Travis Jones, a night and weekend dispatcher for Dickey Transport, LLC — headquartered in Packwood in Jefferson County — has been named the 2026 Dispatcher Professional of the Year by the Iowa Motor Truck Association, receiving the award at the association’s annual Management Conference in Des Moines, according to a social media post from Dickey Transport.
Jones has been with Dickey Transport for 36 years, originally hired in 1990 as the diesel repair foreman for night and weekend shifts. In that role, he oversaw all trailer maintenance and kept busy mounting tires and servicing trucks every Monday, Thursday, and Friday evening and all day Saturday and Sunday. “Travis has been our night and weekend dispatcher for the past 36 years,” Dickey wrote in the nomination. “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, the company asked Jones if he would also be willing to dispatch trucks and serve as a freight planner for the entire fleet in the evenings and on weekends. He agreed without hesitation — and then refused to let the trailer maintenance work go unattended, insisting on handling both roles simultaneously. “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,” Dickey wrote. “Having an employee asking for more to do is a rare commodity, and our trailer maintenance program has never suffered with his dual roles.”…