BOSTON — Beginning this month, The Trucker Media Group and PodWheels will debut a special series of feature stories and podcast episodes highlighting Transition Trucking’s Driving For Excellence Award.
Launched in 2015 as a collaborative initiative from Kenworth, Fastport and the US Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring Our Heroes Program, the Transition Trucking: Driving For Excellence Award recognizes the accomplishments of military veterans who have entered into careers as professional drivers.
Established in 2016 as a podcast network dedicated to spotlighting the trucking industry, PodWheels views the Driving For Excellence Award and Transition Trucking’s overall goal with the program to identify and reward drivers who successfully transitioned to the trucking industry following military service being well-aligned with the podcast network’s strength as a long-form storytelling platform that highlights the accomplishments of professional drivers.
The Driving For Excellence Award series will also provide PodWheels with an opportunity to expand its collaborative work with The Trucker Media Group, a source of trucking industry news, driver and mechanic recruiting, and product/service marketing targeting prospective CDL holders, professional drivers and carriers in the U.S.
“One of the true strengths of PodWheels’ approach to podcasting is our commitment to provide professional drivers opportunities to share their stories in their own words. Our PodWheels Team has long admired the collaborative work that Kenworth, Fastport and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have done for more than a decade in honoring our Veterans through Transition Trucking,” said Greg Thompson, founder and executive producer of PodWheels.
“The nominees for the Driving For Excellence Award are true inspirations,” he said. “We are looking forward to spotlighting their personal stories, and we believe that taking the time to better understand what brought them to trucking may also inspire other veterans as they look to transition in their careers and in their lives after military service.
About Transition Trucking’s Driving for Excellence Award
For the past 11 years, Kenworth, Fastport and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes have partnered in the search for America’s top rookie military veteran driver.
The process to find the Driving For Excellence Award winner begins each March with the opening of nominations from employers and credentialing institutions (CDL schools). The field of nominees produces a group of 11 semifinalists — the “Elite 11” — which will be announced early this month.
The finalists will be revealed in September, and the 2026 winner of the Transition Trucking: Driving For Excellence Award will be presented with the keys to a new Kenworth T680 tractor in mid-December.
“We are thrilled to add PodWheels and The Trucker to our marketing mix,” said Brad Bentley, president of Fastport. “Their consistent coverage will introduce new listeners and readers to the Transition Trucking contest.”
Through its Destinations Series, PodWheels is planning to present feature interviews with the 11 semifinalists who will be selected from the pool of nominees for the Driving For Excellence Award.
Onsite Coverage
During September, PodWheels will also be onsite in Ohio at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus as well as during the tour of Kenworth’s Chillicothe manufacturing plant — events that will honor the semifinalists and announce the finalists for the 2026 Driving For Excellence Award.
Starting in conjunction with the announcement of the semifinalists in early August and running through the presentation of the Kenworth T680 tractor to this year’s honoree in mid-December, PodWheels has plans to release 20 to 25 episodes of the special series that will highlight Transition Trucking and the Driving For Excellence Award.
Thompson will be conducting the interviews featured on the Destinations Series coverage of the Driving For Excellence Award. Meanwhile, in his role as a contributing writer for The Trucker Media Group, Thompson will be writing a series of feature stories for TheTrucker.com. The majority of Thompson’s written features will be inspired by his podcast interviews and notes gathered through the Transition Trucking coverage for the Destinations series on PodWheels.
In-depth features
“When PodWheels shared the coverage plans they had outlined for the Driving For Excellence Award and asked if we would be interested in feature articles written by Greg Thompson, that was an easy question to answer,” said Linda Garner-Bunch, managing editor for The Trucker.
“Our team at The Trucker Media Group has great respect for all veterans, and we believe it’s important to share stories highlighting trucking’s role for providing a solid career path after military service,” she said. “We are looking forward to the feature stories and podcast episodes that will be a part of the coverage of Transition Trucking’s Driving For Excellence Award.”
Coverage plans call for the podcast episodes to be available through PodWheels.com as well as all major podcast distribution services, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeart Podcasts and Pandora. PodWheels also plans to share videos from the interviews featured on the production company’s YouTube channel. In addition, PodWheels will be working with Transition Trucking to make video clips available for distribution over social media channels.
“For more than a decade, Transition Trucking has done an amazing job of creating a bright spotlight for Veterans who have chosen to write the next chapter of their professional lives from behind the wheel in the trucking industry,” Thompson said. “Our PodWheels Team is looking forward to spending time with the Driving For Excellence nominees and getting to know them as we work to share their stories. We view our ongoing work with The Trucker Media Group and our new collaboration with Transition Trucking as both a tremendous honor and a significant responsibility. We will be giving it our best with a focus on making sure that the Driving For Excellence nominees have every opportunity to shine.”
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
