Jay Hosty and his wife, Katt.Courtesy of Landstar
Well-deserved, I might say — Hosty’s worthy of any and all such accolades that come his way. We well know that, of course: he earned Overdrive‘s own Trucker of the Year nod among stiff competition last year.
The Roadstar designation puts him in rare air among the fleet’s thousands of leased owners. To be in the running for the honor, Landstar noted, you’ve got to be among the company’s current 1,068 active million-mile safe operators. Among them, just 13 were named Roadstars this year, making a total of 172 active Roadstars working with the company.
In some ways it’s a goal achieved for Hosty, who’s long aspired to Roadstar status. The recognition is great, the trip to Orlando for the banquet and opportunities for fellowship … all wonderful, though he wished the downtime could have lasted a little longer, he told me this morning. It was Saturday in, then go go go till a Monday flight out for him, he said. “I wish it had another day or two in it.” All in all, though, “it’s a good, enjoyable time.”
“The Roadstar designation is one of Landstar’s highest honors for truck owner-operators awarded to the ‘best of the best’ for their high levels of safety, productivity and excellence in customer service,” a Landstar spokesperson said. The award dates back to the year 1990.
“The best thing about it,” he said, “is they buy your license plate” as long as you remain leased there. That’s right, it’s another $1,700 the highly cost-conscious business owner can cross off his ledger.
[Related: They said he’d fail, but he proved them wrong: Overdrive’s Trucker of the Year, Jay Hosty]
Hosty also recently served as eyes on the big national show of the American Truck Historical Society in Pennsylvania in early June. It’s an event, among others ATHS hosts regionally, that he tries to get to annually if his schedule works itself out.
The ATHS National Convention and Truck Show was held June 6-9 this year in York, Pennsylvania — among rigs that caught owner-operator Hosty’s eye was this looker of a 1980 model KW, bought new by the owner and still working hard, he said.Jay Hosty
Hosty hauled into the area and showed his own truck, the 2005 Western Star memorialized in this scale model presented to the owner-operator at the Mid-America Trucking Show in March.
The model was custom-built by Hoffman Mechanical Design’s Eston Hoffman, headquartered in Pennsylvania.Todd Dills
Owner-operators can put their own or another deserving business (up to 3 trucks) in the running for the 2024 Trucker of the Year award at this link. The program’s sponsored this year by Bostrom Seating, and the ultimate winner will be awarded a seat up to a $2,500 value as well as a scale model of their tractor as trophy.
Hosty noted he came across only one other Western Star at the ATHS show — the beautiful and rare 1979 White Western Star cabover of twin brothers Pete and Carl Caporal.
The 1979 COE’s shown here from the ATHS show.Jay Hosty
On the way out of the show June 9, a relaxing few days behind him, Hosty noted the cabover was still parked up and now sitting all on its own. He moseyed his own rig up next to it for this one:
Here’s a big congrats to Overdrive Trucker of the Year Jay Hosty, again, for the continued accolades.
Joining him with Landstar’s top honor this year were these million-mile owner-operators, the company noted, all inducted July 7 at the BCO All-Star Celebration in Orlando: John Adams, Guy Comstock, Rebecca Cox, Richard McIntosh, Robert McIntosh, Samuel McVea, William Sampson, Richard St. Coeur, Standford Stowers, Leroy Torres, Rhonda Vasquez, and Ronald Yoder.
Twelve of the 13 Roadstars in this year’s class — owner-operator Hosty is in the front row, third from the left.Courtesy of Landstar
[Related: Enter today: Overdrive’s 2024 Trucker of the Year competition]