Heavy Duty Trucking’s Truck Fleet Innovators for 2025 are five executives who are leading the industry in technology adoption, process improvement, safety, sustainability, and more.

Since 2006, the editors at Heavy Duty Trucking have been honoring a small number of trucking executives each year, chosen for specific innovations and/or for fostering an overall culture that encourages innovative thinking.

There still are some openings for attendees to HDTX; go to www.heavydutytruckingexchange.com for more information and to apply. 

These outstanding trucking leaders will be HDT’s guests at the Heavy Duty Trucking Exchange event, held at a luxury resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, Sept. 3-5. There they will receive their awards in a ceremony and participate in a panel discussion moderated by Heavy Duty Trucking's editors, exploring their successes, challenges, and the importance of innovation.

Full profiles on each Innovator will be in the July/August print edition of Heavy Duty Trucking and will be posted on Truckinginfo.com in the near future.

The 2025 HDT Truck Fleet Innovators are:

Rudy Diaz, Founder/CEO/President, Hight Logistics, Long Beach, California

In 2011, Rudy Diaz launched Hight Logistics from his house, with the goal of providing the same great service to his own clients as he had working for others in the drayage industry. The company has grown into a 70-truck port drayage and intermodal trucking and third-party logistics provider, operating a regional transportation business moving freight through the ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles and Oakland.

He formed a separate division of the company to launch an all-electric fleet, currently at 20 trucks.

“We wanted to comply [with the California zero-emission vehicle] mandates and be ahead of the curve versus behind the curve,” he told HDT. “And I also have a personal desire to help the environment.”

The current uncertainties of changing emissions regulations and tariffs are frustrating, Diaz says.

“Challenges can destroy you, they can undermine you, but they can also make you wiser, make you stronger, make you more creative.”

Brent Ellis, VP of Business Systems and Processes, Decker Truck Line, Fort Dodge, Iowa

Brent Ellis is continually automating and integrating processes at Decker Truck Line, the family-owned truckload company he joined five years ago.

“Basically, we can build a robot to do anything that a human would do,” he says. Robotic Process Automation uses software "robots" (bots) to automate repetitive, rules-based tasks. At Decker, Ellis and his team have developed them to handle tasks such as uploading invoices to customer websites or portals and quickly finding needed information in their maintenance data.

Ellis has been in the transportation industry for 30 years, from the warehouse docks to driving a truck to brokerage and software. 

In his work at Decker, he uses that range of experience in building processes and technology to unclog process bottlenecks, develop vendor integrations, and more.  

Ryan Kocher, Director of Emerging Equipment Technology, Knight-Swift Transportation, Phoenix, Arizona

Ryan Kocher uses his engineering and emissions regulatory background to lead Knight-Swift’s corporate-wide efforts in fleet electrification and decarbonization as well as autonomous/driver assist technologies. 

He’s working with Paccar on the SuperTruck 3 program, a U.S. Department of Energy program to help advance commercial truck electrification technology 

“It was exciting and a big challenge to try to take on an industry that generally doesn't like change and try to push things forward.”

He’s also responsible for testing the latest products and technologies from vendors, which helps the OEs get feedback on their new products but also gives Kocher and his team an early look at what may or may not work in their operations.

Jerrin Martin, Vice President of Operations, North Division, Lazer Logistics, Alpharetta, Georgia

Jerrin Martin fell in love with logistics in his first job out of college, at J.B. Hunt. He’s been with Lazer Logistics for seven years.

Lazer Logistics is a third-party logistics company specializing in yard management, operating yard tractors and day cabs. The company has branched out from simple spotting into local shuttle runs and using technology to create more efficient yard management for customers. 

Now, using tablets in the truck, everything is at the fingertips of the drivers as well as the operators inside the warehouse. Those greater efficiencies have led to longer-term contracts with customers.

The company is also a major adopter of battery-electric yard tractors. Its EV Spotter program has surpassed 1 million zero-emission miles.

Beyond that, Martin is recognized as a leader in process management and team-building.

From the nomination: “His ability to manage job profit analysis, metrics and improve process is beyond anything I have seen before.” 

For Martin, the success he’s most proud of is being able to provide opportunities for his team to move up in their own careers.

David Murphy, Director of Safety, Keystops LLC, Franklin, Kentucky

When David Murphy got out of the Marine Corps at age 40, he landed a job as a manager trainee for a waste business. After experiencing for himself the physical challenges and dangers of jumping off of and onto a slow-moving garbage truck, once he became safety manager, he started bringing in physical therapists to safety meetings for stretching exercises and education.

“I knew that if I kept good employees at work healthy, they would be promotable and they would be longtime employees,” he says.

Today he’s at Keystops LLC, the fleet for Key Oil, overseeing safety for a fleet hauling fuel and oil products.

Although the physical challenges for drivers became easier with newer technology, Murphy continued his emphasis on the importance of coaching. And he continually seeks out innovative tools and technologies to stay ahead of the curve.

From the nomination: “David Murphy’s name has become synonymous with transformation, leadership, and innovation in the world of fleet safety. Across four different companies, David has taken fleets once known for risk and instability and turned them into safety benchmarks within their industries.”

Who Is Eligible to be an HDT Truck Fleet innovator?

To be eligible for consideration as an HDT Truck Fleet Innovator, nominees must be a leader or executive at a trucking fleet running Class 8 trucks — for-hire, private, or government. 

Nominees may be a top executive, or it can be someone in charge of a specific department or area, such as equipment, maintenance, safety, drivers, sustainability/fuel economy, operations, IT, etc.

Nominations can be submitted by anyone who knows the nominee and is familiar with their specific innovative accomplishments — co-workers, family, customers, suppliers, etc. Individuals also can nominate themselves.

Industry suppliers are not eligible for the HDT Truck Fleet Innovator award. 

Meet HDT's 2024 Truck Fleet Innovators