10/07/2026
Dickey Transport, LLC Employee Recognized as the Iowa Trucking Industry’s Top Dispatcher
Des Moines, Iowa
--- The Iowa Motor Truck Association recently awarded Travis Jones, Dickey Transport, LLC, with the 2026 Dispatcher Professional of the Year Award at its annual Management Conference.
Typically, I would let our Director of Safety handle this nomination, however the individual I would like to nominate is not a typical employee. Travis has been our night and weekend dispatcher for the past 36 years. We hired Travis in 1990 to be the diesel repair foreman for our night and weekend shifts. Every Monday, Thursday, and Friday evening and all-day Saturday and Sunday, Travis oversaw all the maintenance on our trailers and when time allowed, he would keep busy mounting tires and servicing trucks.
About 20 years ago, we asked Travis if he would be able to dispatch trucks and to be a freight planner for our entire fleet in the evenings and the weekends, and Travis never blinked. While his main responsibilities switched to being behind a desk, he refused to let the trailers go unserviced and insisted that he would be able to do those tasks as well. Having an employee ASKING for more to do is a RARE commodity, and our trailer maintenance program has never suffered with his dual roles.
Over the past 36 years, Travis’s responsibilities have grown, but nowhere nearly as much as his value has been to our company. While Travis has the nighttime and weekend dispatching responsibilities for our entire fleet, he also oversees the maintenance program for our 200 refrigerated trailers, he is responsible for our tire program, and he schedules all the road repairs that occur at nights or on the weekends. The safety of our fleet and the maintence of our equipment is due to Travis’s professionalism, leadership, and dedication to do things the correct way.
Oh, did I mention that Travis lives 65 miles away and he makes that drive every day to be a part of our family.
While our professional drivers GREATLY enjoy working with Travis and all of them have the highest level of respect for him, what really sets Travis apart from other dispatchers in our industry is his loyalty to being with the same company for 36 years.
For his 36 years of service to our industry, it would be most deserving and of the greatest honor to select Travis Jones to be the 2026 IMTA Professional Dispatcher of the year.
Adrian
