CHARLOTTE—On March 4 at the Best Fleets to Drive For Education & Awards Conference at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, CarriersEdge named the winners of its 17th annual Best Fleets to Drive For program. The program identifies the top 20 for-hire carriers that provide the best workplace experiences for their drivers and contractors via surveys. Top awards fall within three categories: Best Overall Large Carrier, Best Overall Small Carrier, and the Hall of Fame Stratosphere Award.
Decker Truck Line of Fort Dodge, Iowa won in the large carrier category. It’s the fourth year the company has made the Top 20, and their first Best Overall Fleet award. The family-owned fleet has been operating since 1931 and prides itself on using new equipment—such as Peterbilt Model 579s and Volvo VNLs— with an emphasis on safety and maintenance.
Decker has “driver leaders” who “do everything for our drivers, and they know them inside and out— it's really important that they help [our drivers] succeed,” said Tamara O'Tool, VP of administration at Decker Truck Line.
She noted the fleet’s culture, which strives to make drivers more comfortable and feel like part of a team, has a “trickledown effect” on the business.
“Our goal is to make our drivers successful and so, obviously, our various departments and teams all work so closely together—from our safety team to HR to even accounting. And our maintenance team is amazing,” O’Tool continued.
“Since first cracking the Top 20 Best Fleets to Drive For list in 2022, Decker Truck Line has continued to improve its programs year after year while also maintaining strong safety and driver satisfaction numbers,” said Jane Jazrawy, CarriersEdge CEO.
K&J Trucking of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was named the Best Overall Fleet in the small carrier category. A four-time Best Fleets to Drive For Top 20 carrier and back-to-back overall winner in 2024, the contractor fleet founded in 1979 is the first to take home the trophy two years in a row since the small and large carrier categories were created 11 years ago.
K&J has 130 drivers (110 owner-operators) and has improved its turnover rate from 17% in 2019 to 8% in 2023, the company reported.
“K&J Trucking and Decker Truck Line rose to the top by continuing to elevate their workplace cultures and driver programs in the face of tough freight conditions,” Jazrawy said. “K&J Trucking, whose fleet is comprised mostly of independent contractors, continues to buck the industry perception that contractor fleets can’t offer an industry-best workplace for drivers."
CarriersEdge also presented the Stratosphere Award to Garner Trucking, Inc. of Findlay, Ohio. This award recognizes the top-scoring fleet in the Best Fleets Hall of Fame—a 'best of the best' bunch that can only be entered by staying in the top 20 Best Fleets for 10 consecutive years, or seven consecutive years plus one overall award. Fleets must requalify for this exclusive recognition every year.
“Members of the Best Fleets Hall of Fame continue to innovate and raise the bar for the industry,” Jazrawy said. “Garner has taken that even further, and their exceptional programs and driver satisfaction set a new standard of excellence for the industry.”
Continuous improvement and an eye on modernizing processes for younger generations are key to Garner’s success, said Sherri Garner Brumbaugh, president and CEO of Garner.
“You always try to do something better or improve or tweak it,” she said. “I think you have to change with the times…We have a younger generation, and so we have to figure out how better to communicate with them, so we can attract them to it.”
Here's the full list of recognized fleets:
2025 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
- 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 Limited – 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, Tennsesse
- TransLand – Strafford, Missouri
- Wellington Motor Freight – Aberfoyle, Ontario
2025 Best Fleets to Drive For Hall of Fame:
- Bison Transport Inc – Winnipeg, Manitoba
- Boyle Transportation, an Andlauer Healthcare Group Company – Billerica, Massachusetts
- Central Oregon Truck Company – a TFI International Company – Redmond, Oregon
- FTC Transportation, Inc. – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Garner Trucking, Inc – Findlay, Ohio
- Grand Island Express – Grand Island, Nebraska
- Halvor Lines, Inc. – Superior, Wisconsin
- Nussbaum Transportation Services, Inc – Hudson, Illinois
- Prime Inc. – Springfield, Missouri
- Transpro Freight Systems Limited – Milton, Ontario
In addition to the Top 20 and Hall of Fame, five Fleets to Watch (honorable mentions) were also identified:
- Quality Carriers, Inc. – Tampa, Florida
- S&H Express, Inc. – York, Pennsylvania
- Steve’s Livestock Transport – Blumenort, Manitoba
- USXL – Foristell, Missouri
- Williams Dedicated, LLC – Michigan City, Indiana
How to be considered
For consideration in the Best Fleets program, for-hire carriers operating 10 or more tractor-trailers must be nominated by a company driver or independent contractor working with them. Nominated fleets are then evaluated in areas such as driver compensation, pension and benefits, professional development, driver and community support, and safety records.
CarriersEdge states that The Best Fleets to Drive For contest accepts nominations from Labor Day to Halloween each year and reveals its Top 20 Best Fleets to Drive For winners each January. The highest-scoring fleet in each size category and top-scoring Hall of Fame member are then named overall winners during the Best Fleets to Drive For Education & Awards Conference.
