A North Judson native was chosen from thousands of truck drivers to represent his profession and his company at an event in the White House Rose Garden last Thursday.
Jeff Tetzloff has been a truck driver for 34 years and has been an employee of Crete Carrier for the last 27 years. He has over three and a half million miles of safe driving under his belt, has won driver of the year multiple times and serves as trainer and mentor.
Because of his impressive resume, the CEO of Crete Carrier Tonn Ostergard approached Tetzloff with a unique opportunity to attend an event with “senior government officials.” He said it wasn’t until he received an email from the White House that he realized he would be attending an event where the president would be speaking.
When asked about the topic that was covered, Tetzloff answered, “The event was about the president making remarks about tax cuts for the American workers and what does this means to you.” He went on to say, “When corporations get tax cuts they have more capital and then they can spread it to their employees, buy equipment, build terminals, etc. etc.”
Out of about 10 companies that were being considered, Crete Carrier and Werner Enterprises were the two that were chosen by the American Trucking Association. Tetzloff was one of three drivers who got to tag along in a corporate jet to Washington D.C. Though Werner representatives had a chance to speak on stage, Tetzloff was in the audience but said he was just honored to be a part of the experience.
Aside from attending the exclusive event that was only attended by about 150 other individuals, Tetzloff had a chance to get a picture with Vice President Mike Pence and meet with Texas Congressman Pete Sessions.
When Tetzloff noticed some Texas Tech memorabilia in Sessions’ office, he asked if he was a Bobby Knight fan, as the former IU Basketball coach worked at Texas Tech toward the end of his career.
Sessions answered that he is a fan and then went to his closet, where he fished out a photo of him shaking hands with Bobby Knight. Tetzloff then took a picture with Sessions and the photograph of the famed Indiana coach. Tetzloff explained that he was very excited by the local connections that popped up while he was in D.C.
In an interview with WKVI Tetzloff mentioned, “My high points on this are having Indiana ties; Vice President Mike Pence is from Indiana and then we met Sessions and he had ties with Indiana with Bobby Knight and I thought that was so cool and just unique.”
Tetzloff said a majority of those in attendance were CEOs and other corporation representatives so he was honored to have this opportunity to represent the 5,000 other Crete Carrier truck drivers and the millions of drivers across the country.
Tetzloff’s employer also spoke to him about his Washington D.C. experience. That video along with more pictures from last Thursday’s event can be found on the Crete Carrier Facebook Page.
The full WKVI interview with Mr. Tetzloff can be found below:
