In shops, terminals, offices, and back lots across Alabama, a quiet shift is taking place. New voices are stepping into conversations once dominated by veterans who built their livelihoods in Alabama’s trucking industry. You see it in the way problems are solved, in how teams communicate, and in the fresh confidence that comes when someone realizes they’ve earned a seat at the table.
Our Next In Line honorees are part of that shift. They’re early- and mid-career professionals who didn’t wait to be invited into leadership — they simply began acting like leaders. Their decisions shape workdays, influence culture, and set standards their coworkers rely on. Some manage people; others manage freight, information or relationships. All of them have already changed something within their companies, even if the change seems small from the outside.
What connects them isn’t a single background or career path, but a shared seriousness about the work and a willingness to learn, to observe, to take responsibility, and to keep showing up with intention. In an industry built on experience and credibility, these honorees are earning both, one long day at a time.
They are the people colleagues call when something needs to be figured out. They are the names that come up in meetings when someone asks, “Who’s ready for more?”
And they are the ones building the next era of leadership in Alabama Trucking — not through slogans or speeches, but through consistent, deliberate work and innovation.
Meet Fourth Generation Trucker Bo Watkins of Watkins Trucking Co. in Birmingham, Ala.
As a fourth-generation member of the Watkins Trucking family, Bo Watkins has been around the business his entire life. After graduating from Auburn University, Watkins took a bit of a detour into the entertainment industry in Nashville, managing merchandise operations for major touring acts and later working in music rights and licensing. Those years on the road shaped his work ethic and problem-solving style before he returned home in 2012 to join the family company.
Today, Watkins serves as Vice President of Sales, though his role touches nearly every part of the operation. His days begin in the operations department — reviewing orders, addressing driver needs, and checking on equipment — before shifting to the brokerage team to track sales momentum and customer opportunities. “Every day is different,” he says, and after 15 years in the business, he remains deeply proud of the company his family has built.
“I see a lot of people who have been around the business their whole lives like me, and we are all committed to making this industry better for the good of all.”
Much of his recent satisfaction comes from the growth of the company’s brokerage division. “We have developed an outstanding team, and it has boosted the overall sales in the past few years,” he says. “We have worked really hard on it.”
People, especially drivers, are at the center of his motivation. “I love being the source of a career for our people,” Watkins says. “Especially our drivers.” That sense of responsibility — to both employees and the family legacy — informs the way he approaches every decision, from customer relationships to long-term strategy.
To Watkins, who has served on the Alabama Trucking Association Board of Directors for several years, the trucking community is one of the industry’s greatest strengths. “It’s a supportive network top to bottom,” he says. “I see a lot of people who have been around the business their whole lives like me, and we are all committed to making this industry better for the good of all.”
Bo says he’s blessed to have learned trucking from his father, Wayne, and uncles Randy and David. “I trust them because they have seen the true ups and downs of this business and have managed to build something truly special,” he says.
As Bo and his sisters, Reilly Armstrong (Operations Manager) and Kati Williams (Operations/Accounting Manager), prepare to one day lead the business, they understand the importance of sticking together. “We want to grow the business, and one day leave it better than we found it, just like our great-grandfather and grandfather did, and one day, my dad and his brothers will,” Bo says. It’s a perspective rooted in history but focused on the future, making Bo Watkins a natural fit for Alabama Trucking’s Next In Line.
Read about the Alabama trucking industry’s “Next in Line” which highlights the next generation of men and women leading the way in trucking. This issue also features highlights on the “Trucking Resurgence” plan to safeguard the industry from fraud, failure, and those who cut corners.
