July – Eric Backhaus, Johnsonville Trucking
Sheboygan Falls, WI
Eric is an OTR driver, generally east of the Rockies including Midwest, south, southeast and northeast. He has been a professional driver for 8 years, 3 of them with Johnsonville Trucking. Eric has almost 150,000 miles of safe driving with his company with zero accidents. He goes above and beyond and is deeply committed to serving their customers, internal and external. Eric is always willing to lend a hand to a peer OTR driver in any capacity that he can. His positive attitude and willingness to help others is infectious. Eric also volunteers to go into Johnsonville’s office and learn roles associated with dispatch and coaching as a backfill for the office.
Eric is always eager to learn, whether it’s from the cab of his truck, or in the office as a backfill. In addition to being a phenomenal driver of the highest quality, he also serves his community by servicing as Assistant Fire Chief with the Random Lake Volunteer Fire Department.
August – Nick Jarntowski, Old Dominion Freight Lines
Rothschild, WI
Nick drives doubles and vans, mainly around the Wisconsin area, but has been as far as Washington State and back driving a truck. He’s been a driving with Old Dominion Freight Lines for 14 years with almost 800,000 miles. Nick has won 3 state championships for the TDC, he is a driver trainer training their new hires, his knowledge, experience, and skills are valuable. He takes his job seriously, going above and beyond. Nick won the Lytz driver of the year for 2024, earning himself a brand-new truck. Nick generously donated his monetary winnings to Homes For Our Troops, which is an organization that builds homes for disabled veterans and their families. He prides himself in his job and went to the National Truck Driving Championships in 2024.
September – Greg Magsam, Contract Transport Services
Green Bay, WI
Greg drives throughout the state of Wisconsin, however he has recently started to drive out to the northeast part of the country. He now delivers into the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland area and then picks up a load coming back to Missouri or Illinois before coming back to Wisconsin. Greg has been a professional driver for 27 years, all of them with CTS. He has driven almost 800,000 miles in his career. Greg has been a Wisconsin Road Team Captain for the past 2 years and frequently volunteers to go to the schools to educate our youth. He is very knowledgeable and willing to share that knowledge by talking to other people about our industry and willing to coach others on how to be safe when operating vehicles around trucks.
Greg has also participated in the Trooper in a Truck campaign for the last 2 years as a WI Road Team Captain with the WMCA. This campaign helps emphasize safe driving on our Wisconsin roads and reiterates the importance of not being distracted while driving. He is also a trainer of new drivers for CTS and works with others to make sure that he is pulling safe and reliable drivers off the road. Greg has been their Trainer of the Quarter twice in the last 2 years and has won the CTS Driver of the Year Award twice. Most recently he won the award in 2023.
From the twelve Drivers of the Month, one will be selected as the 2024 Driver of the Year. All 12 Drivers of the Month will be honored at the Annual Safety Awards Banquet which will be held on Saturday, March 15th, 2025, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, WI.