Independent Landstar owner-operator Walter Jackson has been named a Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) Trucker of the Year for 2025. 

“It all started 46 years ago, when I was just 5 years old … with a smear of grease and a wooden spoon,” says Jackson. As a boy, he says it was his job to bring water and coffee to his father and grandfather while they worked on their big rigs. “In return, they would put a little smear of grease on my arm to signify I was their helper,” he explains, adding, “I wore that grease stain with pride.” 

As he aged, he graduated to “wrench grabber” and was rewarded with short rides in his father’s truck to a nearby terminal to pick up the next load. “Before leaving, I would sneak a wooden cooking spoon from the kitchen, sit in the sleeper and simulate my father shifting gears,” Jackson recalls. The first time his father parked the truck and allowed Jackson to practice shifting “for real,” Jackson stood near the driver’s seat and moved the gear stick up and down. “That was it! I was sold on becoming a truck driver,” he says. He started his professional driving career at age 23, and in 1998, with the help of his family, he bought his very first truck. 

In his first year as a Landstar business capacity owner (BCO), disaster struck. Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. His family was forced to evacuate their New Orleans home while Jackson hauled loads of blue tarps for a Landstar agent under contract to the U.S. Department of Transportation.  

“I wasn’t prepared for what I saw once I was able to work my way into the city with relief supplies,” says Jackson. “We lost everything!” When he tells his story, he makes sure to thank Landstar for the financial assistance he received following the devastating storm. He and 13 fellow BCOs affected by Hurricane Katrina were awarded financial assistance from the Landstar BCO Benevolence Fund, which was created in 2005 to help qualified BCOs in times of hardship. Since then, Landstar agents, BCOs and employees have contributed to the fund throughout the years.  

“That [assistance] spoke volumes about the company I had just leased to. I knew I was going to be here until I retire,” says Jackson, now in his 21st year with the company.  

As TCA 2025 Trucker of the Year, he’s earned $20,000 in prize money, some of which he plans to donate to Landstar’s BCO Benevolence Fund. That’s just one of the ways Jackson has paid his good fortune forward over the years. 

When Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas Gulf Coast in 2017, Jackson again jumped at the chance to help others by hauling disaster relief loads. A month in, he went to Puerto Rico to dispatch, coordinate and drive fuel trucks to keep generators going for hospitals and disaster recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Irma. “I thought I’d spend a month or two but ended up staying for 16 months.”  

When he returned stateside in 2019, he decided to lease on additional trucks, giving other operators the opportunity to make money while gaining experience. Then, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, he chose to stay on the road among other “essential workers.” As the pandemic dragged on, truck parts became scarcer, and many truckers faced hardships after being forced to park their trucks. Jackson bought more trucks to allow sidelined owners to drive his trucks while their own vehicles were out of service.  

Since then, he’s taken his business to the next level as a small-fleet owner. “I strive to prepare newer operators for success in their own truck someday, helping them work on their credit, get their own Employee Identification Number and start a business checking account,” says Jackson. When the time comes for his mentees to go out on their own, Jackson adds, “I even help them choose the right truck to suit their needs.” 

Jackson also instills in his mentees his focus on safety. “You’re not just driving for you but also for everyone around you. As a professional driver, it’s my duty to make sure everyone around me remains safe. A professional maintains a clear vision of their surroundings, obstacles, potential hazards and has an emergency plan of action at any given moment.” Jackson says he’s never in a rush. “I like to ride in the right lane in a clean, shiny truck, especially when I see a kid in a car rolling up, pumping an arm up and down as a signal for me to toot the air horn.” 

He owns 12 trucks now, but that scene, of a child with any interest in trucking, always takes him back to the days when he refused to clean the grease off his arm and shifted with a spoon from his mother’s kitchen.