Pinnacle of protection: Heniff, Usher, SWTO secure safety titles

BALTIMORE, Maryland—Dan Furth used to hand out Heil trophies. This year, he’s taking one back to the home office.

The former National Tank Truck Carriers president, now chief relationship officer at Heniff Transportation Systems, was in the Heniff contingent on hand to accept the carrier’s first official North American safety championship as the Harvison-division winner Wednesday during the 2026 NTTC Annual Conference at the Marriott Baltimore Waterfront hotel. “Everybody kept telling me, ‘Hey, nice win.’ But I didn’t do anything,” said Furth, who made his first appearance at an NTTC event since serving as the association’s president from 2012 to 2020. “It’s our safety team and the folks who move our trucks around. And we’ve got a great thing going here. We wouldn’t have won Grand awards three of the last six years if we didn’t.

Heniff was one of three companies that collected Heil trophies in NTTC’s 2025 North American Safety Contest. Usher Transport—which is on the cover of the April/May issue of Bulk Transporter in celebration of its 80th anniversary—won the small-carrier Sutherland division to secure its third trophy; and SWTO, the fuel-hauling fleet for 7-Eleven—which also had a Champion Finalist in the Driver of the Year contest—collected its first trophy in the private-fleet division. “The drivers and companies being recognized today are setting the standard for operational excellence,” said Derek Barrs, administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, who was the keynote speaker at the awards luncheon. “You're demonstrating what is possible whenever you do things right, and that kind of leadership is pivotal to us at FMCSA and across the country, so we want to recognize that.

“It shapes behavior, and it shapes expectations.”

Heniff’s championship is the first for the company founded by Bob Heniff in 1998 in Oakbrook, Illinois, that will go down as a Heniff win on the all-time list. But the operation boasts four other Outstanding Performance trophies obtained through acquisitions. Miller Transporters, which Heniff purchased in 2018, prevailed in 2006 and 2015; Superior Carriers, acquired in 2019, won in 2013; and Lemmon Transport, which Superior absorbed in 1984, won in 1978. “This is a very proud day for the entire Heniff organization,” Heniff’s chief executive officer said in a release. “We’ve reached the top of our division three times in the past six years, which really speaks to the company’s ongoing commitment to safety. That commitment is our top guiding principle and one shared by our entire workforce.”

Heniff’s professional drivers combined to record a division-clinching DOT accident frequency of 0.160 while traveling 113 million miles in 2025, helping the Class 1 carrier edge out the other four finalists in the Harvison division for carriers whose trucks ran more than 15 million miles in 2025, including Grand award winners Oakley Transport, (Class 2, 1.168), Ergon Trucking (Class 3, 0.134), LGT Transport (Class 4, 0.116), and Tidewater Transit (Class 5, 0.191).

“This Heil award means a great deal to our organization because it validates that we do things the right way to stay safe,” said Leon Lupina, vice president of safety, who accepted Heniff’s award. “At the end of every year, when we’re setting our safety goals for the upcoming year, every VP or safety director in the organization will bring a Heil trophy to one of those calls, so we all start off with high expectations and work hard to keep everybody safe. It takes a real team effort to evolve and maintain a culture of safety every day, and I’m very fortunate to be part of a tremendous group of professionals at Heniff Transportation and its companies.

“Safety is truly our top priority.”

Usher, a family-owned bulk hauler based in Kentucky, previously won North American safety championships in 2001 and 2012, both before the contest split into multiple categories in 2014. The Class 6 carrier emerged with an accident frequency of 0.152 while competing against 10 other Sutherland-division Grand award winners, including RST Industries in Class 7; Iowa Tanklines, Liquid Cargo Group, and Reed Hurst Trucking in Class 8; Ee-Jay Motor Transports and Chemical South Transport in Class 9; and Weaver Bros., Lacy’s Express, Ventura Transfer, and MBH Trucking in Class 10—who all posted 0.000 accident frequencies.

Beau Mosley, Usher executive vice president and chief risk officer, insisted that Usher President and CEO Ryan Usher join him on stage after accepting the award. “I didn’t know he was going to do that,” Ryan said, drawing a laugh from the crowd. “Beau is such an integral part of this team. It’s a family-owned business, but you don’t need to have our last name to make a difference here. So, I’m proud to be part of this, and I’m proud to be part of National Tank Truck Carriers, and the environment this has created to keep striving for excellence.”

Mosley credited the company’s “unapologetically” high standards for operational excellence and integrity; and thanked God, his family, his safety team, and Usher’s leaders for putting people first on the good and bad days. “When I look at the Heil trophy—which is awesome to look at—it represents God’s goodness, his faithfulness and provisions, it represents the lives saved, collisions and injuries that didn’t happen, prospering families, and the men and women who drive our trucks getting to go home to their loved ones at the end of the day.”

SWTO’s Jarrod Alsobrooks didn’t take home the William A. Usher Sr. trophy. That award went to G&D Trucking/Hoffman Transportation’s Bruce Jones, the newly crowned 2025-26 Driver of the Year. But Alsobrooks did contribute to SWTO’s first team championship, helping the Class 2 contestant post a 0.237 accident frequency in the private-fleet division, which included Grand recipients Pilot (Class 1, 0.306), R.B. Stewart (Class 3, 0.000), Sapphire Gas Solutions (Class 4, 0.000), Poolsure (Class 5, 0.000), and Chevron Phillips Chemical (Class 5, 0.000).

“The leadership at SWTO, and especially Archie Wood, our [director of transport operations], have created and cultivated, and continue to maintain, a culture within our organization that makes safety our top priority,” said Ronnie McCoy, manager of fleet safety, training, and compliance.

“All operational decisions are made with safety in mind.”

Every contestant was rated on five critical factors, including accident frequency, as determined by DOT recordable incidents; safety record improvement; vehicle maintenance, driver training, and controls; personnel safety; and other contributions to the cause of highway safety, particularly as it applies to the tank truck industry. This year’s judges were David Heller (Truckload Carriers Association), Robyn Kinsley (The Chlorine Institute), Gaige Ash (Plastics Industry Association), and Bill Reese (Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance).

Previous Heil trophy winners (since the contest split into multiple divisions) include:

• 2014: Tidewater Transit, Harvison; Wynne Transport, Sutherland
• 2015: Miller Transporters, Harvison; Carbon Express, Sutherland
• 2016: Groendyke Transport, Harvison; GLS Transport, Sutherland
• 2017: Gemini Motor Transport, Harvison; G&D Trucking/Hoffman Transportation, Sutherland
• 2018: Groendyke Transport, Harvison; Tandet Logistics, Sutherland
• 2019: Trimac Transportation, Harvison; G&D Trucking/Hoffman Transportation, Sutherland
• 2020: Suttles Truck Leasing, Harvison; LSP Transport, Sutherland
• 2021: Service Transport Company, Harvison; Lacy’s Express, Sutherland
• 2022: Tandet Logistics, Harvison; Harmac Transportation, Sutherland; Gemini Motor Transport, private
• 2023: Groendyke Transport, Harvison; G&D Trucking/Hoffman Transportation, Sutherland; Gemini Motor Transport, private
• 2024: Trimac Transportation, Harvison; MBH Trucking, Sutherland; LSP Transport, private