PAGE 30 Washington Business  
PRESTON, Md.ÛÓPreston Trucking Co.Ûªs Howard Bradshaw pauses after replacing a freshly oiled truck piston, reaches into his red tool cabinet, and pulls out a smudged spiral notebook where he records worker productivity.</br></br>By his account, productivity at Preston's shop on the Eastern Shore is up 30 percent since 1980, when it took 51.9 man-hours to rebuild an engine. Last year the figure was</br></br>Why? ÛÏWe donÛªt have to spend so much time waiting for the foreman to make a decision,Û says Bradshaw. ÛÏThereÛªs more time to work on an engine.Û</br></br>During BradshawÛªs first 12 years rebuilding truck engines at the shop next to PrestonÛªs corporate offices, he worked under the standard system, with managers watching every move. But in 1980, Preston shifted its management gears, gave its workers more control over their work and made the 41-year-old mechanic ÛÏteam leader" of a self-managed unit of mechanics.</br></br>Now Bradshaw, his machine-shop counterparts and the drivers who ply the highways of the Northeast in PrestonÛªs orange truck cabs talk as if they were in business for themselves. In the front office, the people who run the company sound more like philosophers than managers of the nation's 12th-largest freight hauler.