Article Summary
How are Keller drivers helping fight the fentanyl crisis?
- Volunteering as ambassadors: Twenty Keller drivers stepped up to serve as "Driver Ambassadors" for the national "Hope Hits the Highway" campaign.
- Carrying lifesaving medication: These drivers are fully trained to carry and administer naloxone (Narcan) directly inside their truck cabs.
- Providing on-the-road response: Drivers are strategically equipped to respond to opioid overdoses in real time at highway rest stops, truck stops, and roadsides across the country.
Custom-themed graphics on trucks and trailers are nothing new. The highway is full of rigs honoring veterans or raising awareness for breast cancer, autism, and many other important causes. However, Keller Logistics has chosen a new and different path: highlighting a growing and deadly scourge in substance abuse—fentanyl—and arming drivers with a powerful weapon in the fight.
Keller Logistics Group and Keller Trucking's wrapped 53-foot tractor-trailer launches a nationwide initiative aimed at combating the opioid crisis on America's roadways.
The unveiling of Truck No. 6 is part of Hope Hits the Highway, a national naloxone-awareness campaign created by the advocacy group Facing Fentanyl, Keller Logistics Group, and the American Trucking Associations' Trucking Cares Foundation. The campaign, which initially launched on National Naloxone Day earlier this year, educates the public on the dangers of illicit fentanyl while equipping professional truck drivers to respond to overdoses.
The truck will roll into Times Square for National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day.
As part of the initiative, 20 Keller drivers have volunteered as Driver Ambassadors. These drivers are trained to carry and administer naloxone—an opioid-reversal drug often marketed as Narcan—in their cabs, positioning them to assist at highway rest stops, truck stops, and roadsides.
"When this story came to us, twenty of our drivers volunteered to carry naloxone and be ready to save a life on the road," said Bryan Keller, CEO of Keller Logistics Group. "We don't just hang our values on the wall. We put them on the highway."
Unveiled Saturday, June 27, at the company's Defiance, Ohio, headquarters, the wrapped trailer serves as a mobile memorial for Jayden Miller, a 19-year-old who died from a fentanyl overdose. The trailer features the message "Educate. Act. Prevent." alongside artwork by Eden Neville, produced in collaboration with Lowen Color Graphics and 3M.
Jayden’s mother, Adrienne Sautter, a member of the Facing Fentanyl team, brought the campaign to Keller.
"This truck honors my son Jayden's life and ensures his story continues to reach people across America," Sautter said, adding that sharing her son's story offers the opportunity to prevent other families from experiencing similar heartbreak.
The unveiling event in Defiance drew several public officials, including U.S. Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, former Ohio State Rep. Jim Hoops, and a representative from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Andrea Thomas, founder of ARMOUR Families and Facing Fentanyl, spoke at the event, sharing the story of her daughter, Ashley, who also died from a fentanyl overdose. Thomas emphasized the strategic role of the transportation industry in outreach.
"America's highways move everything our country depends on," Thomas said. "Through Hope Hits the Highway, those same highways can also become powerful platforms for prevention, awareness, and lifesaving action."
The campaign is designed to be replicable, and the Trucking Cares Foundation is currently working to expand the model across the broader transportation industry.
"The fentanyl crisis is affecting families across our country," said Jonathan Wolfrum, president of Keller Trucking. "We cannot wait until it impacts us personally to take action."
Illicit fentanyl claims an estimated 70,000 American lives each year, according to federal data. The DEA reports that seven out of 10 counterfeit pills it tests contain a potentially lethal dose of the synthetic opioid. While the crisis remains severe, Ohio recorded a 34% drop in unintentional drug overdose deaths in 2025, a decline state officials partially attribute to increased public awareness and wider access to naloxone.
Following the Ohio debut, Keller driver Evette Montoya will transport the wrapped trailer to New York City. The truck will be featured at the Facing Fentanyl flagship family press conference at Father Duffy Square in Times Square on Thursday, August 20, ahead of National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day on August 21.
