Welcome to the WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Newsletter presented by Truck Parking Club. In this issue, best fleets to drive for; Crawler turns 60; ride-along; and more.
Best driver seats in town
CarriersEdge
The list — As Chris Jericho used to say, “You’ve made the list!” CarriersEdge has dropped its annual list of best fleets to drive for. According to the provider of online driver training, “To be considered for the 2025 Best Fleets program, for-hire carriers operating 10 tractor-trailers or more were nominated by a company driver or owner-operator currently working with them.”
Those nominations were then evaluated based on criteria such as driver compensation, HR, operations, work/life balance and more. The highest-scoring fleets made the list, while those that have been on it for 10 consecutive years were inducted in the Hall of Fame.
WWE
“Despite what’s been a tough economy the past couple of years for fleets, the Best Fleets Top 20 and Hall of Fame members have continued to show that the well-being of their drivers remains a top priority.” – Jane Jazrawy, CarriersEdge CEO
CarriersEdge
Top 20 Best Fleets to Drive For
- – America’s Service Line – Green Bay, Wisconsin
- – American Central Transport – Kansas City, Missouri
- – Brenny Specialized Inc. – St. Joseph, Minnesota
- – C.A.T. Inc. – Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec, Canada
- – Challenger Motor Freight Inc. – Cambridge, Ontario
- – Chief Carriers Inc. – Grand Island, Nebraska
- – Continental Express Inc. – Sidney, Ohio
- – Crawford Trucking – Des Moines, Iowa
- – Decker Truck Line Inc. – Fort Dodge, Iowa
- – Fortigo Freight Services Inc. – Etobicoke, Ontario
- – Fremont Contract Carriers Inc. – Fremont, Nebraska
- – Ippolito Transportation – Burlington, Ontario
- – K & J Trucking Inc. – Sioux Falls, South Dakota
- – Kriska Holdings Ltd. – Prescott, Ontario
- – Leonard’s Express Inc. – Farmington, New York
- – PGT Trucking Inc. – Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
- – Thomas E. Keller Trucking Inc. – Defiance, Ohio
- – TLD Logistics Services Inc. – Knoxville, Tennessee
- – TransLand – Strafford, Missouri
- – Wellington Motor Freight – Aberfoyle, Ontario
That list will be culled down to the two finalists in the small and large fleet categories. That pair of winning fleets will receive the Stratosphere award at the Best Fleets Education & Awards Conference, March 3-4, at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Do you agree? Had a good or bad experience with any of these? Email me.
Happy birthday NASA heavy haul
X
The beast turns 60 – Aside from the shuttle, the crawler may be NASA’s coolest piece of equipment. Before you even put a rocket on it, this thing has a mass of 6,000 pounds! The only good news: If one starts to chase you, it wouldn’t be hard to outrun. They’re called crawlers for a reason: They move at 3.5 mph.
In total, they’ve driven 3,400 miles. At 3.5 mph, it would take almost 40 days to cover that distance in one go. No speed limiters required here!
The first two crawlers each cost $14 million in 1965 dollars ($139 million in 2025 bucks), and if that doesn’t pump you up, their names will: Hans and Franz.
Watch a great video on the history of the crawler right here. And stay tuned to WTT in February when we have NASA on to talk all about crawlers!
The Motion Museum’s journey to Chattanooga
X
Ride-along – On our first episode of the year, we talked about our purchase of the world’s largest model rail set from EnterTRAINment Junction. You can watch this episode for all the details. Coming next week, the journey to Chattanooga, Tennessee, begins. It’s taken about 20 trailers to load the set, and on Tuesday I’m doing a ride-along with one of the drivers hauling it back to Chattanooga. Check out the coverage next Wednesday on WHAT THE TRUCK?!? and follow along on my social media, where I’ll be vlogging some of my journey.
WTT Friday
Freight Essentials vs. WWEX Group; project44 vs. MyCarrier – Friday on WHAT THE TRUCK?!?, I’m catching up with Freight Essentials’ Dylan Admire to learn the latest about the company’s RICO lawsuit against WWEX Group.
Project44 is battling MyCarrier in court. The FreightTech visibility leader claims MyCarrier breached their contract when it went behind project44’s back and created its own electronic bill of lading and APIs.
Truck Parking Club has been scaling massively as it continues to expand its mission to provide truck parking for drivers. Reed Loustalot stops by the studio to talk about how the company has managed to scale and why we’re partnering again this year at the Mid-America Trucking Show.
AI-driven virtual agents are starting to answer the call. We’ll talk to David Bell about how CloneOps is innovating in supply chain AI.
Plus, all the latest headlines, trends and viral weirdness since our last show.
Catch new shows live at noon EST Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on FreightWaves LinkedIn, Facebook, X or YouTube, or on demand by looking up WHAT THE TRUCK?!? on your favorite podcast player and at 5 p.m. Eastern on SiriusXM’s Road Dog Trucking Channel 146.
MAFA
MAKE AMERICA FREIGHT AGAIN – We are so back. Head on over to WTTGear.com to get our newest merch! Use code WTTFans for 10% off.
Now on demand
Willy Wonka of the Midwest talks chocolate and the Valentine’s Day supply chain
Nikola FCEV: 1-year performance review; Trump vs. Colombia; Motion Museum
Thanks for reading, and feel free to forward this to a friend.
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Don’t be a stranger,
Dooner
The post Best fleets to drive for in ’25 appeared first on FreightWaves.
