WINNERS CIRCLE

The U.S. Coast Guard has presented Crowley Marine Services Inc. with the William M. Benkert Award, the national award recognizing excellence in marine environmental protection. The Coast Guard says that Crowley "has implemented outstanding marine environmental protection programs-programs that far exceed mere compliance with industrial and regulatory standards."

Peterbilt Motors Co.'s Model 387 truck took top honors in the transportation category of the 2000 PTC Awards Competition, which showcases the use of PTC (formerly Panametric Technology Corp.) software products. Peterbilt uses PTC software for the design and development of all of its products.

Hill's Pet Nutrition has presented Hub Group Inc . with its Business Innovation Award for 1999. Hub Group was selected for supporting and improving the pet-food company's operations through process re-engineering, cost reduction, business simplification, and technological advancement. Hub Group made contributions to Hill's load-optimization program and developed a formal manual for increasing payload capacity on outbound shipments.

The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. (BNSF) has announced the first recipients of the BNSF Damage Prevention Award. The following companies were recognized for consistently practicing safe loading procedures: Hub Group Inc., J.B. Hunt Transport Inc., Hyundai Corp., Yellow Freight System, The Boeing Co., Adolph Coors Co., American Honda Motor Co. Inc., and Aguilar Warehousing & Distribution. The award will be given annually to one customer in each of BNSF's eight Consumer Products business segments.

Standard Corp., a third-party logistics company, was recently recognized by the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce with the Commendation of Excellence Award. Twenty-four Standard locations received this award in recognition of their safety programs.

Exel's motor carrier operations were awarded first place in the General Commodities, Less-than-Truckload, Local, 10- to 50-million miles category in the American Trucking Associations' 1999 National Truck Safety Contest. The award is based on the best accident frequency (accidents per million miles) for 1999. Exel also received an Improvement Award based on accident frequency reduction from 1998 to 1999.