NPTC/TransForce Group Present Professional Leadership Awards

ARLINGTON, VA –The National Private Truck Council (NPTC) and award program sponsor, TransForce Group, Inc. recognized eight private fleet professionals for their impressive contributions to the private fleet community. Since 1990, the NPTC Professional Leadership Awards have recognized those individuals who have positively impacted the National Private Truck Council, their profession, and the private trucking community. The recognition took place in conjunction with the NPTC Annual Education Management Conference and Exhibition held live and in-person April 10-12 in Cincinnati.

“Private fleets play a critical role in our national transportation infrastructure and the professionals who support this sector demonstrate their commitments to safety, efficiency and productivity every day,” stated NPTC President and CEO Gary Petty. “We are honored to acknowledge the efforts of these outstanding professionals who have made significant contribution to NPTC, their profession and the private trucking community.”

“We are honored to have the opportunity to support and recognize the accomplishments of these incredible individuals and companies in the private fleet community,” said Dennis Cooke, President and CEO of TransForce Group. “NPTC has created an incredible network and community to encourage the growth of this industry.”

The Council’s top award, the Dan Smith Lifetime Achievement Award, was presented to Edward Welch, CTP, MBA, Capital Sourcing Manager, Perdue Farms, Inc. Currently responsible for all Capital Expenditure & Fleet Procurement for Perdue Foods, Ed has also led transportation, maintenance, distribution center, and information technology operations during his 28 years with Perdue. He was the Top Graduate of the 2006 Certified Transportation Professional class. Ed received his business degree from Salisbury University in 1987 and graduated from Wilmington University’s Master of Business Administration program in 1998. He served as an adjunct professor with that institution for more than 12 years, teaching various economics, management, finance, transportation and logistics courses. Ed previously served on the NPTC Board of Directors and NPTC’s Institute Board of Governors and is currently on the NPTC National Advisory Board. He assisted NPTC as a faculty member for the Private Fleet Management Institute for more than 10 years. As a former U.S. Army officer, he served in diverse assignments including as a platoon leader at Fort Clayton, Panama and a company commander at Fort Lee, Virginia. His military awards include the Bronze Star for combat operations during Operation Just Cause in Panama. He lives in Ocean Pines, Maryland with his wife,Ticia, and is the proud father of two sons, Jamie and Jordan.

Recognized as the Private Fleet Executive of the Year was Scott Willert, CTP, President America’s Service Line, LLC and America’s Logistics, LLC (AML) located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. ASL is a refrigerated truckload carrier with over 200 trucks. AML is a logistics company that serves many customers, including American Foods Group, its sister company. In 2019, Scott led the effort to acquire Midwest Express, a 50-truck refrigerated fleet, and CDL Logistics, based in Grand Island, Nebraska. The integration of the two fleets and the two logistics companies has been very successful in providing capacity, service and solid financial performance which has enhanced the value of the Fleet and Transportation Services considerably. Scott has more than 30 years of Transportation and Logistics experience working for UPS, Kraft Foods and America’s Service Line. He has been actively involved in NPTC for many years participating on the conference planning committee, speaking at conferences, and currently serving on the Board of Governors and the Board of Directors as the PR / Marketing Committee Chair. Scott also serves on the Board of Directors for the Wisconsin Motor Carriers Association and is a member of the Executive Steering Committee for the Green Bay, Wisconsin Economic Development Board. He earned his CTP designation this year.

Randy Maddox, CTP, Region Category Manager – Mobile Equipment, CRH/Oldcastle Building Products was honored as the NPTC Private Fleet Manager of the Year. Randy is the America’s Regional Category Manager for Mobile Equipment with CRH/Oldcastle. CRH is based in Dublin, Ireland, but has operations in 29 countries around the globe. Randy is based in Tampa, FL where he is responsible for the procurement and life cost analysis of the private fleet of CRH in the United States, Canada, and South America. He is a 19-year veteran with CRH. Randy received his CTP designation in 2018. Today he works with both on-highway Class 5-8 and off-road earth moving construction equipment vehicles for all 189 affiliate companies of CRH across the Americas. Prior to CRH, Randy spent 15 years with Publix Supermarkets. Randy’s career path began in the warehouse and included involvement in forklifts, shipping and receiving, inventory control, dispatching and eventually becoming a Class A driver for Publix. Randy has been married to his wife, Amy, for 30 years and has two children. Their daughter is in her third year of UNC–Medical School and his son is a second year Professor of Mathematics at UNC-Charlotte. Randy completed his MBA in 2020 at Columbia Southern University.

Named as the Private Fleet Safety Professional of the Year was Tim Eckhardt, CTP, Director of Safety, Dot Transportation, Inc. Tim began his career with Dot Transportation in 2012 as a Sr. Transportation Manager and moved into the Director of Safety role in 2019. Tim and his team are responsible for overseeing D.O.T. Compliance, Driver Training, Accidents and Claims Management, and DTI’s In House CDL Schools for the Dot Transportation Fleet that consists of approximately 1,700 full time drivers in the United States and Canada. Tim and his team strive daily to ensure Dot Transportation has the safest and most professional drivers on the road. Tim has a B.S. from Eastern Illinois University and an MBA from William Woods University. He earned his CTP certification in 2018 and proudly holds a class A CDL. Tim serves on the Board of Directors, and Chairs the Safety Committee for NPTC. Tim and his wife and two sons and reside in Quincy, IL.

Lewis Allen, CTP, Director of Fleet Operations, Aaron’s, Inc. was named NPTC Excellence in Membership Award (Fleet). Lewis began his employment with Aaron’s in July 2006 and currently oversees a private fleet of 2,550 vehicles in the U.S.A. and Canada. He has more than 35 years of transportation experience to include Fleet, DOT Compliance, Safety, and Accident Management. Prior to Aaron’s, Lewis served in the U.S. Navy for six years, worked for UPS for five years, UPS Truck Leasing for three years, The Home Depot for 13 years, RR Donnelly Logistics and APX Logistics for three years. He earned a B.B.A. Management from Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA., and he received his Certified Transportation Professional (CTP) designation in 2014. Outside of work, Lewis enjoys, traveling, running, hiking, swimming, and anything else that involves physical activity, and is an active DIY-er enjoying the challenge of working on frequent updates/remodeling of his home.

Luann Dunkerley, Region Sales Manager, The CEI Group, received the NPTC Excellence in Membership Award (Allied). Luann is Regional Sales Manager for The CEI Group which is dedicated to Fleet Risk and Safety Services and Collision Repair Management. She has a deep passion for safety in our industry and joined NPTC 12 years ago after attending PFMI in Florida. After spending five days together with leadership and members of NPTC, she quickly realized that this was a very special organization and she wanted to become an active participant. During her tenure, she served two years on our Board of Directors and has served on Board of Governors for more than 10 years. Additionally, she has served on NPTC Safety Committee for all her years at NPTC. She has tremendous gratitude for the many friends she has met here and for our culture of genuine collaboration and sharing of best practices. In her words, “There is no other organization that is more meaningful to me professionally and personally than NPTC.”

The Allied Member of the Year was presented to International Truck. International is a Five-Star member of NPTC and values the trusted partnerships built over the past 90-plus years of membership and how this collaboration has moved the industry forward. International Truck shares NPTC’s focus on driver safety with its DriverFirst™ design philosophy and is honored to support the National Driver Safety Awards, Fall Safety Conference, Driver All-Star Awards in addition to its involvement in the annual conference. International has a complete lineup of class 5-8 commercial vehicles to serve the private fleets of North America and offers leading support through the industry’s largest service network with over 1,000 locations, all-makes OnCommand® Connection advanced connectivity services, and Fleetrite®, ReNEWeD® and Diamond Advantage® brand aftermarket parts. The brand has a history of innovation dating back to 1831 and will accelerate advanced technology developments in autonomy and its holistic approach electrification as part of TRATON SE, a global champion of the truck and transport services industry.

The final award, the NPTC Excellence in Backhauling Award, went to AutoZone, Inc., the largest retailer of aftermarket automotive parts and accessories in the United States. The company’s private fleet makes more than half a million store deliveries safely and on time each year to our 6,000+ domestic AutoZone retail stores. Operating at this scale requires the kind of flexibility a static fleet cannot offer. For the last 20 years, AutoZone has taken a unique approach to backhaul by partnering with its trusted vendor community. AutoZone works with key vendors and uses a combination of our private store delivery fleet and 3PL carriers to pickup/haul inbound product to AutoZone’s 10 distribution centers. Half of all inbound freight is moved this way allowing better visibility of purchase orders and improved lead times over vendor managed freight. A cross dock process combines these orders along with other AutoZone freight for more than 80% efficiency on daily outbound loads. This combination of AutoZone drivers and carriers allows the private fleet to be flexible with business needs so there is always capacity for on-time retail store deliveries. With operating at less than 1% inbound and outbound empty miles, the AutoZone private fleet has brought great value to the total business.

Recipients of the NPTC/TransForce Group, Inc. Professional Leadership Awards are (from left), Tim Eckhardt, CTP, Dot Transportation, Inc.; Luann Dunkerley, The CEI Group; Lewis Allen, CTP, Aaron’s Inc.; Scott Willert, CTP, America’s Service Line, LLC.; Ed Welch, CTP, Perdue Farms, Inc. Catherine Gammill, AutoZone; Randy Maddox, CTP, CRH/Oldcastle Building Products; and Bob Mann, International Truck/Navistar.

About NPTC

Founded in 1939, the National Private Truck Council is the only national trade association exclusively representing the interests of the private truck industry and corporate/business private truck fleet management. With an actively engaged leadership team of Board representatives, member volunteers and staff, NPTC in the past decade has grown significantly to serve a rising professional class of private fleet practitioners meeting the challenges of modern corporate transportation. NPTC is the leading learning resource center, government affairs advocate, and business networking culture for America’s top private fleet and supplier member companies.  The Council produces benchmarking, best practices, and economic data reports on the private fleet market; administers the highly regarded Certified Transportation Professional (CTP) training program, and conducts some of the most successful events in the trucking industry including the Annual Education Management Conference and Exhibition, the Private Fleet Management Institute, and the National Safety Conference. For more information about the Council’s activities and programs, visit our website at nptc.org.

About TransForce Group

TransForce Group is a recognized leader in the transportation and logistics industry offering innovative and integrated, technology-enabled solutions to third-party logistics, private fleets, and trucking companies to accelerate their growth, improve efficiencies and solve organizational demands. From increased driver application flow through digital marketing to full and partial outsourced recruiting capabilities, TransForce Group continues to actively expand and diversify their portfolio ahead of industry trends. The company continues to lead the industry in innovative driver shortage solutions by enrolling new CDL students (many of them veterans) and guiding them from the classroom through their career as a professional driver, boasting an above-industry-average, diverse driver workforce. The company recently and successfully launched TF1, a digital network of prequalified, ready-to-work, CDL-licensed drivers matched in real-time with available jobs. TransForce Group operates throughout the U.S. and Canada. Additional information about TransForce Group can be found at transforce.com.