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 Accounting, Marketing, Nussbaum Technology, HR & Safety, Recruiting, and IT.
Accounting
News:
- New babies – Beau Mathew (Noah) and Charlie Alan (Cody)
- New beginnings – Lena married Landon, Sydney married Hojun Kim, and Wyatt got engaged to Charity
- New to the team – Colby Law (accounting specialist – revenue) and Cohen Guidry (accounting specialist – revenue)
- New Managers – Cody and Toby transitioned into manager roles this year
Numbers:
- 52 weeks of payroll and 12 months of financials closed (as usual 😊)
- $651,311.83 in ESOP distributions paid out
- 100,000+ invoices processed
- 3,585 checks printed
- 75 used trucks sold
- 75 new trucks purchased
- The average time it takes for a customer to pay their bills has gone down by a little more than 2 days. In 2024 it was 42 days, and now it’s 39.8 days.
Wins:
- Run on Less – our 15-member team is the smallest it’s been since March of 2023
- We set up the financial infrastructure for Nussbaum Technology
- We launched the Expense Line Ownership Program to show managers where money is being spent
- Transitioned the 401k plan from Lincoln Financial to Principal
- Established the Revenue Team Dashboard – including an Aging Report
Memories:
- “The tradition of rock paper scissors at the fall gathering was fun! (tortilla challenge not pictured 😊)” – Toby
- “Achieving my 1-year anniversary here, and attending my first Eureka 4th of July parade to see the Nussbaum floats.” – Michelle
- “Starting quarterly celebrations (birthdays & anniversaries) in the Southwest Overlook.” – Michelle & Wyatt
- “Relationship building with 2 new Rev Team Members.” – Emily and Liz
- “When Michelle exclaimed, “I love wrecking (aka rec’ing or reconciling) things!” – Toby and Noah
- “Standing contest… of course, Lena won.” – Wyatt
- “Accounting cybersecurity win! Only to have the champion click on a fraudulent email.” – Wyatt and Noah
- “Discussing financial results and projecting financial performance for the coming months during financial review meetings.” – Bill
Marketing
News: We lost a team member this year. Ryan, you are missed! “Let’s go do great things!”
Numbers:
- 2 Driven issues published
- 28 Episodes of Terminal Exchange
- 22 Episodes of Dashboard Radio
- 94,000 views on ONE Tiktok video (we went viral!)
- 142,000 watches on Tiktok
- 1 million+ advertising impressions (recruiting ads)
- 1,223 store orders placed (and counting!)
- 80+ people that have sent us a message/phone call/email because they saw one of our trailers and it touched them
5 Wins:
- Launched a beautiful new website, logo, and brand kit for Nussbaum Technology
- Driver Appreciation Week “Shine Your Light” celebration & film
- A bittersweet win—we have learned how to manage with only four marketing members this year after losing our beloved boss to cancer.
- Reached a publishing milestone: ten issues of Driven!
- Brainstormed a new and exciting variation of Dashboard Radio: coming in early 2026
- 80th Anniversary Campaign: film, DRIVEN feature, and hats
Favorite Department Memories:
- “Celebrating a Driven milestone (our 10th edition!) with Pop-Up as a team.” 😊 – Jessi Blunier
- “Watching Aristocats in the back of the company vehicle on the way to Pop-Up (and the trunk randomly popping open mid-drive).” – Daniel Maher
- “Watching the team collaborate and use their giftings to launch such high-quality marketing campaigns, such as the new NTECH brand/website, Driver Appreciation, 80th Anniversary, and more!” – Kyle Streitmatter
- “I’m not sure which one takes the cake—getting the Nussbaum Technology site launched, Driver Appreciation week, eating a crazy amount of Oreos, podcast with Jerry McCorkle (see viral comment above), ESOP chair-making party, finding an alternative for Google Fit before it expires in 2026, filming the ESOP Jeopardy host video, and mailing lots of packages.” – Dayton Rumbold
Nussbaum Technology
News:
- We started a new company under In-Motion Group!
Numbers:
- 1,220 minutes with 18 potential clients discussing partnering with us
- Over 1,000 views on the Nussbaum Technology website
- 18 indicated they want to move forward with an alpha testing
- >$12K in Annual Revenue (KSMTA Revenue share when we help them win a new client)
- 1,700+ code commits, 4,000 lines of code written, and 200 pull requests merged for BidRight
- 440 minutes spent with potential clients getting feedback on our product
Wins:
- Launched a beautiful new marketing website, BidRight logo, and brand kit for BidRight
- BidRight Dev Website is Live (https://dev.bidright.com/)
- Paved the entire roadmap to BidRight’s launch in 2026!
- Tyler announcing Nussbaum Technology at KSMConf Indy 2025
- Nussbaum Technology Team published in Peoria Journal Star and CCJ!
Memories:
- “Our first revenue coming in that we didn’t expect! A client joined KSMTA due to Nussbaum and that kicks off the revenue share for us.” – Tyler Dietrich
- “Eating enough Pizza Payaa for 1.5 people!” – Abraham Guo
- “Our collaboration sessions around the whiteboard and also all the great food (and conversation) we have shared!” – Austin Knobloch
- “Lunch my first week here. China Star and lots of questions to get to know each other on a personal level!” – Jared Mullins
HR/Safety
News:
- New milestones – Peg celebrated 25 years at Nussbaum, Jeremy celebrated his 40th birthday
Numbers:
- The Claims Team assisted in 940+ incidents/accidents that happened in 2025
- 445 roadside inspections (80 had violations = 82% clean inspections)
- 907 log violations/questions/situations that came up in 2025
- Over 60 Certified RED presentations in 2025
- 1700+ Coached Lytx events in 2025
- 600+ Simulator and hands-on training sessions
- 217 drivers spent time in training and Certified RED
Wins:
- TCA Safety Award for overall safest fleet
- New medical health plan (HealthScope)
- Assist relationship with GeoTab and Midwest Food Bank to get MFB listed as a non-profit with GeoTab so they get a reduced/no cost.
- Worked through the rollout and completion of Lytx to the entire fleet – planned for 12 months and did it in 9 months!
Memories:
- The Claims Team completed a tough mudder together as well as a team dinner at Nathan’s house
- Claims Team went through 10 Right Now Media training sessions together!
- Daleism’s – working through all the fun things Dale says 😊
- Annual Team party watching Dale get slapped by a tortilla with a mouth full of water!
Recruiting
News:
- New babies – Daisy (Joe and Saige) and Wyn (Lisa became a grandmother!)
- New to the team – we lost our beloved Caleb to Sales, but gained an incredible new team member in Elle Sauder
Numbers:
- 226 total drivers onboarded
- 50 trainees (tied for second highest ever)
- 14 flatbed drivers
- 21 dedicated drivers
- 141 OTR System drivers
Wins:
- Grew Open Deck fleet to desired roster size (team effort with help from multiple Nussbaum depts and driver-trainers). Open Deck roster was as low as 10 at one point this year (April) and as of 12/18, is 25
- As previously mentioned, we hired 226 drivers in 2025. In 2024, we hired 228. It’s significant that we made almost identical number of hires as 2024 because we faced a lot of headwinds this year that didn’t exist in 2024.
- Established a new vendor/partner/ATS provider in Double Nickel. Recruiting lives in our Applicant Tracking System, so it was a big deal when the news broke in April that we were losing access to our previous vendor (had been using them for roughly 6 years). We feel very established with our new ATS and vendor-relationship, and that feels like a big win
Favorite Department Memories:
- A few reps from Double Nickel were in Bloomington-Normal for a conference, so we got dinner with them! Also, we had them come to the terminal the next day for a tour and to see us use their system in person—was a fun experience and a good chance to build our relationship with them!
IT
News:
- New beginnings – Jake Miller got engaged to Sarah Gibson, Erik Swanson met his biological dad for the first time this year, and Matt D. Zimmerman had lots of family updates: a new son-in-law (Landon and Lena), another daughter working here (Elle), and 2 new grandsons!
- New homes – J. Privett and Zach Plattner both became homeowners (thankfully not the same home – J.)
- New to the team – we had 5 of our own depart for multiple different states, which created the opportunity to bring 5 new smiling faces into our department: Zack Everly (IT Service Analyst), Jorge Colón (UX/UI Designer), Caleb Sauder (Senior Data Analyst), Erik Swanson (IT Service Manager), and Elyse Abadeer (IT Intern)
Numbers:
- 2,700+ Projects and Tasks
- 7,478+ Support Tickets
- 53 Active Incidents
- 26 Cyber Incidents
- Oh, you wanted FUN numbers?! Approximately:
- 9,342 AI-generated images created
- 1,700 liters of Mountain Dew consumed
- 400 business hours of empty meeting room space left for the rest of the company
Wins:
- Started Project Monarch
- Delivered LoadMatch
- Wrapped up Flutter (LiNK App Rewrite)
- Saved over $100,000 switching Cellular Service Vendor and Tablet Vendor
- Sunsetted Totalmail
Memories:
- “Probably defending the Jeopardy title for the IT Team.” – Caleb Sauder
- “Discussing the definition of casserole with Dan.” – Erik Swanson
- “Watching our IT team win ESOP Jeopardy again! Spinning up the N-Tech company!” – Matt D. Zimmerman
- “Getting to celebrate Jake Tackett before he left was fun.” – J. Privett
- “Expanding and hiring another UX role to form a UX Team / LoadMatch Journey Mapping / Launching LoadMatch Web / Creating the Integrity branding (in prep for a 2026 launch).” – Jared Rauh
- “Watching half the software team start Monarch, and the other half really step up and stay on top of providing excellent service to the rest of the business. Also, a close 2nd was pestering Jason Banwart.” – Scott Herrmann
“Probably all of the many Cookie quests and other great things that were brought in for the IT food table.” – Jake Miller
