Drivers Can Now Nominate Their Carrier for the 2027 Best Fleets to Drive For

Nominations are open for the 2027 Best Fleets to Drive For, giving truck drivers and independent contractors until October 31 to nominate their current carrier.

Truck drivers who believe their carrier provides a strong place to work can now put the company forward for national recognition.

Nominations opened September 8 for the 2027 Best Fleets to Drive For program, which evaluates for-hire trucking companies across the United States and Canada based on the workplace experience they provide for company drivers and independent contractors.

Current drivers and independent contractors have through October 31 to submit a nomination, and it only takes one eligible nomination for a fleet to enter the process.

Drivers Start the Nomination Process

Best Fleets to Drive For is produced by CarriersEdge and is entering its 19th year. Unlike programs where companies simply enter themselves for an award, the process has to begin with someone currently driving for the fleet.

Eligible carriers must operate at least 10 tractor-trailers under their own authority and provide for-hire transportation in the United States or Canada. There is no fee for a fleet to participate and no association membership is required.

Once a carrier has been nominated, the company decides whether to continue with the evaluation.

What Happens After a Carrier Is Nominated

Participating fleets complete an extensive questionnaire covering the programs and policies that shape the driver’s experience. The evaluation looks at compensation, benefits, human resources, operations, performance and recognition, career development and work-life balance.

CarriersEdge then conducts an interview with the company to review its responses. Drivers and independent contractors are surveyed separately, giving the people working for the fleet an opportunity to weigh in on their experience.

Those results are evaluated alongside company information and other performance measures to determine which carriers receive recognition.

The driver survey is an important part of that process because a nomination alone does not make a company a Best Fleet. In the 2026 program, 108 fleets were nominated, 48 became finalists, and 4,498 driver surveys were completed before the winners were selected.

Recognition Goes Beyond the Top 20

The 2027 program will recognize a Top 20 along with Fleets to Watch and qualifying Best Fleets Hall of Fame carriers.

Hall of Fame status is reserved for companies with a sustained record in the program. A fleet can qualify after being named a Best Fleet for 10 consecutive years or seven years with at least one overall award, and Hall of Fame companies must continue to requalify.

The 2026 program included carriers from across the United States and Canada, ranging from smaller operations with fewer than 100 drivers to fleets with much larger workforces.

For drivers, that means the program is not limited to the industry’s biggest names. Smaller eligible carriers can be evaluated alongside larger operations based on the programs and working conditions they provide.

Nominations Close October 31

Drivers and independent contractors interested in recognizing their current carrier can submit a nomination through the Best Fleets to Drive For website through October 31.

After nominations close, participating fleets move through the questionnaire, interview and driver-survey portions of the process. The 2027 Top 20, Hall of Fame and Fleets to Watch are scheduled to be announced in January.

Overall winners will be selected from the qualifying fleets later in the program.

For drivers who believe their carrier deserves consideration, the nomination is simply the starting point. The larger evaluation that follows looks more closely at how the company approaches pay, benefits, communication, development, operations and the day-to-day experience of the people behind the wheel.