- To tell the story of the industry to the public.
- To be the bridge between the public and those served by a particular carrier and its executives and employees so the latter are constantly aware of public attitudes and reactions and govern the company's operations accordingly.
- To promote the industry's good points so that there is greater public understanding. This is essential to an industry such as trucking; without it, the trucking industry cannot exist.
What do the public relations department and its public relations specialists in a trucking company do?
This department is the communication link between the company and the public. When we speak of the "public" of a trucking company, we really mean many "publics." Among the groups with whom a carrier must maintain communication and create favorable opinion are management of a company and employees. It is here that the PR department also provides a vital link between the company and its customers-die shippers of materials. It also provides an essential communications link with the community in which the trucks operate, the stockholders of the company ft it is publicly held, and many other groups and individuals having anything to do with the company. Such groups include local and state officials, educators, business and trade associations such as the Chamber of Commerce, groups of shippers, as well as civic associations, women's clubs, even such groups as the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, and other organizations.
In public relations, you will work closely with all the general information media. These include newspapers, magazines, radio, and television, and your task is to keep news about your company flowing to them. It will also be your responsibility to see that employees are kept informed of management's views, and you will perhaps edit or supervise a company publication in order to organize group activities for your fellow workers.
Information Flow
One aspect of public relations work in a trucking company or in any business is often overlooked. It is the job the public relations specialists must do to keep information flowing not only from the company to the various publics, or groups, but in reverse as well-making certain that information flows from the public to his management.
This cannot be stressed too strongly, since too many persons think of public relations as simply an outgoing of information such as news releases, radio and TV material, as well as activities that go out to the public. That is true, but the other aspect of it -keeping information flowing back to management-is equally important. It is vital that the management and employees of a trucking company know what the public is thinking or feels about them. The attitudes of legislators, civic officials, educators, women's club members, for example, and many other groups are very important to a trucking company. Unless you know those attitudes, or they are known and communicated to management, the public relations specialist is doing only half the job.
Tasks of Great Importance
In the public relations assignment, the task of the specialist is to prepare and deliver and publish company reports such as the annual report, edit and publish a company magazine, write news releases and articles for local newspapers, trade magazines, and, in some cases, national publications. PR specialists also, in some cases, handle the advertising for a trucking company and work either alone or with an advertising agency to prepare and place advertising about the company's services. Many PR men also prepare exhibits for trade shows, Chamber of Commerce exhibits, state fairs, and other functions in which the role of the trucking company in the community or the services of the trucking company are highlighted.
Growing Opportunities for PR Men
As the trucking industry grows in the 1980's it will increasingly need public relations specialists. At the present time only a small number of trucking companies actually have a paid public relations professional on their staffs. However, as trucking companies grow, or as small companies merge to form larger companies, the 'need for expert professional public relations skills will be even more acute.
Transportation is a complex business, and motor carrier transportation is equally complex. It will take continual work on the part of well-educated and well-trained public relations personnel to translate the story of the trucking industry to the public. People must be made aware of the great service that trucking performs for them, as well as being educated to the fact that the public, that is, the motorist, shares the road with trucks, and both trucks and automobiles have a right to be on the highways. The fact is not readily understood, and it takes constant effort to convince the public that trucks are actually doing a job for every individual in the country. It has been said before that it is really no cliché to say "If you've got it, a truck brought it." Literally everything you eat, wear, or use comes by truck.
The housewife who goes to the local supermarket, or the husband who goes to the hardware store on Saturday to buy some paint or tools, gives little thought to how the paint got to the shelves of the hardware store, nor does the wife concern herself with the fact that all of the groceries came to that store by truck. Truck service is so often taken for granted that the need never diminishes to remind people of the role that trucks play in serving Americans and our ever increasing standard of living.
Monetary Rewards
What are the job satisfactions and rewards of a career in motor carrier public relations?
Public relations is a most satisfying occupation for persons who have the necessary talent and ability for the job. It requires an outgoing personality, someone who likes to meet people and is happy when in contact with people, to do a proper job.
Great satisfaction comes with seeing the success of your work in public relations, whether it is having a photograph or a news release published in the local paper or in a big city daily, or the writing of a speech for top management, which, when delivered, convinces a key audience that your company or the trucking industry is important, vital, and necessary to the well-being of the community and the nation.
Public relations is a good field for a person who likes hard work and who does not mind irregular hours. In a trucking company much travel is involved, as the public relations specialist often makes periodic visits to company terminals or offices that may take him halfway, or in some cases, all the way across the nation.
Novel and interesting duties galore!
The public relations man is on call literally twenty-four hours a day. In the event of an accident or an emergency, he is the one who should alert top management, and who also should make himself available to the press in order to assure that the proper facts are presented quickly and without distortion to newspaper, radio, and television reporters.
The day-to-day work of the public relations specialist may include preparing a news release on new equipment that the company has purchased or perhaps telling the story of company truck drivers who have just achieved some new safety record. Or he may work with photographers in directing picture-taking for the company annual report or other publications. He may be called on to handle mail for key executives because he has special ability to answer people who send in complaints about the road conduct of certain trucks or have some other "gripe" about his particular company. It is his duty to carefully investigate the circumstances that led to the complaint and to devise a suitable and well-stated reply. This is the essence of good public relations and often can turn a disgruntled motorist into at least an understanding person if not a fan of the trucking industry!
Background, Education, and Personality Required
What is required for a job as a public relations specialist with a trucking company? In almost every case he needs to be well educated, a college graduate, and preferably in these times and in the future have advanced degrees in some form of communications or in business.
The usual preparation for a public relations job or career could be a course in journalism at a local university. If he has majored in a liberal arts school with special courses in writing or in business, that could suffice. Among the subjects a person who envisions a public relations career should master are: journalism, public speaking, psychology, in particular group psychology, advertising, press photography, radio television technique, commercial art, creative writing, and economics in general business subjects.
A student who is interested in pursuing a career in public relations in a trucking company would do well to search out and visit a company that has a public relations department and learn from them what the job entails. A short tour of duty in a radio station, advertising agency, or on a daily or weekly newspaper certainly would not hurt a person who plans to enter public relations, although with the professional public relations educational opportunities available today it is not absolutely necessary. It is, however, helpful.
It is possible for a person who, with a minimum of experience, acquires a public relations job or assignment with a trucking company, to improve his skills and techniques while on the job. In almost every city or town there is usually a school, a college, or university that offers evening courses on a continuing education basis in which the public relations specialist can improve those areas in which he believes he could use more skill.
For example, a journalism student who has a good background in newspapers and in writing, and indeed may have worked on a newspaper, may find he knows little or nothing about radio and television techniques. Yet, at this time, and even more so in the future, he will be required to be as thoroughly familiar with the needs, the demands, and the mechanical requirements of electronic media as he is with newspaper writing or speech writing, or some other skills that he may have acquired in college.
Knowing the Latest Techniques
It is also possible, through membership in local organizations, specialized groups, or associations of industrial editors, to continually improve the techniques required to produce such things as a company magazine or a company newspaper or even an annual report. There are always new creative areas in which the public relations man can make himself more valuable to his company. Only by knowing what the newest technique is, or even by forecasting the future and being able to determine what might be the techniques a few years or even ten years ahead, can he truly be of exceptional service to his management.
As more and more companies acquire sophisticated communications equipment, such as high-speed Teletype facsimile reproduction machines or computers, the public relations man must be able to use these to communicate information swiftly within the company.
In one company, a resourceful public relations man each morning publishes a one-page digest of company news that is of interest to employees. Items may include a new freight rate that has gone into effect, or new equipment acquired by the company, for example. Within a matter of minutes, this is transmitted to fifty of his company terminals where it is made available to top executives, middle-management, and supervisory personnel. Thus he is performing a real service by helping his fellow employees keep fully informed on all developments that are of interest and even vital to the performance of their jobs.
It would be well for any public relations-minded student to acquire knowledge of the financial community, because in the future more and more companies will be publicly owned-that is, stock in the company will be owned by hundreds, even thousands of small and large investors. This is a highly complex area and is even governed by rules of the Security and Exchange Commission, which determines what can and cannot be said in terms of news releases, stories, and speeches. The public relations person who has not kept his information up-to-date in those areas may find himself committing serious errors that are harmful to his company.
In summary, it can be said that public relations offers a challenging and rewarding career for a person who wishes to enter that field in a motor carrier company. The need for skilled communications has always existed. It is only in recent years that it has been recognized. In years to come it will be more universally recognized and given the importance to which it is entitled.
A young man or young woman may start in public relations with a trucking company at a very low level, perhaps putting out only a small company publication. But while doing so, the person can increase his knowledge and can learn more and more about professional public relations and rise to the position of public relations manager or public relations director. There is little mobility beyond this point in public relations in a trucking company, but it is still a satisfying and rewarding career. In some cases, however, public relations within a trucking company has "merged" into other areas of management, perhaps in sales management, sometimes into various levels of general executive management. The way is open, and a person is limited only by the amount of knowledge and skills he can apply to the job.
No business can be operated successfully without favorable public opinion, and the trucking industry will always require informed public opinion if it is to continue to render the ever increasing service that Americans will demand.
