer. In working with the grounds keeping crew using those trailers and local clubs, Lane utilized the event to teach both university employees and students about safe trailering practices.
Representatives from Iowa State University were very interested in the trailer safety resources available, like NATM’s Towing Safety brochures. These materials complimented presentations by Colin Holthaus, NATM Technical Director, and Lane Trailer. Lane brought a trailer into the showroom for the presentation, pointing out safety features and allowing for attendees to ask questions using the actual trailer for demonstration.
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NATM Technical Director Colin Holthaus, thrilled with event turnout, said “it was great to see the local community at Iowa State turnout for this event. This was a new population of attendees, everyday trailer users, and it was great to be able to spread trailer safety awareness. It was also neat to talk directly to consumers about the work my compliance team and NATM does by partnering with companies like Lane Trailers in helping companies build compliant, safe trailers. NATM and our members work really hard at trailer safety and to see that paying off in discussions with end-users was great to experience.” 

 “As a company, we are committed to safety in our facility and for the trailers we manufacture,” said Midsota co-owner and NATM Board Member Joel Bauer. “We thought it is essential we get on board with the national event to promote trailer safety.”

Midsota’s event was a huge success and featured local and national legislators and staff. Congressman Tom Emmer (MN-6) spoke of the importance of safety and recognized that trailering is not simply loading, hitching and taking off but executing safe trailering practices correctly. The impact of compliant trailers and safe towing practices is not limited to the trailer owner.

“It’s not only the $50,000 investment in the motorcycle or the load on the trailer– it’s everyone on the road,” said Congressman Emmer. Emmer previously toured the Midsota facility in May of 2018 after the company was named St. Cloud Area Small Business Owners of the Year.

Newly-elected State Representative Lisa Demuth of Minnesota’s District 13A also spoke to attendees about the important role that companies such as Midsota play on the local economy. Eric Sundby of the Minnesota State Patrol gave a highly popular and well received presentation on what is looked for during a DOT trailer inspection and driver CDL requirements followed by a Q&A session.

Midsota co-owner Joel Bauer and NATM Executive Director Kendra Ansley gave presentations about the company’s and NATM’s dedication to trailer safety and audience made up of end-users, business owners, trailer dealers, and members of the local community were directed to various safety resources including those housed on NATM’s TrailerSafetyWeek.com website.
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After the presentations, Midsota gave plant tours of the facility and served lunch. Multiple informational tables were set up for attendees including U-Haul with their popular Trailer Demonstrator; Lippert Axles; NTI Tires; NATM and Midsota. 

In addition to the two onsite Trailer Safety Events hosted by NATM trailer manufacturing members, Trailer Safety Week saw enormous growth with online participation. Trailer Safety Week Allies utilized the TSW Communications Kit which is full of pre-crafted marketing materials to effectively communicate the importance of trailer safety. Allies played an important role in helping generate awareness and drive traffic to TrailerSafetyWeek.com. TSW Allies ranged from police departments and insurance companies to trailer manufacturers, suppliers and dealers as well as various companies in the transportation industry.

Through the #TrailerSafetyWeek social media campaign, and with the help of more than 150 TSW Allies, the importance of safe trailering reached thousands across several social media channels. Countless social media posts were created and shared on Facebook in hopes to better educate end-users on important safety measures to take when trailering. In addition to this, NATM created several #TrailerTipOfTheDay informative videos featuring the NATM Compliance Team. These videos featured trailering tips every trailer user should know and reached over 16,000 people on Facebook alone. You can view these videos on NATM's Facebook page. TSW Allies’ efforts led nearly 500 new visitors to TrailerSafetyWeek.com throughout the week—a testament to the impact Allies have on generating safe trailering awareness.

Trailer Safety Week has continued to be a step in the right direction for the trailer industry. With the support of event hosts, an effective social media campaign, countless TSW Allies and coverage in several news publications, this safety awareness campaign allowed safe trailering to become more visible to the general public.

“The National Trailer Safety Week was once again a huge success thanks to the support of NATM members across the country,” said NATM Executive Director Kendra Ansley. “NATM is already looking for new ways to further expand the reach of our efforts next year. Various companies in the trailer industry are regularly contacting the Association to learn more about participating and the staff is using this momentum and excitement to begin planning for next year’s Trailer Safety Week that will be held June 7-13, 2020. We are encouraging all types of members to participate as much as they would like. Suppliers and trailer manufacturers can share the event’s logo and resources as Trailer Safety Week Allies, or even host an event.”
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Those interested in joining this trailer safety movement can find more information at https://www.trailersafetyweek.com/interest or by contacting the TSW team at TrailerSafetyWeek@natm.com. 

The NATM Board of Directors said farewell to two members seeking opportunities outside of trailer manufacturing and welcomed Lyle Berning of Novae Corp. and Serena Moran of Sun Country Trailers to fill the open positions with the terms ending in February of 2021. With expansive histories in many capacities in trailer manufacturing, Berning and Moran promise to bring new insights and experience as the Board continues its work. To learn more about the newest members of the Board, click here.

Retaining good employees is vital to your success, especially in today’s tight labor market. Not only does turnover impact your bottom line in tangible ways, it has other consequences which also impact your bottom line in the form of productivity, safety and quality. The true cost of turnover has been argued for years. A basic assumption that will put it in perspective is that it cost you 1 ½ times an employee’s annual salary when they decide to leave your organization. If your turnover rate is high, these costs can add up quickly. Keep in mind that not all turnover is bad turnover. There are some employees that may be hurting your organization more than they’re helping.

There are several key areas where you can make a difference when it comes to turnover:

• Offer a competitive compensation and benefits package
• Hire the right people
• Create a positive employee culture

Most people assume money is the prime motivation for staying at an organization; however, statistically speaking, only 12% of employees that leave your organization leave for more money. Although it’s important to be competitive, there are many other things you can do than offer more money.

Let’s start at the beginning. How are your interviewing and selection skills? How about the interviewing and selection skills of your manager? Too often, we are rushed to get a warm body to fill a position that may otherwise go vacant when the previous incumbent leaves. We don’t take the time to make sure that the person we select to fill that position is a good fit for our organization. Consider that organizations have a tendency to hire on skills such as work experience, education and training; but they actually fire employees based on behavior such as not showing up for work, having a bad attitude and the inability to work with a team. Review your hiring systems and make sure interviewers are conducting behavior-based interviews. We need to hire based on behavior because we can typically train for skill but we can’t train someone to have a good work ethic.

Once the right employees are on board, it’s important to invest in them. From the beginning, give them an emotional connection to the organization. During their first days on the job, tell them how the organization was developed or created and why the work they do everyday matters. Put together a well-developed presentation that shows them you care about the message they receive on their very first day. Tell them the history of the organization. Outline all the important policies from the handbook. Tell them who to go to with certain questions or issues. Give an introduction to each of the benefits you offer. Employees often have a lot of questions about their benefits but are too afraid to ask. Give them the opportunity at the very beginning as they’re signing up for their benefits. Develop a one-page quick guide to the benefits offered by the organization but don’t let that be a substitute for your explanation of these benefits. On their first day, have a thought-out plan or agenda that includes the presentation, a tour of the building and any important areas like the break room or cafeteria and lunch with the boss or co-workers. Make sure they feel welcome.

Now that you’ve set the tone, keep it going by showing them you care about the work environment. Above all, make sure your managers are trained on how you want employees to be treated. Too often we make the mistake of promoting someone into a management position that was good at doing the work. Most often the skills to do the work and the skills to manage people are very different but we fail to set them up for success by teaching them how to coach, lead, motivate and most importantly stop behavior that leads to legal issues for the organization. You should have a full management training program for anyone in a management position. Even with prior management experience, you want to make sure they follow the basic principles and values of the organization as they manage your employees. The number one reason employees leave a position is the relationship with their direct supervisor.
It's also vital that everyone in your organization is holding employees accountable for their behavior. Star employees are often demotivated when they realize that employees with less than desirable performance are allowed to continue that performance while your star employee is going above and beyond without being differentiated from poor performers. Managers need to understand how to have difficult conversations with employees and when those conversations should result in a tangible consequence or discipline.

When we talk about the work environment, we mean culture. Culture is not something that organizations typically define. It is typically developed over time through leadership behaviors and overall communication (either from managers to employees or among co-workers). What things do you celebrate as an organization (if anything)? What do you reward employees for doing? How do you reward them? Other ideas to help with your overall culture include:

• Develop a “shout out” board and let employees use sticky notes to compliment other employees who go above and beyond or use it to post positive feedback from customers
• Develop a safety incentive program. Put together a safety committee and empower them to develop a system that really changes behaviors with recognition and incentives.
• Create a wellness committee to coordinate wellness activities.
• Conduct an employee engagement survey selecting the right questions to help you understand what your employees think about senior leadership, their manager, the work environment, engagement, compensation and benefits.

• Consider stay interviews. There is a great resource by HR Soft at https://hrsoft.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Stay-Interview-Kick-Start-Guide-HRsoft.pdf. This walks you through the process step by step.

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As you can see, there are many things you can do to impact employee retention. None of them will be easy. If you treat it like a task to check off your list, you will not make a difference with your implementation. These changes take time and diligence. Make sure you set goals for each potential project and give it the time and attention it deserves.

So you've signed on as an NATM Dealer Affiliate. Now what?

NATM Dealer Affiliates will experience a host of benefits, with an emphasis on education and resource access. The following list includes the first phase of Dealer Affiliate benefits beginning on June 1st:
 
Get Current

• All 6 issues of Tracks magazine delivered to your mailbox every other month. Tracks includes technical articles, industry updates, Association news as well as other relevant topics for the trailer industry
• Receive NATM’s monthly NATM Insider eNewsletter which contains articles on industry updates, association news, and government affairs updates as week as well as a Dealer’s Only Q&A where dealers are able to write in to NATM to get answers to important questions, like, “What is my responsibility as a trailer dealer for tire recordkeeping?”

Get Noticed

• Gain exclusive access to online advertising opportunities on NATM.com
• Trailer Dealer Affiliate window cling to display at your dealership - an outward symbol of your commitment to safety

Get Value

• Various safety resources available to you for free or at a discounted price. All new trailer dealer affiliates will receive 50 free Safely Towing a Trailer brochures, lighting and wheel torqueing posters and 10 TrailerSafetyWeek.com keychains

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Get Resources

• Dealer-specific marketing kits, including how to sell an NATM compliance verified trailer Social media marketing kits made for trailer dealers
• NATM’s Membership Directory & Buyer’s Guide to access suppliers and NATM-compliant trailer manufacturers

​The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) released the much awaited exclusion process for Section 301 List 3 tariffs on June 20th. The process will require requestors to use USTR’s exclusion web portal, a new portal intended to be easier for users than the portal used for List 1 and 2 processes. However, the new portal is not yet open with its released scheduled for 12:00 p.m. EST on Sunday, June 30th.
 
The instructions for the new process, found here, will allow parties to request exclusion from List 3 products which comprise more than $200 billion worth of goods. The tariff rate for these goods escalated to 25% in March.
 
The process itself is similar to the process set in place for List 1 and List 2, with some notable differences. For example, companies will have an opportunity to explain the impact of previous Section 301 tariffs on their business and a question has been added for companies to indicate whether they meet the standard to be classified as a small business in accordance with the Small Business Administration definition.
 
The deadline for and exclusion request is September 30, 2019. One a request has been filed, interested parties have 14 days to submit comments, either in support or opposition. A timeline has also been established for responses to comments. Because all of the comment windows are short, interested parties should be actively monitoring requests to ensure their ability to respond in outlined windows.
 
Currently, USTR is expecting 60,000 requests to be submitted. No timeline for decision making has been provided, rather USTR has indicated periodic announcements to requests will be made. 

NATM continuously aims to provide exceptional membership services and benefits. One way the Association attempts to do this is by conducting a membership survey to both trailer manufacturer and supplier members upon their 18-month association membership anniversary. The goal is to better understand the current climate of the industry, and tailor educational events around these focus areas.

There are several common themes that have surfaced in recent months when asked about challenges or barriers that members are experiencing:

• Employee policies
• Retention strategies
• Benefits structure
• Pay scales
• Pros/cons of piecemeal approach

This summer, NATM has rebranded the NATM Regional Educational Workshops as the Workforce Development Summit. Using this member feedback, NATM is excited to announce two workshops for Fall of 2019.

For additional information, please contact NATM Membership & Events Director Kelli Maydew at kelli.maydew@natm.com or (785) 272-4433. ​

NATM has been committed to trailer safety for more than 30 years. While NATM has long worked with trailer manufacturers and industry suppliers and service providers, trailer safety can only be improved through dealer interaction and consumer education. That’s why NATM is excited to announce the launch of the NATM Dealer Affiliation on June 1, 2019.

It is NATM’s mission to “promote trailer safety and the success of the trailer manufacturing industry through education and advocacy” and we are confident that including trailer dealers in our work will strengthen the industry and improve roadway safety. Dealers can aide NATM in its efforts to close the communication gap between trailer dealers and end-users all while generating awareness about the importance of NATM Compliant trailers.

While NATM is excited to launch the Dealer Affiliation program, we recognize that our NATM members might have questions or concerns. That’s why we’re inviting all members to submit their questions and concerns via the button below. In addition to gathering member questions, NATM invites you to participate in the Dealer Affiliation Q&A on Facebook Live. We’ll be going live on NATM's Facebook page Thursday, May 30th at 3pm CST to discuss what the Dealer Affiliation will look like as well as answer any member questions.

NATM members who wish to notify their dealer contacts are encouraged to utilized the Dealer Outreach Marketing Kit by clicking the button below. This kit includes several pre-crafted social media posts, social media graphics, and a Dealer Invitation.

​NATM fully believes that the launch of the NATM Dealer Affiliation is an opportunity to unify the trailer industry in an effort to improve trailer safety. While NATM remains committed to trailer manufacturers, the Association has long looked at how to better bring in dealers as key stakeholders for trailer safety and this program offers an exciting opportunity to support dealers and help them educate end-users as well as better raise awareness about the NATM Compliance Verification Program.

​As NATM previously reported, on May 10 Section 301 List 3 tariffs escalated from 10% to 25%. On May 21st the US Trade Representative announced in a Federal Register notice that the exclusion process for List 3 was to be implemented on or around June 30, 2019. The notice includes the form to be used for making an exclusion request. It is important to note that for List 1 and List 2, requests received early in the process have been decided on more quickly.
 
As a result of the List 3 escalation, on Monday, May 13 China announced retaliatory tariffs ranging from 5% to 25% on $60 billion of U.S. exports to take effect beginning June 1. The announcement from China noted that the increase of List 3 tariffs was an “an escalation of Sino-US economic and trade frictions, contrary to the consensus between China and the United States on resolving trade differences through consultations, jeopardizing the interests of both sides and not meeting the general expectations of the international community.”
 
As anticipated, the United States Trade Representative released a List 4 late in the day on May 13. List 4 includes a vast array of $300 billion worth of goods, from books to housewares, shoes, and sporting goods and much more. The proposed tariff rate is 25%. Along with the release of List 4 comes a timeline for hearings and comments from the public. Although no firm date has yet been set, implementation of List 4 is currently not expected before late June.
 
NATM will keep members apprised as the List 3 exclusion process is released and as List 4 moves forward.
 

​With the Trump Administration announced rolling back Section 232 aluminum and steel tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and media sources are reporting that no quotas will be placed on either country. However, it is likely there will be additional requirements regarding transshipment of steel and aluminum products that will remain subject to the action. There is additional opportunity for re-imposition of these tariffs should imports begin to surge. As of this writing, there have been no indications of retroactive relief. As more details become available, NATM will notify its members. 

​NATM is excited to announce the 2020 Sponsorship Brochure!
Marketing Opportunities Include:

• Mobile App
• Convention Emails
• Website Banner Ads

Reach potential customers before the show even starts by sponsoring one of many Convention & Trade Show marketing opportunities. These opportunities will have attendees talking about your company long before they even step foot on the Trade Show floor.
General Sponsorship Opportunities Include:

• Attendee Amenities
• Special Events
• Trade Show Floor

Sponsorships are a powerful component in reinforcing your marketing program. A sponsorship allows you to reach a highly-targeted market and provides NATM funding to deliver high-quality educational programs, speakers and events.
2020 sponsors will receive priority 2021 Trade Show exhibit space selection for Nashville, TN! For more information on how to sponsor, please contact NATM Membership & Events Director Kelli Maydew at kelli.maydew@natm.com or (785) 272-4433.