2025 was a unique year and a tough year in the trucking industry, but we still have a lot of memorable moments and wins to document. This post is a continuation of the 3-part series of our year, through the eyes of each department!
In this post, you’ll find reflections on the year from the Channahon and Hudson shops, Operations, and Sales/Business Analytics.
East, West, and Channahon Shops
News:
- New babies – Kerrigan (Tim), Kayce Clements (Addison), Valor Grace (Dalton), Burton (Tyler R.), and Aubrey (Jon H.)
- New beginnings – There were a few weddings this year, congratulations to Craig Shipley and Leah, and Kyle Garland and Ceara!
- New homes – Jake Gray, Jeremy Fox, and Craig Shipley each bought houses this year!
- New to the team – Gabe Tomlinson (Maintenance Coordinator), Brooks Jorgensen (detailer – welcome back!), Derrick Zick (diesel tech), Luca Villasenor (trailer tech), Logan Haines (trailer tech), Matt Gulik (diesel tech – Channahon), Jack Fiala (trailer tech), Jack Casey (diesel tech), Matt Rutledge (diesel tech), Matt Baker (Service Writer – Channahon), and Braxton Burleson (diesel tech)
- New to the position – Levi Fehr (transitioned down to manage the Hudson Campus), Luke Mittler (transitioned to Service Manager – Channahon), Jeremy Fox (transitioned to shop floor – Channahon), Jared Robinson (transitioned to 2nd Shift Maintenance Coordinator), Trevor Davis (transitioning to Unassigned Tractor Shop Foreman January 1) and Ben Lockwood (transitioning to Trailer Shop Foreman January 1)
- New heights – Jack Fiala is the first tech to advance to tech level 2 in the Master Tech Program!
Numbers:
- $140k reduction in tire cost YTD compared to 2024.
- Lytx Installation Completion on 600 trucks in 6 months
- $320,743.89 in warranty recovered (to date) in all three shops
- 11,086 in-house repair orders completed between our three shops… that’s 56,935 technician hours worked!
- 5,045 vendor repair orders completed out on the road
- 2,012+ inspections performed in the Inspection Lane
- The cost savings from running the inspection lane is about $329,522.49
- 247 collective miles ran between the shop team. (Yes, actually ran, on legs… see memories)
- 19,000+ phone calls answered
- 540+ tire events YTD
- $73,000 in revenue from maintenance work we’ve done for other companies (i.e. Midwest Food Bank)
- Since opening the East Body Shop, we have purchased and used quite a bit of paint—30 gallons of base color ($16,500) and 26 gallons of clear coat ($15,600).
Channahon Numbers:
- 2,167 units have been worked on and completed:
- 855 tractors
- 1,305 trailers
- 4 forklift repairs
- 3 spotter repairs
- 8,581 parts used
Wins:
- The Master Tech Program Rollout has brought a 6% increase in SRT % across the fleet and 2% increase in Direct Time % across the fleet
- The warranty process for all shops has taken a step forward with progress
- The Lytx Project was completed (3 months!) early
- Afterhours coverage has increased to 24/6 Nussbaum coverage—only 35 hours not covered. Previously, it was 80.5 hours not covered.
- We officially brought body repairs in-house—a huge money saver (shoutout to the body shop, trailer shop, and Jason doing amazing work writing estimates and fixing the trucks in-house!).
- The Hudson shop has started taking on outside customer work
- We started the split shift, giving our drivers a better after-hours maintenance experience (thank you, John Lovell and Jared Robinson!)
- Channahon wins – added concrete parking blocks in the back of the empty line. We also increased the number of bobtail parking spaces
Memories:
- “A group of 8 Nussbaum employees went to Attica, IN in September to run the Spartan Beast race—we had a blast and about died.” (see below picture) – James Grier
- “My team really likes tech appreciation day and the ability to mingle with all the shops.” – Michael Taylor
- Eduardo’s cheesecake – Eduardo brought in a churro cheesecake that knocked our socks off for our executive lunch at Channahon. Everyone was asking for the recipe and looking forward to having it again!
OPERATIONS
DMs/AMs/AH
News:
- New babies – Archer (Kylie) and Maisie (Blake)
- New beginnings – Lots of weddings in Ops! Congrats to Landon and Lena, Marisa and Joe, Brian J. and Lauren, and Oscar and Stephanie!
- New to the team – Blake Johnson (DM), Bryce Miller (AM), Charlie Griggs (DM), Jeremy Short (AM) and Mark Dotterer (Float DM)
- New to the position – Cecily (transitioned to AM), Jerrid (transitioned to Open Deck FP)
- New horizons – Steve Mallory is moving on to retirement after 8 years of faithful service to our drivers – happy retirement, Steve!
Numbers:
- 82% OR through October with Rivian (win!)
- 83% OR for Oberweis (another win—they have bounced back)
- 97% OTD for the year
Wins:
- Secured Daimler Ohio Dedicated
- New customer: Worthington temporary dedicated business
- Survived Rivian unpredictability
- Added 15th driver to Louisville
- Started the Senior After Hours Program, and celebrated Billie Joe being the first to achieve senior level
Memories:
- Full sweep (1st, 2nd, 3rd) on the soup contest (again!)
- Jordan and Jeni changing seats
- Lots and lots of food brought in for birthdays!
Load Planners
News:
- New babies – Valor (Maya) and Leo (Tylar)
- New homes – Seth (remodel), Anthony (remodel + pool/deck addition), and Mitch (first time home buyer!)
- New horizons – Mike M. gained two new daughter-in-laws this year, with both sons getting married, while Mike E. is driving a road not traveled (in the passenger seat) with his oldest daughter and her learner’s permit.
- New experiences – Cecily (a girls trip to Italy!), Phil (Vegas and the Rockies)
- The experienced – Bryan N. (expert treasure finder—if you need your garage cleaned out, he will find something of value in it!), Lance (Grandpa-ing, sharing wisdom, and bringing a consistent attitude to work every single day)
- An experience – If memory serves, one April morning shortly after Mitch had closed on his house, he ran a 3-hour marathon in the morning and was found mulching his flower beds and power washing his siding later that same day. He probably officiated a wedding that evening, too.
Numbers:
- Our YTD Empty % is 13% – this is ~a half percent better than it’s been any of the prior 5 years, and in the current market landscape where rates have been compressed has been a major focus of the Planners (working to shave DH and capitalize on efficiency anywhere possible)
- We have done 54,491 loads YTD for OTR/Regional—this is the most ever done, and comes out to 200+ loads/day (that’s a load of loads to manage!)
- We have improved our average Brokered Load DAV from 4 to 6 through the introduction of Load Match (this means we are landing drivers in more desirable areas, where they are more likely to transition into a customer load next, and not be followed by another brokered load)
- We are at 94% OTD on SYS loads YTD—compared to 93.6% a year ago (so nearly a half percent improvement)
Wins:
- We implemented a new “flex” lane for Uline with virtually no service flaws, meaning the number of loads each day is unknown until 7pm the night prior (and we’re at 98.5% OTD YTD), this is a huge feat for our entire Operations Team
- We introduced a new and improved Load Match program—huge kudos to IT as this has brought information to our fingertips, trimmed down the amount of time it takes to find the right load(s), and will give us more bandwidth to generate multiple offers, which will be particularly helpful in a tighter market
- We promoted Mitch into a full-time Regional Planner and have worked to formalize his hybrid role with FP expertise into more of a mentorship & coaching capacity
- We have improved our ability to manage Trailer DOT’s through the course of this year (a fun collaboration with the shop/Klint/others) – we are hitting nearly 100% compliant which has been a perpetual challenge over the years
- Anthony and planners have managed relationships with the shop very well and we have seen improvement with how we interact with the Inspection Lane, and managing a lot of company requested notes to support Certified RED, DSPs, shop work, etc. while maintaining service levels
Memories:
- We’ve had a lot of fun this year as a group! The planners are a tight-knit group that work extremely well together.
- Finding out that none of us are very good at building towers out of pasta, tape, or marshmallows!
- In a fun game of “guess who”, we learned that Cecily can juggle, Tylar was a spelling bee champion, Seth was his high school yearbook editor-in-chief, Mike M. has a singing voice (we think), and Bryan N. leans on his multiple accountant siblings to find tax loopholes for his side hustles. And much more 😊
CACs
News:
- New home – Cody purchased a new home!
- New horizons – Bryce graduated from high school, and Shelby graduated from college!
- New beginnings – Lauren tied the knot with Brian Johnson, and Jeb announced his engagement!
Numbers:
- 1 new BAC – welcome back, Bryce!
- 3 new CAC Dashboard Radio/Terminal Exchange episodes
- 55,000+ load tenders processed (completed shipments)
- We generated over $4 million in Spot Quote revenue
- We successfully onboarded 14 new customers who actively tendered freight
Wins:
- We introduced an Open Deck CAC position, with Jeb stepping into that role
- We were awarded Uline Carrier of the Year
- We were awarded Caterpillar Supplier Excellence Award
Memories:
- Our annual CAC Christmas photo
- Ice skating at Bloomington Ice Center as a team!
- McDonald’s and pina colada’s for Bryce’s farewell party… we were excited to welcome him back to our team a few months later!
- Shawn and Raquelle hosted a Facebook Live during Driver Appreciation Week.
Sales/Business Analytics
News:
- New babies – Dillon and Jenna welcomed their first baby, Blakely, in May, while Dustin and his family welcomed 12 kittens!
- New beginnings – Joe and Marisa tied the knot and bought a house this summer!
- New homes – The Aranda’s and the Mara’s both moved to new homes this year, and Zack completed a living room remodel
- Achievements – Angie’s oldest son, Evan, graduated high school and started college, and Mark’s oldest son, Gavin, was on the 2A State Championship Cross Country team
- New to the team – Derek Dittmer joined the crew as our new Director of Dedicated Sales, and Caleb Gee was snagged from recruiting to be our Director of Open Deck Sales
Numbers:
- 2 new team members
- 20+ new customers added
- 10,000+ outreaches to new customers by BDMs
- 600 bids have been processed by the sales team
- 2 Illuminate projects completed
- 175 new on-boarding emails were sent out in 2025.
Wins:
- Starting Uline (Etna, OH) and Joe finding Illuminate as the backhaul for that lane!
- Derek brought on Wal-Mart and Reyes
- Staying in the top of the pack in our peer benchmarking
- Investing in our Dedicated and Open Deck growth with two great additions to the team
- Mark went a whole year without spilling anything in front of us (I think??)
- Brent only received one cut to the face from a ping-pong-related injury
- Angie only had Chris pull over once after a lunch outing due to her being carsick
- Dillon has learned to become less cheap and more of a value buyer after having their first baby
- After unseating Dillon as the next face of the trailer, Dustin continues his rapid rise to the top as he leads caroling
- Ryan finally stopped eating sardines at his desk
- After a few emails/teams messages sent from other people’s computers… Zack finally has everyone trained to lock it up while away!
- Caleb has introduced a new saying to this wing—“baby baby”—in an octave no one can replicate
Favorite Department Memories:
- The impromptu rain and family swim at our annual cookout at Bill’s house
- Dillon taking paternity leave
- Hosting Caterpillar procurement Interns and taking them on a tour of Nussbaum
- The Hibachi guy throwing food at Angie
- Brent and Chris visiting Dallas for the Caterpillar Supplier Event
- Dillon and Dustin got to attend the KSM conference in Indy and hear the initial announcement of BidRight in October!
- Fishing Derby is always a highlight!
