What can brown do for you?

If Keith Taylor is the driver of the brown truck, expect package will arrive in one piece.

Taylor has been driving for UPS for more than 25 years without having an accident. The UPS driver who is on his third large, brown truck, said he’s been lucky.

“They put a lot of emphasis on taking your time and being cautious,” he said. “Drivers call each other. We help each other out and stuff like that.”

Taylor said he saw an opening for a driver with UPS and applied for the job and got it.

“It’s a quick-paced job, but it’s nice,” he said. “People on your route get to know you. It’s kind of a personal thing too. People depend on you.”

UPS puts a lot of emphasis on safety, Taylor said.

“We kind of check up on each other, so that helps,” he said. “A lot of us stay on the same routes, so we get to know our areas.”

Taylor said the drivers are recognized for every year of safe driving.

“You get a plaque, a safety pin and your picture made,” he said. “Then every five years it’s a little bit better gift every five years.”

Taylor said having a mechanic, Dexter Banks, helps.

“We have a full-time mechanic come in about 6 p.m. every night,” he said. “He does routine maintenance. You tell him if you have a headlight out or your brakes are squeaking.”

Taylor said he doesn’t order many things, but when he does he tries to use UPS.

“I ordered something yesterday from Amazon and ordered it UPS,” he said. “Most of my family will use it. Christmas stuff we send UPS. I have a cousin in California. She sends everyone a turkey every year; she sends it UPS.”

UPS Supervisor Rick Vaughn said Taylor is a model driver.

“When I first became a driver he was one of the drivers who mentored me and showed me how to drive his area,” he said. “It was one of those things back then where before you were going to drive an area you would go out with the driver and they would show you everything before they went on vacation.”

Vaughn said even then he could tell Taylor was an experienced driver.

“What I saw most when I went out with Keith was he knew all of his customers and all of his customers knew him,” he said. “He knew the area good.”

Vaughn said he never gets complaints from customers about Taylor.

“He’s one of those type of drivers you want to model your drivers after,” he said.

Twenty-five years of safe driving is not easy to come by, Vaughn said.

“When you’re out there driving every day and you’re on all type of back roads, traffic, weather conditions, and you don’t have too many drivers nationwide with this company who can say that they drove for 25 years without and accident.”

Vaughn said Keith does everything he’s asked to do at work, and when he says he’s going to do something, he always follows through.

“You couldn’t ask for a better driver,” he said.