Lasting legacy: MBH secures spot among safest bulk fleets

Brian Hitchcock, founder and CEO of MBH Trucking, still pilots his fully customized Peterbilt 379 at 64 years old. Yes, he enjoys it. His father and grandfather also drove trucks, so it’s in his blood. But, more pertinently, he’s determined to do whatever it takes to preserve the family business amid growing challenges, like rising equipment costs and worker shortages.

“I used to drive for fun,” he said. “Now I do it because we don’t have enough people.”

MBH does, however, have a growing reputation for operational excellence that today includes a Heil trophy, a legacy-boosting honor Hitchcock hopes will help him secure the company’s future for his sons—MBH general managers Rick and Jordan Hitchcock—by attracting first-class customers and employees who stick with them. The Webberville, Michigan-based bulk hauler collected the prestigious award in April at National Tank Truck Carriers’ 2025 Annual Conference in Tampa, Florida, where it emerged as the North American safety champion in the Sutherland division for for-hire carriers with less than 15 million miles.

“For generations, our family has wanted to be known as the best, and this safety award makes me feel that way,” Brian beamed. “We’ve done the best job we could for many years to get to this point—and we’re only one second away from everything changing—so we’re very grateful.”

MBH, which transports fertilizers, liquid sweeteners, and diesel exhaust fluid to seven Midwest states and Ontario, Canada, with 24 trucks and 40 tank trailers, didn’t have a dedicated safety director before Susan Sanderson, HR and safety manager, arrived in 2009. Now it’s in its third consecutive year without a DOT-recordable accident thanks to Brian’s steadfast commitment to steadily expanding its safety processes and procedures, maintaining elite equipment, and utilizing Samsara cameras and alerts to coach up its safety-conscious professional drivers.

“It was a goal of mine to help Brian win this award, so I got emotional when he gave me the news,” Sanderson shared.

“It was really quite awesome.”

Family-first operation

Brian founded MBH in 1998. But the family’s transportation story started much earlier. Lyman B. Hitchcock, Brian’s grandfather, began hauling bagged fertilizer in 1953; and Allen and Dorothy Hitchcock, Brian’s parents, founded A&D Hitchcock Trucking in 1960. Brian worked with his parents, and then his brother, Brad—who still operates Hitchcock Trucking in Webberville—before venturing off on his own with two trucks and two tankers to haul liquid fertilizer for a local plant.

“As the need for liquid bulk transportation grew, we grew with it, and it’s been a good business,” Brian said.

Brian’s sons joined MBH as soon as they graduated from high school. Rick, 42, gravitated toward operations, and now oversees dispatching, billing, and payroll; and Jordan, 39, who always preferred working with the equipment, now manages maintenance and repair activities, and truck and trailer purchasing and spec’ing. Brian’s third son, Ryan, 33, is not directly involved with MBH but serves as project coordinator, and his excavating company recently installed 5 million gallons of tank storage for MBH’s sister operation, Chloride Solutions, which provides liquid calcium chloride for local dust control and ice management.

See also: NTTC crowns 2024 Heil champions

“Ryan took care of everything involved with that project,” Rick said. “That was huge for us.”

MBH downsized during the Covid-19 pandemic, primarily due to complications with international trade and transportation. But the company has been “very fortunate” during the lingering freight recession and tariff-induced economic uncertainty, Rick said, maintaining steady business by providing safe and reliable service to loyal customers—and a family-first environment for its dedicated drivers and office personnel.    

“The Hitchcock family is wonderful—every single one of them,” Sanderson attested. “They’re down-to-earth people, and they want to keep their employees happy because they want them here for the long run.”

Steady improvement

Safety is paramount to happiness, and long-term job satisfaction, and Sanderson has labored tirelessly to build out MBH’s safety program since arriving 16 years ago. “Brian had never had a safety person, so he brought me in to get the safety department up and running, and develop written policies or procedures. None of that was set up yet,” Sanderson recalled.

“They gave me the opportunity to come in and start from scratch.”

The trucking veteran went to work immediately, leaning on her experience as safety and environmental manager at Davis Cartage to begin establishing MBH’s safety program, including creating a manual for drivers, recording rules for cross-border transportation, and championing inward- and outward-facing Samsara cameras—which Brian first piloted in his own vehicle to encourage driver buy-in—for alerts and liability protection. She also keeps MBH informed of changing regulations and helps conveys that information to drivers in a way that makes sense, Jordan added. “Since she came on, every year, every six months, every quarter, we’ve gotten a little bit better,” Rick agreed. “And it hasn’t always been easy. Sometimes, it’s painful.

“You can’t just write up a policy and say, ‘Yup, we’re safe now.’ It doesn’t work that way.”

Samsara’s system, which also enables post-incident coaching and hands-free communication through drivers’ electronic-logging devices, has played a critical role in MBH’s safety improvement, Sanderson said. But nothing is more impactful on highway safety—and MBH covered 1.9 million miles with a .000 accident frequency in 2024—than expertly educated, highly capable humans who care about their customers, equipment, and each other, Brian insisted.

MBH utilizes online training supplied by its auto and health insurance providers, and thoroughly vetted prospects first ride and then drive with driver trainers until they’re comfortable on their own.

“Everybody wants a .000 accident ratio, and fortunately we’re one of the few carriers who’ve done that,” said Brian, who’s on the Michigan Truck Safety Commission and a past president of the Michigan Trucking Association. “But staying safe in today’s society is a never-ending process, especially with some of the new technologies that are eroding common sense.”

Equipment reliability

How does MBH encourage its 25 company drivers to appreciate their equipment? By supplying them with clean, well-maintained trucks and tank trailers that don’t break down on the roadside—or frustrate them at shipper facilities—boosting driver retention and dependability. “There’s a level of comfort for customers when the same drivers are coming in, they have nice equipment, and they’re not struggling, or sitting there, unable to load, because their trailer has an issue,” Rick said. “That doesn’t happen at MBH. We’re going to be there, ready to work.

“That’s been our signature for years.”

MBH maintains two two-bay facilities for vehicle maintenance and cleaning. The shop includes one bay for service and repairs and another for trailer prepping, and the wash rack boasts bays for external truck and internal tank cleaning. The carriers’ three-man maintenance team can diagnose powertrain and aftertreatment issues with OEM software, and upfit tanks with auxiliary equipment, like the spray systems on Chloride Solutions trailers; and DVIR updates delivered via Samsara devices keep them apprised of any problems. “We’re an hour away from the closest dealers, so we had to get into doing a lot of things ourselves,” Jordan said.

Trucks are mostly Peterbilt sleeper cabs sourced from JX Truck Center and Reefer Peterbilt, along with a handful of Western Stars from D&K Truck. MBH equips a few Ranger positive displacement pumps for high-viscosity products like molasses, but most trucks feature MP Flomax 15 self-priming pumps. “They can move fluids at 260 gallons per minute, and that’s crucial for us,” Jordan said.

“Our guys want to be in and out of places in 45 minutes.”

DOT 407 stainless-steel tankers by Polar Tank, Wabash (Brenner), and MAC LTT—and sourced from Superior Tank—vary in length, capacity, and configuration. MBH runs pups, 11,000-gallon double conicals, heavy-duty eight-axle units, and doubles in Michigan, where the carrier can legally scale up to 110,000 lbs. of payload. Most trailers feature hydraulic lines, Hendrickson suspensions and tire pressure monitoring systems, Michelin and Yokohama super-single tires, Bendix air disc brakes, and additional rear lighting from Grote or Truck-Lite—and they all sport regularly replaced reflective tape.

“If there’s an issue, we address it immediately,” Rick confirmed.

Safety-focused service

MBH leaders put people first, emphasize continuous safety improvement, and run first-class equipment.

That’s why the carrier is a 2024 NTTC safety champion.

Brian grew emotional while accepting the Heil trophy, and Sanderson was equally overcome receiving the news she’d hope to hear since MBH first started entering the North American safety contest in 2021. “I was surprised, to be honest,” Rick said. “We’re just a needle in a haystack, so I was definitely taken aback.” Jordan, however, wasn’t surprised. “I know everybody here works very hard to stay safe,” he said. “But it’s a pretty sweet accomplishment.”

The championship isn’t MBH’s first NTTC honor. It also won personnel safety awards in 2021 and 2023 and Grand awards in 2023 and 2024. But it is the sweetest, especially for the drivers, many of whom have stopped to admire the trophy. “They’ll say, ‘Wow, this really is cool,’” Sanderson said. “And I tell them, ‘You guys won that. We have it because of your safety—so thank you very much.’”

MBH already is incorporating the championship logo into emails, bills of lading, and clothing, and contemplating the additional benefits of an award-winning safety reputation yet to come. Rick hopes it helps MBH convince insurers it can successfully train less experienced drivers. “One of the first things we did after winning was compile an email chain with the logo and send it off to our insurance company, like, ‘Hey, we’re not so bad after all,” he said. The company also continues to grow and evolve, recently upgrading to a Toro transportation management system while considering upgrading video-safety telematics and searching for new ways to keep veteran drivers involved, and younger people interested.

And Brian—whose father still helps deliver bagged fertilizer part-time in his custom Peterbilt 389—is determined to stick around as long as it takes to make sure his family’s trucking legacy is safely secured in the next generation’s hands, even if that means never fully hanging up his keys. “It has been an amazing journey that I could not be any more grateful for, and the spinoffs of everything we’ve done so far will be even greater,” he predicted.

“I have 11 grandchildren coming up, and the platform is there for them to do anything they want to do.”