Celebrating Kitsap Transit’s 2023 Drivers of the Year
2023 Drivers of the Year, left to right: Sam Pruiett (Worker/Driver), Prince Banas (ACCESS), and Martin Henkle (Routed).
Join us in congratulating our 2023 Drivers of the Year – Martin Henkle (Routed), Prince Banas (ACCESS) and Sam Pruiett (Worker/Driver).
At the beginning of each year, we recognize the top operators across our three bus services with Driver of the Year awards. Nominees are chosen from the previous year’s Drivers of the Month, and a winner selected by a vote of their peers. Our Drivers of the Year are folks who have demonstrated a commitment to safety and customer care that reflects our mission to provide reliable public transportation to Kitsap County residents.
Henkle, a seven-year veteran of Kitsap Transit, started as an extra-board operator before moving to driving full time last year. He picked up bus driving after retiring from his first job as a truck driver for an equipment rental company.
“It’s an honor to win-- I think that a lot of people deserve it that aren’t necessarily getting recognized,” Henkle said. “It’s a team effort. If we don’t all work together, it doesn’t work.”
2023 Routed Driver of the Year Martin Henkle and his family.
Kitsap Transit Routed Operations Manager Kathryn Jordan highlighted Henkle’s “consistency of character.”
“He is the same person every day; cheerful, engaged and responsible in the safe driving, courteous customer relations and on-time performance we expect from all of our drivers,” Jordan said. “When we select a Driver of the Year, we’re choosing someone we’d like other operators to emulate. I think we’ve picked a winner.”
Prince Banas, left, with Kitsap Transit Executive Director John Clauson.
Banas has driven for ACCESS since 2018 and worked as a Driver Mentor for the past several years. Mentors help train our new recruits, providing hand-on instruction and valuable experience to trainees operating buses for the first time.
“Prince's exemplary service extends not only to his passengers but also to his colleagues,” Kitsap Transit ACCESS Manager Jeff Vinecourt said. “He is always willing to assist, step up when necessary, and is accommodating to the needs of others, even coming in on his days off.”
Banas said he enjoys driving ACCESS because of the freedom it gives him to choose his own routes, as well as the diverse group of people he gets to meet every day.
“I wasn’t expecting (to win),” Banas said. “I just do what I do out there, nothing special. It feels great.”
Pruiett is Kitsap Transit’s senior Worker/Driver Operator, having started driving for the agency in 1994. In 2017, he was awarded the WSTIP Safe Driving Award for 22 years of accident-free driving.
2023 Worker/Driver Driver of the Year Sam Pruiett.
The most important part of driving a bus, Pruiett said, is to get your passengers home safely. It’s a role he takes seriously – Pruiett has driven more than 160,000 miles since he started and has never gotten in an accident.
“It’s an honor--we got a lot of good drivers,” Pruiett said. “I really like driving the bus. My job at work is pretty stressful sometimes, so I can totally change that, focus on driving home safely.”
Congratulations to our Drivers of the Year!