Big Kat Mugs
Description: John Ameling co-founded Kistler Ameling Transportation, Inc. in Kouts, Indiana, in 1980 following trucking deregulation. Specializing in temperature-controlled freight, the company quickly expanded to 30 tractors and 35 trailers within two years. After buying out his partner, Ameling renamed the company KAT and moved operations to a 21-acre terminal in Chesterton, Indiana. Through steady growth and acquisitions, KAT expanded throughout the Midwest and New England, later adding a second terminal in Greensboro, North Carolina. By the late 1990s, KAT operated 140 power units and 260 refrigerated trailers before being acquired by Transit Group in 1999 and merged into Priority Refrigerated Services in 2003.