Estes awarded first place honors for top workplaces, leadership by Richmond Times-Dispatch

For the fourth consecutive year, Estes Express Lines – North America’s largest, privately owned freight carrier – has been recognized in the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s annual Top Workplaces ranking. This year, Estes received the top honor out of seven other selected “mega” (900-plus employees) companies.

Founded in 1931, Estes previously received this recognition in 2014, 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023. The Richmond-based transportation leader is a five-time recipient of Forbes’ America’s Best Top Employers Award and was included in Forbes’ 2023 and 2022 Best Large Employers and Best Employers for Women lists. Estes was also recently named to Newsweek’s America’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity and America’s Greatest Workplaces for Women.

Estes has more than 22,000 employees across 280 terminals nationwide.

“Our employees are the backbone of Estes’ operations and success,” said President and COO Webb Estes. “There truly is no greater honor than to receive recognition of this magnitude, resulting directly from feedback from our dedicated employees. Our organizational focus will be to provide a continued environment where all employees feel a sense of great pride working here, and express that pride by always taking care of each other and our customers.”

The newspaper collaborated with employee research and consulting firm Energage to determine the award winners and cited a steady improvement in employee retention – which Estes’ attributes to a robust benefits offering, competitive pay, but more importantly, listening to its employees and nurturing a culture built on resiliency, grit, and teamwork.

“We care deeply about our employees, and our continued growth and success will always depend on the emphasis our company places on taking as great of care of our employees as they do our customers and our company each and every day,” said Webb Estes.