Mike Bruns Named Winner of 2010 IANA Silver Kingpin Award

JOC Staff |
CALVERTON, MD, Oct. 11, 2010 – The Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) has named Mike Bruns, recently-retired President and founder of Comtrak Logistics, Inc., as winner of the 2010 IANA Silver Kingpin Award. Bruns will receive this important intermodal industry award on November 15 during the Opening General Session of the 2010 IANA Intermodal Expo in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The Silver Kingpin Award recognizes individuals for their significant, long-term contributions to the intermodal industry.

The Awards Committee specifically recognized Bruns’ contributions to, and visibility within, the intermodal industry through his numerous volunteer and leadership activities. The Committee also noted his significant commitment to the Memphis community and various charitable organizations. Mike has been an active IANA member and was the association’s first chairman from the organization’s motor carrier division. He is an intermodal advocate who has played an active role in many other organizations as well, including the ATA Intermodal Council, Traffic Club International, the Society of Entrepreneurs, and the University of Denver’s Intermodal Transportation Institute.

Bruns turned a small business into an industry leader by using not only his well-honed business skills, but by building and nurturing a base of employees that considered him more like family than an employer. According to IANA Chairman Steve Branscum, “Mike Bruns serves as an example to us all. He has contributed greatly not only to our industry, but to his employees, and shown us that nice guys don’t always finish last.”

Bruns began his freight transportation career in 1973 after graduating from the University of Illinois. In 1983 he founded Comtrak in an old freight shed with a tiny dock office that barely housed three employees. When he retired in April 2010, Comtrak had grown to 23 terminals, 1300 owner/operators, 350 company drivers, 250 non-driver employees, and annual revenue of $160 million.

The Silver Kingpin is one of the transportation industry’s most well-established and prestigious awards. It has been given every year since 1977, when it was originally presented by the Chicago Piggyback Association. Subsequently, it was repositioned as a national award by the National Piggyback Association – which later became the National Railroad Intermodal Association – one of three organizations that consolidated to form IANA in 1991.