Batesville Casket Driver Inducted Into Driver Hall Of Fame

(Batesville, Ind.) - Batesville Casket Company announced that 30+ year veteran over-the-road driver Robert Harmeyer was inducted into the National Private Truck Council’s (NPTC) Driver Hall of Fame on April 30 at the NTPC Education Management Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. Harmeyer is the sixth driver with Batesville Logistics, Inc., the company’s transportation arm, to be inducted into the NPTC Hall of Fame.

A certified master truck driver, Harmeyer has worked for Batesville Logistics for the past 31 years, accumulating an impressive 3.9 million miles with zero preventable accidents and no moving violations. He has a longstanding record of achievement, and has been recognized by state and national professional trucking organizations. Harmeyer received the National Safety Council Safe Driver of the Year award four times, was first runner-up for the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) Driver of the Year award in 2009, and was named Driver of the Month by the Indiana Motor Truck Association (IMTA) nine times between 2007 and 2017.

“We are grateful to have someone of Rob’s caliber representing Batesville on the roads, as well as in our community,” said Keith Hazelwood, director of transportation for Batesville. “He consistently treats others with dignity and respect.”

Harmeyer logs about 3,000 miles a week transporting Batesville products from Indiana to Texas and back, with stops in Dallas, San Antonio and El Paso. His love of driving goes back to his early years, and is something he shares with his son Ron, who recently earned his IMTA Master Truck Driver certification.

In a recent radio interview, Harmeyer was asked how he accomplished such a feat – to drive so many miles without an accident or moving violation. True to his character, Harmeyer responded, “I just tried to be as safe every day on the road as I can. I never let my guard down and kept an eye out for the unexpected.”

He admits he never really thought much about achieving this number of miles incident free. Harmeyer explains, “We have other drivers in the fleet who made it to 5 million miles, and it’s giving me a lot of incentive to do the same.”

When he’s not out on the road, Harmeyer is helping prepare the next generation of truck drivers through his involvement with the Truck Buddy International organization. Trucker Buddies enrich the lives of tens of thousands of school children and put a face behind the steering wheel of trucks across the country. The program reinforces reading, writing, geography, math, social studies, and history lessons as they follow Harmeyer and his colleagues on their routes across the country.