Kenworth Truck Company is proud to present our favorite photos of 2024.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, meaning you can tell an entire story with a single photo. Following are our favorite photos that best showcase the milestones, people and, yes, trucks that made 2024 a year to remember.
January 2024 – New Leadership at Kenworth
- Kenworth started 2024 by announcing new executive leadership, naming Jim Walenczak general manager and PACCAR Inc vice president. Walenczak assumed Kenworth’s top position after two years as Kenworth’s assistant general manager for sales and marketing. Walenczak has been with PACCAR for 13 years, and has held positions of increasing responsibility including fleet, region and general sales manager positions at Kenworth and assistant general manager – operations at PACCAR Parts.
March 2024 – Kenworth Chillicothe Plant Turns 50
- To commemorate 50 years of building The World’s Best trucks, the Kenworth Chillicothe plant proudly displayed this specially wrapped T680 – one of the more than 816,000 trucks produced since the plant opened its doors in 1974. The T680 appeared at special events in Ohio during its anniversary year, including the Ohio State Fair and the Chillicothe Truck Parade.
May 2024 – Kenworth Unveils SuperTruck 2
- Following a 6-year development period in partnership with the Department of Energy, Kenworth unveiled its SuperTruck 2 demonstrator vehicle at ACT Expo in Las Vegas. The development goal was to significantly improve freight efficiency. The team achieved this by improving freight efficiency by 136%, reducing weight by 7,100 pounds, and improving fuel efficiency to 12.8 miles per gallon. The team’s achievement was recognized with one of two Team Awards during the 2024 Annual Merit Review by the DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office.
June 2024 – Kenworth Truck Parade Honors Kenworth Chillicothe’s 50th Anniversary
- Kenworth’s annual Truck Parade in Chillicothe, Ohio this year paid tribute to the assembly plant’s 50th anniversary and featured more than 60 new, classic and customized Kenworth trucks, including many models built in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s through to present day trucks manufactured at the plant. In celebration of the plant’s milestone, the parade was led by a 1923 Kenworth and a very special passenger: parade grand marshal and 50-year Kenworth Chillicothe employee, Dan Murphy. Murphy, a well-known and respected plant employee, was hired just days after the plant first opened in 1974.
September 2024 – Alabama Visits Kenworth Renton, Washington Manufacturing Plant
- Kenworth has enjoyed a close partnership with Alabama since the 1980s, providing trucks for their concert tours. Alabama’s Roll On II Tour stopped in Seattle, Washington and the band toured Renton’s manufacturing plant. Josh Gentry, lead driver of the band’s T680, along with his father and founding band member, Teddy Gentry, took time to visit with plant employees during their visit. “I’ve always loved trucks and when I was eight years old, trucks and Kenworth became an obsession. That’s why it’s humbling and surreal to see where these machines are made. The trucks are built by people who have a passion — they stand behind the brand. Seeing the trucks being built and meeting the people who work so hard to build them…well, it’s a dream come true,” said Josh Gentry.
November 2024 – U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Hauled by a Kenworth Truck for 11th Year
- For the 11th consecutive year, a Kenworth truck delivered the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree to Washington, D.C. This year, Lynden drivers John Schank and Fred Austin transported the tree from the Tongass National Forest in Alaska during a 4,000-mile cross-country trip that included 13 stops in communities along the way. Schank and Austin stopped at the Kenworth Chillicothe plant for a private event so Kenworth employees could see the specially wrapped T680, manufactured at the plant, and “The People’s Tree”, an 80-foot Sitka Spruce.
December 2024 – Transition Trucking: Driving for Excellence Award Winner Awarded Kenworth T680
- Distinguished Army veteran Cory Troxell received this year’s “Transition Trucking: Driving for Excellence” award. The grand prize was a Kenworth T680 to help him continue in the trucking profession. Troxell followed his father and grandfather into military service, enlisting in 2004. In 2009, he was severely wounded in an enemy IED attack, eventually earning the Purple Heart. He retired in 2024 and transitioned into a successful career driving trucks for Stevens Transport. This is the ninth consecutive year Kenworth has participated in this award in partnership with Fastport and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes program.
2024 Customers at Work
- JRayl operates more than 400 trucks in Ohio and provides regional and long-haul services in strategically placed locations in Ohio, Indiana, Virginia and Texas. A few years ago, the company purchased 40 used Kenworth T680s with the PACCAR powertrain to simplify its operation and build a uniform fleet of the same make and model. According to Ryan Richards, JRayl CEO, engine reliability, serviceability, fuel efficiency, and driver satisfaction were the primary factors JRayl considered when it decided to add the T680s.
“And since then, we haven’t looked back,” said Richards. “The trucks have performed how we hoped they would. The uptime, serviceability, and performance of the PACCAR engine, coupled with a smooth transition into automated transmissions from manuals, helped validate our decision to build consistency in the fleet of trucks we operate. Since our initial purchase, we’ve added about 80 more T680s, and we plan to buy more.”
- TJ Hunt runs a fleet of 50+ trucks, primarily T880 dump trucks, and is a top provider of dump truck and flatbed hauling services in the tri-state area of Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. The company recently did a benchmark test between a T880 spec’d with the integrated PACCAR Powertrain and a truck with a different powertrain package to see the difference in performance. The outcome was significant, with the PACCAR Powertrain-equipped T880 achieving a 2-mpg fuel economy improvement over the other truck.
“It was an impressive result, we wouldn’t have guessed there would be that big of a difference in fuel economy,” said TJ Hunt, TJ Hunt Trucking owner. “We’ve been gradually transitioning our fleet to the MX-13 engines with the TX-18 PRO transmissions once that became available. Our trucks average about 70,000 miles per year, and the 2-mpg difference between powertrain packages is significant. The integrated PACCAR Powertrain offering is more efficient.”
- Budco Custom Body & Paint Inc., based in La Grande, Oregon, was founded in 2012 in a service bay of owner Bud Whitcomb’s father’s trucking company in Kamiah, Idaho. Budco has grown into a reputable company that draws customers from all over the country seeking high-quality custom truck paint or bodywork. In 2023, Whitcomb took advantage of an opportunity to acquire one of the 900 Kenworth 100th anniversary W900 Limited Edition day cabs built to commemorate Kenworth’s centennial.
“My dad and I love Kenworths, and the W900s were my dad’s truck of choice for his company,” said Whitcomb. “There isn’t a better truck out there for harsh vocational operations like what you experience in logging. They’re well-built, durable trucks that have that traditional, classy look that everyone in the trucking industry appreciates. My dad still drives his 1999 W9, and it runs great.”
