It gives the staff of Logistics Management great pleasure to present the 21^st installment of our Quest for Quality Awards. The Quest for Quality showcases results that are gleaned directly from our readers—knowledgeable buyers of transportation and logistics—and thus offers the purest list possible of the top service providers in the transportation, logistics, 3PL, and warehousing marketplace.

This year we made two changes in the Quest for Quality. First, we created an expedited carriers category to reflect the expanding time-critical market. Second—and more importantly—we added a section on the questionnaire where readers could offer their personal definitions of what quality transportation and logistics service means to them.

Response to the new section was outstanding. Yet the list of quality attributes compiled from the 2,400-plus completed surveys came as no surprise: flexible, dependable, customer-driven, passionate, responsive, timely, knowledgeable, friendly, innovative, team-oriented…all values LM continuously advocates in its efforts to help readers find top-quality service providers.

What do these qualities look like, act like? Although we expound these ideals every month, it's too easy for shippers (and editors) to become disconnected from the day-to-day efforts that successful carriers execute on their way to earning a spot on the Quest for Quality list. To find out what goes on behind the scenes, I jumped into a truck cab and got my hands dirty with Con-Way Central Express (CCX) driver Dan Ferland, who runs out of the LTL's Dracut, Mass., service center.

If service had a face, it would probably look a lot like Ferland. A nine-year veteran with CCX, Ferland is one of those guys we can all too easily take for granted. During the course of our day-long, northeastern Massachusetts run through narrow, mill-town streets—through Lawrence, Lowell, Haverhill—I watched and listened as Ferland went about his work in a cool, business-like manner, meticulously checking his schedule, reordering stops on the fly, constantly communicating with his dispatcher, and making a quick call to reassure a customer.

Ferland knows the quirks of each of his regular customers. He knows his competitors' schedules too, giving them an earnest smile and treating them with courtesy whenever they meet. "The UPS driver usually pulls in as I'm getting ready to head out of this stop," Ferland said as he positioned his rig in a tight alley, "so I like to give him a little room."

Flexible, dependable, innovative, friendly. This year, when you're reading the list of Quest for Quality winners, keep in mind that it's the thousands of drivers and service personnel—people who are living these standards every day—who are truly at the heart of quality.