Nashville, Tennessee:

The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) and its partner CarriersEdge have unveiled the overall winners of the 2017 Best Fleets to Drive For contest and survey. The Best Overall Fleet for the small category, sponsored by Bose Ride, is Grand Island Express of Grand Island, Nebraska. Bison Transport of Winnipeg, Manitoba, is the Best Overall Fleet for the large carrier category, sponsored by EpicVue. The winners were announced during TCA’s Annual Convention, which takes place March 26-29 at the Gaylord Opryland.

View photos of the awards presentation. Additional images will be added soon.

Best Fleets to Drive For is an annual survey and contest that recognizes North American for-hire trucking companies providing the best workplace experiences for their drivers. To participate, fleets must be nominated by a company driver or independent contractor working with them, after which they are evaluated across a broad range of categories reflecting current best practices in human resources. The 20 top finishers are identified as Best Fleets to Drive For and then divided in half according to size. The highest scoring fleet in each category is named overall winner.

This is the sixth consecutive time that Grand Island Express (GIX) has landed in the Top 20 Best Fleets to Drive For. With only 143 drivers/owner operators, the company continues to pull ahead of the pack on adopting new technology. For instance, it now conducts monthly driver meetings via WebEx so drivers can call in or join via mobile app if they can’t attend in person. This practice is fairly common among larger carriers, but is unusual in companies as small as GIX.The company also conducts quarterly driver surveys to gauge satisfaction levels and collect feedback on current issues.

Bison Transport has placed in the Top 20 for seven of the nine years since the Best Fleets program was initiated. This year, recognizing a demographic shift among its drivers, Bison added a new, entry-level program specifically for team drivers. It also expanded the communication touchpoints during onboarding for all drivers, which helps people get up-to-speed more quickly.

Both GIX and Bison have been overall winners twice in the past, making this the third time each has been recognized.

“To claim the title of Overall Winner even once requires a strong combination of outstanding programs, high satisfaction levels, and great results in safety and retention,” said John Lyboldt, TCA’s president. “To do it three times is an unbelievable achievement that both companies should be very proud of.”

Jane Jazrawy, chief executive officer of CarriersEdge, said, “For 2017’s program, we had to adjust scoring levels more significantly than ever before, since fleets are doing so many more things for their drivers than we’ve seen in past years. The fact that these two previous winners are once again at the top of the list shows just how much effort they put into building great workplaces for their drivers. Their commitment to their people is clearly paying off.”

The Best Fleets to Drive For survey and contest was open to any fleet operating 10 trucks or more, regardless of TCA membership status. Nominated fleets were evaluated in areas like driver compensation, pension and benefits, professional development, driver and community support, and safety record.

For more information about the Best Fleets to Drive For program, please visit www.BestFleetstoDriveFor.com. You can also follow TCA on Twitter (www.truckload.org/Twitter) or Facebook (www.truckload.org/Facebook) or search the hashtag #BestFleets17 on social media networks.