Admiral Transport driver surprised with driver award

Jeff Mackay had an unusual day of work in May, when he was convinced to go to Sheridan to pick up a van that didn't exist and ended up at the annual Wyoming Trucking Association Convention.

On May 12, Mackay won Driver of the Year 2022, and he had his picture on the cover of The Wyoming Trucker magazine.

Mackay said of the experience, "Our safety team, Bart [Richardson] and Brian [Mathews], they had me fill out an application for this award but didn't tell me they nominated me for it, so I didn't think nothing of it. Behind my back, they were coordinating with people to get people up to Sheridan for the ceremony without me knowing. My girlfriend was in on it too, and she told me all of a sudden 'We need to go to Sheridan and get a transit van.' I was confused because we don't have a distributor in Sheridan, so I was asking questions the whole time. Where is this transit van? Why did they send you with me? You work in the pharmacy. So we get there, I'm still looking for a transit van, and then we get to the banquet hall, I see all these people I know, and it finally dawned on me that I won something. I won driver of the year and driver of the quarter. It was a surprise all the way up to the end. It rocked my world."

Mackay's trucking career began in 1998 after he returned from four years of service in the Navy working in aviation ordnance, or as he called it "putting bombs on aircraft."

Originally from Cody, Mackay initially wanted to try pursuing an education close to home at Northwest College in Powell. After a semester, he made up his mind that school wasn't for him and he got to work looking for careers.

He said, "Back in '98, when I was researching careers fresh out of the Navy, I was looking for a career that could feed the family and trucking was one of those. It's one of those things where you can come in at the bottom and after a year you can be pretty much at the top through raises and all that. And when I was a little kid I loved trucks. I guess I've always been fascinated with trucks."

Mackay called up a trucking school, got his commercial driver's license, got hired on his first job through a military veterans' program and has been driving truck ever since.

Over the years he has worked for lots of companies, but the last six years he has spent with Admiral Transport Corporation in Worland have been some of Mackay's favorites. He said, "This is a great company, I hope it's my last one. They're letting me explore my different avenues, so right now I'm not really driving truck, I'm doing more logistics out in the yard; moving trailers, getting them loaded, parking them – there's a lot more to it than just driving. That's some of the stuff I like and they've supported me in my journey."

He added that he is also passionate about teaching trucking to new drivers, another avenue that Admiral has been letting him pursue. He said, "I love training, so they made me a trainer here. With that I get to teach new drivers how to drive truck and how to be safe doing it."

Even as a driver of 25 years, Mackay said that he had never considered what it meant to him to win such an award. After some thought, he said, "It means a lot to me because I've been working for those 25 years trying to be the safest driver, keeping my nose clean with my log books, not getting in any accidents, so just getting recognized for that is something special."