Certified Express
For Scott Wade of Certified Express, trucking has never just been a business: it’s a lifetime, one mile at a time.
Growing up around his family’s trucking operation in southwest Missouri, Scott Wade started helping in the business when he was just seven years old. Trucks, drivers, customers, hard work, and long days were simply part of life.
At 16, Scott decided to see what he could accomplish on his own. While still in high school, he worked nights for Walmart in Joplin, Missouri. What began as a high-school job grew into a career that took him to several states and eventually into store management.
Those years taught Scott lessons he still carries today: take care of your people, serve the customer, know your operation, and never ask someone to do something you aren’t willing to do yourself.
In 1989, Scott returned to the family trucking business.
Then, in 2001, Scott and his wife, Chris, purchased Certified Express, Inc. from Scott’s mother. At the time, CEI consisted of just two trucks and eight trailers. From there, they built the company one customer, one driver, one truck—and one mile—at a time.
Today, Certified Express operates approximately 400 trucks from three Missouri locations: Neosho, Springfield, and St. Louis, providing refrigerated transportation, food-grade tanker services, and logistics solutions.
But Scott is quick to point out that the number of trucks isn’t the real story. The people are. Scott believes the professional drivers and dedicated maintenance, operations, safety, customer service, and support teams are what make CEI successful. This same philosophy also influences how CEI views its equipment.
A truck isn’t simply an asset. For a professional driver, it’s their workplace and often their home for much of the week. Reliability, safety, comfort, fuel efficiency, and uptime matter.
That’s why CEI’s relationship with Freightliner and Daimler Truck North America is about more than purchasing trucks. It’s about providing professional drivers with equipment they can be proud to operate while giving CEI the reliability it needs to serve its customers.
Scott has watched trucking change dramatically over the years, but he believes some things never change: Your word matters. Taking care of people matters. Delivering for the customer matters. And there is no substitute for hard work.
Today, Scott and Chris remain involved in the business they built together, with the next generation of their family also involved in CEI.
From a seven-year-old boy growing up around trucks…
to two trucks and eight trailers…
to some 400 trucks traveling America’s highways today. CEI has covered a lot of miles.
And Scott Wade believes many of the company’s best miles are still ahead.
Because every great journey has a first mile.
