FleetOwner is seeking nominations for the 2025 Private Fleet of the Year Awards, sponsored by Descartes Systems. The awards will be presented to winning fleet executives during the National Private Truck Council conference in Orlando this May.
Nominations are open to any private carriers and transportation operations and can be made by customers, suppliers, drivers, or the fleet itself. FleetOwner editors select winners of the annual awards based on private fleets’ accomplishments, safety records, technology adoption, community outreach, and other factors. It’s all about appreciating excellence in trucking by the fleets that keep retail, construction, food service, utility, and other businesses running.
"Descartes is extremely proud to help FleetOwner shine a light on these private carriers that embody the spirit of our trucking industry,” Cyndi Brandt, VP of fleet solutions for Decartes, said. “These fleets are early adopters of technology, operate very safely and efficiently, and give back to the communities in which they reside. These attributes align with Descartes’ primary mission of supplying best-in-class technology solutions to our fleet customers."
NPTC describes a private fleet as an in-house truck fleet operation, often incorporated as a separate company, in service to a parent corporation whose primary business, such as manufacturing or retailing, is not trucking. However, private fleets may have their own operating authority to act as a for-hire carrier to produce revenue and lower net operating costs by selling the capacity of the private fleet not used or required by the parent company.
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America’s Service Line, the private fleet for American Foods Group, was the 2024 FleetOwner Private Fleet of the Year. Other past winners include CRH Americas, AutoZone, Standard Logistics, Pacific Gas & Electric, Meijer Logistics, Hillyard, Dot Transportation, Tyson Foods, Safelite, and Frito-Lay.
“We try to be the best private fleet that we can be and the best trucking company that we can be,” Scott Willert, ASL’s president, told FleetOwner for a feature story on his fleet. “Our owner told me once that he really appreciates that I treat this like a trucking company. It goes without saying that we greatly value our employees, but we also value this as a business and look to do as well as we can to provide return for our internal and external stakeholders.”
The winning fleets will be honored during a May 13 ceremony at NPTC’s annual Education Management Conference and Exhibition in Orlando. Winning fleets will also be featured in the June 2025 print and online editions of FleetOwner magazine. The annual FleetOwner 500: Top Private Fleets, which recognizes the largest of the more than 200,000 companies operating private fleets in the U.S., will be unveiled in print and online before the conference.
To enter the 2025 FleetOwner Private Fleet of the Year contest, complete this online entry form by March 15. There is no entry fee. Entries will be judged on a private fleet’s operation objectives related to safety culture, performance metrics, community outreach, efficiency initiatives, and how the fleet has overcome any challenges over the past year.
