The National Private Truck Council honored the winners of several fleet and personnel awards at its recent Annual Education Management Conference and Exhibition in Cincinnati, including the Private Fleet Leadership awards, Fleet Safety awards, and the Driver Hall of Fame.

The Private Fleet Leadership awards recognized six private fleet professionals for their contributions to the private fleet community. The award honors individuals who have positively impacted the NPTC, their profession, and the private fleet community:

• Gary Strausbaugh, vice president of transportation for The Mennel Milling Company won the Dan Smith Life Achievement Award, the council’s highest honor.

• Mari Roberts of Frito-Lay was recognized as the Private Fleet Executive of the Year.

• Mike Little of Service First Distribution was honored as the NPTC Fleet Member of the Year.

• Victor Hart of Dot Transportation was named the Private Fleet Safety Professional of the year.

• Brian Holley of Whiteline Express was the recipient of the NPTC Excellence in Membership award.

• Mike Schwersenska of Brakebush Brothers Transportation won the NPTC Excellence in Backhauling Award.

• The NPTC Allied Member of the Year was presented to CPC Logistics of St. Louis, Mo.

The NPTC/Lytx Fleet Safety Awards were also handed out at the annual conference. These recognize NPTC member companies that prioritize safety in private fleet operations.

There were several winners based on the size and type of fleet:

• First place in the Local Operations category was American Proteins, with Blain Supply coming in second.

• The Regional Operations category winner was Contract Transportation Systems/ The Sherwin Williams Company.

• Mixed Operations was broken down into fleet size with a separate category for fleets with less than 50 vehicles and one for fleets with more than 50 vehicles. The Mixed Operations small fleet winner was Sugar Foods Corporation with a second place finish by Moen Inc., and a third place finish for FTC Transport. The large fleet category was won by New South Express, followed by Baxter Healthcare Corporation and Koch Foods.

Also recognized were those fleets with outstanding and/or improved safety records based on their crash rates. Winners of the Gold Seal, given to fleets that experienced zero crashes in 2016 included ADM Trucking, AEP Industries, Frito-Lay, and Koch Foods.

Winners of the Silver Seal, presented to those companies whose fleets reduced their vehicle crash rates by 40% or more compared to the previous year, were: ADM Trucking, AEP Industries, Contract Transportation Systems/The Sherwin Williams Company, Frito-Lay, Koch Foods and Orgill Transportation Co.

The Bronze Seal recognition was presented to companies that have reduced their vehicle crash rates by 20-39% from the previous year. The Bronze Seal winners were: ADM Trucking, Frito-Lay, and Orgill Transportation.

NPTC also honored four truck drivers by inducting them into the NPTC/Lytx Driver Hall of Fame.  Since its inception, 104 drivers have been inducted into the Driver Hall of Fame. The four honorees are from NPTC member companies and have met the minimum qualification of 20 years, 3 million miles or 50,000 hours of driving without a preventable accident.

This year’s Hall of Fame inductees were Scott G. Beck of Deseret Transportation; Larry Lloyd of Walgreens Oshkosh, assigned by CPC Logistics; George Newman of Frito-Lay, and John Tiemann of Kellogg Company.

Beck has driven more than 4.6 million miles over the course of 36 years, beginning his career with Deseret in 1980.

Lloyd has more than 3.25 million miles without an accident and has received no moving violations in more than 15 years.

Newman has been driving more than 46 years, accumulating 4.6 million accident-free and violation-free miles.

Tiemann has achieved 1.9 million miles without an accident or moving violation and has been driving professionally since 1978.

Lastly, NPTC recognized 78 transportation professionals who have achieved the designation of Certified Transportation Professional, which is awarded by the NPTC Institute. The NPTC Institute is the educational and professional certification arm of the NPTC. The graduates were honored during a ceremony at the Annual Conference.