Chris Weik Retires with 4.3 Million Safe Miles

on Thursday, October 15, 2026 in Company News

Owner-Operator Has the Most Safe Miles in Company History

4.3 million safe miles. Nearly 170 trips around the earth. Over eight trips to the moon and back.

That’s the distance TMC owner-operator Chris Weik covered during his 31 years with the company—without a single accident.

As he retires with the most safe miles of any driver in TMC’s 50-plus year history, Chris also took a moment to look back on the road that brought him here.

The Road to Excellence

Chris—who was celebrated as TMC’s Driver of the Quarter in 2021—has spent nearly 50 years in the driver’s seat of a semi-truck. In 1995, he started driving for PFT, which was acquired by TMC in 2005. His tenure with the former company is included in his time with TMC.

He says his proudest accomplishment was hitting four million safe miles with TMC in 2024. “We were counting the miles down,” he recalls, referring to himself and his dispatcher. “And as you get closer and closer, you get more and more nervous. I didn’t believe it. I still don’t believe it.”

So how did he accomplish this incredible feat??

“I took my time,” Chris says simply. “There’s no big rush. You can take your time. Because once you put that [load] on your trailer and you strap it down, and you’re going down the road, you’re the one responsible for it.”

He also says that experience was one of his best teachers, and he gained more confidence and skill over his years behind the wheel. Over time, he says, “everything starts to fall into place. You know which lanes to go into. You know what lanes to stay out of. It doesn’t happen overnight. The miles accumulate, over and over”

The TMC Family

Chris is proud to have spent 30 years representing TMC. “It’s a great company,” he says. “The shops are great. They maintain their trucks to a very high standard. The whole company, they all work together.

Throughout his time with TMC, Chris relied on the dispatch team of Chris York and Kyle Miller, both of whom started out as fleet managers, and continued to keep their close relationships with Chris after they became operations managers.

Chris says he developed an understanding and respect with both men. Over the years, he says, those relationships have become more like family than simply work.

But his TMC family wasn’t the only one that Chris stayed close with over the years. Chris’s daughter, Stephanie Swafford-Weik, says that though her father has been on the road for much of her life, he was never far away when she needed him.

“I missed his daily presence, but he was always there for those things that you needed your dad there for,” she says. “Even though he was gone for the daily routine of life, he was always still a really big part of my life.” The two would talk every day, and Chris always made it a point to be home for important events like Stephanie’s graduations and sports games.

Even more important, Stephanie says, were the lessons her father passed on to her through his example. “When he gets behind the wheel of that rig, he doesn't just think about himself,” she says. “He thinks about everybody else on the road. He thinks about getting home to his family. He takes pride in his job. And that's one of those things that he taught me: no matter what job you're doing, do it well.”

The Good Old Days?

In addition to the incredible physical distance that Chris has covered during his years as a driver, he has also traveled from one era of trucking into another.

He recalls standing in line at truck stops to make a phone call, chatting with strangers in restaurants, using CB radio slang, and cooking meals with the heat of his engine—all things, he says, that have faded from modern trucking.

Nowadays, “the drivers  have it easy. They really do,” Chris laughs. “They’ve got air seats, air conditioning—they have no idea how much things have advanced. Not a clue.”

But he emphasizes that though modern conveniences may have made trucking easier, they may also make drivers too comfortable behind the wheel. “I’m not putting down new drivers,” he says, “but with new trucks and new technology, people become complacent.”

His advice to new drivers is to fight this complacency: “Just be observant. Don’t be complacent,” he advises. “Watch what’s around you. Look for the easy outs. If something happens, can I go to my left or right and hit the shoulder without hitting another driver? You train yourself all the time.”

The Next Leg of The Journey

Chris’s retirement was celebrated at TMC’s headquarters in Des Moines, IA, followed by a dinner with company leadership at a local steakhouse. Stephanie joined her father for the celebrations and had the chance to see firsthand how much his hard work means to the company he’s spent the last 30-plus years driving for.

Chris says he doesn’t quite know what retirement holds for him, but he hopes to explore his home state of Arizona. “I’ve lived in Arizona all my life, and there’s a lot to see,” he notes. “That’s pretty much what I’m gonna do—just go out in the desert and see the desert wilderness.”

Stephanie knows it’s an adjustment for her dad to get settled in her home east of Phoenix, but she enjoys having him home and seeing him experience a different side of life—cooking family dinners, taking his great-grandchildren to their first day of school, and all the other small activities of life off the road.

“I think it's an opportunity, not for us to take care of him, but for us to be able to pull him back into everything that he may have missed out on,” she says. “I'm glad to know that he is able to just be home with us.”

TMC is so proud of Chris Weik and his many accomplishments—his dedication, his long career, and of course his 4.3 million safe miles. We wish him the best as he starts his retirement.

Hear more from Chris on The Black and Chrome Show, TMC's podcast!