Rich Kaczynski,loss prevention manager for A. Duie Pyle, is capping a 46-year trucking career with the 2024 HDT Safety & Compliance Award.

The award, from the editors of Heavy Duty Trucking, recognizes trucking leaders who have demonstrated excellence in safety and compliance in their operations. Honorees have shown leadership, innovation, and measurable results while enhancing the safety of drivers and the public.

Kaczynski accepted the award during the Fleet Safety Conference, part of the Bobit Fleet Forward Conference, in San Diego during a ceremony on November 8.

“This is the 10^th time we have honored an outstanding trucking executive with the Safety & Compliance Award, and the choice has never been so difficult,” said HDT Editor and Associate Publisher Deborah Lockridge. “Every one of our finalists has a compelling safety story.”

The other finalists were:

• Frank Chauvette, Transportation Safety Manager, Ocean State Job Lot, North Kingstown, Rhode Island. 

• Dylan West, Safety Training Manager, Keystops, Franklin, Kentucky

• Darrel Wilson, Founder & CEO, Wilson Logistics, Strafford, Missouri

• Chris Woody, Director of Safety, M&W Transportation, Nashville, Tennessee.

The finalists were chosen based on nominations and an interview. All are ahead of the curve in their commitment to building a safety culture, a focus on drivers, and smart use of technology and data.

Meet ‘Rich K’

Rich Kaczynski (who says everyone just calls him “Rick K”) is retiring next year after 32 years with A. Duie Pyle and 46 years in trucking overall.

He started his career as a truck driver, dropping out of college in order to make living expenses. And like many drivers at that time, he learned how to drive a truck the hard way – by the seat of his pants. 

Kaczynski started working for Pyle 32 years ago as a driver. At the time, he says, there were about 75 drivers at the company and a single facility — but it was starting to grow, and he grew with it.

The owner asked him to create an in-house driver orientation program. He’s been building on that ever since, into all facets of driver training and safety, from the eight-week driver training school to the crash investigation procedures program.

Kaczynski is also the National Chairman of the American Trucking Associations' Safety Management Council (SMC) Management Advisory Board.

A Culture of Safety

With 20 years of driving experience, Rich K has driven 1.5 million safe miles. That experience has helped him cultivate a strong safety culture among Pyle’s drivers. 

To this day, one of his proudest accomplishments remains that driver orientation program he created 23 years ago. 

“You know, to build a good house, you have to have a good foundation,” he says. “And I think that's the same with drivers as well.”

Among his recent initiatives have been overseeing the transition to new in-cab camera-based telematics systems, and, based on what the safety department discovered in some of that data, developing a fatigue management program.