Open Road - Winter 2026
Celebrating the 2025 Safety Professional of the Year: Jeff Beam
Rae Howe 2026-01-24 14:14:28
During the 2025 Louisiana Truck Driving Championships, at the awards banquet, the LMTA Foundation honored Jeff Beam of Ergon Trucking as the 2025 Safety Professional of the Year.
Beam’s career in trucking began 30 years ago.
After his time in the military was complete, Beam entered the world of wholesales but found he wasn’t satisfied.
During his military career, he served in the Navy, aboard the USS Constellation. He enjoyed the camaraderie and working safely with heavy equipment. His work was exacting and precise, and he was surrounded by fellow serviceman every day, whose safety was paramount. He said, “I was working on an aircraft carrier, so safety was a really big deal back then. Even then, I never thought of going into safety.” Subconsciously, it seems to have sparked his lifelong commitment to transportation safety.
When he decided it was time for a career change, he looked to his family. “I always joke and say that I followed my mother into trucking because she actually retired from the parish in Lake Charles and got her CDL and drove with her husband, my stepfather, who was a lifelong trucker,” said Beam. From his mother’s experience, he decided trucking might be a solid fit. He began his trucking career in 1995 and has stuck with it since.
For the first 14 years, Beam worked as a driver. In 2009, when a position in safety opened, he jumped at the chance.
He currently works as the safety and training manager for several Ergon Trucking locations in Louisiana as well as Houston, Texas. He oversees compliance, education and any incident investigations.
Ergon Trucking, founded in 1973, focuses mainly on the transportation of crude oil, asphalt, process oils, lubes, chemicals, caustics and a variety of liquids. They operate out of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, Ohio, Louisiana and Texas. Their fleet of more than 450 trucks serves the contiguous 48 states and Canada, with a team of 260 independent contractors and 190 company drivers. Part of what has kept Beam at Ergon Trucking has been their company culture, which prioritizes finding the best drivers and keeping them on board. The company boasts low turnover rates with an average driver tenure of five years.
Ergon Trucking has become home for Beam and many others, which means that his investment in safety takes on a new level. He isn’t monitoring the driving of anonymous strangers; he is ensuring that team members make it home safely to their families each and every day.
As a core part of his role, Beam is alerted to driver events — things like a harsh break or speeding — which show up in reports, which he then reviews and verifies. In the case where an event is verified, he then coaches the driver toward safer habits. Most often, he coaches drivers on maintaining a safe following distance or driving within posted speed limits. This means he builds personal relationships with drivers across his region, building rapport and having sometimes difficult conversations with grace.
It can be difficult to provide critiques on worker performance, but Beam has worked hard to build a strategy that helps improve safety while preserving strong relationships. “It can be awkward with certain drivers because some people don’t like to take constructive criticism,” he said, “but drivers have to improve — they have scores. If the score gets too low or they have too many issues, they might not be working for us anymore.”
Beam has a shared investment in keeping drivers part of the Ergon trucking family — and in keeping roads and the motoring public safe. And his hard work has shown concrete results. Ergon’s drivers have won first place in the Louisiana Fleet Safety Awards Hazardous Materials (3-6 million miles) category for the last three years.
These relationships are important because Beam often serves as a listening ear for drivers, even outside of his coaching role. “When drivers have a complaint, a lot of times, they go straight to the safety person, even if it doesn’t fall within our wheelhouse, and we still help them,” he said.
His relationship with drivers often begins on day one, as he leads new driver orientations throughout his region. These trainings are often one on one over the course of several days, giving him lots of time to get to know new drivers and welcome them to the team. These orientations are part HR, part product and safety training, and part introduction to the company and its culture.
One of his favorite parts of his role is getting to travel. Because he doesn’t fly between orientation locations, he’s spent a lot of time driving through the region in his pick-up truck. He said, “I like traveling to the different locations and meeting with the people.”
People are a big reason why Beam has stayed in his role so long and felt such satisfaction. “I’ve been in this safety position for 16 years now. [What matters most is] keeping doing my job right, helping keep the drivers safe and helping keep the company viable,” he continued on, saying his biggest professional accomplishment has been in the everyday — “working with truckers every day, having them take my advice and helping keep the road safe.”
©Innovative Publishing Ink. View All Articles.