Working in collaboration with The Trucker Media Group, the Destinations Podcast Series from PodWheels opens its coverage highlighting the 2026 edition of the Transition Trucking: Driving For Excellence Award. PodWheels has produced a video podcast edition of Destinations with an extensive conversation featuring Fastport President Brad Bentley and three members of the Driving For Excellence Award selection committee. Watch the video at the bottom of this story, or click here to watch on YouTube.
In the segment led by Greg Thompson, executive producer for PodWheels, the initial Destinations episode covering Transition Trucking looks back at the 11-year history of what began as a collaborative initiative from Kenworth, Fastport and the US Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring Our Heroes Program. Bentley recalls how the Driving For Excellence Award grew out of conversations with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hiring Our Heroes, spotlighting the need for a pathway that could lead veterans into trucking and, eventually, entrepreneurship.
The road to owning a truck and starting a trucking business, as noted in the opening episode, has certainly been paved quite nicely by the support of Kenworth over the history of the program. As Bentley points out in the interview, the grand prize for the 2026 Driving For Excellence Award winner will be a new Kenworth T680 truck, equipped with a 76-inch sleeper and the PACCAR Powertrain.
For 2026, as a way to honor the 11th anniversary of the program, the semifinalists’ stage of the Driving For Excellence Award will have an Elite 11. At the 16-minute mark of the episode, we will watch as Bentley shares the names of Elite 11 driving professionals who made it through the nomination process and into the Transition Trucking: Driving For Excellence semifinal round.
Speaking of the selection process, this edition of the podcast will also feature interesting perspectives from three of the members of the Driving For Excellence Award Committee. This part of the conversation offers both memories of past years and initial thoughts coming into this year’s Driving For Excellence Award from Brad Klepper, president of Drivers Legal Plan, Martin Garsee, the executive director of the National Association of Publicly Funded Truck Driving Schools, and Elisabeth Barna, the founder of EAB Strategies and a longtime advocate involved with the image of the trucking industry.
As they share in the podcast, Klepper and Garsee have been a part of the selection committee from Day 1, while Barna joined the group following the launch of her consulting firm after a long tenure serving as an executive with the American Trucking Associations. Barna, Garsee and Klepper see their work on the committee as an honor, and they are looking forward to getting started with the process of reviewing the nominations of the Elite 11 for 2026.
In the coming weeks, PodWheels will be conducting feature interviews with each member of the Elite 11. Those interviews will be shared through the PodWheels Destinations Series and by The Trucker Media Group. Each member of the Elite 11 will also have a feature story that will be shared by The Trucker. To hear the latest episode in the Destinations Podcast Series from PodWheels, click here.
Linda Garner-Bunch has been with The Trucker since 2020, picking up the reins as managing editor in 2022. Linda has nearly 40 years of experience in the publishing industry, covering topics from the trucking and automotive industry to employment, real estate, home decor, crafts, cooking, weddings, high school sports — you name it, she’s written about it. She is also an experienced photographer, designer and copy editor who has a heartfelt love for the trucking industry, from the driver’s seat to the C-suite.
