Cedar Rapids trucking company names new CEO

Cedar Rapids-based trucking company CRST announced the appointment of Mike Gannon as the company's new president and chief executive officer, replacing Hugh Ekberg.

Ekberg, who joined CRST in 2016 and was appointed president and CEO of the trucking and logistic company in 2018, announced his retirement last week to CRST's board, according to a company news release.

Gannon, who has built a roughly 40-year career at CRST, previously served at CRST's chief operating officer. He began his career with the company in 1983, and has held a variety of leadership roles with the company, according to a news release.

“The CRST Board is pleased to have Mike take on this role as the culmination of his tenured career with CRST,” company owner and CRST board Chairman John Smith said in a statement.

Gannon, who has a bachelor’s degree in transportation logistics from Iowa State University and an MBA from the University of Iowa, said in a statement he will continue to champion CRST’s “core values of safety, integrity and a commitment to the success of every employee, customer and community in which we operate.”

CRST is one of the nation’s largest privately held transportation and logistics companies. Transport Topics, a trade magazine, ranked CRST No. 25 in its Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America, with estimated revenue of $1.668 billion.

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The company employs nearly 4,000 drivers, 2,000 driver support team members and a nationwide network of independent contractors and agents.

The trucking industry faces a shortage of drivers. The pandemic also disrupted training and licensing processes, creating a backlog of new drivers.

About 241,200 openings for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers are projected each year, on average, over the next decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who retire or transfer to other jobs.

In 2022, the trucking industry employed 3.54 million truck drivers in the United States, a 1.5 percent increase from 2021. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that employment for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers will grow by 4 percent from 2022 to 2032, which is about the same rate as the average for all occupations.

More than 37,500 heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers were employed in the state as of May 2023, according to BLS figures.

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In May 2023, the median annual wage for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in the United States was $54,320, with the highest paid 10 percent earning more than $72,730 and the lowest paid 10 percent earning $30,710. The Iowa mean annual wage for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers was $53,470.

Kirkwood Community College announced last year it was ending the “behind-the-wheel” portion of the school’s commercial driver’s license program changing its truck driving program, citing low enrollment numbers over the last five years. The change came months after CRST closed its own driver training program after 10 years.

Republican Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley last week announced four Iowa community colleges will receive a total of more than $500,000 in federal grants for their commercial driver's license (CDL) training programs.

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Grassley’s office announced the U.S. Department of Transportation plans to award $132,375 to Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, $131,000 to Western Iowa Tech Community College in Sioux City, $127,400 to Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny and $119,000 to Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge.

“Improving pathways for eligible individuals to secure commercial driver’s licenses is a simple way we can boost the economy,” Grassley said in a statement. “These resources will unlock good-paying jobs, address labor shortages in the trucking industry and streamline supply chain operations.”

On the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, Grassley and fellow Iowa GOP U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst sought to bolster Iowa’s trucking workforce by urging the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to allow individuals aged 18 or older to qualify for commercial driver’s licenses.

“Our nation’s commerce hinges on interstate trucking, but the age of entry for this profession blocks the youngest members of our workforce from the career field,” the senators wrote in 2021 to FMCSA Deputy Administrator Meera Joshi. “… Those seeking an alternative pathway to an expensive four-year degree may find the three-year gap between high school graduation and the eligible age for interstate trucking inhibitive. It should be our policy to aid and encourage these capable workers.”

Grassley was also one of just 19 Republican U.S. senators and the only Republican in Iowa’s congressional delegation to vote for the bipartisan infrastructure law to enhance Iowa’s roads and bridges.

“Modern infrastructure and robust trucking fleets, together, will aid efforts to efficiently move Iowa’s manufacturing and agricultural products to market,” Grassley’s office said in a statement.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com