On Monday, June 17, Kottke Trucking and the 18 Wheelers Walk In The Park team held our 13^th annual Golf Towards A Cure golf outing at beautiful Oakdale Golf Club just north of Buffalo Lake. Despite having to dodge the occasional raindrop, it was a beautiful day to come together to raise $13,341.

As always, the event was a success thanks to all our participants from our wonderful customers, vendors, local businesses and community organizations. We thank you all for your support and sponsorship of this wonderful event.

We’d also like to send a special thanks to Oakdale Golf Club for sponsoring the event.

The day is always one of our favorites of the year and we thank everyone who participated and donated both their valuable time and money to help in the battle to defeat cancer.

The 14^th Annual Golf Towards A Cure event is set for June 22, 2019, the Monday after Father’s Day, at Oakdale Golf Club.

What is Walk In The Park? This pas year our Relay was saved by combining our efforts with the RC Hospital Foundation and developing a new Relay that we named “Walk In The Park”. With this new partnership we can focus our efforts on local needs of those facing the battle and be directly involved with supporting cancer research projects and Hope Lodge. We have a standing friendship with the American Cancer Society and they are very supportive of our efforts. A link to the Walk in the Park Facebook page can be found here.

Kottke Trucking is proud to announce that Paul Wright has been named the 2019 First Quarter Jim Doering Award of Excellence Winner. Wright has been with Kottke Trucking since February 2017 and has been driving professionally for over a decade. It has been great having Paul as part of the Kottke Trucking family for the past two years.

Wright’s nominator said in nominating him that Paul is always on-time and always lets us know what is going on with him out on the road. Paul always says that he drives a company truck and he will do whatever we need him to do.

Paul shows that great attitude and dedication every single day. We thank Paul for being an integral part of the Kottke Trucking family!

The Jim Doering Award of Excellence was established in 2014 in honor of Kottke Trucking’s first employee and nearly 40-year employee Jim Doering. The award is designed to honor a driver each quarter that has the same great qualities that made Jim such a special man. The four winners of the quarterly Jim Doering Award of Excellence are also the finalists for the Duane and Connie Kottke Distinguished Driver of the Year Award.

Congrats, Paul! Thank you for your hard work and dedication for Kottke Trucking!

Kurt Kottke with Paul Wright.

Apparently, we hit gold ten years ago here at Kottke Trucking. A little over a month ago, we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of Sue Krumrey #BleedingBlue with us. Now today, we get to celebrate another 10-year milestone!!

May marks the 10-year anniversary for Brandon Antonsen being full-time with us at Kottke Trucking. Brandon actually started with us in 2008 while completing mechanics courses, became full-time in 2009 and the rest is history.

Thank you, Brandon, for being a pivotal cornerstone to our shop and the Kottke Trucking family. Brandon is our longest tenured mechanic in the Buffalo Lake shop and we thank him for #BleedingBlue with us, and putting up with us, for over a decade now.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Kory Kottke (far left), Kyle Kottke (middle right) and Dustin Berger (far right) presenting Brandon Antonsen (middle left) with his 10 year service award.

You have seen this year that we have introduced the phrase, and the hashtag, #BleedingBlue in a lot of the things that we do. While we have been practicing what bleeding blue is for, well, over 80 years now, we have been trying to put it into words for only the past few months.

Bleeding blue is about being dedicated, being a team player, doing it the right way, doing it with integrity and doing it all with family values firmly in mind. Bleeding blue is our core values wrapped up into one phrase.

If you took bleeding blue and personified it, it would result in Sue Krumrey. She is so in-step with our core values that you can tell that she has been bleeding blue for a while now. In fact, she’s officially been a part of the Kottke Trucking family for 10 years now.

We’d like to take this moment to recognize Sue for everything that she does for Kottke Trucking. We could go on and on, but after all these years we know we’ve probably already written way too much if she had her way about it.

Thank you, Sue, for bleeding blue for a decade now, for being a great team player and, most importantly, being a great member of the Kottke Trucking family.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

The Kottke Family

Kurt Kottke presenting Sue Krumrey with her Ten Year Service Award.

On January 7, 2019, the Truckload Carrier Association (TCA) announced their division winners for its 43rd Annual Fleet Safety Awards. We are excited and proud to pass along that, for the second year in a row, Kottke Trucking has been named the safest fleet in Division III (carriers with 15-24.99 million miles).

This recognition is a reflection of the remarkable drivers we have as part of our Kottke Trucking family. To earn the award and then earn it again is a testament to the fact that we truly have one of the best fleets in the trucking industry. We thank every member of the Kottke Trucking family for working to achieve this award, especially to the drivers for their millions and millions of safe miles.

Congratulations to our whole Kottke Trucking family. Also, congratulations to the other 18 winning companies.

We will now move on to compete for one of two grand prizes awarded by TCA.

The following is the press release that the TCA sent out on January 7, 2019:

TCA Announces Division Winners in 43^rd Annual Fleet Safety Awards

Eighteen Companies with Outstanding Safety Records Now Eligible for Two Grand Prizes

Alexandria, Virginia:

The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) has selected 18 companies as division winners in its 43rd Annual Fleet Safety Awards. Sponsored by Great West Casualty Company, the awards recognize trucking companies who have demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to safety. The top three winning companies in each of six mileage-based divisions had the lowest accident frequency ratios per million miles, annually.

“Year after year, TCA’s members prove that safety is the top priority of the truckload industry through participation in the Fleet Safety Awards,” said TCA President John Lyboldt. “We are incredibly proud to recognize and showcase these fleets, which have maintained a superb safety record through their use of innovative programs to establish a culture of safety within their companies.”

All division winners are invited to compete for one of two grand prizes – one for carriers with a total annual mileage less than 25 million miles, and the other for carriers with mileage greater than 25 million miles. The two overall grand prize winners will be announced at TCA’s 81st Annual Convention at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort, March 10-13, 2019. All winners will receive recognition at TCA’s 2019 Safety & Security Division Meeting, June 2-4 at the Guest House at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee.

Here are the 2018 Fleet Safety Awards winners:

Division I Winners

(less than 5 million miles)

1st Place – Tri Alexander Transportation – Muskogee, OK

2nd Place – Specialty Transport, Inc. – Knoxville, TN

3rd Place – Searcy Specialized – Harrison, OH

Division II Winners

(5-14.99 million miles)

1st Place – M&W Transportation – Nashville, TN

2nd Place – Britton Transport Inc. – Grand Forks, ND

3rd Place – Convoy Systems, LLC – Kansas City, KS

Division III Winners

(15-24.99 million miles)

1st Place – Kottke Trucking, Inc. – Buffalo Lake, MN

2nd Place – Grand Island Express – Grand Island, NE

3rd Place – V&S Midwest Carriers Corp. – Kaukauna, WI

Division IV Winners

(25-49.99 million miles)

1st Place – Trans-West Logistics – Lachine, QC

2nd Place – Hill Brothers Transportation – Omaha, NE

3rd Place – Doug Andrus Distributing – Idaho Falls, ID

Division V Winners

(50-99.99 million miles)

1st Place – Groupe Robert, Inc. – Rougemont, QC

2nd Place- Freymiller – Oklahoma City, OK

3rd Place – Halvor Lines, Inc. – Superior, WI

Division VI Winners

(100 million or more miles)

1st Place – Bison Transport – Winnipeg, MB

2nd Place – May Trucking Co., Inc. – Salem, OR

3rd Place- Contract Freighters, Inc. – Joplin, MO

For more information about TCA’s Fleet Safety Awards, including eligibility requirements and rules, visit the Fleet Safety Awards page. To view images from historic Fleet Safety Awards presentations, visit TCA’s Flickr.

On January 5, 2019, Kottke Trucking held its Fifth Annual Duane and Connie Kottke Distinguished Driver of the Year Banquet at Jackpot Junction Casino and Hotel in Morton, Minnesota. At the event, the Fifth Annual Duane and Connie Kottke Distinguished Driver of the Year Award was presented to John Flathau.

Flathau has been with Kottke Trucking since 2007 and has been in the trucking industry for three decades. Flathau was named the 2018 Third Quarter Jim Doering Award of Excellence recipient which qualified him for the Duane and Connie Kottke Distinguished Driver of the Year Award.

Kottke Trucking’s statement on Flathau:

John Wooden once said, ‘The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.’ And that makes a great driver. A driver’s boss isn’t standing over his shoulder for 40 hours a week. A great driver is great when no one is watching and that describes John Flathau.

At Kottke Trucking, we have set our sights on being a company that stands for family values, teamwork, integrity, doing things the right way and dependability. John is all of these things, he does them all well and is a role model to other drivers and everyone in our Kottke Trucking family.

When we think of a family man, who does his work the right way with honesty, we think of John.

Kottke Trucking’s Driver Board created the idea of the Duane and Connie Kottke Distinguished Driver of the Year and it was carried out by our staff. The Driver of the Year award is named after our second-generation visionaries: Duane and Connie Kottke. Their ability to build the foundation that our company stands on today, does not go without notice and is felt every day.

Flathau’s fellow nominees for the award come from the three other Jim Doering Award of Excellence winners: First Quarter winner Mike Doty, Second Quarter winner Les Richling and Fourth Quarter winner Glenn Anderson. The award is named after Kottke Trucking’s first long-time driver and nearly 40-year employee Jim Doering.

Previous winners of the Duane and Connie Kottke Distinguished Driver of the Year are Tom Erickson, Ricky Pautzke, Jeff Bass and Carlo Garcia.

The Fifth Annual Duane and Connie Kottke Distinguished Driver of the Year John Flathau.

From left to right: Kurt Kottke, Kory Kottke, John Flathau and Kyle Kottke.

DECEMBER 21 UPDATE: Last week, we announced how successful the Trucks and Toys drive was this year! Well, it is even more successful than previously reported! With a couple last minutes donations, the total raised for 2018 officially is $9,921!

Again, thank you for your dedication and generous donations to this awesome program!

—

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

It is once again one of our favorite times of the year and not just because of the Christmas cookies, but because of Trucks and Toys. Our toy drive again this year has been amazingly successful as Kottke Trucking employees, friends and family raised $9,621 worth of toys and goods this year.

It was another incredible year with another incredible showing of dedication from various members of our Kottke Trucking family. With their hard work and effort, the past two years alone we have raised just under $20,000 worth of toys and goods for wonderful organizations.

The organizations that these donations are going to surround our terminal locations, in both Minnesota and Florida, and help ensure happier holidays for those in need. We are proud to support the following organizations with these year’s donations:

• Renville County Santa’s Closet
• McLeod County Christmas Project
• St. Paul Lutheran’s Closet, Hector, MN
• Common Cup Ministries, Hutchinson, MN
• Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches, Live Oak, FL
• Wildwood Elementary School, Wildwood, FL

If you donated $1,000, $500, $100, $50 or $5 to this amazing cause we thank you so much. Every cent goes towards making a child’s holiday a little bit brighter this year. There are many individuals who put so much time and effort into making the Trucks and Toys program a success each and every year and we thank them for their time, dedication and love.

As the Kottke family, we are blessed to have such amazing people in our lives. We thank you and appreciate you for everything you do to make this program a success. We could not do it without you. Trucks and Toys was near and dear to Duane and Connie’s hearts and as we build upon their legacy, we want to let everyone involved know that they would be beaming with pride and joy on what has been accomplished. We could say it until we are blue in the face (and we really do like the color blue), thank you, thank you, thank you!

May your light shine bright this holiday season! Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!

Pictured below: Members of the Kottke Trucking staff hit up Target in Hutchinson, Minnesota to purchase toys with the monetary donations received this year. Thank you to Target for helping us out!

Marlene drops off a portion of the toys with the folks at Renville County Santa’s Closet.