On Monday, June 19, Kottke Trucking and the 18 Wheelers Relay for Life team held our 11th annual Golf Towards A Cure golf outing at beautiful Oakdale Golf Club just north of Buffalo Lake. It was a beautiful day while raising funds for the American Cancer Society.

Proceeds of the event came in at $12,165.

The day was a success thanks to everyone who participated in the day from our wonderful customers, vendors, local businesses and community organizations. Thank you for your support and sponsorship of this wonderful event.  A special thanks to Oakdale Golf Club for being gracious hosts and allowing us to play on their wonderful course.

It is truly one of our favorite days of the year and, again, thank you to all who participated and donated both their valuable time and money to help in the battle to defeat cancer.

The 12th annual Golf Towards A Cure event is set for June 18, 2018, the Monday after Father’s Day, at Oakdale Golf Club.

In the coming days, keep your eyes on our Facebook page and Instagram to see photos from the event!

Kottke Trucking prides itself in having the best employees in the trucking industry. From office staff to mechanics to everything in between, we are grateful and blessed to have such immense talent as part of our family. We are incredibly proud of our world-class drivers, of course, too. Our drivers are the best you’ll find in the cab or out. One of those amazing drivers that we are immensely grateful for is Laurie Leonard.

Laurie has been a ‘Trucker Buddy’ with a class at Sartell Middle School. We’ll let an email we received from the teacher of Laurie’s buddies explain a little more about what Laurie has been doing.

Hello Kyle,

My name is Kelly Nystrom, and I am a teacher at Sartell Middle School. One of your employees, Laurie Leonard, has been our class “Trucker Buddy” this year, and it has been a phenomenal experience! My students have enjoyed writing/receiving letters from her, learning a few do’s and don’ts about the trucking industry, and her visits this year. They were especially excited when she was able to bring in the truck on Monday! Here are a few words from them:

Sam: I liked seeing the truck it was cool.

Dylan: thank you for letting Laurie bring her truck. It was cool going back in the trailer.

Jack: I liked all of it especially driving

Aliya: The nor on Laurie’s truck rules! Thank you for letting her show it to us.

Trey: Laurie brought us presents from Hawaii and the truck this week.shes really cool.

Jaylee: thank you Laurie for all the visits and letters”,”,!!!!!!

Thanks so much for connecting with our classroom this year and making a difference!

We at Kottke Trucking are blessed to have Laurie as part of our team. She is a truly special soul. We appreciate all she does for Kottke Trucking and she is a dream representative of Kottke Trucking. Thank you, Laurie.

Kottke Trucking’s owenrs with this year’s ALL Mustang winners. From left to right: Kory Kottke, Kurt Kottke, Jake Watkins, Keighly Daak, Kyle Kottke.

BUFFALO LAKE, MINN –   Every spring, Kottke Trucking teams up with Buffalo Lake – Hector – Stewart High School to recognize one female and one male from the graduating class with the ALL Mustang award. This past Wednesday, May 24, graduating seniors Keighly Daak and Jake Watkins were presented with the ALL Mustang awards at the 6th annual ceremony held at the Zion Lutheran Church in Buffalo Lake. In addition to the award, Kottke Trucking presented both winners with a $500 scholarship.

The ceremony honors the monthly winners from the past academic year who have had great achievements and shown excellence in athletics, leadership and learning.

This year’s monthly winners were: Morgan Baldry, Anna Buboltz, Keighly Daak, Dylan Edwards, Jacxl Fernandez, Katherine Hacker, Devin Hansen, Kaitlyn Kottke, Alaina Leske, Brock Luthens, Hunter Ondracek, Ash Petersen, Bryan Schulte and Jake Watkins.

2017 ALL Mustang honorees Jake Watkins and Keighly Daak.

Kottke Trucking would like to thank the following for making the ceremony possible: 18 Wheelers Relay for Life team for the meal preparation, Jodi Mellies for the presentation, Dan Krause for being the master of ceremonies, Kyle Depiesse for being our guest speaker and the various coaches and advisors at BLHS who voted for the ALL Mustang awards throughout the year. Another hearty thanks to the friends, family and everybody in attendance for making the event a success.

The past ALL Mustang winners include: 2012 – Jessica Kalenberg and Taylor Broderious, 2013 – Carly Schmalz and Baron Juhl, 2014 – Rebecca Ebbers and Christopher Schmidt, 2015 – Ashley Petersen and Scott Buboltz, 2016 – Mariah Paulson and Trey Weispfennig.

More pictures from the event can be found on our Instagram page.

The 7th annual ALL Mustang ceremony is tentatively scheduled for May 23, 2018.

Kottke Trucking has been in business and family owned and operated since 1938. For the past three decades our primary business has been in transporting dry, refrigerated and frozen food items. We operate in the midwest, south and southeastern parts of the United States. Our fleet consists of 150-plus trucks powered by the best drivers in the industry. Kottke Trucking is headquartered in Buffalo Lake, Minnesota with terminals in Eagan, Minnesota and Wildwood, Florida. For more information on Kottke Trucking, go to our website at kottketrucking.wpengine.com or visit us on Facebook.

The 2016-17 ALL Mustang monthly honorees in attendance. Front row from left to right: Anna Buboltz, Keighly Daak, Jake Watkins, Kaitlyn Kottke, Brock Luthens. Back row: Hunter Ondracek, Morgan Baldry, Alaina Leske, Devin Hansen, Dylan Edwards, Bryan Schulte, Katherine Hacker.

The past ALL Mustang award winners with this year’s winners. Front row from left to right: Jessica Kalenberg, Jake Watkins, Keighly Daak, Ashley Petersen. Back row: Mariah Paulson, Trey Weispfennig, Christopher Schmidt and Taylor Broderius.

BUFFALO LAKE, MINN –   Kottke Trucking, Inc. is proud to announce that Carlo Garcia has been named the 2017 First Quarter Jim Doering Award of Excellence recipient. Garcia was hired by Walbon & Company  in July 2014 and has been a great member of the Kottke Trucking fleet since the acquisition  with zero accidents and zero moving violations.

Carlo’s nominator said this about him: “Carlo always has a positive attitude and is willing to help when needed. He also is great at managing his hours and sleep patterns. Carlo also makes sure he communicates with dispatch.”

Thank you, Carlo, for being an awesome part of the Kottke Trucking family!

The Jim Doering Award of Excellence was established in 2014 in honor of our 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 the finalists for the Duane and Connie Kottke Distinguished Driver of the Year which will be awarded in January 2018.

The prototypical mental image of a truck driver is a male. There’s a reason for that. Throughout history men have dominated the trucking industry, but that is changing. The amount of women in trucking is increasing, but women still only make up 7% of the total driver population according to the Women in Trucking Association.

Comparatively to their male counterparts, women have a lower accident ratio, longer tenure and more total miles per year and per month. In fact, women, on average, put on 52,682 miles compared to 50,344 miles for men.

A fact that the trucking industry should be proud of is that there is no gender pay gap in the trucking industry which is something to think about on today, March 8, as it is International Women’s Day. Women have excelled around the world for years in everything that they do, be it trucking or not. Simply, every day should be International Women’s Day.

Kottke Trucking employs some amazing women throughout our company. We are thankful and grateful for everything that you do, be it behind a desk or behind the wheel. There’s not enough words to accurately depict what you do to keep the world and the trucking industry running. Thank you.

Kottke Trucking National Sales Manager Ada Brewster

BUFFALO LAKE, MINN – Kottke Trucking is proud to announce the promotion of Ada Brewster to the position of National Sales Manager. In the position, Brewster will be a key part in Kottke Trucking’s setting of planning and execution throughout the United States. Brewster has been with Kottke Trucking since April of 2014 and was formerly the Southeast Regional Sales Manager.

“We are excited for Ada to start in her new position,” said Kyle Kottke, General Manager of Kottke Trucking. “Ada will be integral in helping us achieve our business and growth plans. We are very proud to have Ada as part of our family.”

Brewster’s contact information is unchanged. Brewster can be reached via email at [email protected] and via phone at 320-510-0033

Kottke Trucking has been in business since 1938 and for the past three decades the primary business is to transport dry, refrigerated and frozen food items. The third-generation owned company mainly operates in the Midwest, South and Southeastern parts of the United States. Kottke Trucking’s fleet consists of 170 drivers and 30 support staff. Kottke Trucking is based out of Buffalo Lake, Minnesota with offices in Eagan, Minnesota and Wildwood, Florida.

Every holiday season, for over 20 years now, Kottke Trucking has been involved with the Trucks and Toys campaign. The trucking industry from around the state of Minnesota comes together to collect toys that are given to children in need. Kottke Trucking alone this year collected and donated over $5,000 of toys.

Kottke Trucking donates these collections to three charities in outstate Minnesota: Santa’s Closet of Renville County, Common Cup Ministries and the McLeod County Christmas Project.

We are proud to have our office in Buffalo Lake be a drop off site for these toys. We collected over $4,000 of toys and cash donations and Kottke Trucking donated another $1,000 to that to get to our grand total of $5,033.

The reach of our Trucks and Toy donations did not stop in Minnesota this year. With our recent acquisition of a terminal in Wildwood, Florida, we saw a need to also help those in need in the state of Florida.

The charity we worked with in Florida is the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches. This program takes at-risk children and places them in one of six different locations throughout the state of Florida in a true home setting. Through the donations of drivers and employees of Kottke Trucking, we were able to donate six 54” Spalding basketball hoops, one for each location of the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches.

We are incredibly thankful for all the generous donations of toys and cash that have helped us have a successful Toys and Trucks campaign this holiday season. Thank you for helping us spread holiday cheer for over 20 years, it truly makes this the most wonderful time of the year.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.

Marlene Hamblin with Santa’s Closet volunteers dropping off toys at the Santa’s Closet location in Danube, Minnesota.