#FlashbackFriday: The Exchange’s Kings and Queens of the Road

In honor of National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, #FlashbackFriday looks back on some Exchange trucking milestones.

1974: Wilhelm Greindl becomes the first European Exchange Service driver to log 1 million accident-free miles. Greindl began driving for the Munich Exchange motor pool in 1946. He worked for the Exchange for at least 30 years.

1975: Celeste Neese had been working for the Philippine Thailand Regional Exchange as a security guard in the distribution branch when she began pinch-hitting for drivers on vacation. She later became a full-time driver.

1993: Harold Taylor, from the Waco Distribution Center, gives a “thumbs up” after being selected AAFES’ 1993 Driver of the Year. He was named Driver of the Year again in 2000.

1994: Otto Schaeffling, a long-distance driver at the Gruenstadt Distribution Center in Germany, logs more than 1.7 million accident-free miles delivering frozen foods, beverages, and general cargo—at the time, a record for any driver in AAFES-Europe.

2004: Edgar Mincy becomes the first Exchange driver to be inducted into the National Private Truck Council (NPTC) Hall of Fame. At the time, Mincy had driven 3.3 million accident-free miles during a 34-year career.

2007: Higinio Ortiz is inducted into the NPTC Hall of Fame. Ortiz was the first—and still the only—Exchange driver to pass 4 million miles accident-free during his Exchange career.

2009: Jose Amor is inducted into the NPTC Hall of Fame. At the time, he had driven 3.3 million miles without an accident or citation.

2013: Willi Schneider, a 40-year Exchange veteran, is named Europe Driver of the Year after logging nearly 2 million accident-free miles out of the Giessen Distribution Center. Schneider’s father, Eugene, drove for the Exchange from 1957 to 1990.

2017: Dianna Williams, who began her Exchange career in 2001, logs a million accident-free miles for the Exchange. The National Private Truck Council names her a 2017 All-Star Driver .

2018: Bradley Wacks is inducted into the NPTC Hall of Fame. Wacksdrove more than 3 million miles during a 38-year Exchange career.

2019:  Ho Ton, stationed at the Korea Distribution Center at Camp Market, and Takashi Toyama, from the Okinawa Distribution Center, become the first Pacific Region drivers to reach 35 years of accident-free service.

2020: Bruce Cameron, a Waco DC driver, is named an All-Star Driver by the National Private Truck Council. Cameron worked 20 years for the Exchange.

2022: Eric Hoff is named an NPTC All-Star Driver. Hoff, who has driven more than 2 million miles or the Exchange, is nearing his 25^th anniversary with the organization. In addition to Hoff, Williams and Cameron, NPTC also named Charles Jackson (2009,) Christopher Humbert (2015) and Edward R. Carley III (2019) All-Star Drivers.